Hi. I bought a few items from This Old Game back in February, 2019. Since then, I've received only one of the 3 items. I'm still waiting on a Midway Gun Fight front glass so I can finish my work on that cab. When I bought it, it was listed as "in stock," so I figured it'd be a few weeks at most. I've sent them a few emails, probably at 2 month intervals. I haven't had any response from them since I received the one item about 4 or 5 months after I ordered it. That item was also listed as "in stock."

Has anyone else spent 9+ months for items from them?

That's been a lot of my experience with TOG.

I wanted a tinted Missile Command plexi back in late June. They said it would be available the week of July 7th. I emailed them on July 16th as I had not heard anything. They responded a few days later saying it would be available after the California Extreme show. Another couple of weeks goes by and I heard nothing so I email them again on August 8th. They respond a few days later saying "Still need to order more plexi".

Seriously? I sent them an email explaining all this and telling them it was for a customer job and I gave them a finish date based on the information they told me back in July. They never even bothered to respond to that email. Here it is November and they still have not responded to me nor is it available on their website.

They do quality work and I want to support them but their inability to give accurate ship times, keep customers up to date when they say it's going to be available on a certain date or sometimes even responding to emails in a timely manner makes me look elsewhere for my artwork needs.
 
That's been a lot of my experience with TOG.

I wanted a tinted Missile Command plexi back in late June. They said it would be available the week of July 7th. I emailed them on July 16th as I had not heard anything. They responded a few days later saying it would be available after the California Extreme show. Another couple of weeks goes by and I heard nothing so I email them again on August 8th. They respond a few days later saying "Still need to order more plexi".

Seriously? I sent them an email explaining all this and telling them it was for a customer job and I gave them a finish date based on the information they told me back in July. They never even bothered to respond to that email. Here it is November and they still have not responded to me nor is it available on their website.

They do quality work and I want to support them but their inability to give accurate ship times, keep customers up to date when they say it's going to be available on a certain date or sometimes even responding to emails in a timely manner makes me look elsewhere for my artwork needs.


Well you cant please everybody
So I remove an item from the website so customers cant buy an item not in stock.
to avoid having them wait a long time to receive.

Then are unhappy when I dont make it available cause I dont have said item
facepalm
 
Curious though as to which cpo was so bad? not the vendor as much as just the title itself

Ninja turtles was not even the right size, and the black ms pac man had the diamond cut perforated lines but not cut. the side art was worse. I do not know the vendor, as I did not buy it, (have an idea and could get it) but I will not give out that info; it was my job to try and install it. I would not have paid for that, and I know of no other side art that needed to be "painted over" to look some what acceptable. I never bought from you for my own personal projects, but I would as they are not time sensitive. Quality takes time and I saw,felt, and liked it. I have also seen and worked on the worst crap to come off a laser printer quality but delivered in 3 days.

Too long of a wait is pretty ass, but no denying the craftsmanship.
 

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I don't think the issue is necessarily waiting a long time. I think everyone gets TOS is a small shop and that it's not likely to scale up well. The problem is setting accurate estimations of when something will ship. Most times I'm happy to wait nine months for something if I know I'm going to be waiting that long when I order it. But sometimes I will make a different purchasing decision if I know it's going to be a long wait.
 
If you say you are going to do something on a certain date and you don't , you're a liar. If you do it over and over and over again you are a pathological liar.

Simple really.
 
I don't think the issue is necessarily waiting a long time. I think everyone gets TOS is a small shop and that it's not likely to scale up well. The problem is setting accurate estimations of when something will ship. Most times I'm happy to wait nine months for something if I know I'm going to be waiting that long when I order it. But sometimes I will make a different purchasing decision if I know it's going to be a long wait.

You could almost create a human in the time it's taking these people to make some glass or whatever
 
If it was so easy to do high quality glass printing in a profitable and timely manner, my guess is everyone would be doing it. Custom work takes time. They don't have a team of thirty artists there all day working on stuff. It takes a ton of labor to create and perfect files. Plan for months to a year or find someone else to do it-and as other have stated the others are kind of shit.

Seeing folks make post after post shitting on the same company that is willing to offer a solid service is tiresome. This is why folks leave the business. It's a game, it will still play with your crappy looking bezel. Enjoy it and be happy.

FFS it took me over seven months just to get 3/4 of my Tapper stuff plated by an unnamed company and that was literally just plating. No art, no files, no glass cutting and printing.
 
