RE: Gravitar Repro Control Panel Overlays

Joe

I too have been badly stung by the appalling quality of some repros out of a
certain place down south. And I mean really crap – glaring ink jet banding
and colors just plain wrong and shoddy artmanship in the first place. I have
one piece of their artwork on the back door of restroom cubicle at my
arcade – that’s all its good for. And guess what, its faded in the two years
its been up there.

I am a perfectionist by trade and nature and a stickler for detail where it
counts, and my whole career has been founded on quality and attention to
detail. I create games for a living and have been doing so for 20_ years,
and even used to work for Atari Europe back in 82/3.

Now even though I don’t do artwork reproductions for bulk profit or in any
quantity, I do my damdest to ensure that the quality of my output, albeit
small, is at least as good as the best out there.

I do this because I have 160 machines in my personal collection and want to
one day get a lot of the more important ones looking like new - inside and
out. See numerous photo studies on www.ionpool.net if you need clarification
on that point.

I am very well aware of the fights going on about silk screening vs more
modern processes. But for low run work, silk screening is just not viable.
However, I have invested hundreds of hours into getting the final results of
my various productions as close in look/feel/quality to the originals as is
possible. The printing system we have here cost in access of $25k alone, and
the various other machines I employ at another company come to $300k. I don
’t use some cheap crap ink jet !

If Atari were still making machines today they probably would not be using
silk screen methods any more and would have moved onto much more up to date
solutions. Sadly, corporate accountants may well have forced low quality
results despite higher quality processes being available.

Yes I produce art with Ultrachome UV inks. Theres more than enough very
positive web reports on the long term archival fade and color abilities of
these by highly critical imaging labs. No I don’t do silk screen. No I don’
t use 22 yr old original materials. Yes I do apply various types of
invisible polycarbonate coatings depending on the application, and yes I can
replicate precisely the textured feel and granularity of Lexan. In fact I
have 27 different types of material from coarse grained to mirror gloss 30um
to some weird indestructible ‘stuff’. I can print at resolutions up to
3,000 DPI and you have to see the results to believe just how good this can
get. At his resolution there is no perceptible aliasing or banding and it
looks near as damit continuous tone. Off course, if all you are doing is a
Lexan CPO with its grained top surface, such resolution is almost a complete
waste of everybody’s time, but hey, I like to keep quality up. And no I don’
t do things in a hurry because I don’t need to.

If you want really want something more perfect than perfect . . . and want
to cherish the originality of your machine, then I politely suggest you don’
t apply anything other than a NOS piece of art, and even that might upset
the purests. And who’s to say that a 22 year old NOS piece has not slightly
aged with time, and the lexan cracked and the colors shifted slightly.

I too agree that I have never yet seen a Tempest Marquee repro that’s
anywhere near as good as the original with all its color detail on the left
hand side where the demons heads are. Maybe I should tackle that next :)

Irrelevant of how I do it, the resulting item is as close as I can get it to
look and feel like the original, just using more modern techniques, and
within the bounds of reasonable sanity.

I would strongly suggest that people interested my work examine the quality
of samples before they spout forth any prejudice towards it.

As for your comment on the UK - the difference between post to/from UK and
USA is one line on the address label ! We are on the same planet I can
assure you.

I have sent flat packed and tube’d art to the states for £5 ( $8 . . .)
airmail and its there in 3 or 4 days. If you want next-day signed-for I can
do that, but sure the fee goes up a whole $5.

Personally I would rather pay big $$$ (as you put it) to get perfection or
quality of product/service, and not skimp on this. But for what I charge, I
think my output is extremely reasonable. Much of what I do is purely in the
name of keeping the spirit of the these magnificent machines alive for years
to come.

I also have a base in Chicago, and sometimes I have distributed items from
there after prior bulk delivery. And getting there takes me 8 hrs on a
plane. Last week I drove to London, 70 miles away, and it took me 7 hrs due
to a horrendous traffic jam/accident. So in other words it’s a small planet.

I hope this clarifies some points for you.

Arch.

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
[mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org]On Behalf Of Joe
  Sent: 18 March 2004 01:00
  To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
  Subject: RE: VECTOR: Gravitar Repro Control Panel Overlays

  Archer,

  I’m certain these are questions that not only I have but others.

  I think we would all like to know a bit more about the repros.. I hesitate
to buy any repros anymore because I have been satisfied with VERY few (I can
count on one hand with room left over. And I probably need a few other
peoples hands to count the ones I’ve been dissatisfied with!)

  So, with that in mind:

  Are you using UV inks for side art?
  Original materials? Such as is will the Grav cpo be on velvet lexan?

  Method of printing?

  Now, maybe I am a bit picky, but things such as Phillipes Q*Bert side art
with the incorrect shadow are totally unacceptable to me. All repro SW yoke
overlays have an improper background and colors are off. The tie fighters on
the better SW marquee repros are not right. X wings on the not so good one
are wrong. Reproers that print on wrong materials. I still have yet to see a
perfect Centipede CPO or Tempest marquee. The list can go on and on. I want
a repro that is as accurate to the original as humanly possible..

  And to those of you that are on the list that have made artwork, I know
some of it has been done absolutely excellent. I can only speak of products
I have bought.

  I would hate to have to return something to the UK – shipping would be big
$$$.

  JB

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--
  From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
[mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org] On Behalf Of Archer
  Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 2:55 PM
  To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
  Subject: RE: VECTOR: Gravitar Repro Control Panel Overlays
  Hi
  I've just added a substantial reply to the link at the bottom of this
email (Dans Gravitar website), which also mentions a couple of other more
unusual arcade artwork projects about to happen.
  Scrub unusual, how about ultra rare, like, how many people would want
Vectorbeam Warrior side art decals ?!
  I will be doing the Gravitar CPO run this weekend.
  Thanks,
  Arch@awesome.uk.com
    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org
[mailto:owner-vectorlist@vectorlist.org]On Behalf Of Mark E Davidson
    Sent: 17 March 2004 04:51
    To: vectorlist@vectorlist.org
    Subject: Re: VECTOR: Gravitar Repro Control Panel Overlays
    My only fear is missing out. If someone can privately email Archers
address Ill forward upcoming questions his way
    -=Mark=-
    oll wrote:
I've seen his initial run one - and it's very nice. /o----- Original
Message ----- From: "James J. Hagen" <jameshagen@tds.net>To:
<vectorlist@vectorlist.org>Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 3:46 PMSubject: RE:
VECTOR: Gravitar Repro Control Panel Overlays    I heard from Archer
yesterday- he's all set to sell them at ?40 each,    might want to try
emailing him direct...  HTH,James Hagen      Hello, Anybody besides me
interested in these?  It seems that if there are 10+      or  so, it will be
worth it to make them.  There are 2 interested partiesalready. See this
message thread for
details:http://www.cooganphoto.com/invboard/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=12&s=9e
406ec7aab293be889f1d69a0207d6e Thanks,Frank
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