Quoted from zombywoof:

I'll offer the same advice a good friend gave me before I made my first pin purchase. Start with an early solid state Bally game. Not only are they super fun to play, but they are relatively easy to work on, and replacement parts are for the most part readily available. The game play is fast (often brutally so), but the rules are easy to understand, even for novices. Plus, there is the added bonus of this era Bally having some of the best artwork in the history of pinball. I know that these were the ones I gravitated to back in the late 70s arcades.