That will definitely make the space feel larger. I was going to suggest this. If you're going to replace the floors, just get some dry-fall paint and don't worry even if it gets on the carpet.

For lighting, if you do ceiling lighting, keep the light fixtures behind where the players would stand to avoid reflective glare. If you want a light directly over the pins to work on them, put those on a separate switch. I'm going to be doing a massive basement renovation soon too. The lighting in my pin area will be swap boxes with translites in them and a few neon lights ... all behind or next to the players (sideways) to keep the glare down.

Noroco, can you post a basic drawing of the layout? for the stairs , on the upper part of the stairway consider a barn door sliding system ( if you have the room for it to slide over) have a look here https://rusticahardware.com/ then you can remove the onld door and blow out the opening. they have so many great choices and are all DIY easy. if the doorway is in or close to your kitchen area you will easily find something to compliment the surrounding areas and your Mrs will love it.
where the stairs exit in the basement , consider a landing , i would build a landing up to the 2nd stair, from the stair all the way to the wall and then add a stair to each side , i have added a very crude drawing to help explain. the black lines show where you would be able to cut back the existing rail walls. red line is the landing , and blue would be the added on stairs. i would think it would make turning at the bottom much easier , but only you would really know if it would be functional based on the current layout.

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Black painted ceilings look good if you have low headroom.

i would do a sliding door so it would slide to the left over the hallway entrance, it would look out of place / poorly thought out going into the living room. i recently finished my basement i'll post a link for inspiration.

Yes, but copper and PVC pipes need to be primed before they're painted or they will eventually start chipping like crazy.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/any-plumbers-in-the-house#post-1441798

We used a polyurethane coating on the concrete floor (FYI radiant floor heating is great). Easy to keep clean. Rubber feet on the pin legs prevents scratching.
The pic shows the floor if you zoom in.

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Or ... make the stairs go down from the other direction. It looks like you could put a door at the other side of the stair well ... or does the other side go upstairs? If you turn it around, you could also add a bar height shelf where the door was for nick-nacks. Just a thought. If you can't switch the stairs around, go with the landing idea.

I remember reading other mega build threads where there were lots of discussions about power; amount, placement of outlets, what's on a switch or not (turn on/off all pins at once) etc. Be sure to consider those factors as well. It's one that may come back to bite you if you don't plan well.

Polyaspartic flooring with a blacked out ceiling for a tripy look. The pic with beads is mine

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correct, this would be involving structural engineering to re-design the point load of the existing upper floor , huge undertaking, could do a small elevator for almost the same $$$

All I hear is "they fit!"

+1 For Epoxy floor. I could be talked into a Reclaimed wood luxury vinyl tile too tho.

It takes work to make a floor level. There is "self leveling" concrete, but it's... inconsistent in my experience. Given that this is a basement, I would suggest a concrete finish like acid etching etc above and fixing the floor to make water go towards a drain. I've had too many water problems in a basement to do anything else.

In my previous house, we had a basement with a low ceiling and exposed joists (and pipes etc) that we painted matte black. I was very skeptical, but it was a great solution. It showed dust and spiderwebs a lot, but otherwise great. I'll see if I can dig up a pic.

Painted my rental house game room as you describe with deep purple accents and used maroon curtains against the bare cement walls-- I'll dig up some pics. Super cheap option and the black makes it look so much better! Low ceilings are such a pita with pins, at our new house I can't put toppers up although I have just enough clearance to lift play fields which is key

Neons! Neons! Neons!

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True and if the basement floods it will be fine. Standing on concrete for long periods of time is very fatiguing though. Also, this is not very noise absorbent which is a concern if you play machines after others go to bed as well as general noise levels in the room.

I'm working on my game room right now too, doing way more than I expected to (long story short, 130 year old mortar holds up terribly it turns out!), but I think the biggest bang for your buck...

Track lighting.

Turn it to where you need it if you're repairing a machine. Move it around if you shuffle your machines around and get a glare. Add more to it if it's too little. Take away if it's too much.

It can be a pain to install, but it's the nicest thing once done.

I have a really tall ceiling, but the game room is going to be in the lower level of my duplex, so sound containment is key. I am going to be installing insulation (which it needs anyway), followed by a layer of mass loaded vinyl, followed by 2 by 2s on the rafters painted place with track lighting and the outlets attached to them.

I don't expect a perfect sound barrier, but I think it will be pretty nice! Once I confirm the walls aren't leaking, I'm going to get commercial carpet squares for the floor. I have used them before and I love them.

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Only caution I can throw out there after trying acid etching before going all in on a raised floor with Delta FL as a water barrier below the tongue and groove OSB (a woodgrain luxury vinyl over the top), is to be certain the cement is impeccably clean. We discovered the former owner had let the their pets do their business wherever on the floor and while it had been scrubbed and buffed and no visible stains were apparent, when we applied the acid coloring, blotches started appearing that we couldn't camouflage.
I can also confirm that a black ceiling in a low heard room basement does wonders for making the room seem bigger. The ceiling simply disappears, especially if you can keep your lighting direct where you need it and low everywhere else. If funds allow, a Lutron Grafik Eye multizone dimmer can go a long way in the cool factor department.

