I've seen Alan's DVDs, and while there's some general info in there that will help you, there's a lot in there that wouldn't apply. I do think they are pretty good, though.
I hear great things about Richard Gerlitz's DVDs, but haven't seen them myself. It appears that he is in the middle of a transition to his website.
Each of those games are fairly different, and your best bet for fixing them is going to be to 'divide and conquer'.
Start with the Big Time. What's it do? When the machine is turned on, if there are credits on the meter, they will zero out.
If the machine has no credits, it is ready to accept a coin. Hitting the coin switch in this state should open the shutter motor, dump the balls, set the odds to the first position and lift the first ball. Additional coin switch hits may grant an increase in odds or feature awards.
If that's not happening, then we need to troubleshoot the startup sequence. If that's happening and the game never ends or always shoots 5 balls but never scores or otherwise malfunctions during play, there's a different set of steps to take.
One bite at a time, and you'll have the whole thing polished off in no time.
We'll come back to Cabana once Big Time is done - unless you want to start with Cabana. Up to you.