This overlay is made up of four colors, black, gray, red and blue with the character face utilizing the white paper for its color effect. A pretty simplistic overlay with only one small piece of character art in the center. Character art that was lifted from the instruction card, not even original artwork. The lack of depth in the sunburst pattern, a popular motif in the 80′s, gives the overlay a very flat appearance. This overlay is a poor attempt to represent the game as seen in the Capcom flyer. The control panel overlay has no markings of any kind that might help to identify its origin. The plain white waxy backing paper means it was done cost effectively, or “cheaply”. Solid evidence for bootleg status.

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.

To drop over $2k on a giant, over engineered, metal housing that was going to hold a pair of games is mind boggling. Add in the cost of the two games and you’re looking at a $6k to $8k initial investment before the first quarter even hits the slot! (that’s 24,000 to 32,000 quarters) Wow. The revenues back in the hey day must have been phenomenal for such an investment to have even be considered. “120 on order and 60 shipped”, according to the article, so some must have been on location. Anyone have a photo of one of these beasts in the wild? Now that would bring this story full circle. Happy gaming.