I definitely recommend a gampad with analog input for pinball play on a pc desktop - and especially for BRUSA & FJ.
Apart from the ability to 'nudge&magno' with just one finger, one get's a much better control on the strength of nudging and the flippers.
Some more tips:
Low Slope makes the ball more 'floaty' (means less control with flippers for "Drop Catches" etc.) - but ramp shoots gets easier.
High Slope gives super flipper control but the ball drains like a stone in a well.
Condition regulates how shopworn the surface is.
'New' is like playing on ice and 'neglected' slows down.
Flipper Power regulates how hard the ball is hit with the flippers.
1 is 'soft&sensitive' - 7 is 'hard&rough'
To learn the basics tricks like "Post Pass" etc. and to get a general feeling for the physics best table setup is
Slope max, neglected surface and Flipper Power on 1.
Just train for a while with this. Ramp shoots will be almost impossible, but it's not about high score.
Learn the standard flipper tricks, and get a feeling for the physics.
Here is a good description:
http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/skills/index.html
http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/skills/index2.html
Also train to 'magno save' and nudging. Play 4-player games with lots of balls for this.
Don't forget to switch on the little 'rust' ball markings to better see the spin of the ball.
(I think people who pledged for an own ball design will get a slight little benefit when it comes to PP ULTRA online highscores in the future...)
I play Fantastic Journey mostly on normal difficulty and standard settings. But you can experiment with the table setup to pull some extra tricks. There is for instance some combination which gives you (almost) always a free spinner shot through 'Ball Rescue' etc.
Fantastic Journey IS the best virtual pinball table simulation. Nothing comes closer to the real thing till now.
Let's see what T!Ultra brings.