Sebastiano Stia | Special to Laker Weekly

Les Kuhn , "a toy guy," according to wife Delores, has a go at The Getaway: High Speed II, a pinball machine from the 1990s.

Pinball glossary

• Backbox: This table serves two purposes: to hold the main electronics of the game and to attract players with a decorative piece of art located on the back glass.
• Bumpers: round, mushroom-shaped targets set into the playfield of most pinball machines. They fall into two categories: active and passive. Both types register a hit when the ball collides with them. Pop bumper is the name used by Gottlieb to describe active bumpers.
• Drop target: A type of target that is dropped into or below the playfield when hit.
• Kickback: Usually located at the left outlane, when activated it kicks the ball back into play instead of allowing the ball to pass to the drain.
• Playfield: The part of the pinball machine where you actually move the ball around. When referring to playfield positions, the “lower” playfield area is considered nearest the player while the “upper” playfield area is nearest the backbox.
• Rollovers: A target scored by rolling over it.
• Spinner: One of many different types of devices used on a pinball machine where either all or part of the device spins. The spinning action might be driven by a motor or initiated from contact with a ball in play.

— Internet Pinball Database

Flashing lights. Ringing bells. The unmistakable whang of a spring-loaded plunger. A steel ball rolling, bumpers thumping and, all too soon, flippers snapping, sending the ball back up the inclined game board toward lighted scoring features at the top of the playfield.

Few can resist taking a turn at a pinball machine. And for a few lucky lake-area residents, a fast-paced practice session -- or perhaps a spirited game with one, two or three other pinball junkies -- may be as near as the lake-level game room.

That's the case with Arnie and Dee Kropf, residents of The Waterfront, who have shared a vintage pinball machine since they were married 19 years ago.

"It was part of Dee's dowry -- along with a player piano and a Troy-Bilt roto tiller," Arnie joked.

That's only partly accurate. Dee, it turned out, had become smitten by pinball after playing at a friend's house and decided it would be fun to own a machine.

"But I also bought it as a wedding gift for Arnie." He gave her a jukebox; the couple's recreation room was well-equipped from the beginning.

The Kropf's machine is a five-ball-per-game unit built by D. Gottlieb & Company, one of 1,070 four-player Surf Champ models produced in the 1970s. It has most all the features that were state-of-the-art at the time: two five-bank drop targets; five star roll-overs that progressively increase the value of the kick-out holes from 500 to 5,000 points; a cute 'surfer girl" roll-under spinner.

Dee bought it in Vestal, N.Y., from a distributor who had recovered it from a defunct tavern.

"These old relay machines were built to stand up to frequent use in a really tough environment," Arnie said, referring to the machine's bar room heritage.

He recently spotted a Surf Champ like his offered online for more than 10 times the $300 his sold for, but said he doubts it is in as good a condition.

The empty-nest, retired couple still enjoy friendly competition on the machine.

"We played a few nights ago, and I actually won a game," Dee said.

High score of 246,200 points is registered to son, Matt, date-stamped December, 1988 (he's now 36 and living in Manhattan). Arnie's best is 192,000.

"But the grandchildren will one day close in on that," Arnie predicted. "They already love messing with the game when they're visiting."

Arnie disconnected the coin box activation mechanism to avoid having to leave buckets of quarters lying around the room.

Another lake resident who was the recipient of a pinball machine as a gift is Dick Reid of The Waverly. His wife, Betty, had a high school friend who ended up in the game machine repair/refurbishing business back in the late '80s.

The couple was in Greenville, N.C., when the friend recommended a fairly simple game called Aztec, a four-player machine with two flippers, three pop bumpers, a kickback lane and roll-under spinner.

With a theme based on the American Indians of the same name, it was crafted by Williams Electronic Games, a division of Delaware's Sieburg, Inc. (also known for jukeboxes). The machine moved with them to Charlotte and then, in July, 2000, into an alcove on the lake level of their SML house -- a space custom-designed for the machine by their architect son, Scott.

"Scott and I have some great late-night challenges when he and his family visit from California," Dick said. "But what's really fun is watching the grandkids [Maddie, 12, and Olivia, 9] go at it. If they're not in the water, they're here in the game room with the machine clanging."

