So I did some digging through my archives to figure this out. I re-read my 2009 post about The Wico Willis partnership. If you check out the catalog pages in the old post you’ll see another centipede overlay clearly listed, and it has the exact same part number. Well, minus the “00″ at the end, but otherwise identical. So the same part number exists for two pieces of artwork, but why? Here are a couple examples I have of the overlay from the Wico Willis catalog. Some genius decided it was a good idea to trim off the top and bottom, so its impossible to read any identifying marks, but you get the idea. So what’s the scoop on these?

My guess is that sometime after the Wico Willis partnership dissolved, Wico decided to make their own control panel overlays (or maybe they had made them previously, I just don’t know). Wico would have used their own printing company, possibly a vendor they had been working with for awhile and that company just didn’t use 3M paper products. They whipped up their own artwork and just kept the catalog part number on the front. I mean if you’ve already sent out a couple thousand product catalogs with the numbers listed, why change them? Just replace the product with your own and keep selling. Seems reasonable to me.

If you know anything about the relationship between Wico and Willis, or any information about either company, I’d love to learn more. This piece of arcade artwork gets added to the growing archive. Game on!

The overlay’s are only 11 1/4″ tall x 10 7/8″ wide and at first I thought they must be for the Sente Arcade Computer I Deluxe, due to the narrow width. The standard Sente Arcade Computer I cabinet takes a much wider control panel, so it couldn’t be for that cabinet. Even the conversion kit artwork would have had a wider control panel to fit games like Pac-Man, Rally-X, or Bump N Jump. Checking over the flyer images from The Arcade Flyer Archive I was pretty sure the overlays wouldn’t fit either of those cabs, take a look.

What the heck, what cabinet were these for? The seller I purchased them from had two sets, I bought one set. Each set consisted of a CPO that fits over a trackball panel and the other CPO fits a standard button and joystick configuration. Then it clicked. I looked around the flyer archive a bit more until I found what I was looking for. An image of a Bally Sente cocktail table. Hadn’t realized they made a CT version, but it makes sense. Take a look at the Mini Golf flyer snippet, you can see the cocktail table in the lower right corner. So instead of a pair of CPO’s for replacement panels, I had two cocktail overlays, each one for a different control panel!

Below you can see various images of both overlays. They are in excellent condition, printed on heavy duty poly-carbonate with a plain paper backing. The top edges of each overlay has a slight bend, but I believe they were pre-scored to make it easier to install on the panels. The die-cuts are all missing, but they were likely cut out and not punched with tabs as the holes are clean. The backing has some minor peeling, but other wise excellent. I would grade these a 9/10. As for the aesthetics, while the green background, white stripes and gold metallic accent color scheme is OK, it is also very boring. A fun, multi-color overlay would have cost more money and these games were meant to be money savers for the op. Boring is cheap. I’ve never seen a Sente cocktail table in person and a little searching didn’t dig up any photos. If you happen to own a Sente cocktail cabinet, drop me a line, I’d love to see it. If you liked this installment of NOS arcade artwork, please visit my NOS artwork page, where you’ll find more information and a gallery of pieces in my collection. In the meantime, these funky CT CPO’s will make a nice addition to the archive.

The cpo is screen printed with nice die cuts, but on plain white backing. The color scheme is appealing to me, but the mountain range has been done a million times, boring. Overall it is a simple, clean overlay. Not much excitement, but I guess its better than an old worn out original. Not really, but I’ll archive it anyway.

This marquee is reverse screened on glass and in great shape overall, with none of the typical flaking frequently seen when artwork is printed on glass. It was a little difficult to photo graph and even harder to scan. The reflective quality of the glass was creating some weird shadows during the scanning process making the scans worthless. Anyway, a nice marquee for a great game.

The control panel overlay is for Champion Boxing by Video Ware, Inc., licensed by Sega. This game was released in 1983 by Sega, likely in kit form only for conversions. I don’t recall seeing the game on location and considering that Nintendo’s Punch Out was released less than a year later, I imagine Champion Boxing did poorly.

The artwork and color scheme leave a lot to be desired on this piece, but at least it was made with reverse screening on Lexan and backed with 3M adhesive. No die cuts on the overlay which strengthens the “kit only” idea. Let the operator convert some poorly earning game into Champion Boxing. The artwork was pulled right from the flyer but unfortunately they didn’t keep all the color which might have helped. Another piece for the archive.

If you’ve seen this game or have any more information, leave a comment please. Special thanks to arcadeflyers.com for the flyer image.

This one is a standard space theme overlay, meant to be used with any number of space conversion kits or simply as a cheaper alternative to the pricey OEM* replacement parts. Operators were always looking for ways to save money and cheap, generic overlays were just one of those ways. Why spend $60 plus on a new overlay when you could by something generic for half the price. Even with declining profits, the games still required maintenance and cheap was the way to go.

Luckily this overlay was not used to convert a classic into some jamma abomination or other un-classic concoction. It has been made with quality materials, but with just two colors and no die cuts. Button hole locations would have been cut after application. I’ll archive this one before it tries to attach itself to some classic cp. Happy gaming.

*original equipment manufacturer

I started the first steps of the restoration process and unfortunately it wasn’t an easy fix. So, now that I have to pull the monitor and many of the other parts, I might as well do it right. After pulling the marquee and cleaning it up I thought it was worth posting a few pics. It’s in fabulous shape with only one very minor scratch. Hard to take pictures of glass marquee’s, but I did my best. Hopefully I can crank out this restoration over my holiday break. If you want to keep an eye on my progress, check out the restoration section at coinopspace. I’ll be posting a bunch of pictures over there in the restoration forum. Happy gaming!

The Beastie Feastie overlay came from Steve in GA, it was included in the stash of donated artwork he sent me not long ago. The overlay is a salmon pink color, with blue character art and some yellow accents. Not terribly exciting, but one you don’t see too often. You’ll notice that besides the Cardinal Amusement text, there is also text for EPOS Corporation (or Magic Conversions Inc) which likely wrote the game and just licensed it to Cardinal Amusements. The overlay itself could use a good cleaning and I’ll do my best to remove the crud before it gets archived. Enjoy.