Ms. Pac-man bezel differences

I had made a formal request for photos of anyone who has bought a Two-Bits reproduction Ms. pac-man glass bezel so I could do a comparison of the original verses the re-print, kind of like I did for the Ms. Pac-man marquee artwork comparison. The photos are in, and the post won’t be nearly as long, but here are some of the differences.

Less Ms. Pac-man artwork to screw up, good for Two-Bits

I looked over the photos pretty closely from the Two-Bits bezel repro artwork, and the high resolution scan that I have of the original Ms. Pac-man bezel. I noticed a coupe of things that I would consider pretty minor. Here is a detailed side by side. Take a look at the list below and then click the photo for a larger version of the bezel artwork to see for yourself.

Some of the small detail differences I noticed between the two Ms. Pac glass bezels are as follows;

• Motion lines on enemy and active ghosts are arced at the base on the reproduction where they come straight off the ghosts in the original
• The ‘Instructions’ text font seems to be thicker in the Two-Bits version, and if you look closely is a touch more bold throughout the rest of the text
• Pac-man appears to be more circular in the repro artwork than the original, but that just may be because the provided photo is angled
• The blue ghosts on the original have this ‘mis-registration’ effect, which I think was intentional and stylistic. This is missing from the Two-Bits version. I personally don’t mind registration corrections when reproducing arcade artwork, but I think the original looks cooler with the extra blue bleeding out from the ghosts, probably because that is what I am used to.

I think all of these details are negligible. Jaysunten probably picked a font that was very close to the original, and you would have to look really hard to tell a difference. The bolder font for the ‘Instructions’ text doesn’t bother me at all. Along those same lines, I barely notice the small changes in the ghosts unless I am being critical. These differences are typical inconsistencies that you might see between an original and a reproduction on any piece of arcade artwork.

The biggest difference between the original and reproduction Ms. Pac-man bezel that I feel is unacceptable is the thickness of the rounded orange rectangle around the ‘Instructions’ text. The line thickness is an obvious discrepancy, and alters the look completely. The spacing is changed between the ‘Instructions’ text and the sides, the alignment with the solid pink as well as the appearance of the overall width of the rectangle. This is something simple that could have been easily matched and should have been by Two-Bits or Jaysunten. Good for Two-Bits, you go girl. Yu ain’t no won’s beyotch, kno wot i’m sayin’?

Moving onto the points side of the bezel

On the right side of the bezel we have the ‘Monster Point Value’ which gives us the scoring breakdown of eating the ghosts as well as each piece of fruit.

Two-Bits is at least consistent in their apathy, as the right side points breakdown also has the thinner orange line. Beyond that, these are the other small differences I noticed;

• The ghosts at the top look different again, from the extra blue bleed and the blues not really matching (that could be photo) to the motion lines having a thicker trail coming right off the ghost. The main thing with the ghosts for me are the eyes. I think that the ghost dot eyes in the reproduction bezel are too large. This should not be a concern in Illustrator, you aren’t limited to a certain size if you are working from a good scan.
• We have the font thickness difference again with the two main titles on the Ms. Pac-man bezel, the ‘Monxster Point Value’ and ‘Extra Points’ both appear to be more bold, like they used Arial Bold instead of Arial Narrow. (Arial narrow may have needed some outlining and expanding if the fonts were too thin.)
• Two-Bits did a pretty decent job translating the fruit artwork from the original to the reproduction. The blue outlines in the reproduction bezel are a little more uniform than the original. I think the original has more character because of the irregular blue outlines, but what do I know? Two-Bits completely left off some of the small thin lines on the pretzel, and the orange fruit has a finer dot detail on the reproduction where the original bezel the dot are thicker and more along the line of what I would call blobs.

Again, all of these details are things I could accept, except for the screwup Two-Bits made on the thickness of that orange border.

Ms. Pac-man & Ghosts on the top of the bezel

I don’t have a very good image of the top of the Two-Bits Ms. Pac-man repro bezel and therefore could use a scan or a better photo, hopefully of the bezel out of the machine. If you can help me out and own a Two-Bits bezel, shoot me a line.

I don’t actually notice a whole lot of differences based on the original scan (top) to the angled photo of the artwork from the Two-Bits version (bottom). The main difference I can kind of pick out is that it looks like some of the dot like lines on the ghosts are thicker on the ghosts in the reproduction under their mouths and on their arms. But that is about all I can comment on so far.

Alignment of Ms. Pac-man artwork – Bezel to control panel

The general intention was for the thick pink stripe on the Ms. Pac-man bezel to line up with the lines on the control panel. I took a look at both of my full size Ms. Pac-man’s, and I found one was nearly perfectly aligned, and one was not. Here is a detail shot of the Ms. Pac in the garage that wasn’t perfectly aligned.

But I will say at the very least, the line thickness for the orange, yellow and pink is consistent when it runs from the bezel into the control panel on the original Bally / Midway Ms. Pac-man artwork. The Two-Bits version isn’t perfectly aligned either, but there is a significant difference in the outside orange line. Take a look.

The orange lines are much thicker on the Ms. Pac-man control panel overlay than on the bezel. This is another little hint that says to me that Two Bits Score manufactured these at a different time, maybe with different artists. I don’t think I would prefer one thickness over the other as long as they were consistent, but if the orange line was thicker on the bezel then it would be too close to the edge of the ‘Instructions’ and ‘Monster Point Values’ throwing off the rest of the artwork.

Wrapping up the bezel comparison

Another piece of artwork from Two-Bits reviewed. Are the differences between the reproduction bezel and the original Ms. Pac-man bezel so different that I would recommend you not buy it? No, not hardly. Two-Bits obviously didn’t do a quality check on their artwork as closely as they should have, but in general their bezel is a decent reproduction.

It’s all up to your opinion, collecting games and artwork is always subjective. If you want to deal with Two-Bits nasty customer service and potentially no refund if you don’t like the product, as the singing candle stick would say “Be my guest”. Two-Bits is the only publicized source for Pac art, however, original bezels shouldn’t be that hard to come by on eBay so it might be best to just wait.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• Ms. Pac-man Marquee Reproduction Versions
• Two Bits Ms. Pac-man Bezels
• Two Bits Ms. Pac-man Control Panel Overlay Artwork Inaccurate
• Ms. Pac-man overlays, bezels and Two-Bits – Oh My!
• Request for photos of Two-Bits Pac-man artwork

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