I agree - probably five to start, and learn the game, but if you want to know where you stand against everyone, it's all done on 3 ball (for modern games, that is).

EMs, definitely 5 ball. I can play longer on one ball on a DMD than some five ball EMs.

I volunteered at playland not at the beach yesterday, giving out tickets for the pinball games. They have a score sheet on each game and if you get a certain score you earn tickets which can be redeemed for prizes.

Some guy asked me what the trick was to getting a lot of tickets so I told him to play hokus pokus, which was on 3 ball. You only need 30000 to start earning tickets. He was averaging 60000, so he was earning 5 or 10 tickets per game, and since the games are really short, he earned a lot of tickets.

For location pins, I would say these days 5 ball/75cents is fair for older games (90s dmds). However, I live in the bay area and cost of living and wages are pretty high, so that might not be appropriate everywhere.

I don't mind 75 cents for new sterns but I just wish they were 4 for $2, instead of 3. Or maybe even 6 for $3. But that's assuming 3 ball on medium or higher settings and a fairly tough replay score. I played a T3 one night with no tilt and 25M replay. 50 cents lasted me four hours. Even *I* wanted me to lose.