For anyone who's interested in the european scene of today I can give some hints and show some recent stuff.
At first this one, which "might" be of special interest for Pyromedic ... this TV-report shows a very good friend of mine, Holger Laub, who collects everything that's coin-operated plus "some" other interesting stuff, including great american cars as you can see. If you look closely you'll spot a red-white 1958 Fairlane-Convertible too. At the moment he proudly owns a Capersville, which is his alltime-favorite, a Paradise and 2 SS-Machines, Globetrotter and Ground Shaker. He also owns 10 or even 20 pre-war "Bagatelle"-Games which were called "Nadelspiel" (=Pingame) in Germany. But I'm not into that and can't tell more about it.
In 2014 he offered a Student Prince in (german) Ebay and I remember well a story he told me regarding this ... an American contacted him because he saw that this Student Prince had an Instructinon-Card in german and asked Holger for a copy. He got his card and was very nice and thankful.
Now, since poor Student Prince doesn't seem to have much friends in the USA it came to mind that this friendly guy could have been you, Pyromedic ??? If so, that man in the Video is the one who sent you the german card.
https://www.swrfernsehen.de/landesschau-rp/hierzuland/video-schauernheim-100.html
Here are some Newspaper-Reports and a Video featuring another well-known Collector from Germany, just a few miles away from Mr.Laub. He also is the one who maintains Mr Laub's machines.
https://www.rnz.de/region/metropolregion-mannheim_artikel,-Metropolregion-Der-Flipper-Sammler-Jochen-Bauhoff-besitzt-insgesamt-135-Automaten-_arid,190337.html
https://www.n-tv.de/der_tag/Das-ist-der-Flipper-Koenig-aus-der-Pfalz-article17635091.html
Automaten-Hoffmann who's mentioned above is still active today but doesn't deal with Pinball anymore, since there are meanwhile some other very specialized Pinball-Distributors for the private home-market. He's now specialized in Billards and Table-Soccer (the small version of the stupid sport which 90% of the male Germans live and die for)
Automaten Hoffmann now (resized).jpg
And here some hints for everyone who's interested what's on the market and how the prizes are in the most important european Pinball-Countries.
But please note and don't forget - The word PINBALL, though becoming more and more popular, is not that usual in Europe. In Germany it's still called FLIPPER, also Flipperautomat or Flipper-Automat ... so if you look for machines you have to search for all of these names, otherwise you will miss a lot.
Millenials, of course, call them Pinball or, because they want to be hip, just "Pins" but the older guys still call them FLIPPER (singular and plural). Me I prefer the word FLIPPER too because it's much more appropriate to the machine itself. There aren't anymore Pins on the Playfields for a long, long Time now, right? But there are Flippers. Besides that I hate the Song "Pinball Wizard" and that terrible 70ies-Massacre-Movie.
In France they are still called FLIPPER (singular) or FLIPPERS (plural) ... some old Frenchmen still call them "Billiard Electrique" like in the 50ies.
And for a search in the Netherlands you have to look for FLIPPERKAST or FLIPPERKASTEN.
Here are the links for the most popular sites.
Germany - https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-flipper/k0
France, the former Gottlieb-Country - https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=flipper
Austria - https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/marktplatz?isNavigation=true&isISRL=true&srcType=vertical-search-box&keyword=Flipper
And, last but not least, the Netherlands - https://www.marktplaats.nl/q/flipperkast/
...and here some examples for anyone who likes to see how much GOTTLIEB dominated France ... in general you can spot a Pinball-Machine in 3 out of 4 french movies from the late 50ies until the early 90ies and be it just for a short glimpse.
But there are some movies with absolute wonderful Pinball-scenes. Search them and have a look - you won't regret it!
"L'Alpagueur" (english title "Hunter will get you") filmed in the Winter 75/76
"Le Marginal" filmed in early 1983
"Le Clan des Siciliens" ("The sicilian Clan") from 1969
and "Coup de Tete", filmed in late 1978.
Another "must-movie" is The French Connection-2 from 1975, which sadly wasn't such a success as the first part. It was shot on Location in Marseille with another great Gottlieb-Scene. Please watch it!
I can promise you, especially the Gottlieb-Fans, you won't regret looking at them.