First contact was in 1984 during a family celebration in a restaurant. The owner saw us kids bored and switched his pinball to free play - yay!
Around '92/'93 I often visited a local billard bar. They had a pinball machine in one corner (still remember playing TAF and IJ).
In my first apartment would have been sufficient space, but I decided for a table and some chairs to accommodate friends. The next apartment had enough space for my fist pin and now we have a games room - enough room for up to 3 pins and 4 yards of shelves for board and roleplaying games.