One of the coolest aspects of arcade games is the artwork that companies commissioned to be made to
decorate each cabinet. The better the artwork was, the more attractive the cabinet became. This was especially prominent with companies like Atari and Cinematronics who would hire comic book artists to draw the art, making it that much more detailed and eye-catching. The problem is that if you collect some of these old games, it can be a little difficult to come across a game with pristine artwork. Of all the games I own, four have significant artwork on the sides and each one has scratches, smudges, tears, etc. that the games have received over the years. If you are in this situation, you may wonder how you can get the artwork replaced – it is possible but it will take some work. And if you’re lucky, someone has already reproduced the artwork for you.
Rotheblog has a couple of articles detailing on how one can go about reproducing side art for their classic game. The article is for the “potential future collector” and walks them through the steps of getting the artwork reproduced. As I mentioned, it will probably take some work but if you can replace some beloved artwork that has been damaged from wear and tear over the years, then it is worth it.
(Image via Rotheblog)
[Rotheblog – Arcade Artwork Tutorials] [Discuss on the Forum]
Thanks for the mention. I am writing a whole beginner’s tutorial, where if you just bought your first arcade game and you want to replace the artwork on the cabinet, then in theory you could read these articles and know from start to finish what is involved in reproducing artwork. From finding the artwork if you don’t own the game, to scanning it, vectorizing arcade artwork to finding a printer and how the printer’s process works, these articles will be comprehensive.
Awesome work Jeff, I look forward to seeing the complete work. I have wondered about doing this myself before as I could use some new artwork on a cabinet or two of mine.
what a great idea! i never thought to hard about it.
*too