Archive for March, 2008
Rotheblog (2.5) arcade design launched!
Within a week after I launched the brand new design for Rotheblog (Oct. 2007), I had one of those zen like “Doi!” moments. You know, kind of like that beer commercial where the one guy keeps mistaking men for women, and women for men. Ok, so less zen, and more embarassment and licking my earlobe.
After my re-launch, I started to look around more at monetized blogs and, for whatever reason, it hadn’t dawned on me that the layouts were a lot wider than 800px. I admittedly hadn’t looked at user display resolutions for quite some time. Wow! Things had changed, and if I would have paid closer attention back last year maybe I wouldn’t be launching a completely new design today.
According to W3Schools Browser Display Information, as of January 2007 54% of internet users were using a screen resolution of 1024×768, 26% were using a resolution set even higher, and only 14% were still at 800×600. Granted, I take these stats with a grain of salt as there is a certain type of user who visits W3Schools, and it isn’t my grandma. But, wider layouts are widely adopted now, and I personally believe there is a lot of truth to these stats. Have you seen an 800×600 view lately in your daily life? At the library, at a child’s school? No, you haven’t, and if you have, Oy! Chunky Chunky? Ricki Lakie? It is almost offensive how big everything looks on screen.
I understand the smaller resolutions for those of us with diminishing eyesight, but seriously. Back to the stat, the most telling information is the shift starting in 2006 away from the smaller monitors. It’s not so much that the 1024×768 resolution has spiked, but more that we (as digital consumers) just don’t like big fat 1990’s text anymore on those old less than ladies man looking CRTs. And again, we’re missing quarterly stats for all of 2007 and the months so far in 2008. I am sure the percentages have shifted even more.
So, I moved Rotheblog over to at 1000 pixel wide website, which gives me more areas for my posts to breathe, and a second column for information as well as space for graphical ads. Plus, I wanted to continue to focus this blog more on arcade interests and less on my personal information. I had this big plan to launch Rotheblog 2.5 to coincide with the release of WordPress 2.5. However, Automattic had other ideas, and delayed WP 2.5 at least a week and who knows when the new release will actually drop.
In terms of design, my idea was to be a pure retro design that really said “arcade games”. But I ended up moving more towards some very subtle retro elements and incorporated artwork from my favorite games, Pengo, Jr. Pac-man and Mr. Do! I figured out, once you account for readable links and a website name, there just isn’t a ton of space to play with in the header without becoming too busy. I really only did design for the top portion, I settled on the awesome WP-Premium theme to use to add my own customizations.
For those of you still wanting to read the more personal stuff and can no longer find those links, look over on the top right at the tab called “archives”. There is a complete listing of all of the categories on the website, from my Photo Galleries and Movie Reviews to my own daily news.
So, what do you think of the arcade Rotheblog design?
It is time to get some feedback from you other arcade enthusiasts. What do you like? What would you change? Are there aspects of the site that make it hard to use or confusing? I am open to all feedback to make this the best Classic Arcade blog as possible. Leave a comment with your thoughts.
Pengo High Score – 347,430
Over the weekend I trashed my newly achieved high score in Sega’s Pengo. My score of 226,610 was the first time I had beaten all 16 levels and started over, and I knew that I could break the top 10 Pengo high scores on Twin Galaxies with a touch higher score at just over 250,000. Little did I know that I would just storm my un-official way up to 6th place all time worldwide with a Pengo score of 347,430.
Since that first time I cleared all 16 levels I have done it four more times, and with my new high score of 347,000+ I played to level 40 before I died. I still have my setting at the hardest gameplay, and for a couple of reasons I am still weary about changing it down to the medium difficulty for true Twin Galaxies “tournament” settings.
- The harder gameplay makes me better – Don’t want to have to step down and lost that edge
- I’ll lose my High Scores:(
- I am not going for anything official – yet
In the last week I have been in email contact with Blaine Locklair at Twin Galaxies to find out a little more about the submission guidelines. The high score submissions are fair, but kind of a pain (from turning the game on and off, getting a boot screen, stating name etc.), and right now, I am still small chips on the Pengo high score list. With my current score, I am in a league where the best scores taper off fast with my next closest competitior, Francesco Vasta from Italy, is at 457,400!
