Arcade Resources
Classic Childhood Photo of Chuck E. Cheese Arcade Room
Late November last year I got an awesome surprise. My sister had sent me some 900 scanned slides of photos my parents had taken of our childhood years. The idea was, I was supposed to put the slides in a “slideshow” with music and burn them to a DVD and this would be our Christmas gift to our parents this year. Great idea! They’ll cry for sure:)
However, all of the slides had some level of dust on them so I had to go through and touch up each and every one of them. Knowing how much work that would be, my sister and I went through them one by one to weed out any photos that were just so bad that they weren’t worth including and saving me some touch up time.
I was so excited when I found a photo of me, as a child, on some sort of Merry Go Round in a Chuck E. Cheese (on the left looking worried). In the background you can see a beautifully pink Ms. Pac-man, and some other machine. (I had posted on the forums to find out the identity of the arcade game, and within minutes, another collector identified the blurred machine as a Bosconian.)
“This would make an awesome Rotheblog post!”, I thought. How more original could this be? A vintage arcade photo now digitally preserved. Oh wait, my mom occasionally reads this thing, and the slide present is supposed to be a surprise. If I post this, she’ll wonder how I even got this photo.
So, I waited to post my Chuck E. Cheese arcade photo, and I almost completely forgot about it. Until I rediscovered the Chuck E. Cheese photo today.
Little did I know. As I sat on that frightening molded horsie that someday I would own a Ms. Pac-man machine and yearn for a time when all I had to worry about was whether my sister could actually catch me riding that plastic frog.
New Mad Planet CPO Reproductions
I would try to stay away from reposting information that was in the common arcade collecting groups, but I came across this post from Quarter Arcade about Mad Planet control panel overlay reproductions this morning just as it came across the wire. (more…)
Little Chief Pinball Sold!
That was pretty easy! I found a buyer named Dan in Carmel who came over yesterday and bought the Williams Little Chief off the owner in Castleton.
We helped our own cause in the sale when the owner put the game back together first, including the back display back. I found out later it had not been attached in two years, so I was relieved the pinball still worked. He powered up the game, it was a little glitchy at first but did play a couple of full games. The buyer says that the Little Chief needed an adjustment made to the main logic in relation to the scoring unit, and the “gate” needed some work as well. But a great deal on a classic pinball in the Indianapolis area.
The Night Rider pinball machine is still for sale. Hope to get some video of that pinball in action soon. $400 and it’s yours.
Edit ~ I find this a little strange. I had never heard of Little Chief before, but all of a sudden a second machine comes up for sale in Rossville, IN on Craigslist? I don’t think this was our buyer, that would be really rotten to relist for $1900, but it is another nice looking instance of this Williams pinball, even if the seller (765-379-2429) has the year and the name are wrong.
Another Rare Mr. Do! Bezel on ebay
The second in a little over six months, here is another one of the rare artwork Mr. Do! bezels on ebay. This bezel appears to be in better condition than the Mr. Do! bezel I got back in late July of 2007 for $13 ($12 of which was shipping).
I could care less about an NOS Mr. Do! variant marquee, the marquee that actually goes with the white sideart Mr. Do!. I would like to have this version, but I would take one that is used, I would actually prefer it that way. Then there is no decision about keeping the marquee as a New Old Stock piece of artwork or not.
Hard to justify buying the two pieces of Mr. Do! artwork. With a starting bid of $19.99 and $20 shipping, a best case scenario o f $40 to have a duplicate, but better condition bezel with the marquee….it would be nice to have, but I would have to find a buyer for my other bezel first to rationalize that in my mind. Either way, I’ll be watching it:)
Sold my Xevious Cabinet
Over the last year, I kept trying to think of ways to get up to Michigan and meet Mudmantim to get a couple of cabinets off of him, an Xevious and a Tempest. He basically told me I could have them if I wanted to come get them.
Well, the trip itself would have cost more than the cabinets were worth, so we figured out another way. I met him midway in Fort Wayne and got four cabinets in trade for the non working (at the time) but complete Frenzy in exchange. This was a game he really wanted and he is a good friend so even though it wouldn’t benefit us either way financially, I knew Frenzy would get a good home.
I immediately sold the Tempest, I got sticker shock on my gas costs. But I kept the Xevious with intentions to put it back together. But as circumstances changed (GMAT and MBA program), and I fought so much with other games this summer, not to mention fully working Xevious’s top out at about $200, I decided that maybe the cabinet was expendable.
Two weeks ago I found a guy in Dayton would wanted to buy a cabinet for a Mame machine and I offered it up at my cost. He came over last weekend and bought it.
