I'll start with my first exposure to a pin in a home instead of an arcade because that was where the seed was sown.

I friend of mine used to do auto-body work and he took a pin in on trade for labor from his boss. It was an EM with some kind of card theme but I don't remember which one it was. I'm pretty sure it was a Gottlieb. I am a machinist and he needed a post. This was about '94 so internet parts sources didn't exist. So I turned a match for him on the lathe - an easy project. I guess that's all it needed because we played tons of games on it for several weeks afterward. Anyways, I always thought it would be cool to have a pin at home after that.

So a decade or so later I was driving home from a visit to see Mom the day before trash pickup and a guy had a pin and old vid out at the curb. I got out and looked at it and it was all there even though it was dirty and didn't work. It was a Game Plan "Sharpshooter" which was a game I remembered playing back when they were new. I figured I could give a stab at making it work or just haul it out to my curb if I failed. So I get home and immediately find that Clay's repair guides (R.I.P.) showed detailed methods of fixing them and there was even a Game Plan pinball site of its own. The interwebs is handy after all ! Then I found some parts sources and started making lists of what I needed. Long story short, it was up and running after a while despite myself. That pin is now at a cousin's house and still being enjoyed.

This is it (my actual machine - not lifted from the web)

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p.s. By the way, I left the vid there that day. It was more "gone", I had no clue how to start figuring it out, and I enjoy pins more anyway.