A friend of mine who lives too far away for me to help is considering purchasing a pinball machine for his home. He is not tech savy and is worried that he will not have the skills to keep a pinball machine maintained.

I myself am a new owner and have never worked with pinball machines before, I bought a new Met Pro late last year and have learned the basics - replacing rubbers and lights, cleaning the playfield, changing fuses.

Would someone less confident in their skills be better off with a newer machine than an older one? Are there machines that are known to be more difficult to maintain?

He just does not want to be in a situation where the machine breaks down every couple of months and he has to find someone to come in and fix it for him. In that case would he be better off not being a pinball owner?

This is something I was going to suggest to him, thanks for reminding me.

Excellent advise by everyone. My worry with the AC/DC machine is that it's overly complex for new people the last time I visited he was quite excited to play the new Star Trek. As far as I can tell they both don't have very many toys to worry about.

I am thinking that a NIB Star Trek may be the right choice for him.