Zoo Keeper sideart

Fudd

Active member
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
2,382
Reaction score
13
Location
Kalamazoo, Michigan
anybody buy the zk sideart from phoenix arcade? i asked darin if he could make me a kickplate piece to go with his sideart since gamestencils is out of stock. is it me or are the colors of darins artwork more brown than the original pinkish orange? wanted to get opinions on it.
 
Kickplate

I've got a kickplate that's still in the original tube.. Decided not to go with it..
It's from gamestencils.. I'd sell it to you for whatever they were selling it for, plus shipping.. Sorry, can't answer your question on the color..
 
looks a little brown doesn't it? anybody? i'll let you know local. i'd hate to have the colors not match up buying from 2 different vendors.
 
Last edited:
I believe all of the art came from the same source. ProK(gamestencils) and Phoenixarcade are just different vendors of the same product. I THINK.

The art looks awesome and I'm ecstatic that they made it. With that art and the cabinet plans, I was able to make a complete ZK from scratch using the components from a completely trashed cabinet. I'm very appreciative of their efforts.

That being said, I noticed two minor problems. Emphasis on the word "minor".
One, the front panel art was about a 1/4" too narrow. I'm not sure why he didn't just leave a little extra orange on the sides instead of trying to fit it perfectly. It's possible it was just my cabinet, but my cabinet was brand new and cut to original specs.
Second, the color is a little off. The original was a tad brighter than the new art, at least on the original I compared it to. Originals my vary, so who knows. I actually cut a little swatch of the extra orange sideart and put it on the old cabinet and the difference was obvious. It's probably close enough that if you use just the front panel, you won't even notice that it isn't exact because the light hits the front/sides differently anyway.

Like I said, these were minor things in comparison to how great it is to have this art available. I used it for my whole cabinet and I think I have the PERFECT zoo keeper now. The art itself (the tracing/vectoring) seems 100% accurate.

Mine, before the monitor was in:
DSCN8314.jpg
 
Last edited:
I believe all of the art came from the same source. ProK(gamestencils) and Phoenixarcade are just different vendors of the same product. I THINK.

No actually that's not correct. The front art story goes like this: Prok did a small run of front art, which he sold on his site, and then sold out. Then at some point his printer broke down, so he asked Rich at ThisOldGame to print another small run of front art, which after it was done, was again sold on Prok's site, and subsequently sold out again.

The side art story goes like this: Prok vectorized the side art like 3 years ago, and after doing so he gave the file to Rich at ThisOldGame. 2 years later though, Rich had still not gotten around to printing the side art.

Enter me, who got tired of waiting around. I told Prok to give me his side art file, and that I would pay to get a run of side art done, and for his time and trouble, I would give him 10 sets. So he obliged, and I pinged Darin at Phoenix Arcade about using the company that he uses to do a run, as they produce extremely high quality silkscreened artwork. They normally won't even think about doing small runs (they only want to deal with runs of 250, 500, etc.) but Darin persuaded them to do a run of 50 sets. The total cost was a bit over $4,000. I gave Prok his 10 sets, I got 2 sets (used one, gave the other to friend Fatherpain) and gave the rest to Darin for him to sell at his lesiure for his time and trouble. I didn't and still don't care about recouping anything. I was just tired of waiting and decided to do something about it.

Oh, and for those that are thinking "What about those ZK side art stencils that were made?" Well those, while professionally done, proved to be just too hard to work with (and I'm paraphrasing Prok here) due to the intricacy of ZK's side art. He took them off his site some time ago.

The art looks awesome and I'm ecstatic that they made it. With that art and the cabinet plans, I was able to make a complete ZK from scratch using the components from a completely trashed cabinet. I'm very appreciative of their efforts.
Awesome I'm glad you like it. Congrats on bringing that one back from the dead. It looks beautiful.

That being said, I noticed two minor problems. Emphasis on the word "minor".
One, the front panel art was about a 1/4" too narrow.
Hmm that's weird. On my front art piece, it was a bit too wide, and needed a small bit of trimming. Mine came from the 2nd run (done by Rich), maybe yours is from the original Prok run.

