Classic Arcade Games
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.
Sinistar CPO’s and HUO Sinistar
Today is the day of Williams Sinistar.
Surfing Klov there was a mention that Quarter Arcade is doing reproduction artwork for William’s Sinistar control panel overlays. Here are the photos;
I emailed Anthony at Quarter Arcade, and he was nice enough to let me know that Darin at Phoenix Arcade did these Sinistar CPO’s and he just had a few he bought and now is re-selling them. I visited Phoenix Arcade, and I must have missed the listing of Sinistar before. Maybe the control panel overlay’s had sold out before 2006 when I got into collecting.
I would guess that Phoenix Arcade might have had the original Williams Sinistar films. I did a quick search on both Google and the arcade.collecting usenet group to see if there was a mention of the Williams films but I didn’t turn up much of anything I didn’t already know. I already knew that Darin produced the Multi Williams artwork for a number of successful runs up to 2004 and then he ebayed the files. I also found a mention to Illinois Pinball.com, but I assume they would have Williams films for for pinball artwork.
Any of the Sinistar artwork is a challenge to reproduce because of the detail in the splatter / speckle / pointilism effects. Like always, Darin did an awesome job, whether he scanned an NOS CPO or he had access to the original Sinistar films. Wikipedia says gives credit to Noah Falstein and John Newcomer for co-developing Sinistar. I don’t know which of them actually created the artwork, but maybe they were the inspiration for the “Idle Hands” movie:) (Surely, you must have a love of detail to create artwork like that, it would make you, and your hand crazy way before completion.)
Since I already “hunger” to share Sinistar news, how about jkoolpe in San Francisco scoring a Home Use Only (HUO) Sinistar.
Here is some backstory on his Sinistar Aquisition;
According to the guy I got this from, this baby was originally owned by a Cinematronics game designer…he also had a Boxing Bugs as this was the game that this previous owner had helped design (a fellow CAX staffer got the BB).
The Boxing Bugs designer who originally owned this machine was named Jack Ritter. For whatever reason, he apparently did not take the 3 games he had owned with him when he moved from my area and the new home owner assumed custody.
The 3rd game was a Defender that I think was also HUO (not 100% sure), but it needed a marquee and bezel, and the CPO was lifting. Otherwise, the cabinet was also in GREAT shape and worked fine (after I replaced one RAM chip)…he is also looking to sell it so someone will get a nice Defender once they replace the aforementioned items.
I still haven’t played Sinistar in person, but I love it on the William’s game collections for the playstation, even if playing causes pre-mature arthitis. I am sure as time goes on, over the next 20 years, as we see some of the original developers move into the later stages of life some of their classic games, artwork, notes and other materials will start to come up for sale. But Jon (jkoolpe) got a find this time and bragging rights for the week.
Agent X / Cloak Dagger Jacket
Yesterday I got an interesting email from another collector interested in Agent X information. His name is Alan, and he was looking for photos of an Agent X machine.
After an email exchange, he told me that he knew Dave Comstock, who was the Atari programmer that was supposed to port Cloak and Dagger over to the 5200. Dave Comstock owns one of the original Agent X machines, from the limited run that were produced. (That information is readily available on the internet.) Alan also mentioned that he owns a Cloak and Dagger jacket, only two were ever made. I thought that was kind of interesting and obscure, so here are two photos of the jacket below.
I haven’t asked him yet, but depending on his relationship with Dave, maybe he bought one of the jackets from him. I am sure Dave has a ton of old Atari stuff since he is a former employee.
~Edit Alan had the Cloak and Dagger jackets made, so this particular arcade item wasn’t made by Atari. But it is definitely something you don’t see all the time.
Ladybug with Sideart – Artwork style similar to White Mr. Do!
Brian’s website had a couple of interesting goodies, check out these photos below of a rare dedicated white “extended conversion kit” Ladybug machine with sideart.
(I don’t know how else to term an arcade game like this. More experienced collectors have let me know that this technically wasn’t a “dedicated” machine, but instead a company trying to boost sales on the conversion kits produced for that game, hence “extended conversion kit”. By including a cabinet and adding artwork, they could probably sell the arcade games for more and generate more interest by being an all in one solution.)
The border around classic Ladybug arcade artwork, as well as the character design for this game tipped me off right away that the same manufacturer possibly made this machine as the white Mr. Do!. It would make sense that if someone was going to license one arcade game from Universal, maybe they’d license a couple to reproduce.
A family member spotted this Ladybug arcade game for Brian at a flea market for $5, so they bought it and brought it to him from PA. On his site he steps through what he did to “restore” the artwork a little bit, by using frisket and rejuvenating the color. Like the Mr. Do! conversion machines, the artwork had some wear in strange spots that would indicate the original painted artwork wasn’t durable. The only thing that gives me doubts, is the cutout in the lower front of the cab, where the white Mr. Do! went straight to the floor. It would seem to me that if a game making licensed games, they would use the same cabinet to save money. But who knows, maybe not.
I am in touch with Brian, but he doesn’t have much more information about the classic Ladybug arcade game and why would he considering where it came from. But it gives me one more tool to search the web. There is one post on Google Groups with an individual talking about a white Ladybug with sideart;
Saw a post on Ladybug, and while certainly not a great game, I passed on one the other day, that had what looked to be “dedicated” side art and marquee. I’ve seen many, but not one like this. Was there such a creature, and what’s it rarity? I thought they were mostly conversions.
~Edit It was suggested to me that both the Mr. Do! and Ladybug arcade cabinets were made by Rock-Ola. I looked through Klov, and there is nothing in the design of the artwork on the games listed that would make me believe this was true. But if there was a company that just dressed up conversion kits, and wasn’t a full scale production, finding information about the white side art might be more difficult than I originally thought.