I somehow failed to take good pictures of the basement pre and after painting.. but these couple give you an idea of how it changes... the black paint just totally hides the ceiling joists honestly, and if you go with some colored lighting like the blue in the photo, it's hidden even further when playing.

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If I was in your shoes I would just update the space and use the extra coin to buy more pins. It does not look that bad and in my opinion it just needs paint, some new ceiling tiles and new carpet. You would be surprised how just paint and new plush carpet will transform your space. Even the wainscoting looks nice and I would re-purpose and paint it white with a nice darker color above(check out Benjamin Moore Silver Gray) and add some nice 5" trim at bottom. Then I would fix the ceiling tiles and spray the entire ceiling white so you do not see the grids (you could spray closet doors white at same time), and maybe install color changing LED lighting going around corners to give it a game room feel(very cheap on Amazon). I also wrapped my support post in some color changing LED strips and it looks good. Finally comes the replacement of the carpet, I would choose a thick plush pad and some nice thick carpet(Mohawk,Stainmaster). It helps with fatigue and back pain and it is pleasant to walk on. You can play pinball for a long time before fatigue sets in. It also looks nice and it acts as a filter for dust and pollen. Do not take off tiles and leave the ceiling exposed. I think it looks like crap and I often think when I see an exposed ceiling in a finished basement-well it looks like they did not have enough money in their budget to do it right with finished drywall. Honestly the tiles look ok and I would not mess with it unless you plan on being in the home for a long time. As for the stair landing, just leave it as is. It meets code and it will be a pain moving the pins into the basement, but two people should be able to lift over the rail with no problem. I have the same issue. For uneven concrete you can purchase self-leveling concrete patch at Home Depot and it works well for minor leveling issues. The carpet and pad also help hide uneven flooring issues. Here is an example of carpet color and paint color. Again if you paint the wainscoting bright white-this color scheme will pop. Good Luck!

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I have been a fan of ramegoom's space. See pictures attached to his profile:

https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/ramegoom/stories/ramegoom

We recently did what you're describing with the black ceiling paint (pro tip: don't use strictly flat black, pick a shade of black which has some of the wall colour in it). Our walls have the tiniest bit of green and blue in it, though it's predominantly grey. The slightly lighter shade of black with a touch of green makes the ceiling disappear as has been noted, but the way the light reflects off the walls makes it feel "warmer" and the black paint doesn't seem as dirty/dusty. I also have low ceilings so this was key.

Absolutely absolutely absolutely have a contractor do the painting and make sure they use contractor grade paint (e.g. Sherwin Williams 200 or 400), it is significantly better wearing and thicker than crap from lowes or HD. Sherwin Williams will not sell their high end paints to regular customer, so you need someone with an account there.

We laid down vinyl plank flooring with an underlayment and man is that better than concrete or tile! Softer quieter and still looks good (until it got hella scratched taking my old TAF out of there...)

FWIW I also built a little platform I could put between the last step and the wall, effectively raising it to the level of the 2nd step which lets us pivot and rotate a pin without scratching the hell out of the floor or steps. It gives us a wider base for turns (can get a wide body up and down with no issue) and one less step to go up and down with the dolly!

I would never (again) put carpet in a basement unless I had a great water abatement solution (drain tile, redundant sump etc). Same for Pergo. One small leak and you're flushing a lot of money down the toilet. I would recommend going with someone else who can do what you want or go with etching / staining of the concrete.

Again, I did a matte black ceiling in our old basement. Going with grey doesn't seem like an improvement.

Hells no on the grey ceiling. The whole point to the black is you do not notice it and can't see it . Wanna run cables later you can spray paint them black and disappear. Put in a new electrical box, paint it black. It's great.

I like carpet personally but just personal preference

Hate to disagree with rdoyle but I specifically asked for the cheapest Godamn paint they had. They said they had some super cheap shit that people building sets for community theatre use if I did it again though I would rent a real paint sprayer for the day and bang it out and be done

A great solution I think is commercial floor tiles.

Make sure to get the ones that are rubbery on the bottom and made to be water resistant. In my previous house, I installed a bunch in the basement. They would get really wet. I would lift them up, tilt them to the side, the water would fall off and they would be good to go with absolutely no damage after a few days. This was no different than when I used them at a commercial place, when they got really dirty we would take them out back, hose them off, hang them to dry and then put them back.

On top of that, the height they add is minimal, and you can do lots of fun and funky designs with them. I did lined in an alternating pattern and it looked amazing.

You can buy these from different places online. I bought mine from the local Hobo in town. When my current basement project gets a closer to done, I plan on going to Hobo, buying like 20 boxes of carpet tile, and just making funky patterns with them.

Ceramic tile? It adds maybe 3/8".

Like this? It was affordable. Got it from Lumber Liquidators on closeout.

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I have carpet, warm feet and less fatigue. The pins are on carpet sliders which makes them easy to move around. Also this is a forgiving solution if your floor isn't super flat.