Atari’s Space Duel Sideart
Every once in awhile I get an email out of the blue about an arcade project that really makes my day. Last week, I got an email from Eric (Vector Zorg). Eric has started tracing Atari’s Space Duel sideart from some great scans he pieced together. Eric posted the Space Duel sideart scans he is working with on his website if you want to check them out.
As you can see in the photo on the right, he has his work cut out for him on Space Duel. The Space Duel artwork is beautiful and complex and would take a ton of time to vectorize.
Eric has started a bunch of projects, and from my experience he is like most artists, they take on more than they can realistically handle. (It’s hard to be passionate and talented, give us a break. We want to be involved in everything when it comes to arcade game artwork.) Check out Eric’s vector projects in progress that at some point will make it onto localarcade.com. Most of the marquees, bezels, and side art he has vectorized look complete. I am not actually sure what the artwork pieces need to be finalized, if it is color matching or something else, but the list of artwork he has worked on is a who’s who list of classic arcade games. Some of this artwork has been reproduced over the years, but my guess would be that Eric’s goal is to make the vector files freely available and accurate to all collectors to do with as they please;
- Burgertime
- Jr. Pac-man
- Xevious
- Mario Brothers
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Donkey Kong
- Robotron
- I, Robot
- Galaga
- Punchout
- Popeye
- Crystal Castles
- Marble Madness
- Puckman
- And the list goes on and on…
The start of the Space Duel Sideart
Here is a small snapshot of what Eric has finished so far. Coming along nicely with two of the detailed side art ships finished and ready to roll.
Here are two small snapshots showing the quality of Eric vector tracing work. A closeup detail of the ship on the left;
And a detail image of the ship on the right. Eric asked my opinion, for what’s it worth. But opinions are like buttholes as they say, I have my fair share of ideas about buttholes, and, well, other stuff.
Looking at the original scan, I would have actually kept the polygon shape edges rounded, at a distance they will appear square which was the original intent. This is a nice scan of some fine detail of the Space Duel sideart, so I would have to go with what I see. Sometimes when you trace arcade artwork, you have to make a best judgement call. But after I gave him my opinion, he agreed and went back and changed this portion.
Silkscreened Space Duel sideart in the future?
We’ll have to see. Not only is Eric vectorizing Atari’s Space Duel artwork, he is also separating his colors properly as he goes (which is smart, a difficult process once the artwork is complete) and is talking about having Rich at This Old Game do a small run. Will it happen? I don’t know, that is anyone’s guess. I would say not for a long time. But the fact that there may be Space Duel sideart available to collectors in the next year is promising enough.
Additional Information
Want to contact Eric about his progress? (Be thoughtful, he is a family man) You can email him at vectorzorg@gmail.com about his other great vectorization projects and progress on the Space Duel artwork.
Don’t forget, all of Eric’s work in progress projects are located on his website. The site is in French, but it is still easy to navigate, here is the direct link to any updated images of the Atari Space Duel side artwork.
Of course, check back here and as I am informed I will do my best to add any progress on the Atari Space Duel cabinet artwork.
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.
Tron & Battlezone 3D Animations
Surfing tonight to find a cool piece of coin-op arcade related information to post on the blog. Then I re-visited Peter Hirschberg’s website, which always sticks out in my mind as one of the better arcade collecting related designed websites. Peter works for AOL in VA and clearly has some money put into the video game collecting hobby.
He also has a desire to work in special effects in Hollywood. Here is a video from YouTube showing some amazing computer models of the classic arcade games Battlezone by Atari and Tron by Bally Midway. He does a flythrough of the details on these games, and it is pretty phenomenal if you have any familiarity with them.
Food Fight Kickplate – Bottom Left Corner
Got some time to start on the vector Atari’s Food Fight kickplate artwork.
The colors don’t match obviously, I haven’t done any of that yet. Just getting the base artwork, which was fairly simple to vectorize. The dot pattern in the pie was the hardest part, and that may just be a smidegeon off, but is very close.
