Flutter me this – Vinyl Joust Sideart?
Anthony forwarded me this image of a piece of vinyl Joust sideart. There is no copyright, but the artwork looks just like the original game…which was stenciled. It seems like I’ve seen this before, but can’t remember where.
Joust sideart possibly by Willis?
We know that Willis produced all sorts of artwork, original and ‘one off’ for game manufacturers, including Centuri. Did Willis produce these for Williams? No idea.
What value does this artwork have. Again, no idea. I would assume very little. You could use it on a Multi Williams, but it would seem to me that you would prefer the Multi Williams art, or to just restore a Joust cabinet to its original stenciled state. Anthony has two of the same side, and thinks they were produced in the early 80s (Based largerly on where he had it stored – with other similar era pieces of artwork). Anthony has enough experience to remember if these had been printed in the last 10 years.
My guesses were originally something an operator had printed, or maybe Phillipe at Arcade Renovations. Arcadeshop has some vinyl Joust artwork, but it’s cut to the shape of the cabinet.
Someone must know the deal on this. Got a forum topic to forward to me? Newsgroup search has been on the fritz for a couple of months so searching RGVAC is a real pain.
Here are some similar arcade posts
- New Resource – List of Willis Control Panel Overlay Artwork with Photos
- Updated – Arcade Art Reproduction List
- List of arcade artwork reproductions – Finished, Out of Stock / In Stock
- Bootleg or Willis Mr. Do! Artwork
- The “thrill” of printing – new repro project finally hits the press
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Comments
That is why I said;
Arcadeshop has some vinyl Joust artwork, but it’s cut to the shape of the cabinet.
Anthony says he's sure its from the 80's…
Is that art about half the size of the normal side art? If so, I remember seeing some of it for auction when I started collecting, before there was much reproduction art out there. Ive always presumed it was done by Williams, since it has their logo, but would expect there to be a part number on it. I don't have any Mystic Marathon or Blaster side art to compare to and see if they put part numbers on their sticker side art, though.
The size of it makes me think it had to be for a kit, but I've never run across anything mentioning a Joust kit. Ive often wondered if these are for kits, if they are where most of the optical joysticks came from.
Matt,
This is what Jay G. said on Facebook;
I thought it was "original" and came with kits, but honestly don't know. I have a couple of pieces, some I've had for ages so thinking early reproduction (pre-Arcade Renovations et al), or kit artwork. Williams had a fair number of kit sideart around that time (Mystic Marathon, Blaster, Inferno (generic)) given those were sold in higher numbers as kits if I recall.
I don't know how much truth there is to whether Williams sold kits or not, but this is the first I'm hearing of it. I am basing this opinion on the fact that I don't think I've ever seen a conversion Joust, Defender, Mystic Marathon…what have you. Have you seen a conversion? If so, got a photo?
I'll double check with Anthony on a part number, but I think he would have told me about it if there was. I also haven't searched for any Williams flyers that talk about kits…maybe one of us will have to do that.
Williams switched to making kits only for a little while to try and avoid the crash. They stopped making dedicated cabinets around the time they released blaster, and right before they released mystic marathon. Here are the flyers for them
http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=v…
http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=v…
(sorry, i wrote to much and have to split comments :))
The only blaster kit Ive seen were 2 cabinets at the big SC auction, bitd. They had different art then the one on the flyer, it was sized more like the MM art (and this joust art) and was a copy of the wooden side art. Mystic marathon was only sold as a kit, so those are a little more common, i couldn't find a pic but there was one at this years CAX with sticker side art. These are the only 2 games that are "official" kits. Inferno was sold as a kit, but I think they might have been parted out dedicated cabs, to try and dump them. Besides that, I am not 100% sure of any other classic games being released as kits.
The similarities in size and shape to the other kits side art is one of the things that makes me think this Joust art was made by Williams. The thing that doesn't make sense is the timing of the games, I doubt they where still making Jousts when Blaster was in production. Maybe these kits where made earlier, but I doubt it
I actually had a pair of this side art a long time ago, before I was collecting the weird artwork. At the time I also assumed it was some weird kit artwork because of its size. I don’t recall it having any identifying information, such as what Willis would put on their artwork. Perhaps Williams had some Joust inventory left and wanted to blow them out as kits?
Its also very possible that this was just some bootleg artwork some operator had printed up to avoid buying dedicated cabs…
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September 5, 2009
Maybe shoot Chris an e-mail because I thought he said Arcade Shop carried vinyl joust side art at one time but I could be mistaken.