I'll keep you in the loop with whatever I find out. I'd like to get my original back sometime soon, but I know this type of work takes a while; so it's sorta a "when it happens it happens" type of thing. If anything, I'm fine making you a "blank" or two, copying the piece using the same card-stock material. Then, you could do whatever you felt was best to get it copied. That's all assuming the printing doesn't work out.
I actually sent my Asteroids Deluxe inner bezels to Darin, so am familiar with that whole run, lol. I really appreciate him looking into it, it just sucks it didn't work out. We chatted a bit at about it at the Christmas lunch and I forget the pricing he told me; but it was CRAZY high and no one would buy them at the price they'd need to be. The Solar Quest backdrop is a LOT more simple, so maybe I could chat with him about doing a repro; again, assuming the copying my friend is doing doesn't work out.
Again, I'll keep you posted about anything I find out; and if anything don't mind doing some blanks for you.
I also 100% agree on the feel/sound/gameplay of Solar Quest. It'd be really hard to ever part with this thing. Overall, I think Cinematronics/Vectorbeam are my favorite manufacturer of vectors; it just SUCKS that they're so hard to work on. Or, at least different from the other games. I really wish people had a greater opportunity to play the un-common to rarer games. Space War, Solar Quest, Starhawk and Tailgunner are all awesome and have some of the best audio of the vectors. It's one reason I love collecting them, so others can play some games they might not be able to otherwise. That, and I apparently have a "thing" for vectors, lol.