Of all the funky Willis control panel overlays that exist, this has got to be my all time favorite. The fabulous 70’s color scheme with swirls and patterns that jump right out of the famous sesame street 12345 song. You just can’t go wrong with this particular piece of arcade nostalgia. The Willis made, Galaga control panel overlay, is a fantastic example of the aftermarket artwork produced during the height of the video game boom. This particular piece is in excellent shape with most of the colors still rich and vibrant. The glare from the flash washes them out a bit and the photos do not do this cpo justice.

Considering Galaga was produced by Midway (with a Namco license) in 1981, it didn’t take long for the people at Willis to scoop up the rights to make this alternate cpo, dated 1982. I imagine that new original replacement overlays were still available, so my guess is that Willis was the cheaper, licensed alternative to buying a new cpo directly from Midway. Perhaps this was one way the major manufacturers dealt with piracy, which was rampant throughout the industry. Cabinets, pcbs and artwork were all getting bootlegged. Anything an operator could do to save a buck. Offering the op a lower cost alternative overlay, might keep him from making his own cpo’s and bypassing the system completely.

Tags: arcade history, Artwork, control panel overlays, cpo, Galaga, Willis

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Artwork, Galaga, Willis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.