This is by no means a comprehensive list of every site that sells silk screened reproduction artwork, but a list of vendors that I have personally seen artwork from and can vouch for the quality. If the control panel overlay you are looking for is not in this list, head over to Mame Marquees, where you’ll find a huge selection of ink jet reproduction control panel overlays. If you own a rare, or undesirable game, you may have no choice but to opt for an ink jet reproduction. Silk screened artwork is expensive to produce and unless a certain number of pieces can be sold, it’s not worth the time, effort or money. If you’re interested in creating reproduction artwork that’s not available check out Jeff Rothe’s great post with plenty of tips and information.

I decided to make a cardboard template of the control panel. I taped a piece of cardboard to the control panel and then flipped it over. From the back side, I cut out each joystick hole, spring stick hole and button hole with an x-acto knife. I also cut the template to the actual size of the control panel. I then printed a copy of my vectorized control panel overlay to actual size and placed the template on top of it. If the hole openings on the template matched the black circles on the printed copy, everything was golden. In the end, I had to go back and tweak the locations of about 5 of the openings. When I put the template on top of the printed copy now, it’s an exact match. The black circles pictured below will not be printed in the final print.

Here’s a picture of the actual control panel overlay and the new one that will be printed and applied:

I have no idea how many hours went into reproducing this overlay. Because there isn’t any demand for this overlay, I really had no choice but to spend the time and reproduce it myself. I also don’t have a whole lot of options for printing. The overlay will likely be ink jet printed on self adhesive vinyl and laminated. I’ll have more photos once the overlay is installed on the control panel.

Edit: I just realized that there are two yellow arrows in the upper right hand instruction box, near the fingers, that I haven’t included. Those will be added before the final print is made. Fixed!

I also started work on the control panel overlay this weekend. If you recall, there was a big chunk missing from the lower right hand corner and an adhesive sticker that had been placed over a portion of the control panel at some point. Continue reading via the link below for a look at the process I use to recreate the control panel.

The first thing we need is a good scan of the control panel. I removed all of the joysticks and buttons from the panel, carefully labeling each on so I can put them back in the proper place. I then cleaned the top of the control panel to remove any dust and debris.

To scan the panel, I had to remove the top cover from my scanner. Using the edges of the control panel as guides, I scanned the entire panel in multiple passes, making sure to overlap each section slightly. There were a total of 9 separate images files which I then imported into Fireworks and “stitched” back together to get a complete scan of the panel. Here’s a picture of the scans after being “stitched” together:

The rest of the process is fairly simple. I created a new file in Illustrator with the exact measurements of the control panel, which is 26 1/8″ by 15 3/4″. The scan is also sized to those exact measurements. The scan is placed in the illustrator file as a base and then you simply hand trace the elements. Here is my progress so far:

The easy parts are done, now for the helmets and trying to match the fonts. The helmets should be fairly easy, as they are all duplicates except for color. Once I get one helmet done, it’s simply a matter of recoloring them, and moving them to the correct orientation. There’s probably about 3 hours of work into this so far, I would guess another 4 or 5 hours of work before it’s close to completion.

I started looking at sources for replacement side art and couldn’t find any. I thought that I would design my own and try to find someplace to get it printed. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of printing it on my wide format inkjet printer as it contained too much black to get an accurate reproduction.

Fortunately, Richard from This Old Game stepped forward and agreed to silkscreen new artwork if there was enough interest. At last check, there were enough people interested that Richard was willing to proceed with the project. The side art will be die cut and silkscreened on 3m adhesive backed vinyl.

I began to vectorize the side art in Adobe Illustrator using measurements taken from my original cabinet and photographs I had taken. The picture you see to the left is the final version of the side art on my end. This is a lower resolution picture of the side art than the actual Illustrator file.

Richard and I are trying to find someone to color match the reproduction side art to the original cabinet. Richard does not have a cabinet and I am color blind, so I’m probably not the best candidate. There will also be some minor adjustments made to the side art on his end, I’m sure, as he prepares for the silkscreening process.

If you have any interest in obtaining reproduction side art for your Omega Race cabinet, be sure to visit Richard’s website, This Old Game , and fill out the form on the main page. Also, if you’d be interested in helping with the color matching process, drop Richard or me an e-mail and let us know that you are interested. Richard has an older version of the artwork pictured on his website. The version you see here is the latest.

If this project goes well, I will probably work on a reproduction control panel overlay as well.