Made in 1976, Aztec, like the Kropf's Surf Champ, is an electro-mechanical relay machine.

"It's never needed repair beyond replacement of worn-out rubber strips on the flippers," Dick said.

Still flashing

Penny Simmons of Hardy has been enjoying her 1960 Mystic, made by Bally, Inc. of Chicago, for about 10 years.

"I spotted it in a friend's workshop -- stuck in a corner gathering dust, with jars of screws sitting on the glass top," she said. "He refused to sell it, but showed up a while later with the machine on the back of his truck. 'It's a housewarming gift,' he said."

Surprisingly, the machine was in operable condition, though Penny's cousin, Don Leber, a Virginia Tech electrical engineer, did tweak some of the circuitry.

"When Dave's [Dave Hunt, Penny's fiance] grandchildren (Sarah, 4, and Hunter, 6) visit from Charlotte, they love playing." There's an upended milk carton on the floor near the machine that allows them to reach the flipper buttons.

Another Hardy couple, Lee and Sue Strock, also have a Bally machine. Theirs' is a 1973 five-ball, four-player Champ -- one of 4,070 made -- still sporting its "2 plays/25 cents" label. They spotted it six years ago at Happy's on Williamson Road in Roanoke.

"We'd gone in looking for a jukebox," Lee recalled, "but this was much more affordable."

They paid $600 for a machine that now sells for around $3,500.

"I don't play it much unless I'm home sick," Sue admits. "But then it cheers me up."

Les and Delores Kuhn of Winding Waters have a more modern, '90s vintage machine, a refurbished Williams three-ball, good-guy-bad-guy-car -chase-themed game called The Getaway: High Speed II. It was purchased in 2005.

"It's really his," Delores corrects. "Les is the toy guy, and he loves fast cars."

"Getaway is perfect for a gear-head, Les pointed out. "Look, there's even an 'up-shift' lever right here on the front of the cabinet."

A rotating red cop car light flashes from the top of the backbox; the playfield includes an elevated diverter pathway (reminiscent of a parking garage ramp), adding a third dimension to the layout and more possibilities for big-time scoring.

Fire the ball through the ball accelerator channel and get ready for a turbo boost. With machines such as the one owned by the Kuhns, pinball went higher tech. Still used are ball-bearing-like steel balls and spring-loaded plungers to start the action.

But there are also recorded sound effects -- for Getaway, screeching tires, revving engines, sirens and gruff policeman voices issuing warnings such as, "Hands up; don't move!"

"The grandkids go nuts over it," Kuhn added. "On rainy days, it's a nice change of pace from video games."

Finding a machine

"Getaway is about as action-packed as they come," said Tom Hintenach, Jr., owner of Electronics Unlimited in Westminster, Md., where Kuhn found his machine. The company handles all kinds of coin-operated machines, but pinball is the most popular.

"With arcades now a popular pinball venue, machines are also expected to handle movement from one location to another as owners swap them out to give their customers a variety of playing experiences," Hintenach said. "Getting one ready to be resold is usually no big deal."

Pinball fans typically come looking for machines by game theme, Hintenach added.

"Cards, sports, movies -- 'The Munsters' is the biggest money-earner ever at arcades, and refurbished ones are very popular."

During the 2007 Christmas buying season, he saw about 50 machines go out the door for lucky "girls and boys."

The Internet is a useful source for purchase and background information. www.ipdb.org offers a database of some 5,000 machines, complete with photos. At www.bmigaming.com, refurbished machines run from $2,250 to upward of $4,500.

A new NASCAR Dale Ernhardt Jr., one of just 600 made, fetches $5,275. Pirates of the Caribbean junkies might get away for $4,575. Insist on an Elvis Gold machine and you'll fork out $7575 ... plus $450 for "White Glove Delivery," which gets it off the truck and placed in your game room.

"These things are heavy," Hintenach warned, "and a claim of free shipping usually means you'll need a truck and a bunch of tolerant friends to lug it home from a warehouse somewhere."