So I have to assume this side art isn't original?

emig5m

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Look at the positioning of this side art, no gap between the art and front of the cab like it should:

20170206_171543-small-1280.jpg



The other side:
20170207_003409-small-1280.jpg


It should be centered with gaps between the art and cab edges front and back, right?
 
Correct sideart on a dedicated cabinet which shows significant wear and tear / signs of age is almost always original, because operators rarely replaced sideart, especially full sideart like that, unless they were converting the game to something else. Reproduction sideart is a relatively recent thing, and is used mostly by hobbyists when restoring their home-use machines, which means it doesn't tend to get much wear and tear.

Being off-center doesn't mean much. Someone in the factory could have been new, or having an off day.

Is it screen-printed?
 
Correct sideart on a dedicated cabinet which shows significant wear and tear / signs of age is almost always original, because operators rarely replaced sideart, especially full sideart like that, unless they were converting the game to something else. Reproduction sideart is a relatively recent thing, and is used mostly by hobbyists when restoring their home-use machines, which means it doesn't tend to get much wear and tear.

Being off-center doesn't mean much. Someone in the factory could have been new, or having an off day.

Is it screen-printed?

How can I tell if it's screen printed?

The people I got the game from said it sat in their basement for the past 15 years rarely used. The t-molding obviously isn't original as its silver so who knows if the artwork might of been replaced around the same time as the t-molding.
 
How can I tell if it's screen printed?

Look at it closely. If screen printed it will have a "layered" effect, i.e., it will look almost like each color is a very thin vinyl sticker. It is similar to the effect of when you paint a stripe or whatever onto something by using masking tape as a stencil, which is fundamentally the same thing that happens when you screen print; ink is squeegeed through a screen which has a stencil made of UV-cured emulsion embedded in it. For example, here's a closeup of the original sideart on my Atari Missile Command:

YHuTFaw.jpg


Digital prints don't look like that. Print something out with your inkjet printer if you have one; that's what digital prints look like.

The people I got the game from said it sat in their basement for the past 15 years rarely used. The t-molding obviously isn't original as its silver so who knows if the artwork might of been replaced around the same time as the t-molding.

T-molding is cheap and easy to replace; sideart, especially full-coverage sideart, is far from cheap or easy to replace. Also, your T-molding looks new, while your sideart, along with the wood it's sticking too, is beat up around the edges/corners.
 
I tried to get some closeup high res pics but photobucket downsizes my images, grrr, but can you get something out of these pics: (I'm on a 4k screen so these pics are actually small to me)

20170212_004130-small.jpg~original

20170212_004216-small.jpg~original

20170212_004249-small.jpg~original

20170212_004408-small.jpg~original


Does that look original/screen printed?
 
Does that look original/screen printed?

Yes, that's screen printed. You can see definite layering, especially in the part I circled:

6TznYrG.jpg


In the black ink is a good place to look, because it is printed last, so it has the most layers beneath it in areas that it overlaps (due to traps/bleeds). Here's another picture of my Missile Command sideart:

qiZPjZg.jpg


See the blatant layering effect? Digital printing processes never look anything like that. They print all the colors in one pass from a raster image; there are no layers/overlaps/traps/bleeds. Screen printing is a stenciling process, so only one color is printed per pass, which results in distinct layers that are easily seen when you look closely at it. The ink also goes on thicker than inkjet ink, and the edges of each color are more sharply defined because they are forced by the edges of the stencil in the screen.

Since that is screen printed sideart on your Centipede with obvious signs of significant age/wear/tear, the chance of it not being original is about the same as the chance of the sun not rising tomorrow morning.
 
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You lucked out and got the "euro" bezel with the extra color (red). I wish someone would repro it on glass. I want one for my machine.
 
Should I chip off a sample and send it in for a triple precautionary analysis? J/K lol... Anyway, couldn't repro side art be screen printed? The Centipede repro side art on this site claims to be screen printed: http://v2.globalwebcart.com/arcadeshop/i/210/centipede-side-art-set.htm



You lucked out and got the "euro" bezel with the extra color (red). I wish someone would repro it on glass. I want one for my machine.

Not sure I'm following you on that one? What bezel?
 
The monitor bezel.. the area around the Atari symbol is typically blue I do believe... not red.

BTW: I still have my doubts that's original side art. Why? Because of the texture... but I am no Atari expert so I can not say for sure.
 
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Should I chip off a sample and send it in for a triple precautionary analysis? J/K lol... Anyway, couldn't repro side art be screen printed? The Centipede repro side art on this site claims to be screen printed: http://v2.globalwebcart.com/arcadeshop/i/210/centipede-side-art-set.htm

As I said in my first post:

"Correct sideart on a dedicated cabinet which shows significant wear and tear / signs of age is almost always original, because operators rarely replaced sideart, especially full sideart like that, unless they were converting the game to something else. Reproduction sideart is a relatively recent thing, and is used mostly by hobbyists when restoring their home-use machines, which means it doesn't tend to get much wear and tear."

You said that it's sat in someone's basement for the past 15 years, so its wear and tear hasn't happened during the past 15 years. That brings us to 2002. You have to go back quite a bit further than that to give it enough time to get so beat up around the corners and edges. Who was making screen printed reproductions of Centipede sideart back then? Then there's the fact that it's a huge pain in the ass (and quite expensive) to replace full sideart like that; something that an operator wouldn't normally bother with.

Find someone else's Centipede to examine that same spot that I circled above. If it has the exact same overlapping going on there, then they were, well beyond a shadow of a doubt, printed from the same film positives.

BTW: I still have my doubts that's original side art. Why? Because of the texture... but I am no Atari expert so I can not say for sure.

The texture is the same as on my Missile Command sideart:

JjOFIoq.jpg


That texture shows up more in closeup pictures than in real life, and it isn't so much in the vinyl, but rather, in the wood beneath.
 
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The texture is the same as on my Missile Command sideart:

JjOFIoq.jpg


That texture shows up more in closeup pictures than in real life, and it isn't so much in the vinyl, but rather, in the wood beneath.

Yea, I can only notice the texture with the camera closeup with a light shining on it (I was using my flashlight to try to highlight the color overlap) otherwise it looks like no texture and perfectly smooth.
 
It looks plenty original to me. Why worry? You have a great game - throw a new big blue in it, and play the you know what out of it.

If it's killing you, let any of us know, and we'll be by to pick it up to relieve you of your stress.

Cripes. It's not like it's Willis art. It looks fantastic.
 
It looks plenty original to me. Why worry?

Stress gives my life meaning! hehe :D ;)

Yea I plan on doing some service work over time. Ordered the updated JROK high score save rom chip. That will be followed by a monitor overhaul (caps, new width coil, and flyback) since the most I can get out of the B+ is 117.7v (it was only measuring 111v when I picked it up, yikes!) All the PCB & power supply voltages are measuring good except that pesky -30dcv that runs the original earom but that's why I decided to just get the updated save chip that eliminates the need for the -30dcv since this problem seems to be common with Centipede. The LEDs in the volcano buttons are dead/not working so I should get new buttons. Otherwise the game has been playing great and I have been playing it every day without any major issue. Even with the low B+, the monitor still looks pretty good with great black levels and nice and bright.


20170207_032941-small-1280.jpg


^The one dead coin slot bulb has been fixed since I took that pick....just a loose connection. I'm going to leave all the war marks alone on this one, no cosmetic restoration is planned.
 
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