the purpose of this whole blog thing

I am new to this whole "owning an actual pinball machine", and I have a lot of learning to do.  I will try and share the thought-processes, ordeals, resources and solutions I encounter via this blog in hopes it will assist other people taking the plunge and getting in to the hobby.

Let's start with a picture.  Here is what I actually bought:

This is Royal Flush by Gottlieb from 1976.  An electro-mechanical classic, and a beauty of a machine.  There would be only a few years after this came out until the solid-state era.
It has a very good rule set, for an EM at least.  The main feature is the 9 drop targets, which award 1000 each and if you get the right combos, award bonuses.  But there are also 3 Joker targets, and hitting each increases the value of the drops by 1000 each, as well lights various rollovers for 3000 each.  There is a eject hole that awards 1000 per joker lit, as well as a roll-over that opens a gate in the right out-lane to save your ball. 
Only a single pop-bumper, but I like games with just a single bumper.

For some basics of pinball, I highly recommend this article, The Absolute Beginner's Guide To Buying And Owning a Pinball Machine.

The first few things I learned about that I want to go over:

• moving the pinball machine
• getting inside it and the basic guts
• documenting problems

In the future I will get in to researching the various issues, maintenance, and all that good stuff.