The original was a tad brighter than the new art, at least on the original I compared it to. Originals my vary, so who knows. I actually cut a little swatch of the extra orange sideart and put it on the old cabinet and the difference was obvious. It's probably close enough that if you use just the front panel, you won't even notice that it isn't exact because the light hits the front/sides differently anyway.
Yes the front art is a hair different that the side art, as at the time we didn't have a piece of the front to send up to the company doing the side art. But like you said, it's not noticeable anyway unless cutting a piece off and putting it right up against the other.

looks a little brown doesn't it? anybody? i'll let you know local. i'd hate to have the colors not match up buying from 2 different vendors.
It's definitely not 'brown' Greg. That's just .jpg miscoloration. But as stated above, it differs slightly than the front. If you are buying Pete's front art, and are wanting side art to perfectly match that piece, then please don't buy the side art as I don't want you to be disappointed. And whatever you do, good luck with the ZK resto, it's an excellent game (and my wife's favorite). ;)

Here are some pics of mine:

Right: http://www.ataricade.com/zk1.jpg
Right (with guard rail): http://www.ataricade.com/zk2.jpg
Left: http://www.ataricade.com/zk3.jpg
Left (with guard rail) http://www.ataricade.com/zk4.jpg
Old layout pic: http://www.ataricade.com/zk5.jpg
 
Though I respect the initiative to get any project done and certainly shows
what it takes to make a project happen and how expensive any reproduction piece can cost
But you left out an important part of that ZK art history.
No one ever paid me to have that printed.
Good to see someone else got paid for the project after I wasted my time on doing the kickplates,
matching the colors and printing the full scale test prints and films for the sides.
Nice.
 
But you left out an important part of that ZK art history.
No one ever paid me to have that printed.
Good to see someone else got paid for the project after I wasted my time on doing the kickplates,
matching the colors and printing the full scale test prints and films for the sides.
Nice.

Finally. We need some drama around here. This place has been boring lately.
 
LOL
yeah not posting for the drama at all
didnt even see this thread until it was pointed out
and I sent a kickplate off to Darrin a few days ago
but from the sounds of it that was proably a waste of time too :(

But had I known this was getting done I wouldve be more than happy to send the films
to help save on costs and or sent a kickplate for color matching (I still have a handful)
now you have sides and kicks that dont match.
whats a girl to do? :confused:
 
Though I respect the initiative to get any project done and certainly shows
what it takes to make a project happen and how expensive any reproduction piece can cost
But you left out an important part of that ZK art history.
No one ever paid me to have that printed.
Good to see someone else got paid for the project after I wasted my time on doing the kickplates,
matching the colors and printing the full scale test prints and films for the sides.
Nice.
So is that what it takes Rich to get things done? Money? I have talked to Richard Ford (member "Roadrunner000" for those who don't know him) about the Agent X/Cloak & Dagger art project about a zillion times in the past 4 years and he has always maintained that every time he offered you money to get the Agent X project done, you refused. Now you're saying that money is the motivator? I"m confused. :confused:
 
What I'm wondering is, would it still be possible to have a ZK stencil set made? IF...the buyer was willing to weed out the pieces that need to be removed on his own? Just have Brian or whoever plotter cut it on sheet of vinyl, apply the premask and ship it out?

thanks
 
Though I respect the initiative to get any project done and certainly shows
what it takes to make a project happen and how expensive any reproduction piece can cost
But you left out an important part of that ZK art history.
No one ever paid me to have that printed.
Good to see someone else got paid for the project after I wasted my time on doing the kickplates,
matching the colors and printing the full scale test prints and films for the sides.
Nice.

Now you're saying that money is the motivator? I"m confused. :confused:

He didn't say money was the motivator. He was just clarifying what transpired. He did the project and didn't get paid, so obviously money wasn't the motivator.

So is that what it takes Rich to get things done? Money? I have talked to Richard Ford (member "Roadrunner000" for those who don't know him) about the Agent X/Cloak & Dagger art project about a zillion times in the past 4 years and he has always maintained that every time he offered you money to get the Agent X project done, you refused.

Its HIS business, not yours. I don't think he sits by the phone waiting to be told what the next run of artwork will be. I feel for guys like RikiTiki who offer quality artwork for sale. I can't imagine how many times a day they are bombarded with requests for artwork from guys that neither understand nor want to pay for what is involved in reproducing a given set of artwork. You may very well be willing to pay for it, but waving money in front of him doesn't mean that he HAS to do it.
 
So is that what it takes Rich to get things done? Money?