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If it was so easy to do high quality glass printing in a profitable and timely manner, my guess is everyone would be doing it. Custom work takes time. They don't have a team of thirty artists there all day working on stuff. It takes a ton of labor to create and perfect files. Plan for months to a year or find someone else to do it-and as other have stated the others are kind of shit.

Seeing folks make post after post shitting on the same company that is willing to offer a solid service is tiresome. This is why folks leave the business. It's a game, it will still play with your crappy looking bezel. Enjoy it and be happy.

FFS it took me over seven months just to get 3/4 of my Tapper stuff plated by an unnamed company and that was literally just plating. No art, no files, no glass cutting and printing.


Just going to jump in with my own opinion, but screen printing, uv printing, spot color decal creation, is a pretty easy process.

The thing that takes up the time is preparation and setup.

I personally do not think a job should take over 10 months to be completed, but I am a patient person.
 
Just going to jump in with my own opinion, but screen printing, uv printing, spot color decal creation, is a pretty easy process.

The thing that takes up the time is preparation and setup.

I personally do not think a job should take over 10 months to be completed, but I am a patient person.

We all know what we are getting into when we order custom art from them. People go to them because they are the best. Sit back and relax. It's artwork, not insulin.

With the exception of Phoenix, I don't see anyone stepping up to take this stuff on and put out the quality TOG does. They are a choice people make, and then throw a fit about. So many things can come up when doing custom work, creating and cleaning up files, etc.

I work with artists doing production, ten months doesn't seem like a long time for a custom project or a commissioned piece, but that's just me.

Edit, see how long it takes the guys over at CPR to get a back glass file ready for print, let alone a PF.
 
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We all know what we are getting into when we order custom art from them. People go to them because they are the best. Sit back and relax. It's artwork, not insulin.



With the exception of Phoenix, I don't see anyone stepping up to take this stuff on and put out the quality TOG does. They are a choice people make, and then throw a fit about. So many things can come up when doing custom work, creating and cleaning up files, etc.



I work with artists doing production, ten months doesn't seem like a long time for a custom project or a commissioned piece, but that's just me.



I should correct. None of my items are custom. Standard art for popular games. No modifications. My average time to get items is three months. Granted, I am not complaining, just sympathizing that people's complaints are valid.

Crazy Otto/Pacific arcades got into screen printing repros, right? Szabo's also makes great quality reproductions. That is where I got my TimePilot bezel.
 
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I should correct. None of my items are custom. Standard art for popular games. No modifications. My average time to get items is three months. Granted, I am not complaining, just sympathizing that people's complaints are valid.

Crazy Otto/Pacific arcades got into screen printing repros, right? Szabo's also makes great quality reproductions. That is where I got my TimePilot bezel.

Szabo's wait time is almost two months according to this thread, his communication from what I hear is not much better. I am currently building a custom SFII cab for a fellow that emailed Szabo's two weeks ago and has not gotten a reply re his inquiry.

I get the frustration, but again, at this point, it's not like we are going into this not knowing. Posts like this are why folks bail from the business. I feel like the wait times and "poor" communication and what have you, we can all agree this hobby is better off with TOG in it than not.

IDK, be frustrated, but it's like being shocked you burned your hand touching a stove that you knew was hot.
 
Szabo's wait time is almost two months according to this thread, his communication from what I hear is not much better. I am currently building a custom SFII cab for a fellow that emailed Szabo's two weeks ago and has not gotten a reply re his inquiry.

I get the frustration, but again, at this point, it's not like we are going into this not knowing. Posts like this are why folks bail from the business. I feel like the wait times and "poor" communication and what have you, we can all agree this hobby is better off with TOG in it than not.

IDK, be frustrated, but it's like being shocked you burned your hand touching a stove that you knew was hot.

I think with these posts, people have figured out it is a way to get your item shipped out sooner than other's. Szabo's has been pretty quick with communication for me, around 4 hours, but I use the facebook messenger:

https://www.messenger.com/t/szabosarcadessigns

I have only ordered one item from Szabos but it was 1 month for me to receive it. Ordered June 15th, shipped July 12th.
 
Szabo's wait time is almost two months according to this thread, his communication from what I hear is not much better. I am currently building a custom SFII cab for a fellow that emailed Szabo's two weeks ago and has not gotten a reply re his inquiry.

I get the frustration, but again, at this point, it's not like we are going into this not knowing. Posts like this are why folks bail from the business. I feel like the wait times and "poor" communication and what have you, we can all agree this hobby is better off with TOG in it than not.

