Jr. Pac-man
Started Jr. Pac-man sideart tracing
I used a good portion of my Saturday to work on the tracing, and got most of it done. I am so pumped. Richard has been supportive, telling me his is willing to take more photos as needed if I need detail shots. That is exactly what I needed, I needed some photos of the kite and of Jr. Pac’s shoes, so I shot him an email to see if he would have time.
Again, Richard came through and sent me two photos right away of what I needed. He is great, now I have to figure out how to scale those pieces and make them mesh with my pretty much finished version of the artwork.
Plus, even though I have mentioned that I am not a purist, I do want the artwork I produce to be remotely close, especially since Richard wants a copy of it and I know that he has a ton of respect for the games. I have found a set of the kickplate art for Jr. Pac-man on localarcade, so I am thinking that since I would be reproducing that as well, I will just take the colors from that in Illustrator so they match. Maybe I am lucky in that whoever did that set reproduced it and the colors are true.
The other option is to ask Richard if he could borrow someone’s Pantone chips and figure out the colors with me. That would be as exact as you can get. We’ll have to see if he is open to that when I am completely done.
Jr. Pac-man sideart photos!
Joyous day, I got a photo back from Richard. I started right away, and laid down some of the most basic outlines tonight, getting through about a third of the drawing. I will have more time this weekend to work on it I am sure. Now, if there is anyone actually reading this, I don’t want to post the photo because I don’t have permission right now to do so from Richard.
Checking in again with Richard Ford for Jr. Pac-man sideart
I still hadn’t heard anything, and tonight was when I found the other photos of the sideart online. I have started to think I may have to have to start my search again, that maybe Richard just is too busy. The photos I found are the first I have seen of the sideart bigger, but I tried to do some tracing and I lose some of the detail, especially in Jr. Pac-man’s shoes. I emailed Richard to show him what I found, hoping that I wasn’t being too overbearing and asked him again if he had time.
Following up with Richard Ford for Jr. Pac-man Sideart Photos
I emailed Richard back today to see if he had time to get some photos. I watched over Christmas, thinking I would get them over my vacation, but it is the holiday, and he was pretty busy I am sure. Sure enough, he shot me back a nice response and said just that, that the holidays are really busy for him at work, but hopes to get something off to me soon.
Collecting is about who you know
Today I exchanged two emails with Richard, he is super friendly, has an awesome collection, and is really willing to help me out. He says he is going to send me hi res photos of the sideart, I am so psyched, especially since it validates the idea that “it is not what you know but who you know.” But I got lucky to meet Joe in Chicago, he and Richard both are two extraordinary guys that I got lucky to be in contact with so soon.
Contacting Richard Ford about Jr. Pac-man
Having not heard anything back from Joe’s contacts, I decide to ask about the guy out east, and if Joe knew many people on that side of the country. Joe did know some people, but Richard was not one of the ones he listed off directly. I debated on calling each individual out there with Richard’s full name, but decided I would ask Joe about Richard directly. Sure enough, Joe knew of Richard, they had exchanged emails on a number of occasions for another super rare game.
I shot Richard an email, now we will just have to see if he responds.
Starting to track down images of Jr. Pac-man sideart
I started to think about doing a conversion on an empty Pac-man cabinet that I have to a Jr. Pac-man. But of course, I would have to have the original sideart on the side. Plus, because the sides were so different I knew that not only would I have to trace the artwork, I would need to recompose it to fit the difference in cabinets.
I emailed a good friend and well connected guy I had met in Chicago, Joe Magiera, to see if he knew anyone that may have the original Jr. Pac-man with the sideart in tact. This contact loves Williams games, so he didn’t know right off the top of his hear so he contacted a couple of guys in his network. We’re waiting to see if we hear anything back.
