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Episode 21 - Harry Williams: Pinball Prophet w/ Roger Sharpe
PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday1 hr 16 min listen
Highlights
- Harry Williams invented the first solenoid in a pinball machine in 1933 (Contact), bringing electricity to pin games
- Harry Williams invented the Tilt mechanism in 1934 as an anti-shake device (originally called 'stool pigeon')
- Harry Mabbs invented the flipper in 1947 on Humpty Dumpty, then was hired by Harry Williams to work at Williams
- Harry Williams designed a head-to-head pinball machine called Horsefeathers in 1952 with mechanical racing horses
- Army Navy (1953) was the first game to use score reels as a display, building on Lyn Durant earlier reel totalizer patent from 1933
- Roger Sharpe was contracted to design games for Stern Electronics (1978-1981), with Harry Williams designing 10 solid-state games for the company
- Roger Sharpe designed a game called Sharpshooter and Harry Williams reviewed it and provided feedback
- Roger Sharpe and Harry Williams came close to collaborating on multiple games for Brunswick's home machine line, but the effort 'faltered' and never materialized
- Gary Stern was instrumental in introducing Roger Sharpe to the pinball industry and connecting him with other designers and manufacturers
- Modern designers like Pat Lawlor, Steve Ritchie, and George Gomez have rediscovered and reapplied Harry Williams' innovations from the 1930s-1950s
Notable quotes
“I truly did admire him for what he had achieved and hearing all the stories related to the various successes that he had over the years... But I think that there was also this just connection is the best way to describe it. I would call it a love of a fellow who at that point in time was old enough to be my father or even my grandfather.”
“I thought you'd like that. I was thinking of you when I put that into the game.”
“The history was just so disposable for designers like Steve Kordek and Norm Clark and Gordon Horlick and Wayne Neyens... I don't think really ever went back to the well thinking, oh, yeah, I did that here and let me do it again.”
“It's hard not to when you see how much stuff he invented. Yeah, I'm like looking through his and I'm going to put these up on our website when this episode airs because I want people to see all these games because you're probably not going to get to play them anywhere soon.”
“Whatever those influences might have been... I mean I did have a chance to play Contact and thought it was just wonderful during my research days... Many of the games that you're talking about, I know where some of those features have reemerged.”
“Score reels fundamentally changed design... It became fundamental to a radical shift in design and their programming... To have the games be much more accessible based on specific scoring compared to just lights.”
Entities
- Brunswick· company
- Consolidated Drug Co.· company
- Gottlieb· company
- Raw Thrills· company
- Stern Electronics· company
- Stern Pinball· company
- Williams Manufacturing· company
- Pinball Expo· event
- PAPA· organization
- Wedgehead Pinball Podcast· organization
- Gary Stern· person
- George Gomez· person
- Harry Mabbs· person
- Harry Williams· person
- Josh Sharp· person
- Lyn Durant· person
- Pat Lawlor· person
- Roger Sharpe· person
- Sam Stern· person
- Steve Kordek· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Wayne Neyens· person
- Zach Sharpe· person
- The Man Who Saved Pinball· product