I was sad to see it go. I still love the sideart on Xevious, even though the gameplay isn’t that great. I am going to keep hoping that I can find one locally for market price, it is hardly a rare game.
But even with the sale I still managed to keep two games in the garage, the Food Fight cabinet, and the new Ms. Pac-man.
Tremendous Collection / Photos of Reproduction and NOS arcade artwork
Brendon Zeilder’s collection of reproduction and new old stock arcade artwork is staggering. Brendon was the catalyst in getting the Super Punch Out Decals reproduced. He found me first, I don’t remember how, maybe he knew I had developed the Professor Pac-man control panel overlay (Come to find out he was one of the buyer’s). Even though we didn’t work together on the Super Punch Out sideart decal, I still followed the production updates in the Klov threads online.
The decals are finished, and a photo was referenced in Brendon’s online webshots album. Little did I know it was in a album with rich detail and information of other pieces of arcade artwork. I was blown away, take a look at some of these screens.
He has one album for New in Box / Home Use Only machines, and one gallery just for his NOS and Reproduction Artwork collection. In the NIB and HUO arcade machines album he has photos of a Dragon’s Lair, Elevator Action, Pac-Land, Paperboy, APB. Some pretty nice machines that were probably time and cost intensive to aquire. But the repro artwork album is what will blow you away. From less popular items like APB NOS artwork, to Zookeeper, Food Fight, and Professor Pac-man control panel overlay’s and beyond, Brendon’s collection is a a great insight into some of the limited run of reproduction projects for arcade artwork have taken place over the last 5-10 years. It also gives me a good idea of just how passionate some collectors are about their artwork.
Here are a couple of pieces he has. I would think they are fairly rare, but maybe not….a NOS Burgertime CPO and NOS Moon Patrol CPO.
If you have ever asked yourself, “Has reproduction artwork been made for “X” game?”, take a look at this collection. Well labeled as to who made it, Arcade Renovation, Quarter Arcade, Arcade Shop etc. his photo album is a great arcade reproduction artwork reference material. Here is a list of what I could see in the NOS album, or you can follow this link and visit Brendon’s artwork yourself.
- APB
- The Act Prototype
- Arch Rivals
- Arm Wrestling
- Astron Belt
- Badlands
- Bega’s Battle
- Bubbles
- Burgertime
- Cheyenne
- Chiller
- Cinematronics Coin Door Decal
- Cliffhanger
- Cobra Command
- Combat
- Commando
- Crossbow
- Dragon’s Lair
- Elevator Action
- Esh’s Aurunmilla
- Exidy Logo
- Firefox
- Food Fight
- Frogger
- Gauntlet
- Ghosts Goblins
- Goal to Go
- Jungle Hunt
- Jungle King
- Karate Champ
- Kid Niki
- Kung Fu Master
- Mach 3
- Moon Patrol
- Mystic Marathon
- Paperboy
- Professor Pac-man
- Punch Out
- Sega Logo
- Simpsons
- Space Ace
- Super Don Quixote
- Super Punch Out
- Tetris
- Thayer’s Quest
- Timber
- Travelor
- Track & Field
- Toobin
- Ultracade Artwork
- Up N Down
- Us vs. Them
- Wild Western
- Xenophobe
- Zaxxon
- Zoo Keeper
Do any other collector’s know of photography albums online that are as well cataloged, labeled, and as extensive as this artwork collection? Or photos of artwork collections that aren’t as large, but interesting? I know that Richard Ford probably has a better artwork collection, and I know there are probably a ton of collector’s not on the klov boards who may have more than this. Quite an impressive collection Brendon.
Flaking Ms. Pac-man Artwork Part 2
A week ago last Sunday, my vibrant, pink Bally Ms. Pac-man finally made it’s way down to Indianapolis, IN via a visit from my mother in law.
I originally posted on January 13th about the flaking artwork, how it was severely cracked in spots and starting to flake. With a strong wipe of the hand, I could probably brush off pieces of the pink, yellow and blue artwork. What would have caused this, what type of storage conditions?
At the time, I had limited photos to work with. Here is a close up photo I took to illustrate the flaking a little better on some of the pink bands on the facing right side of the Ms. Pac-man cabinet.
I still intend to go down to an antique shop, if and when I ever have time, with some printed photos of the cabinet artwork and see if anyone has any suggestions. The best I know to do right now is try to put on some sealer, carefully clean the bottom of the Ms. Pac-man cabinet as needed and hope for the best. Like the other post said, most of the products out there are preventative to preserve painted artwork.
I guess the worst case scenario is someday I take the sideart completely off, purchase some TBD Ms. Pac-man stencils, and re-do the whole game. (Once I have my mba, I shouldn’t have to worry as much about cost).
