I'm done with repro control panel overlays.

KidVidiot

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About three shipments of control panel overlays from different companies came to me in the mail this week, my first real batch of CPO's for the games I am restoring. I guess my expectations were too high across the board, because I've found problems with nearly all of them. They're all from the different sites highly touted on these forums, and at the end of the day they're almost all disappointing. In fact, the only cpo I've gotten that I feel matches the original as closely as possible is baby pacman from phoenix arcade.

I've ordered some cpo's for nintendo cabs and it kinda bothers me that (for reasons I'm sure are reasonable) they don't have the smooth, rubber-ish feel of the originals, and that the different texture used makes the colors slightly off.

I ordered a large cpo that was predominantly blue with grey letters, and when comparing it to the original noticed that the grey on the repro had a very noticeable blue tint to it, while the originals was a solid regular grey. That same cpo (highly rated by users here) also had complete text missing in two different places. Now this latter issue I should have caught from examining the pic on the web site closely, but I guess I just assumed it would be identical when it came to graphic stuff like that.

And then today I got one where the main background was an entirely different color from the original (either version), a color I haven't been able to find used on any machine of its type in images online. Oh, and this one came with two sizeable scratches or markings on it, even though it's advertised as bullet proof or something?

At this point I'm just going to be happy with the imperfections of my original control panels, and if one of them is too messed up I will stick with finding an original replacement or hold out for a NOS overlay. This has been demoralizing, but lesson learned.
 
Man! Sorry to hear about your bad experience :(

Not sure if Mame Marquees is one of the websites you are reffering to but I purchased many repro control panel overlays and other artwork from them and everything has always been spot on. In particular I compared a NOS Capcom SF2 CE CPO vs their repro and everything was bang on.

I recently purchased some repro artwork for my Operation Wolf from Arcade Overlay's but haven't received it yet so not sure what to expect. Their service so far has been top notch.
 
Will it be possible be the fact that the original CPO on your machine has been used and faded over almost 30 years contribute to the differences in the colors? NOS overlay usually sells for a premium and will the glue of NOS from 30 years ago be an issue?
 
Will it be possible be the fact that the original CPO on your machine has been used and faded over almost 30 years contribute to the differences in the colors? NOS overlay usually sells for a premium and will the glue of NOS from 30 years ago be an issue?
Yes, I tried to keep the "30 years of fading" in mind when examining; I believe the particular color differences I've had problems with are not due to this.

I'm not sure what I'd do in regard to the NOS glue issue...will have to think on it
 
Whoa, sorry to hear of your disappointment. One question, were these screened or ink jet repros? Obviously the Baby Pac was screened, but what about the others?
 
A little thinned contact cement on the cp and the back of the cpo and you'll have no problems. Just get it placed right the first time...it won't come off if you stick it wrong.
 
I am curious if you contacted each respective company with your concerns.

Is this post just a rant or a warning? If you are warning others it would be nice to know what cpo's we are talking about.

A few of the reputable companies you refer to are members here and I am certain they will find this thread eventually, so be prepared for that.

I am sure that each company would have worked with you if you let them know about your concerns.
 
I am curious if you contacted each respective company with your concerns.

Is this post just a rant or a warning? If you are warning others it would be nice to know what cpo's we are talking about.

A few of the reputable companies you refer to are members here and I am certain they will find this thread eventually, so be prepared for that.

I am sure that each company would have worked with you if you let them know about your concerns.

+1, since you have started a thread, I would like to know which cpo's to avoid.
thanks man
 
About three shipments of control panel overlays from different companies came to me in the mail this week, my first real batch of CPO's for the games I am restoring. I guess my expectations were too high across the board, because I've found problems with nearly all of them. They're all from the different sites highly touted on these forums, and at the end of the day they're almost all disappointing. In fact, the only cpo I've gotten that I feel matches the original as closely as possible is baby pacman from phoenix arcade.

