I as well do much better on The Pinball Arcade (TPA). I find that real machines are much harder and my scores on a real machine don't even come close to my TPA scores. So it is great for learning the rules and being able to simultaneously see whats on the DMD. Agree that it is a good way to check out a machine for buying it - or - just killing time in the airport. But play a bunch of games on TPA and then go play it in real life - you'll soon realize that you have to learn the table all over again. The ball is a lot less predictable as it bounces totally differently on a real table than the simulated one does on TPA.