Picking up an actual pinball machine can cost a fortune, with prices often reaching over $1,000. They also take up a ton of space, making them less than ideal for cozy apartments or small homes.

Easy on you and your pocket change, here are some accessible machines for those who aspire to become a pinball wizard.

SUPERIOR — With his knees bent and one foot slightly in front of the other, Parnell Lutz, of Duluth, hunched over a pinball machine in Average’s Joe’s pub in Superior. The game he’s focused on is ...

This is a somewhat specialized build, pondering building a virtual pinball cabinet based around Visual Pinball and a large screen 1080p LCD TV. As such it only needs a pretty minimal machine, but with ...

Due west of O’Hare International Airport, there is a neighborhood — formally, part of Elk Grove Village — that isn’t much of a neighborhood. It’s warehouses, drab gray offices. It’s Gertrude Stein’s ...

On a recent Sunday in the back room of Seaborne, the Red Hook cocktail bar, Kevin Murray was balanced atop several crates of tonic water, elbow-deep in the back of a 1964 Gottlieb “Majorettes” pinball ...

Chicago — Due west of O’Hare International Airport, there is a neighborhood — formally, part of Elk Grove Village — that isn’t much of a neighborhood. It’s warehouses, drab gray offices. It’s Gertrude ...