I've ordered some cpo's for nintendo cabs and it kinda bothers me that (for reasons I'm sure are reasonable) they don't have the smooth, rubber-ish feel of the originals, and that the different texture used makes the colors slightly off.

I ordered a large cpo that was predominantly blue with grey letters, and when comparing it to the original noticed that the grey on the repro had a very noticeable blue tint to it, while the originals was a solid regular grey. That same cpo (highly rated by users here) also had complete text missing in two different places. Now this latter issue I should have caught from examining the pic on the web site closely, but I guess I just assumed it would be identical when it came to graphic stuff like that.

And then today I got one where the main background was an entirely different color from the original (either version), a color I haven't been able to find used on any machine of its type in images online. Oh, and this one came with two sizeable scratches or markings on it, even though it's advertised as bullet proof or something?

At this point I'm just going to be happy with the imperfections of my original control panels, and if one of them is too messed up I will stick with finding an original replacement or hold out for a NOS overlay. This has been demoralizing, but lesson learned.

Sorry you arent happy. I will refund you purchase price if sent back to me unharmed. I strive for perfection but know its not achievable on everything. Sometimes we get damn near perfect. Other times we dont and do the best we can. In the case of using films we will achieve 100% accuaracy. Although the version we print may not be the same on your machine because in many cases there were more than one version.

I got into the repro biz because many of my own games had fading, cig burns, deep scratches, tears... and I couldnt find nos pieces and when I did many times they had issues.

Sometimes people ask me ahead of time what my opinion is and Ill tell them. For example when I made Sinistar cpos I thought they were 99% perfect. But if you ask me about Timber cpos I would say we fell short around 85%. Fwiw I would rate the Baby Pac cpo a 95% off the top of my head against an NOS perfect original.

I would caution many of you buying NOS art on eBay. It seems lately there have been a lot of people selling repros as NOS. Im always looking to buy NOS for my games or just to collect for future trade bait. Ive recently bought several NOS pieces on eBay only to return them because they were obvious repros. Two of them were inkjet!

Personally I (especially my wife!) cannot live with poor condition original art.
 
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Whoa, sorry to hear of your disappointment. One question, were these screened or ink jet repros? Obviously the Baby Pac was screened, but what about the others?
edit: all ink jet

I am curious if you contacted each respective company with your concerns.

Is this post just a rant or a warning? If you are warning others it would be nice to know what cpo's we are talking about.

A few of the reputable companies you refer to are members here and I am certain they will find this thread eventually, so be prepared for that.

I am sure that each company would have worked with you if you let them know about your concerns.
It was more of a rant. I haven't referred to any companies by name, and I didn't even name the games. The only exception was phoenix arcade, and that was to praise them. I haven't contacted the companies and I'm not sure it would do any good. I think at the end of the day my issue is with the problems inherent in repro cpo's themselves, and not the deficiencies of any particular company. I was just hoping for more arcade-perfect than apparently what is possible at this time/price level.
Sorry you arent happy. I will refund you purchase price if sent back to me unharmed. I strive for perfection but know its not achievable on everything. Sometimes we get damn near perfect. Other times we dont and do the best we can. In the case of using films we will achieve 100% accuaracy. Although the version we print may not be the same on your machine because in many cases there were more than one version.
To be clear, I used Baby Pac as an example of a cpo I was completely happy with and I thought you did a great job on it, I have no issue at all with it.
 
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it all depends how picky people are. Ive gotten stuff from other sources than you darin, and i was very dissapointed, but again the price was cheap.. i guess you get what you pay for. (you should see the cheap vinyl on the front of my ms pac cab itll make you wanna hurl lol)

When it came time to get art for my old tron it came from you darin, and it was fucking perfect. I guess everybody needs to understand that reproduction is reproduction, sometimes its never perfect, but having repro is a hell of a lot better than having original ratty art or no art at all on your machine. Its easy to be a knit picker sometimes, but hey man just be happy that there are enough crazy collectors out there to even make the demand for repro parts high enough that we can all actually get our hands on it.
 
IMHO...

A bit off colored repro > worn-to-crap original regardless.

