When I was in my early teens, I played a lot of pinball at my local Putt Putt Golf 'N' Games (Anderson, IN). I remember playing Addams Family, Funhouse, Bride of Pinbot, T2 and Demolition Man. As I got older, I'd play pinball whenever I happened to stumble upon a game, but I didn't really seek it out.

For probably the last 10 years, I always thought it would be cool to own a pinball machine, but I assumed that if something went wrong, I wouldn't be able to fix it. Fortunately, there are tons of resources -- forums, instructional websites, blogs, parts vendors, etc. -- online that make it possible for a noob like myself to do my own repairs.

I bought my BoP in April. I panicked that there were so many things wrong with it when I got it home. I ended up paying a guy $250 to come out to my house and fix a few things that I later realized I could've done myself, but just didn't know it yet. Since then, I've learned how to fix a variety of issues and even replace some board components. I bought a Pinbot a few weeks ago. Both games could use some touch ups on the playfield, but I'm not quite ready to tackle touching up and clearcoating. For now, I just take pride in getting the games playing 100% and as clean as possible.

Hopefully, I will be buying more games down the road. Space is not an issue, but justifying today's prices is tough for me. I wish I'd gotten into the hobby earlier.