+1 on any working machine that spits balls, keeps score, and doesn’t smoke or spark (a lot). I was an electronic technician in the Navy, so I do all my own repairs, but being faced with fixing a machine prior to playing it is not something you want to start out on, unless you like basket cases.

Get one that seems to be working, that is you can flip the flippers, it makes lights and sounds, and will spit out 3 balls in a row and score a game. Take it home, play it, figure out what ISN’T working, and try and fix one small thing at a time.

This is the best route in to the hobby in my opinion, and it helps to have an old pinhead fart go with you when you pick it up so you don’t get treated like a total nube. My first machine was Pinbot as well. Something from mid 80’s to 1990 is a good choice.

Good luck.

High Speed is a fun title for a first pin... falls between the slower Ballys and the faster first WPC’s, has nice snappy williams flippers and when waxed is a mommy bopper...

Had a Roller Games in the family, brother owned it. Play is fun, and it has a nice Richie flow... but the song... oh my god that song... seriously, that song has been known to drive people to violence... he had the gun held to his head and was shaking like a martini and I just said “Roller Games?”, he just nodded and pulled the trigger... what a waste... damn shame.

It's been almost 10 years since we bought our last pin... kind of space limited at 4 cabinets, but 4 machines total was were HER limit.
Operative word here, WAS. Seeing MBrLE at Expo changed that. My last machine was Family Guy at $3500 with only 250 plays on it, decent bargain for an almost NIB and the most I ever thought she would greenlight for a pin.

Moral of the story, if you can get the wife interested and involved in buying your first pin, find the title that melts the purse strings... get the most bang out of that buck.

Imagine my surprise on the second day of Expo, when the wife says "let's drop $8000 on a MBrLE". You never know what machine will do it for your significant other, but if you find the motherlode... run with it.