This x1000

I had my ass handed to me by EM's and somewhat by early solidstate machines my first Pinburgh.

They play much slower so you would think they are easier... that is not at all the case. Get time on EM's and early SS games, and don't be fooled into thinking there is nothing but luck on how to play these machines - there is skill and it is subtle beyond belief. The bonus is the skills form an EM translate all the way to a DMD; the reverse is not so much true - DMD skills do not translate terribly well to EM's in my experience.

It's overall very friendly. Some take it too seriously imo - it really is a silly tournament in reality. You play dozens of machines for the first time ever, and you get 3 balls on each (5 on EMs) and some people expect nothing but perfect games. It's just not gonna happen. It's like a race car driver showing up to drive an unknown vehicle around an unknown course for 3 laps and expecting a world record.

As for sharing strategies, coaching during play is not allowed at all. Outside of that, I won't share strategies with my immediate competitors in a 4 man group; not so much so I can win but out of respect for the other players in the group of 4 who may have studied up on the game or put in the practice time. After a round or outside a round, I will discuss any machine, all day, even if I might be competing with that player a day or so later.

Agreed.

The faster you can get past looking foolish or having a bad game/ball, the sooner you will have fun.

You will have house balls, you will make the wrong shots, you will not know the vast majority of games you play, and you will have fun

Also, avoid getting angry if/when rulings or malfunctions don't go your way or possibly even go against you. Random things happen in pinball that might benefit or hurt each player so feel free to get rulings when necessary, but be polite and thankful regardless of whether the outcome is for or against yourself or other players. Regardless of how or why you place first or dead last, you won't become the president of the world*, so keep it fun!

* depending on the size of 'your' world naturally

Some games (EMs and some games with certain gameplay features) are played 1 or 2 at a time instead of 4 player.

Talking between balls is for sure allowed - again out of respect for the other competitors I usually don't dump strategies on players during the round (I don't care if I lose, but I don't think it's right to cause other players a loss) but there's no rule against it IIRC... if the player isn't currently playing I don't THINK strategy discussion is coaching? I could be 100% wrong on that.

My conversation is usually geared toward observations of the specific machine ('man brutal kickout hey?'), or complementing gameplay ('nice save'), or asking about the individuals themselves. I generally try to avoid the "Oh just shoot left orbit all day" conversation on ToM for example. Again - I lose all the time, but if I tell player A about that, then he beats players B and C, I just acted as spoiler for the group and potentially manipulated the points outcome, regardless of whether I placed #1 or #4

I've never played with headphones. I might be amazing if I do. Or not...