In order to be official, I would have to remove my Jrok high score board, and I would prefer not to if at all possible. So for now I won’t worry about high score submissions. If I start to score 800,000 or higher for a couple of games it might be time to think about going for the Pengo world record, but right now I have a way to go. I feel like I can knock off Vasta, and Terry Tanaka at 460,000 and that may be it.
Would you go through the work of submitting a score to Twin Galaxies if you were in the top ten? I want to hear from some other collectors. I am guessing most might say it’s not worth it.
Another missed cocktail deal!
I think that I must be cursed from picking up on any great deals involving cocktail table top arcade games in Indianapolis. Late last week I stumbled across a new classifieds website that contained the following ad;
TABLE PAC MAN GAME 1980 BALLY CO. NEEDS MONITOR GOOD CONDITION SELLING FOR $ 80. CALL FOR INFORMATION ASK FOR ED
Twice in one month I missed great deals on table top arcade games. I called and left a message, figuring for sure that the pac-man cocktail had sold and the seller had forgotten to take the listing down. That was Thursday, and finally on Saturday I got a call back saying, sure enough, that pac-man arcade game sold last month soon after it was listed. (more…)
Atari Quantum Reproduction Artwork
Atari’s famous Quantum is a highly collectible game among arcade gamers for many different reasons. One of those reasons is that, like most Atari games, Quantum has some great artwork giving a idealized illustration of the gameplay. Most hardcore collectors may know that artwork for most of the game has been reproduced, or is in the middle of reproduction. But for those new collectors out there with big dreams of completely remaking their own Quantum, here are some resources in one place for you to find all of the artwork you need.
Joe Magiera’s reproduction Quantum marquees
Which Quantum marquee is the reproduction and which is the original? It’s hard to tell isn’t it?
Joe had a relationship already with Scott Evans, who just one year prior in 2003, went to the old Atari location (renamed to Midway West and later shut down) and saved artwork films, production artwork, and many other goodies from destruction. Joe got with Scott to borrow the original film for the Quantum marquees to print up a small run. The original Quantum marquees were silk screened on glass, and Joe chose to make these repros out of plexi for two reasons; cost and preserving the value of the original marquees. On Joe’s repro, the light blue color used in the main body of the text is a lighter shade of blue than the original. It’s kind of hard to tell in a .jpg image but if you compare an original with the reproduction you can see the difference. Joe went through so many different blues trying to match it as close as possible, and this was the best possible color choice.
Joe Magiera did an awesome job contracting this reproduction job in 2004, and as of this writing (March 2008) he still has some Quantum marquees left. If you are interested in purchasing a marquee, you can contact him with his email from the Google Arcade Collecting Group.
Quantum Marquees Related Links
Google Groups RGVAC Marquee Development Thread
Additional marquee photos on Joe’s site
Reproduction Quantum Control Panel Overlays
A little history – The vectorlist collectors had been looking for an unapplied NOS CPO for a long time. When one popped up on ebay, Tom McClintock, Noel Johnson and Joe Magiera formed an agreement and bought the control panel overlay togther. At this time in 2000, Atari was still in business so it wasn’t possible to use any original artwork films. They enlisted Roy Kaplan to vectorize the Quantum artwork. Roy had a great reputation from previous work he did on Gravitar, Tempest, Black Widow and Major Havoc.
Tom McClintock did most of the leg work from there getting the control panel overlays printed. But the bad thing was that the printer he took the Quantum artwork to, after they delivered the final CPO’s, went bankrupt and didn’t return any screens or artwork back to Tom. The artwork is lost and would have to be recreated from Roy’s original vectorized file.
Screen printed on 10mil Polycarbonate Velvet Lexan there was only a limited number of control panels available and have long since sold out. I am sure a number of die hard collectors got their hands on one, and if you can find out who owns one, you might be able to pay a premium for theirs. You might also contract one of the original guys involved in the reproductions (Tom McClintock, Noel Johnson and Joe Magiera) to see if they have any extras left. Or, you could make another small run of reproductions yourself, but the demand would probably be very low based on the number of original Quantum’s produced and this run of control panel overlays.
Quantum CPO Related Links
Pre-Planning for the Quantum CPO’s on Vectorlist – March 2000
Original Quantum CPO Order Page
Quantum Kickplate and Sideart Artwork
Archer is also in the process of re-creating the Quantum sideart and kickplate artwork. I can’t find an image on his home website of his progress, but here is a proof of Archer’s Quantum sideart from 2006 that I got from Francis Mariani of Ataricade.
