I more or less agree- I would bet its not wiring, its not really wonky behavior- its just stuck.

What do the lights that indicate the number of players tell you, they are on the front right bottom of the glass in the head- do they indicate a 1,2,3 or 4 player game? I bet 4-

Those lights and the ball in play light are controlled by two different steppers, it could be that the ball unit stepper is grimy and stuck in the ball 1 position-. If its indicating a 4 player game every time, then the stepper unit for that is stuck on 4. I would bet a fair bit you have some disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly in your future. Your lucky the game starts so well, it could be worse!

The steppers are fairly obvious and if you have instructions for the game it will be fairly clear how they work, but if its your first EM, it may take a little playing to figure them out. I own this game and have been through every assembly and had them stripped down to pieces. Take a lot of photos, and take the stepper out of the game (leave the piece with the wires soldered to it in the game and the coils- you can then work on the rest). Its just some screws.... and a lot of photos from every angle...

Its almost certainly not a bent wiper, or wiring fault, its just stuck. Very common, these things never should be lubed- and inevitably over the last 40+ years someone ends up spraying it with WD-40 and it seizes up. Clean it to dry metal, read the myriad threads about lubrication (don't but for a very few spots), and put it all back together.