Late 70's and early 80's Bally Solid State/ Stern Solid State is the best place to cut your teeth, once you get your feet wet you could move to Williams Solid State and then if you like a challenge Gottlieb Solid State.

Here is my canned answer (Maryland specific, but still relevant). Welcome!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/first-time-pinball-buyer-advice-in-maryland-welcome#post-6911973

Run away, they will take over your life!

I really don’t think any particular era or generation of games is easier or harder to work on. They all require the same level of soldering and electronics prowess to diagnose certain issues.

What does differ between generations/manufacturers/eras is the level of support they get from other collectors.

Ask a tech question for an 80s or 90s Bally or Williams game and you’ll get a ton of helpful responses.

Ask a similar tech question for an 80s or 90s Gottlieb game, and you’d be lucky to get a couple good responses.

It’s not that the Gottlieb game is harder to work on, they’re just not as popular, we’re manufactured in lower quantities, and therefore don’t have a huge army of fans to support them.

However, parts availability seems to be very good for basically any game these days. You can’t go wrong. Very little is unobtainable.

My suggestion is to get a game that you WANT to work on. Something worth your time and something that’ll keep you motivated when you find yourself in a pickle—regardless of era or manufacturer.

Exactly this ... Best advice ever !

People scoff at the idea of buying "whatever game is available", but if you are interested in repair why does it matter? I'd take all of SantaEatsCheese advice above and seek out a decent-ish deal** on a solid state game that needs some attention or repair. You can always sell it whether you get it working or not. When fixed, if you like the game you keep it longer than if you don't like it. Lots of folks want a general "how to fix pinballs" education, but to me buying a broken game is the easiest way to learn. You have an actual problem to research and there are lots of resources online to help.

Now for a game to "put in your collection", then yes I would research what game(s) you'd like to own longer-term. But again, you can always sell any game and get a different one.

If there is a location near you that has a league, join it. You will make pinball friends and can lean on them for deals/advice as well as good time.

** yes, you will probably overpay for your first purchase. We all did.

“yes, you will probably overpay for your first purchase. We all did.”

I won my first in a contest - GTL Jungle Queen. 40 years and several hundred machines later, I still have 10. Like others have said - don’t do it! It’s an addiction.

We all did?! I paid $150 for an old Wedgehead. It was rotted and held together with massive lag screws, but it played great for 2 years and that’s all it needed to do.

They do? Lol!

I was sick to my stomach for several years knowing that I paid $2,400 for a Roadshow. I feel a little bit better now.

You might as well have said, "I want to get into crack, where's the best place to start?"

I'll answer as someone who has only been in the hobby for ~4 months. (so you can ignore all of this if you want - what do I know!)

Buy a modern pinball first - something made within the last few years, home use only (HUO). Something with a few hundred to a few thousand plays. Buying new in box (NIB) is an option as well. You can do some mods on your new machine, you can get comfortable cleaning it, waxing it, replacing rubbers, new shooter rod, coil stops, etc... But most of all the modern machine will have some nice deep code (good if you only have 1 machine), and barring a disaster you should have several years of trouble free playing.

And don't think of it as a collection - think of it as a lineup. Pinball machines are meant to be played!

Start off with the 90s pins they are more fun then the 80 and 70s plus buy a new one u like too play while your working on the others too fix up and enjoy playing and sell over time and keep going like that too get better and better

As someone with less than six months in I concur. Just buy something new or like new first. All the new sterns are good relatively speaking. It’ll be easier to deal with and you can get more deeply involved as time progresses. And go to as many arcades as possible .