Archer has established himself as one of the most accurate in classic arcade reproduction artwork, up there with any of the printers today like Phoenix Arcade, This Old Game and Prok. However, his artwork is produced with a high end inkjet which makes traditional collectors spew obscenities like Adam Sandler in a McDonalds. Some collectors may not be interested in his inkjet artwork, but when you compare the game’s original artwork with the reproductions side by side, I wouldn’t have any arguements about putting inkjet artwork on my classic cabinets.
Here is a thread from last year on the Klov forums. We see reproduction Red Baron and Black Widow sideart that another collector purchased, and Archer comes in to defend himself and his great work. Here is an image of that Black Widow artwork comparing the reproduction vs. the original, it’s amazing;
Archer is a busy man, but eventually he’ll finish off the Quantum kickplate artwork. I wouldn’t suggest emailing him and bugging him about his projects, but here is Archer’s homepage, and the main directory of all of Archer’s work hosted at Ionpool (in case something isn’t linked up from the previous link. Great way to kill some time and drool on your polo as you look at all of the great classic arcade artwork he has produced / is producing. Apparently there was some work that still needed to be done to finish it, and ready to be printed.
Related Quantum Archer Artwork Links
Archer’s Directory of Quantum Images and Goodies
Additional Quantum Oddities
If you take a look through the Quantum directory on Ionpool, you will see a piece of pre-production kickplate artwork. I don’t know if Archer owns that, or owned it and sold it, but here is that kickplate image. Louissurfer on Klov has a photo of this same piece of pre-production Quantum artwork, or has another copy of it.
There are two different versions of Quantum machines floating around. You will probably try to remake the original, but if you are interested in what the pre-production models looked like, Francis at Ataricade (great resource for this post, thank you) has an awesome webpage with photos showing both sets of Quantum artwork, check it out if you are curious (screenshot below).
Quantum artwork has been done, what else?
So, Quantum marquees have been made, sideart is probably in some stage of production, kickplate artwork has been vectorized and is on it’s way, and there is no artwork on the bezel, Atari just had smoked tempered glass in front of the monitor.
All you need to do is find a cabinet, and all of the electronic parts including a pcb (photo), and well…no one said this was going to be easy or even possible. If you manage to find a Quantum pcb and are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for it, you can contact Mark Spaeth to get one of his Quantum / Tempest harness adapters work with the board until you have your reproduction cabinet up and going.
Differences in Quantum and Space Duel / Gravitar cabinets
You will find information on the internet saying that Quantum had the same Atari cabinet as Space Duel and Gravitar, but this is actually not true. Although the cabinet ‘looks’ the same as Gravitar/BW and Space Duel, it’s actually not, in spite of what’s erroneously reported on various websites.
The Quantum cabinet was modified to allow for the extra bend in the control panel (See photo below). That extra bend was needed to allow space for the trackball, which needs more room than allowed in the Gravitar/BW and Space Duel control panels. (Gravitar/BW and Space Duel all use a button arrangement, which takes up very little interior space).
Also, the smoked monitor glass is longer in Quantum than those found in Gravitar/BW and Space Duel, because Quantum uses a vertically orientated monitor (Gravitar/BW and Space Duel all use a horizontally orientated montitor, and thus the monitor glass used on those cabs is smaller).
Back in August of 2004, Hans O had reproduction Quantum control panels and glass brackets produced. Here is a link to Vectorlist talking a little more about those repros. It appears as if Hans O sold out of the control panels, but if he had enough interest, he might be willing to do another run. Here is a photo of one of those reproduction cpanels; (Thanks Lou)
Good luck with your big dreams, you might be best to track down another collector and try to make an exact replica of the Quantum cabinet.
Know anything else about the Quantum artwork?
So, have any of the collectors heard updates on the Quantum artwork from Archer? Who prepaid for a set of sideart / kickplate artwork? Who bought one or more of the Quantum control panel overlays when Archer produced them a few years back? Anyone have a proof image of the Quantum kickplate reproductions? I would also love to have a photo or two of the reproduction control panel and glass bracket, if you would be willing to submit a photo.
