Single, 2 and 4 player EMs from the '70s are a lot of fun and popular enough that if you have issues, there's plenty of folks on the forums to offer sage advice. Now, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but different EM brands have got different sounds and tones and feel, and myself (and likely many others) enjoy different brands of EMs, but may tend to lean towards the soft familiar dings, sounds and feel of the Gottlieb EMs...but that statement isn't to discredit any of the other EM companies out there.

Single player Gottlieb wedgeheads that I would consider would be: El Dorado, Abracadabra, Centegrade 37. All three of these games have a very different playfield setups with variation in the location of the drop targets, stand-ups to rollovers and pop bumper(s)....and the Centigrade even has some cool bagatelle lanes there on the right (makes me also think of another worthy wedgehead recommendation, Atlantis). At least for me, these are some wedgeheads that I find to have a big "fun factor" that brings me back to play more and more. Not to knock on Ship Ahoy, but aside from that center spinner, that is essentially a "rollover game," meaning there are no drop targets to hit. While that can be fun, I might lightly sway you towards games that have a combination of many things to include: drop targets, stand ups, rollovers and pop bumpers. That combination will give you the best initial feel for what is available in a EM machine. From there you can branch into cool rollover games, for example Hit the Deck (another great Gottlieb wedgehead).

Within that same general era, some 2 /and/ 4 player games that I would give consideration to based on overall fun, at least from my perspective, would be: Gottlieb's Big Brave / Big Indian and Surfer / Surf Champ. Both of these games, (maybe just a bit more so the Surfer/Surf Champ), in my opinion, have got a lot of really great ball flow and all of the multiple playfield attributes as mentioned above in the wedgeheads, also the Surf game has a spinner.
Now, if you're looking for a game that can be a bit more challenging, and dare I say brutal, Aztec (a Williams EM, also with a very sweet spinner) is another good game to consider...it'll have you hooked and cussing in no time! Haha

EMs are a ton of fun! When you have a game with a fun setup, the pinball action can actually be quite fast, challenging and rewarding. Not to mention they look super cool! I like both old and new games, but as soon as I step up to an EM, I find myself hitting start again sometimes even more than the newer games. Not to mention, when you're having guests over who do not know much about pinball, some of the newer games, while they can look pretty glamorous, can also be rather intimidating, and thus those guests will sometimes tend to shy away from some of your prettier newer games. Its interesting. Over the years, I have noticed when people come by who are not savvy in pinball, I find them stepping up to more often and having the most fun on the EMs. Overall, I find they stay at those games longer and I see more smiles and people saying how much fun they had playing pinball....and it's always good to have fun with pinball!!!!