I've been a little disappointed in one CPO and one marquee I received from one vendor (both) thus far... and that vendor doesn't post here on KLOV (or BYOAC) and is, rather, a retail outfit... and frankly, I still used the art and it still looks better than the ragged original stuff that was on the cab.
 
To be clear, I used Baby Pac as an example of a cpo I was completely happy with and I thought you did a great job on it, I have no issue at all with it.

Ok, I just wanted to be sure that you're happy.

Feel free to ask me about any of my repros before you order Ill give you my honest opinion on accuracy. Id rather tell you upfront than you get it and be unhappy about it later.

fwiw, Ive had 3 returns in 11 1/2 years of repros and many many thousands of decals and customers. One the guy forgot to take off the presmask LOL! The other was TRON side art which I believe he scanned it and printed it based on the email exchanges we had. The last was an early production Track and Field cpo back in 2002. He apparently had a different version than what we printed. No problems with that one but he did see the pic before he bought it I assumed.

Cheers!
 
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I feel you should have contacted the companies first and let them settle if you wanted
if not and you were still unhappy, you should have named the companies, the games AND put pictures here because now you are accusing companies without naming them .....what are you trying to accomplish ?

It's pretty easy anyway because there are not that many who do silk-screening.
Phoenixarcade, ThisOldGame (for larger runs !), arcadeshop.com do it so that's probably the three we are talking about.

In all reality: do you think there were never quality differences in production runs on the original machines ? Colors probably varied, screens got moved etc. etc.

I've learned to be less anal about it.

So far, Phoenixarcade and ThisOldGame has been the best IMHO. I had a problem with AS's Galaxian CPO, but I simply complained about it and got my money back so no problem. There is AS artwork for my Q*bert on it's way and I expect it to be good.
 
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I still think its good to know the name of the games you are referring.
not to out the maker but knowing a little more info might make it eaiser to understand
why the repro may not meet your standards.
Colors, materials, etc.

and Ive yet to hear screened cpos described as "bullet proof"
which I belive is inkjet from gog.
 
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I've purchased a lot of repro cpo's and so far I've only been disappointed with one of them. The colors were pretty far off, but it was still in much better shape than the one I had. In the end, restoration is sometimes about compromise.

Also don't forget that versions change and may not match what is on your panel.
 
I can chime in. Avoid the Circus Charlie CPO from Mame Marquee's. Im sure he is using what he has. But the quality is horrible and blurry, so much that I haven't even put it on my Circus Charlie. Not worth the near $40 for it. I know there is a few others that have ordered that particular CPO as well and was disappointed.

Now a lot of his other stuff, like Marquees and such are pretty decent and top notch. So it must just be this scan of CPO.

;
 
At this point I'm just going to be happy with the imperfections of my original control panels...

This rather zen idea matches my philosophy for the entire hobby - though I can understand and appreciate the other school of thought...
 
I hear you, that is why my Galaga still has it's cracked CPO, it looks more authentic. There isn't one repo out there that even comes close to the original.

Yes, I tried to keep the "30 years of fading" in mind when examining; I believe the particular color differences I've had problems with are not due to this.

I'm not sure what I'd do in regard to the NOS glue issue...will have to think on it

This is all you need:

nba73-YAaAOansW5IvL8qnMQOufzmXL4wL--hr9kmP_nJEvVlDMxH_Ue-zgxP5MU01qB5NniZTUT95O3bDAWhGSEtAc4KXeA0z9Y51n2ZrkCjg310SMw2lKqkLBfi3XC6H-c6EHaUQfA9ncWzb9UuCtG-3DqbsRsX2xjtQHPsUdN88JQk4mqMm0rksqZez-y0S0HIg9yAgQZZmsXB3VanIh6I1dOVHgol2R2iFDNJTvlYA7AtF-j_bMo8-FVh0COOlK5BVAH8rg4-IDeeruyw0IgmPrPM9vmcOQzRaX1


http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-Super-77/Super77/
 
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