Time Pilot 84 overlays even make a Twin Cobra conversion sing

This is always the best part, to see the artwork in use and applied to someone’s favorite game, one step closer to being restored. I was especially happy that the alignment of the yellow ship worked out just as we had measured.

If you’re interested in contracting me to reproduce arcade artwork for your machine, either a small run of prints or a custom one off, contact me today. You can purchase your own Time Pilot 84 overlay from ThisOldGame.com.

You're reading A Time Pilot 84 cabinet with new life is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Vector grids and stars, who’d have thunk it?

Early in 2010 Kelly sent me a message on my contact page about contracting me to reproduce a Time Pilot ’84 overlay for his game. We exchanged some communication, and shortly thereafter I got a couple of photos showing the panel. As a reproduction artist, it is all too easy to evaluate a project from a simplistic baseline and not critically evaluate the complexity of the artwork.

Grid? Stars? Oh yeah, that’s simple. Simple in composition maybe, but not simple in time commitment. Plus, some of the star bursts had this effect that I knew would need to remain in a raster format. I properly set Kelly’s expectations for how much time I thought the project would take and what the results would be.

Looking at the side by side comparison of the original beat to heck panel and the new overlay, I think it’s a pretty impressive final result.

If you would like to have a piece of your arcade cabinet restored, drop me a line and I’ll give you a free estimate.

Update 6.11.10
Here is a direct link to the Time Pilot ’84 overlay listing if you would like to purchase one for yourself.

You're reading Printed in all it’s purple glory is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

The overlays were not printed in early April as originally expected, but I have seen some test prints in my email so they currently are in the works. I am hopeful that the TP cpanel overlays will be finished here in the next week or two. Stay tuned for additional updates.

You're reading Time Pilot ’84 overlay – update 2 is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Time Pilot ’84 Solvent Inkjet Overlays

I sent out a disc of the Time Pilot ’84 artwork on the last full week of March with the original panel, and Rich Lint got it soon after. Due to the fact that this is a digital print, there was a testing process to try to as best as possible replicate the original colors and original material. Last I heard, that was supposed to be finished as early as the beginning of the second week of April (2010). We should have an update soon.

Customized overlay artwork for your panel

On that disc, I sent two copies of the Time Pilot overlay artwork. One that was the original, and one that is modified. In the modified case, we made a custom piece that moved the Yellow burst up a little bit, and the major spaceship up significantly. We measured to try to get those two pieces on that front bend so that they are visible when applied to this particular conversion panel.

I am assuming ThisOldGame will offer the Time Pilot artwork to all, and hopefully that artwork can be modified to best meld with your panel. It is my understanding that there were several available game kits for the ’84 artwork, so the placement of elements could be different depending on the panel. If you are interested in a custom Time Pilot ’84 overlay, drop me a line and we’ll make it happen.

You're reading Time Pilot ’84 overlays update is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Time Pilot artwork – Interesting detail in the star bursts

The particular panel has a unique detail that I haven’t seen before, and find a little bit strange seeing as the rest of the artwork isn’t – how shall we say – nearly as amazing as an Atari cabinet. Some of the major burst fade out with an outer-lying crosshatch pattern. Check out a little bit of that detail here;

Here is a detail of how the Time Pilot 84 CPO artwork looks now without those major bursts;

I have picked out 20 of the largest stars that show this crosshatching and will be using Photoshop to touch up and isolate those selections to then go back and lay them in as a separate white raster layer. You can see the first one I took here, from the dirty dingy scan above with the grid line through it to this;

No other crosshatched artwork came to mind when I wrote this post, but if you know of another arcade cabinet that has a similar style, comment on a name. It would be cool to reference back, maybe something else that Konami made around the same time.

You're reading Ever hand drawn 1200 dots…I mean stars? is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Time Pilot ’84 – Conversion kit overlay

Sometime around November I got a request to scan, vector and prep an overlay for reproduction for Time Pilot ’84. At the time I was booked full, but as I worked through my project load I was able to take the panel a week or so ago. It was pretty beat, the overlay was de-laminating having seen some serious time on location.

Tonight, the first step, scanning all of the artwork. I had to de-populate the panel, and I removed the hinge as well as another piece of metal that probably served as a ledge for the panel once it was converted.

One of the more time consuming hurdles is always scanning every piece of the artwork. For this one overlay I had 16 scans, three scans to cover the full width of the panel, and there are essentially four faces to scan with the overlay folded under on top, and wrapped around a radius onto the back wall of the panel on back.

It should be a fairly straightforward piece, expect for some of the stars / bursts. The stars actually fade out in a crosshatch type pattern that may require a raster overlay in white to accurately preserve those details.

Time Pilot ’84 Experts out there…

It looks like there are some 58+ owners of Time Pilot ’84 listed on VAPS. I would guess that probably 35-40 still have the game, but I was surprised by the numbers. Anyone else need a new overlay?

Were there multiple versions of Konami’s conversion kit for this game, tailored for a couple of different cabinets?

You're reading Scanning artwork – “Further into the unknown”, Dun Dun Dah… is a post from: Jeff Rothe, originally posted on Rotheblog - An Arcade Game Blog. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Jeff on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.