Progress on Bump N Jump Control Panel Overlays at This Old Game
Everyone knows that Rich at This Old Game does great work. But today, I get to show just a glimpse into some of the quality steps that Rich takes to make sure that he has great arcade reproductions and most importantly, great buzz in the collecting community which leads to return customers.
On ThisOldGame.com, Rich has a section talking about his current ongoing projects, aptly named “Projects”. You should check it out. From Burgertime and Galaxian to Return of the Jedi and the now well publicized Agent X, Rich has a ton of ongoing arcade reproduction projects that customers have contracted with him to produce.
One of those projects is Bump N Jump control panel overlay reproductions. Today, I have photos showing a little bit of the color matching process and color tests that Rich went through on for the orange on the Bump N Jump artwork.
Here we see the original Bump N Jump sample for color matching, overlaid with a range of orange’s from the Pantone Coated book. If you click on the image, you can see that the closest match to the original burnt orange of the control panel is PMS #1385.
PMS #1385 gives us the breakdown of the different colors mixed to get this shade of orange;
- 78.8% Yellow
- 18.2% Warm Red
- 3% Black
Time to mix the colors. Here we have NAZDAR 9700 Series of all purpose screen inks, a 9762 Warm Red, 9724 Black and I can’t see the Yellow. You can also see the final orange mix in the lower left after adding in the correct percentages. I don’t understand how the colors are measured out of the bigger containers, is it with a measuring cup of some sort? Rich is the expert, I am sure he’ll comment and give me some insight about that.
As Rich has mentioned in the past, and now I am starting to understand, the inks are slightly transparent, as you can see in the photo above. (Right Half) The inks are laid down on the raw, clear polycarbonate, and then backed with white, (Left Half) which takes away the transparency and makes them more brilliant. In the first test here, the burnt orange is a little too bright.
How does he do test screens? Does he have a little film to apply the colors evenly for testing purposes?
Added a little black to the original formula, and the color is “On like Donkey Kong”!
Now all that is left is to screen the orange. In this photo we see just the orange film. I can’t see the registration marks, but I am sure they are there. Can you point them out Rich?
And here we see the final piece after the orange is laid down. The printing is done on back of the polycarbonate in reverse, not on the front. The back is where the 3M is adhered for application to the games.
The first color laid down was the black with bleeds, and now the second color was the orange laid down on top of the blacks. I had originally thought that there was a white flood laid down first, but that must be paper underneath the polycarbonate on the drying rack, because laying down white first just doesn’t make sense.
Either way, thanks to Rich for an insight into the printing process, and hopefully he’ll continue to have a few minutes here and there to provide more information to those of us that are interested about the process between all of his printing jobs.
So, remember, if you don’t have a printer yet for your arcade reproductions, you will want to look up Rich at Thisoldgame.com
You got it here first, exclusive content about the Bump N Jump control panel reproductions at Rotheblog.com.
Here are some similar arcade posts
- Dig Dug Cabaret Control Panel Overlay Artwork
- Reproduction Star Wars Yoke Overlays – Why the colors are so difficult
- Agent X Color Screens
- Agent X / Cloak & Dagger Kickplate Artwork Film Updates
- Screen printing / color seperations diagram of Defender marquee
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Comments
Thanks Rich for the great comment. I think I caught myself saying “Ah” outloud for each paragraph. Thanks for answering each question. Seems like I should have realized that the white backing was the premask, but hey, that is why I am asking the questions since I am such a visual guy.
I didn’t see any mention of the registration. Were there marks on this screen? Or do you get to a point where you have done it enough that you as the printer don’t need them and have a good and steady had to register them by sight?
Registration, good question. I don’t tend to use marks as often on subsurface prints – CPOs for example.
Mainly because with the black going down first all other colors have to fit and hide behind the black detail. For me its easier to see and align individual spot color elements than Registration marks.
For surface prints like side art, that is a different story.
Since you start with colors and end with the black screen, registration marks are essential to know your putting it all down in the right place. So when you get to the final color black, you’ll know where and if you F&#*! up.
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February 2, 2008
There are basically 2 ways to mix up the colors.
First, if it’s just a small, 1 time amount I need I’ll simply estimate the percentages right into the new container. Since the percentages are only guidelines they will always need adjustments. The 2nd method is important if I plan to mix multiple batches of a particular color. I convert the % to a weight that will fill the container. Example say 1 quart = 500grams I break the 500 down and weigh the inks going into the container. This way I now have a formula including adjustments to remix at a later time.
I have other screens that have squares burned in the screen to screen the color tests, or I may simply tape off an unused portion of the screen to screen a small sample.
The white you see is the pre-mask on the reverse side to keep the surface clean and to avoid scratching during production.