Harry Mabs, one of the great designers in the early days of pinball. He had some great ideas. I can't find much info about the man but the list of games he designed. Lately I've noticed quite a few of Harry's games have entered my collection. And good ones they are.

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Perhaps Wayne knew him too?

I bet Harry was well liked. Two of the top pinball companies employed him.

Yes I've got quite a few. And they are all special games with great geometry and layouts. The kind you never get tired of playing and keep coming back for more. It seems many of my recent pickups were designed by Harry. I'll be adding some pics of them all and hope others will too.

Even his early six flipper games you can look at and say what do I do with this? Then you play it and see exactly where he was coming from.

As great a designer and inventor as Harry Williams was, I believe it was after Harry Mabs joined up and they started working together is when Williams pinball really started to take off with many outstanding games from the early 50s on. Some of which each designed.

Talking about shoes to fill, both Harrys left Williams around the same time and left Steve Kordek as the main designer of the company.

I'd say he did a pretty good job.

You're not making it any easier for me either as there is a very nice example available at the woodrail superstore.

I have Gottlieb woodrails and Williams woodrails, some designed by Wayne, and some Harry Williams, but I'm finding the ones by Mr. Mabs have something real special about the geometry and playability. Not that they aren't all great, but every Harry Mabs game I've owned has that one more game appeal.

On games like Lady Robin Hood, Humpty Dumpty, Ali Baba and others with that kind of flipper arrangement, there can be a lot of vollying of the ball back and forth from side to side all the while trying to hit lit bumpers or make lanes. Also it is possible to climb back up the ladder from lower levels to the upper flippers. My daughter always says she hates that game. Must be why she keeps on playing it.

The first Harry Mabs game I owned was not a woodrail but it was the last game he ever designed and is still one of the most played games in my collection, Magic Clock.

Like his others it has a great geometry and is very fun to play, especially when going head to head competing with another player. It was the first game with a swinging target, and Steve Kordek must have liked it so much, he pretty much copied it when he designed Kismet.

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Because there were two great designers named Harry, and my grandpa's name was Harry as well, I have added Mr. Mabs last name to the title of this thread to avoid any confusion.

First off thanks!
I have rated several games and was informed that I rated them too good so they are fake and won't be considered for pinside's lists. After waiting quite a while nothing changed but was told if I also rated some not so good they would be considered. I'm giving that a try now. Not really the kind of game I like to play. I give my opinion honestly and that's the best I've got.

But this thread isn't about that. This is Harry's thread!

Besides flippers, pop bumpers (?), and the swinging target that was used on many games after, I believe Harry Mabs was the first to use what was advertised on the flyer for 1948's Ali Baba as "Drumroll sound effects".

This was acomplished by using a system similar to a bell without the bell. It would rattle off as bonus points were scored. This simple feature went on to become the sound that would ultimately be used to indicate a replay had been earned. In other words the "knocker".

Not sure exactly when this happened as 1948's Buccaneer uses it to add "extra score" as well, but the drumroll effect continued on as multiple replays could be earned on many games all the way up to the early 60s when you could still get ten at a time with a double match on some multiplayer games..

Harry also put in a lot of effort into making early multiplayer games fun and competitive. And also enjoyable for a single player. This Fiesta is all of that and more. With four flippers, it was also the first game with an on playfield score reel, that appeared on many games after that.

Balanced scoring between players and the opportunity for a big score by hitting the roving lit gobble hole or center target for 10X reel makes this one great for competition as well as for a single player. Also it has roving lit shots around the playfield accomplished by switches on the top cam of the score motor, depending on where it stopped last.

Last but not least is the geometry of the layout which was never lacking on any of his games.

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Here's a couple more of Harry's games. Serenade is similar to Fiesta, but with two less flippers, much larger gobble holes, and a plunge shot you best make. And a slightly different theme. Really a tough game. We call it the equalizer. And it delivers.

Arrow Head is one of my favorites to play.

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Magic Clock has full power slings. And hardwood side rails. Hit one and the ball drops. I'm only guessing, but Steve Kordek might have worked with Harry on this design.

Similar, yet different. You will notice the playfield reel tends to take up less side to side real estate than a conventional roto target. Something I've learned to appreciate.

The lower part of Arrow Head's playfield is very similar to Frontiersman, perhaps a nod to what IMO is one of the best playing and best looking games of that era. It has similar flow down there, but up top is a different story. I'm fortunate to have both.

One thing I've noticed is games with the smaller bells mounted to the match unit or light board in the head tend to sound better than those mounted in the lower cabinet. With the larger 5" bell it doesn't seem to make much difference. Sometimes they just didn't have enough room in the head to put them there.

Both Fiesta and Serenade had the small bell mounted in the lower cabinet and I thought they sounded a bit clunky and out of tune. I messed with them some but couldn't get the sound I wanted. So a couple weeks ago I moved Fiestas into the only spot I could find on the light board and it sounds excellent now. So I just gave Serenade the same treatment. Easy enough to wire them straight to the relay.

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Well thank you sir! I have tried to improve it as I've gone along and am pretty happy with it so far. I've been lucky to come across a few gems that I never thought I'd find. There are always more out there that are pretty tempting though.

Some games tend to get overlooked. See That Fashion Show over in the corner? You'd be surprised how good a player that turned out to be and everybody that comes over keeps wanting to play it. It's a good one.

I've still got a few more Mabs games, but I was also hoping some more would chime in and share some pics of their treasures. Truth is nobody will ever own every game and scrolling down the list on IPDB, the amount of games Harry designed is staggering. I pulled a few pics off the interwebs of some of the others he designed we haven't discussed yet. But there are many more including lots from the flipperless era.

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I will add he had a couple great artists to work with.

Yours look a little more organized than mine..

Thanks for chiming in!

Sometimes I wish there wasn't a 2000 mile desert between coasts. Other times it seems like a godsend.

I just had about as good a game I ever had on this one, but I couldn't get that last bumper.

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