Can anyone explain this?

The arrows don't even point to the same part of the coin returns. The text is centered in the right block but not on the left block. It has me reaching for my emotional support peacock. 🦚
 
Seems like much ado about nothing.

It's clear enough. Some people are idiots. You can't fix idiot.
 
The arrows don't even point to the same part of the coin returns. The text is centered in the right block but not on the left block. It has me reaching for my emotional support peacock. 🦚
It's hard to tell from looking at the pic provided. The angle doesn't help. However, with that said I looked at other Big Red pics and the positioning of the arrows seems to vary. Some point middle, some left, some right. Some right and left. I am sure the intension was to get them to hit dead center or perhaps at the coin slot itself. The production on these games was not precise in any way.

But the larger left player and smaller right graphic I get was due to the position of the slots on the coin door. That part doesn't bother me.

Since it was a discussion about design and I love design. I thought I would take a second look and chime in again.
 
Also, like anybody cares. It looks as original brochures shows intent for the white blocks to meet the edges with no gap. This may have corrected the offset because you can now position the vinyl perfect without widening the left and right gap. Not sure what actually made it to market because most pics I see of peoples machines show the left and right gaps... Go figure

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The arrows don't even point to the same part of the coin returns. The text is centered in the right block but not on the left block. It has me reaching for my emotional support peacock. 🦚
From what I can tell they were not trying to center the text. The intent I believe was inner justification. See the matched spacing.

Sorry, I've gone full nerd.

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From what I can tell they were not trying to center the text. The intent I believe was inner justification. See the matched spacing.

Sorry, I've gone full nerd.

View attachment 834472
This makes sense based on the space available - the right side has more space as the coin door is offset slightly.
 
in other news, it doesn't affect how the game plays at all. its on free play now anyway right? there's no reason to even look at it.
 
in other news, it doesn't affect how the game plays at all. its on free play now anyway right? there's no reason to even look at it.
But..... if you were to look at it....

This makes me want a Big Red. All I have is a little MVS2 (sniff sniff)
 
Hooray, an almost pointless bit of trivia where I can contribute something that maybe no one else will really care about.

There are 3 slightly different coin doors used on the early Neo Geo cabinets, specifically the 4 slots with tall marquee built from about debut around May '90 until at least through July '91 (could be a little later but that's the latest I have a dated cab from and the first ad I know of for the small marquee 4 slot is in an October '91 magazine). Also the 6 slots and the 2 slot 'Gold' cabaret were built alongside and probably share some similar details but I haven't seen enough to say anything about them.

The different coin doors (and some other small details) generally seem to coincide with certain date ranges, my speculation would be related to parts or availability, but I don't really have those narrowed down to ranges yet except for mine which I'll include.

They all use the mini over/under doors, two are branded from Happ with Happ locks and coin mechs(Edit: correction the early Happ has mechs with just a Coin Mech Inc. branding sticker, the later Happ is co-branded with a Coin Mech Inc. sticker and iL molded in the plastic). One is branded from Coin Controls with CC locks and mechs.

Earliest cabs (mine June 1990) - Happ reject buttons with touching bezels and touching coin return doors

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Middle cabs (mine September 1990) - Coin Controls reject buttons with integrated coin slots

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Late cabs (mine May 1991) - Happ reject buttons with spaced bezels

PXL-20241106-230536204.jpg

I'm reasonably confident that these doors are all original to the cabs and I've seen enough of similar date ranges that are the same.

I also always found it a little funny that they 'missed' with all the arrows. I guess the Coin Control ones are the most symmetrical as they both point pretty close to the middle of the coin reject buttons while the later cab nailed the coin slot but only for the 2nd player.

As for the gap in the white edge of the arrow to the left and right I believe that is because only the earliest cabs go edge to edge and they are printed vinyl most similar to the Szabo restoration art kit that is available (the often accompanying pink-ness you see with these cabs is another thing I could type up a post about). Later, they changed it to a silkscreened art application, so maybe whatever frame they were using cut off the edges.
 
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Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public...

Every Zapcon I took my Spy Hunter to, about once an hour I'd get a text from a tech saying that my game wasn't working. I'd reply back with "Is the shifter in high gear?" "Uhh, yeah. Sorry about that."

PEBKAC / I.D. 10T errors.
 
Every Zapcon I took my Spy Hunter to, about once an hour I'd get a text from a tech saying that my game wasn't working. I'd reply back with "Is the shifter in high gear?" "Uhh, yeah. Sorry about that."

PEBKAC / I.D. 10T errors.
...and when it doesn't work, start banging on it, because banging on it is always the procedure to start the game :) If that doesn't work, bang on it and start loudly swearing about how it doesn't work, and then act like nothing is wrong when I point to the start button.
 
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