Does anyone repro Dedicated Mortal Kombat 1 Side Art?

Broodwich

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Does anyone repro Dedicated Mortal Kombat 1 Side Art?

I've started to look into stripping my MK1 cab, i did a total area of a dollar bill with acetone last night just to see what the artwork looked like under the paint and the area closest to the coin door / front is definitely faded. I see Game on grafix carries the conversion art but i don't see the original dedicated art anywhere.

If it comes down to it i could just order the MK3 side art as that's mainly what this machine will be, but if possible i would consider the original art if it wasn't to pricey; problem is i just can't find it.
 
Hey Broodwich,

I don't know much about much, but I do know something about this.

For several years there was no full size art for dedicated MK cabs, regardless of version. I own a dedicated MK3 with "A-" sides, and I wanted to restore mine to cherry condition.

Over on the BYOAC forums, someone started to vectorize the MK1 art...they never finished. I think this is because of the pain it was for them to vectorize Johnny Cage, the dragon was coming along very nicely.

Meanwhile, a guy who goes by "Tarman" made the "Dedicated" MK3 art. He started with a piece of non dedicated (Kit) side art. He scanned this in, then worked with someone who owned a dedicated MK3 to stitch in the missing parts from the cab. I was so excited over the prospect of having some minty dedicated art on my MK3 that I contacted him and paid him for the photoshop files on disk.

Although I must stress that I highly respect Tarman and all others who take the time to put something together for these machines that otherwise have no help...there is some problems with the final result (remember I have a dedicated MK3 to compare it to).

1. The artwork is TOO good. If you look at any of the original MK cabs, they were silk screened directly to the wood...on top of a white base coat. Up close, the art is noticeably made of several dots...much the way a color ad in a newspaper would look (or pop art). The repro art did not keep this look, instead it has been cleaned up. It looks very nice, but not original. This is especially noticeable on things like the Midway side and front control panel labels.

2. According to both Tarman (from my private inquires) and a user on this forum who had a spare set to sell...the gameongraphix run of this art is much glossier than the original sides. Now, I don't know if gameongraphix has gloss/vinyl options that might eliminate this problem, but consider this an fyi.

If you want something that's better than nothing, this is as good as it gets right now.

I know the dedicated MK2 side art has received similar treatment to the MK3...with similar flaws.

I have just purchased an HP4760 scanner with the express purpose of scanning my MK3 cab. I wish I could just be OK with what is available, but this is really my "grail" machine.

My intent was to create the raw files, and find someone with the photoshop abilities/appreciation for true reproduction to work on cleaning up the few spots in my side art that isn't so hot. They can hopefully use the left side to heal the right sides minor flaws.

Then of course, I would need to work with a printer to find a way to print without so much of a glossy look.

I've been kicking around working on this in my spare time...but my pinball machine has been in the forefront recently.

That's my 3 cents.
 
I agree that the art needs to be preserved for the future and applaud your efforts. I own a dedicated MK3, also. Grail for me, too. Having said that, I would never sand and cover A- condition side art to achieve an A+ look. I'd recommend finding a cab in worse off condition and redoing that. One that has been chewed up or faded really bad. Another thing you will not be able to replicate (unless you plan on having it silkscreened) is the texture of the art (layers of the screens). A correctly vectored and printed file will result in a flat piece of art with whatever level of gloss you select. These are my observations and no offense is intended. MK 4 life!!! :)
 
This is kinda what i figured. I have so much respect for people that take the time to re vector things and make them look right, i was just wondering as i fear the art under the 5mm of black paint on my cab is highly faded.

I'm hoping for the best tho and that only directly under the control panel is faded. I wish i had some epic photoshop skills myself, but unfortunately i do not. I do have a silk screen shop nearby but i wouldn't even know where to start on this project.

I too am looking for as close to original quality as possible but you gotta take what you can get. As long as the art on my cab isn't completely trashed i'll prolly leave it as is since there is no source for replacement, if it's smoked tho.... I might dabble with the MK3 Game on Grafix art as UMK3 is my absolute fav of the series and as stated in the OP that what this machine will mainly be until i find my own dedicated MK3 cab (then this mk1 cab will become mk2/mk1 untill a mk2 cab is obtained).


Thanks for the info guys :D i guess all we can do is hope someone see's this and jumps in feet first
 
How exactly did they silkscreen right on to the cabinet? Would love to see a video of this process.
 
hmm maybe i'll have to try and get ahold of Rich in regards to this. although i'm sure it wouldn't be a cheap process as to the size, and number of colors used.
 
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Hey again,

Previously I was mentioning how the original art on a MK1, MK2, and MK3 cab has a certain low res/pop art/magazine print look to the way it was printed. I thought I'd link you guys over to the MK2 restoration Tineras did.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=167111

If you scroll down his pics, you can see some close up shots that really show what I'm talking about. I haven't taken the time to check those uploads for MK1 art...but I'd be curious to know if this look was retained, or photo shopped out.

Something I've considered doing with the art I have on disk for my MK3...does anyone think the "dots" could be photoshopped back in? It would be a step closer to quality repro. If someone did a serious run of any MK cab, I hope they would take some of this into consideration.

The way the art looks, I sometimes wonder if the sides were printed onto the wood originally with some sort of large format printer.
 
there's definitely some type of vinyl or paper that it's printed on, i have a small sliver of the artwork from off my cabinet where an edge was slightly damaged, and on the back i have some of the particle board still stuck to the white backing. i'm sure someone could vector in the dots if it was needed, infact i'm sure it wouldn't be that hard either with the amount of photoshop and paint tools there are out there. I know that resto thread by Tineras very well i've gone to it many times for pictures and idea's on how to tackle my stripping/resto project along with Zenomorp's.


Stealthie, thank you so very much for that link. I ended up pulling artwork for multiple control panels and some side art off that forum with a little use of the search tool.
 
there's definitely some type of vinyl or paper that it's printed on, i have a small sliver of the artwork from off my cabinet where an edge was slightly damaged, and on the back i have some of the particle board still stuck to the white backing. i'm sure someone could vector in the dots if it was needed, infact i'm sure it wouldn't be that hard either with the amount of photoshop and paint tools there are out there. I know that resto thread by Tineras very well i've gone to it many times for pictures and idea's on how to tackle my stripping/resto project along with Zenomorp's.


Stealthie, thank you so very much for that link. I ended up pulling artwork for multiple control panels and some side art off that forum with a little use of the search tool.

No Problem. It would be cool to get all the interested people together and get thisoldgame.com to do the sideart. He spent a lot of time finalizing the Off Road art I sent him to make sure it looked real nice.
 
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