Quoted from CrazyLevi:Games still did end up in homes, I'd be most curious in finding out how that used to happen back in the day.
I don't remember complete details, but my mom went to a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles in the late 1970s where someone (presumably an operator) had many EMs for sale. My recollection from her description was that it was a warehouse full of EMs. She and the friend with whom she went both bought an EM for their husbands for father's day.
Stories from owners of machines during the 1960s that I have stumbled across are that they were bought directly from bars and bowling alleys.