Name: Harry Mabs
Birth: 1890s
Death: 1960
Occupation/Title: Arcade game designer

Bio Summary:
Harry Mabs is a game designer for Gottlieb games and invented the first flippers for the Humpty Dumpty pinball game and turned the game into a game of skill from a game of chance.

Early Life/Family:
Harry started at Gottlieb in the early forties as a game designer.

Education/Training:
self-taught and worked for several gaming companies including Gottlieb and Harry Williams.

Career Outline:
Harry worked for an arcade gaming company named Gottlieb in Chicago. There he created six flippers on the original pinball machine in 1947 on a pinball game called Humpty Dumpty. They were about two inches long and were placed on the bottom, middle, and top of the machine that were activated on the side of the machine. The right side buttons activated the three right flippers and the left side the left flipper. The flippers were a little different than the ones of today. They flipped from the outer side to the middle instead of hitting from the middle out like on today’s pinball machines.

Impact on Gaming:
This was a big step since pinball before this point was a game of chance. The ball fell and one could only watch in order to see how their first and only hit went. Thanks to Mabs the game was now interactive and a game of skill which made the game much more marketable. He also invented the Gottlieb game “Knock Out”.

Influences:
Harry Williams, who Mabs later worked for, was a large influence on Mabs. In 1951 Mabs moved away from Gottlieb because he felt he was underappreciated. Mabs found a better job with Williams. At William’s company Mabs, Sam Stern, and Williams were the main designers until Mabs death in 1960.

Personality:
Harry was known as a nice guy by his friends but was also very stern and very serious about his work.

Gameography:
Humpty Dumpty pinball machine, Knock Out, Wild West

Related Links:
www.chuku.com/club/pinball.ppt
www.pinballnews.com/shows/expo2008/index7.html
www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=person&name=Harry+Mabs
http://www.ipdb.org/lists.cgi?anonymously=true&list=names
www.pinballexpo.net/hallfame.php

Bibliographic References:
http://www.marvin3m.com/wmswood/index.htm
http://www.scholzroland.de/VPStuff/3SHOWS93.htm
Special When Lit by Edward Trapunski
Contributors to this Listing:Jason DeCruz