Yeah, monthly might be too long. Maybe 2 a month? 1-15th, then 16th-end?
Of all my devices and consoles and PCs, I prefer my iPad the best for digital pinball. My phone is decent in a pinch, and it is great for travel, of course, but I usually only play tables I know fairly well because the screen is a bit too small to learn the ropes of an unfamiliar table.
The really cool thing about pinball is that there is a whole lot more to it than keeping the ball alive. Pinball is really a whole bunch of flow charts that award you for progress. I am often more interested in beating a mission than I am in overall score. He subtle depth is also nice because it comes with an element of mastery and one table can last you a long, long time.
Each table you play will have a guide somewhere out there. You don’t need to memorize the guides, but they can help you figure out some of the inner workings of he table. Practice and familiarity will have you understanding the ins and outs of most tables, even when you struggle to make your shots.
As for Sorcerer’s Lair, my advice would be to learn how to activate missions. You need to hit he three targets above the spin table to raise the table. Sink a shot in the hole to activate the mission. Sorcerer’s Lair is forgiving because you get credit for the mission even if you fail, and after all 6 missions, you will enter wizard mode, which will net you most of your points very easily. Other table elements will certainly award you some good points, but work on those missions.
Another way to get some decent points with little risk is to learn the table’s skill shot. Skill shots are shots off your plunger that hit a specific target and will get you 1M or so (depending on the table) points right off the bat before play has even started. In SL, you want a weak shot that rolls over the target without going too far. Then hit the lit top lane for a super skill shot. I have trouble with the top lane, but combined you’re looking at 1.3M to just put the ball in play.