Groove to the beat — Williams’ 3-D is an electromechanical single-player with a music-and-dancing theme, designed by the pioneering Harry Mabs, a genuine giant of early pinball whose innovations helped shape the flipper game itself, with art by George Molentin. With light-based scoring, it’s a woodrail-era artifact from the formative days of the modern machine, crafted by one of the true founders of the craft.
The layout is elegantly focused in the early-EM tradition: two flippers, three pop bumpers, a generous six kick-out holes, and a gobble hole. That’s an unusually kick-out-hole-heavy design, with six of them giving the playfield a distinctive character full of ball-capturing awards, plus the classic gobble hole — that daring, high-risk feature that swallows the ball for a prize, a hallmark of the era’s bold philosophy. Those six kick-out holes promise a game rich in captured-ball scoring, rewarding a player who works the playfield to find and feed them, all while braving the ever-present gobble hole for its rewards.
3-D is a lovely piece of history for the collector who treasures the deepest roots of the hobby and the legendary figures who planted them. Harry Mabs was a genuine visionary — his work helped birth the modern flipper game — and playing one of his designs is a small brush with the origins of everything that followed. The music-and-dancing theme suits the machine’s lively character, and that array of kick-out holes gives it a genuinely distinctive feel. For anyone who loves pinball’s formative era, it’s a treasure. Work those six kick-out holes, brave the gobble hole, and feel the history. Some machines are a piece of the foundation, and this Mabs classic is one of them. Turn up the music.