(FORTUNE Magazine) – When I was a kid, nothing was more seductive than the jingling, glittering bank of pinball machines that lined the back wall of the bowling alley. That was the home territory of virtuosos with studded leather jackets and dead-perfect ducktails, guys so incredibly cool that they could parlay a couple of dimes into a whole afternoon's entertainment.

My mother took a dim view of the game, which she still refers to as "playing the slot machines." She was even less enamored of my pinball heroes, whom she called hoodlums. So I spent my adolescence on more wholesome pursuits and reached adulthood without mastering ramps, loops, bumpers, ball drops, and other pinball esoterica.

Now that I'm approaching 50--the flipper and I were invented in the same year--I'm making up for lost time. I've discovered computer pinball, the perfect game: easy to learn, difficult to master, completely addictive, and devoid of redeeming social value. It's a great stress reliever and a natural for the office: you can tuck it away in a flash anytime the boss (or your mother) pokes her head in the door.

After long and arduous research, I found three games that I recommend. One warning: Before you buy, check out the system requirements to make sure your PC can handle these games. A high-resolution pinball simulation requires only slightly less computing power than launching the space shuttle.

Full Tilt! 2 Pinball (Maxis, 120 quarters) has beautifully rendered screens, realistic ball action, and cheerfully noisy sound effects. You have a choice of three tables--Mad Scientist, Alien Daze, or Captain Hero--each with its own personality. On the screen each looks like an incredibly realistic, although slightly foreshortened, version of a pinball table. You decide which keys control the flippers and the plunger, and you even pick out keys to nudge the table to the right, left, or straight up. I used this during one game when the ball actually became stuck behind a bumper and I had to "jiggle" the table to get it loose. At the bowling alley that took serious muscle, but onscreen even a pencil-necked geek can do it, thanks to some heavy programming from Maxis.

Full Tilt! 2 gives you full control over your environment. You can choose to play alone or with some friends, select the screen resolution, play full screen or in a window, and adjust video, audio, and ball spin to match your hardware.

The program is available for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Unlike many games, the Win 95 version I tested behaves well even when you're running other programs at the same time. Best of all, a single keystroke hides your pinball game behind the spreadsheet you should have been working on. For information, call Maxis at 800-336-2947 or 510-927-3900, or download a demo at www.maxis.com.

If you're not a purist, check out 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night (Sierra On-Line, 180 quarters). Creep Night is a pure and simple hoot, a computer creation that no earthly pinball machine can match, with three multilayered, six-flipper games that unleash hordes of ghosts, goblins, rats, wraiths, zombies, spiders, and other nasty creatures as you make your way through the castle, tower, and dungeon.

While Creep Night comes with full audio control and can hide behind more useful programs, the delightfully spooky music and sound effects are so much a part of this game that it's better for the home than the office. Creep Night also makes it easy to keep the ball in play, which is good for children or beginners. But you can adjust the level of difficulty and even set a time limit on each ball to keep experts from monopolizing the table. The program is available in Windows and Mac versions. Contact Sierra On-Line at 800-757-7707 or 206-746-5771, or point your Web browser to www.sierra.com to download a demo.

Traditionalists will prefer Pro-Pinball: The Web (Interplay/ Empire, 120 quarters). Pro-Pinball is so close to the real thing that you can practically feel the ball caress the flippers. There's only one table here, but it's magnificently drawn. The shading, attention to detail, and choice of views from six slightly different perspectives give Pro-Pinball a sense of authenticity unmatched by the others.

The Web title has nothing to do with the Internet--or anything else that I can figure out, other than some vague, cyberbiking, crime-fighting scenario--but who cares? There are plenty of hidden secrets and bonuses, including a space videogame that pops up on the backboard to give you a chance at extra points. With a driving background score, superb ball physics, and ultrarealistic pinball sounds, Pro-Pinball will make you think you're actually standing in a darkened arcade. It's available in DOS/Win95, Macintosh, Sony Playstation, and Sega Saturn formats. For information, contact Interplay at 800-468-3775 or 714-553-6655, or surf to www.interplay.com/games/pinball.html for a detailed description and demo download.

A personal note: When my 14-year-old walked into the office while I was working on this project, I asked him if he wanted to try out one of the games. He sat down cold and beat my best score by five million points.

I think the kid will turn out all right.