Black Rose is a pinball machine created by John Trudeau and Brian Eddy, with artwork by Pat McMahon. It was released by Williams Electronics (under the "Bally" label) in 1992. Only 3,746 units were made, making it something of a rarity.
The game focuses on the title character, a female pirate captain who commands her crew of grizzled sea dogs. Your goal is to sink as many ships as you can by lighting S-I-N-K-S-H-I-P through various means, then fire a cannonball through the broadside at the far end of the table. Along the way, you'll find the Pirate's Cove, get a random award from Polly, and play no less than three Video Modes.
Possibly the most interesting feature of the game is its cannon, which sits below the playfield just above the flippers. At certain points, the cannon will become loaded and start pivoting back and forth. The player must then press the "Fire" button on the lockbar, causing the cannon to pop up and launch the pinball at various playfield targets for different bonuses. Accurate cannon-firing is needed to hit the broadside of opposing ships and establish your reign as Queen of the seas.
A digital version of this table is available for Williams Pinball Classics by Encore Inc. It was also available for The Pinball Arcade by FarSight Studios before their WMS license expired on July 1, 2018. Another version is currently available for Pinball FX3, along with a remastered version that includes the typical Zen Studios flair.
Has no relation with either a 2013 freeware horror game Black Rose, or another freeware horror game named The Black Rose. It is also unrelated to the steampunk webcomic of the same name. Also has no connection to the character from .hack.
The Black Rose pinball machine contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Captain Rose, a woman who leads a pirate crew in sinking rival ships.
- Button Mashing:
- "Walk the Plank" requires you to mash the Fire button (or the flipper buttons) to outswim a shark.
- You can also mash the flipper buttons to kill Polly.
- Creator Cameo:
According to designer John Trudeau, the backglass shows himself, Greg Freres, and Pat McMahon among the pirates.
- Davy Jones: Davey Jones' Locker has a skeletal pirate at the entrance, ostensibly Old Davey himself.
- Dem Bones: Davey Jones appears as an animated skeleton who demands that you sink ships for him.
- Easter Egg: Button Mashing when getting "Polly says" can kill Polly for 2 million points.
- Golden Snitch: Sinking a ship awards 20 million, but this is just the beginning. For every other ship sunk, that's an additional 10 million on top of that. By the 9th ship, they're worth 100 million. The value doesn't stop until the game ends.
- Guide Dang It!: The "Walk The Plank" video mode instructs you to use the Fire button to swim. It doesn't tell you that you can also use the flipper buttons (which may be easier for Button Mashing).
- Match Sequence: Given an interesting twist - your score's last two digits will appear... but there are three numbers in all, and they appear on bombs which ignite as soon as all three are shown. One of the fuses is a fake: the other two aren't.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Captain Rose wears a red corset that enhances her sex appeal, as impractical as it might be for a pirate.
- Painting the Medium: Sinking a ship requires shooting the ball at it with a "cannon" firing mechanism as though it were a cannonball.
- Pirate: The game centers on pirates, with the player's goal being to sink other crews' ships.
- Pirate Booty: One of the goals of the pirate player character is to amass treasure.
- Pirate Girl: Black Rose is a female pirate captain.
- Pirate Parrot: Polly, a parrot who calls out a random Video Mode award.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: When you sink a ship, it explodes several times before sinking for good.Black Rose: "Beautiful!"
- Skill Shot: At the start of each ball, the torch targets will be flashing in some sequence. Hit the lit target for 500K and an open locker. This Skill Shot has adjustable difficulty settings, too.
- Spelling Bonus: S-I-N-K-S-H-I-P lets you make the Broadside shot, and L-O-C-K lights the lock.
- Threatening Shark: One Video Mode has the player swim away from an advancing shark.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: An Easter Egg allows the player to kill Polly for 2 million points.
- Video Mode: Three of them. Two require the player to hit the Fire button at the right time (a crewmate throwing a knife at a target and swinging from riggings), and the last has them mash buttons to escape a Threatening Shark.
- Walk the Plank: The focus of one Video Mode, where a crewmate walks off the ship's plank and must subsequently escape from a shark.