You are right Francis I should do all of these projects for free.
what was I thinking.

My point was to simply state I was never given a go to print or was paid to do it.

This project was free to go anywhere and I would've been more than happy to help
to make that happen, If I printed it or not by providing films or colors.
I do this all the time.
But, yes had this been paid for to make it happen sooner than later it would have happened.
Since I had allready done all the pre production work on it.
I really didnt keep up with ZK stats, I know ProK had health issues and was out of the game for awhile and I still do ALOT of projects with him.

I offer prints, art, advise, and referals for FREE all the time.
but those days are about to be over.

Though money is not the motivation the reality is its certainly needed to make these projects happen.
Otherwise I'd be printing day in and day out selling it myself rather than printing it for someone else to profit.
 
By all means, I think you, Darin, CPR, etc.. should price these projects to PROFIT from them. I'm afraid if that motivation isn't there that you guys won't be as motivated to create stuff for this niche of a hobby.
 
Zookeeper side art is no longer available. All the art is being shipped back to Francis as he requested. Its a shame more people didnt get a set when they could.
 
Zookeeper side art is no longer available. All the art is being shipped back to Francis as he requested. Its a shame more people didnt get a set when they could.

Crap. With so much stuff to buy in the last year or so I never got around to buying it. I didn't think it would just go away.
 
By all means, I think you, Darin, CPR, etc.. should price these projects to PROFIT from them. I'm afraid if that motivation isn't there that you guys won't be as motivated to create stuff for this niche of a hobby.

We all do. My point was that I alone cant fund every single project for all.
and the motivation is both the profit and the love for the game.
Im just the printer and Im more than happy to help the others in printing those projects
its a win win for all theres room for both of us to profit and certainly allows more projects to get done when theres others willing to put the money down to make that happen.

Face it theres not many out there that would put down the $4k to make something like
ZK sideart available and I can think of alot more pieces that fall into that category.

I may have the shop, skills, and equipment but in the end it still takes $$$ to cover materials and overheads and thank all those other repro heroes like PhoenixArcade, QuarterArcade, VideoGameParts, GameStencils, ChompingQuarters, and BackToTheArcade that have allowed me to do some of these projects for them.

and its sad to see this wont be available now.
 
Last edited:
Zookeeper side art is no longer available. All the art is being shipped back to Francis as he requested. Its a shame more people didnt get a set when they could.

Crap. With so much stuff to buy in the last year or so I never got around to buying it. I didn't think it would just go away.

I'm in the same boat. I figured I would have time.
 
I have been staying away from KLOV lately basically. well. because of threads like this.

People attacking each other and piling on like fools is has really reached critical mass to the point where people like me lose their fire for doing this stuff. Zookeeper has so many hours in it it's not funny, I did it in a hospital bed because I love the game and I love the hobby. Nobody's getting wealthy from zookeeper art.

I had absolutely no intent of short changing Rich by letting Nash get the sideart printed, i've done probably dozens of projects with Rich through the years with nothing but fantastic results. Generally speaking, it was just me being patient, waiting my turn for a project to go forward and observing what was on the plates of various people. I saw that Rich was very very busy (which is a great thing), and I waited and the large scale plate stayed full for a long time. I didn't let Nash have the art to work with Darin for any negative reasons whatsoever, but more in my mind to give Rich a little breathing room to finish much bigger projects for much bigger value to him while freeing me up to get some smaller ones done. Death Race control panels for example. My projects are usually VERY small runs of very specialized items and sometimes I feel like i'm slowing other things down just to do my little stuff. I did not want to slow down higher end projects like Quantum and Food Fight artwork just do do a small run of zookeeper. Projects take time, and i'm very patient. I also try very hard to be understanding of others time and workloads, in this case, one person was under a very heavy workload and another volunteered to pick it up getting a project done a bit sooner. That's it, no ill will, no negativity at all.

I consider Rich, Darin and Francis to be nothing but stand up awesome people and i'm truly sorry if this has upset anyone. I was under the belief that it was all out in the open what was going on when it was happening.

Please everyone, lets get back to the good old days when people were happy to have stuff like this done at all. It wasn't that long ago that you simply couldn't get anything of any quality, much less quality that you have to really look close to find flaws. Put away the microscopes and the dramatic post making keyboards and enjoy the hobby.
 
Back
Top Bottom