Hello from Texas.
Thought I would introduce myself, I've been lurking for a little while, and just recently joined. I've always been a fan of Pachinko. My father purchased an early machine for my brother and I when we were kids in the 1970's. I couldn't tell you the design or manufacturer, but we spent a lot of time just playing with it. It was an electric mechanical machine, and it didn't need any electricity to work. I always want the lights to work, but I didn't have a clue how to make that happen.
Fast forward about 25 years later, (around 2000) wanting to play again. I start searching online, and find someone who sells them. I didn't really get to pick one, I just asked for a machine. A NEWGIN Grand Prix is delivered. It's alright, not really that impressive, has this neat B&W dot matrix VFD/LCD display in the center, not sure if I like this auto shooter thingy, where's the skill in that? It does brings back some of those childhood memories, it's also loud as Hell. I look everywhere for a speaker control, never find one, and eventually I figure out where the speaker plug is and just unplug it, ah RELIEF. It was loud enough with just the balls and the bell.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, a friend ask me about Pachinko, he's interested in getting one. So I look online, and my jaw drops, I knew they had gone to color LCD displays, but all those animatronics and LED lights etc. I've just been blown away, the massive amount of themes. It's been fun looking at all the many, many new machines and designs. Glad that I found this forum and a site like this exist, it's certainly great to read and have questions answered. Like where is the volume control? ah there isn't one in most cases. I'm not in the dark anymore.
I'm a mechanical/technical person, I enjoy working on/fixing pinball machines, and appreciate Pachinko. I know a lot of people don't understand or have even seen it. But once you give it a try, it all just starts to click, but of course you all know that. Looking forward to getting lost in it again. - Mackin
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WELCOME
#UKPachinko
to pachitalk! You found a great group of people here! I am not a big fan of the knob to shoot the balls myself! There is a chrome ring around the knob...make sure to have skin touch the ring to ground it while playing. Otherwise it won't shoot right. The farther you twist it, the farther to the right side it will shoot. When you find "the sweet spot", and want to pause shooting momentarily...there should be a button somewhere near that you can push with your thumb. This will cause it to pause shooting until you release the button. Then it will resume shooting in the same area you were firing before. Not sure what your display does. You may have a start pocket that makes it do what it does. If you get another in the start pocket BEFORE it is done, a light may light up to indicate you get another chance (at whatever it does), you can usually only "bank" 4 starts before you waste the next ball that goes into the start pocket. To keep from wasting any "starts", you would press the button to pause the shooter until the screen catches up. Then you release the button...and are still firing into "the sweet spot"! 