IDK, be frustrated, but it's like being shocked you burned your hand touching a stove that you knew was hot.

It seems to be the communications again and again. People are usually OK waiting if their expectations are met. "Hey, it's going to take 6-8 months for us to fulfil this" is hugely more acceptable than "We'll get it out in a couple weeks" and then you're put off for six months with various other unclear dates.

Just be up front and if you don't know, say that and offer regular updates and then follow up with your updates. It's all pretty straightforward to do. Comparing them to another company that doesn't communicate well or takes a long time to ship doesn't somehow make them better.
 
Nearly two months wait as of now for a glass bezel and marquee - not custom stuff, just something they have listed on their site.

BUT. . .

he did get a plexi marquee and bezel for Chiller out to me in reasonable time a while ago, so. . .

Is it just a glass thing then?
 
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Nearly two months wait as of now for a glass bezel and marquee - not custom stuff, just something they have listed on their site.

BUT. . .

he did get a plexi marquee and bezel for Chiller out to me in reasonable time a while ago, so. . .

Is it just a glass thing then?

I do have a backlog of glass at the moment for a variety of reasons (posting outline next)
feel free to PM, email, or call on your current order stats
 
As previously stated if it were that easy everybody would be doing it
and If you just want it fast then Im NOT the place for you.

There seems to be alot of confusion on what is "custom" vs what is made to order.

Custom is the same as made to order. (unless its being modified, then its truly custom) because if its not actually "In Stock"
and not shipping the same day you ordered it then its being custom made for you and is listed on the site as available to order
Since actual "In stock"/Same Day shipping on all those items are clearly labeled.

Some of the lost factors here is the number of orders/mass number of people restoring, building, selling and flipping games.
Not just single games but entire arcades, expos, museums, etc. The amount of output would truly surprise most people that
have not been to the shop and seen the operation first hand.

That said there can be a substantial setup time for each and every piece,
File prep- when upgrading to direct print on glass for example...the same files cannot be used the same way the were used for vinyls laminating to glass or plexi. Bleeds have to be elimated color layers had to be created, white, clear, silver blockouts, etc.
CYMK colors also have to be adjusted every time there's a printer or even software/profile upgrade.
Since most reproductions/orders require different materials there is also the setup time required there. Sure its faster just to print a cpo on vinyl at the same time Im doing the side art but its not right way-imo and for those that have purchased elsewhere also know this key difference Or even a vinyl version of a cpo that was originally plexi or metal would also be much faster to produce.
Along side the daily maintenance and cleaning of the machines, and the substrates involved, which have to be prepared for printing.
whether thats a chemical treatment, metal fabrication, laser cutting plexi, or all of the above.

Though communication is key and we try our best to communicate this. Its pretty difficult to schedule/ predict 100s of orders
and accurately predict ship times for everyone. That are not same day ship items and are put into que.
Something dosnt print correctly, or dosnt finish on time whether thats for technical reasons, material stock, etc. it tends to through a curve and effect ALL orders in that que.
Its also how our emails and updates are often misread but that said
feel free to email or even call again for a status update, or if you want the order to partial ship, if some of the items are ready or even just cancel and refund the order.
Its entirely up to you.

we are constantly working on implementing ideas to improve the site and flow with non stock items, such as live visible qtys, additional stock for more same day shipping and removing BIN options on many items that are not on shelf ready or need additional prep time, or more of a demand to return them as also previous stated.
 
You can count on one of these threads every few months. I just come to watch the blowups, where Rich typically tells the one questioning him to do business else where or refunds their money, quits klov to never come back, or just act a general ass to his customers. Judging by the responses in this thread, it looks like either Rich is starting to mellow out or he has someone else posting on his behalf. Which ever it is, its a better look.
 
Crazy Otto/Pacific arcades got into screen printing repros, right?
That would be me (My name is Brendon, Crazy Otto is the name of the original Ms. Pac-Man prototype and one of my projects :)).

I'm a graphic designer and do my own scanning/vectorization/color matching and run Pacific Arcades as a separate business, but contract Rich/ThisOldGame for most of my printing. Which is solvent on vinyls and UV direct to glass or polycarbonate, just about the best quality out there. Most of my products are uncommon or specialized items that don't justify the cost of a screen printed run.

I do order small runs from him at a time though, so I have stock of many of the popular items.
 
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