~Update Darin Jacobs of Phoenix Arcade posted in the Google Forums that he had a Ladybug arcade machine like this at one time, but he gave it to his brother. Supposedly his brother still has it, but there aren’t any markings on the inside to give me any more clues to the manufacturer. 🙁
Update August 5th, 2008
I forgot to mention, take a look at the bezel on this Ladybug cabinet. It is the same one used on a couple of the white Mr. Do!s (image below or the Mr. Do! for sale in California), probably some sort of generic bezel that the manufacturing company offered for the machines. Or maybe it was the bezel for a Lady Bug / Mr. Do! and operators interchanged them. Who knows.
UPL Depth Charge for sale on Craigslist Kentwood, MI
A Depth Charge classic arcade machine came up for sale yesterday on Craigslist in Kentwood, MI.
“This is an old full size arcade Depth Charge video game. It is fully functional and ready to use. asking $225. 616-538-6060”
I didn’t have any familiarity with this game, so I went and checked it out on Klov. Depth Charge looks like a cool old machine, (check out the photo below) made in 1977, so five years after Pong debuted, but I thought it was interesting that Depth Charge has some sideart. I see a lot of these 70’s machines that have the wood grain sides, that was probably a style choice at the time, or maybe an artwork production choice, I don’t know.
Depth Charge was made by UPL, who I didn’t think I had heard of. I scanned through the list of classic games that they produced, the only one I recognized was Carnival.
I know if I had limitless space, a game like Depth Charge would be appealing to me. I don’t know the history of this game on Craigslist, but it looks as if it is in a office space, or an auction house. Either way, I can’t believe that the owner really knows it’s value or historical significance. I am sure the entertainment value on this game is minimal based on the age, but to preserve a classic arcade of this age has some interest to me.
There are also some economics involved. Surely there weren’t many Depth Charge machines made, and there probably aren’t that many left. But have the larger populous of collectors heard of this game, or want it in their collection? Probably not. Will they get $225 for this Depth Charge? Possibly depending on condition. The fact that the game works it huge. But more than likely they will not get the full asking price, and the person that buys the game may or may not be a collector with a passion. But if you look at the supply and demand of games for collectors, there are some funny trends. Not all rare games are collectible because of the quantities produced. But the larger the quantities, the greater the availability driving the prices down. But that is neither here nor there.
If the Depth Charge is still available when I visit Michigan later this month, I may go and take a look at it. I don’t have the room, but I would like to at least experience it, because it is a rare find, especially for Craigslist.
Arcade Game Buy of the Week: NIB Space Panic and Zero Hour
This could become a fun daily classic arcade topic if I could find a game a day.
Hats off to Richard Ford. This past week he scored two “New In Box” (NIB) Universal arcade games, Space Panic and Zero Hour. Where he manages to find NIB box arcade games over 25 years after they were released boggles my mind. I know he had told me in the past of a NIB Joust he got in a trade, and a NIB Rally X. Plus, he just bought the NIB Pengo Mountain Dew Pepsi Machine a couple of weeks ago. His collection is truly top notch, and although some of the games themselves might not be rare, he has a ton of classic games that are almost mint condition.
Here are the photos he posted, the Universal games look really nice;
The forum topic on Klov mostly discussed whether or not these two Universal games had sideart on them. There are photos on klov showing the classic games having sideart, but the images look like they were scanned from a catalog. Finding a Space Panic or Zero Hour with sideart is nearly impossible. Here is what Richard had to say;
Both the Space Panic and Zero Hour are in the Generic Universal Cabs like you see for Mr Do! The dedicated cabs were extremely rare and I have one the coolest ones for Cosmic Alien. Universal did some interesting things with their games, they seemed to have no rhyme or reason to what they put in what cab. You’ll see some cabs with Devil front kickplate art and then some with plain black, and the some like mine with universal artwork
Richard’s Space Panic and Zero Hour came with the Universal cab that has the red strips on the side, like Mr. Do! and Ladybug. Here is one image of the Space Panic that I took from Klov. You can see it had some cool sideart, which is news to me, because I personally hadn’t seen any of their classic games that had anything but a generic cab. I thought the minimal success of Universal were related to Mr. Do!, and that all of their other games saw minimal production quality.
I’ll update this topic as I see more photos once he gets them moved into his gameroom. You have to be careful with these old games and the weather conditions.
Rare HUO Bally Journey on ebay!
Located in Channahon, IL, this “Home Use Only” Bally/Midway Journey is truly a rare find for someone, and that arcade collector will be more than eager to dole out a premium to snatch it up. From the different views of this classic game, it looks pristine. Here are the photos of the Journey arcade machine.
Here is the description about the Journey game that was posted by the seller;
Original Bally/Midway JOURNEY Arcade Game
-1982 Vintage
-Was won by wife at Journey concert in Chicago in 1982.
-Set up for home use.
-Have schematics and manuals for machine
-Everything powers up except for the screen
A pretty amazing but not surprising classic game to come up for sale. My perception of Chicago and surrounding cities in Illinois is that collectors will continue to find treasures throughout the city for years to come. With so many arcade game companies with operations in Chicago, I have to believe that there are machines out there that are yet to be found.
~Edit 4.11.08
Turns out ZF Camaro out in Maryland was the individual who won the Journey arcade game auction on ebay (Klov thread with much better photos), and it just arrived this week! Wow, almost five months later. That is a long time to wait for an any game, but when it is a Home Use Only collectible game like Journey, it is worth the wait.
