About a year and a half ago I bought 3 pinball machines along with a bunch of arcade boxes (and a shuffle bowler) as a lot. Price-wise it was a pretty good deal on the pinballs with everything else thrown in free.

The pros:

* Pinball is very good at keeping the baby awake until bedtime, lol. I would sit him on the glass and he would be enamored by the sights and sounds. Screens don't catch his eyes, so the physicality was great. * Having pinball in the house is fun, and it makes parties better.

The cons:

* Turns out I'm not good at pinball! * My machines are older (mid 90's) and they are a TON of work. The arcades too. * One worked the morning I bought it and never again. Still working on it here and there. * The others have all sorts of gremlins big and small. * I have yet to find someone local who can repair them.

But, I've learned a ton about them and electronics in the meanwhile, so I no longer entirely regret jumping into this.

BTW, they sell new-in-box pinballs for almost as much as I paid for my whole 9 machine arcade, and you have to wait many months sometimes to get them. There's limited editions that are 2x-3x that, even.