It does bear the Willis name and even a part no, so there is no doubt that this version is the actual Willis Frogger reproduction overlay. It will hop on over to the archive. Enjoy!

My example of the Willis Tron cpo is missing the cut out where the spinner decal most likely resided. It was probably removed during the die cut process. I’m not 100 percent sure a spinner decal existed, but I’ve seen plenty of those red top spinners to lead me to believe that they did. I checked the Wico catalog on my resources page, but it didn’t have a picture of this particular overlay inside. If you happen to own the cpo and it still has the cutout in place, shoot me a picture, I’d like to see it!

Another more important difference between the Willis and original overlay is the type of ink used in printing. The original art glows under black light and gives the cabinet its famous look. The Willis artwork has none of these effects, which I discovered when I put it to the test under black light. It just looks black. The last picture in the series is of course what the original overlay and spinner insert looks like. This reproduction is produced by Phoenix Arcade as part of the full set of Tron artwork available at the site. The artwork recreates the original black light effects beautifully and my Tron will be getting this complete restoration treatment shortly. The Willis overlay will be put back in the archive.

The Deep is an obscure game from the late 80′s that appears to have submarines, ships, missiles and sharks in its theme. It is tough to tell if this game is just a variation of the classic sub vs. ship game, or if sharks and other obstacles are actually included. Little information is available about it. If I had my MAME setup running, I could try it out, I suppose. The game was manufactured by Wood Place, Inc. and the US version was licensed by Profit Vending of Glendale, CA. They must have purchased just the circuit boards because the artwork produced by Profit Vending is in sharp contrast to the polished art on the Japanese flyer. (Thanks to TAFA for the flyer image)

If I had to guess I’d say that Profit Vending was simply producing conversion kits. They would buy the game from the Japanese manufacturer and then repackage it with their own bad artwork. The poor quality of the overlay puts it in the same class as many of the bootlegs I’ve come across and I can’t imagine that helped sales. If anyone has any more information, cabinet or game images, drop me a line. Or if you fire it up in MAME, let me know if there are sharks involved, thanks.

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.

The first step was to disassemble the joystick and grind some of the surface rust off the metal shaft. It cleaned up nicely, then I gave it a zinc primer coat followed by two coats of semi gloss and a clear coat. I reassembled the joystick, bending the mangled cherry switch back into correct shape and soldering some new lead wires in place. No problems. Now when I went to put it back on the game I just couldn’t do it. I knew I had a nice reproduction overlay stashed away and maybe it was time to put that on as well. Why not. So, I stripped off the rest of the cp parts and the cpo.

The old cpo came off pretty easy by scraping with a chisel. Its been real hot here in Chicago land, and the cpo was pliable. Now all I have to do is strip the adhesive and sand it down a little. If it cools off I’ll paint it, if not, maybe just a clear coat. I’m also thinking that I should get to work on reproducing the Gottlieb insert that goes on the joystick. The gorf insert is not original and I know a few people that are looking for them. Stay tuned.

A true piece of 80′s cheese, for sure, but if you can get past the airbrushed silkscreen fantasy cover, you will find a few nuggets of classic arcade history.

The first paragraph talks about turning visual ideas into bottom line profits using the Willis illustrators and color psychology as a way to create compelling game art. What? I thought Willis just made those bad replacement overlays? Nope. The images on the inside cover clearly show artwork done for some of the major manufacturers of the day. Assuming Willis used the images as a sort of portfolio of past work, then Phoenix, Carnival, Spectar, Targ and Eagle art packages were all cranked out by Willis. Oh, but there is more.

The next paragraph talks about, “Willis pioneered the reverse-printed, pressure-sensitive, polycarbonate control panel for video games.” Whoa. Now Webster describes pioneer as, “to originate or take part in the development of”. So are we to assume that Willis helped turn around an industry practice of printing on metal control panels (think berzerk, gorf, asteroids, etc) and introduced the industry to a whole new way of thinking? Or were they perhaps just at the right place and time and picked up on the idea from others in the business? They were located in San Jose CA, so it is possible that they were influenced by Atari or the printer doing the work for Atari. I can only speculate without more data at my disposal and sadly much of what is known about Willis seems to be lost to the ages.

The back cover of the brochure highlights some of the comments Willis received from clients such as, Gemlin, U.S. Billiards, Centuri, Exidy and International Game Technology or IGT. So Willis did more than just crank out replacement overlays, they had a hand in the creative development of some true 80′s classic games. Think twice next time you come across that cheesy Willis cpo. Even the cheese has a place in arcade history.

The cpo is labeled “©1982 Willis” and “Wico No 26-3200″.

Willis Robotron cpo

The next one was Stargate which was in fantastic shape, other than missing just about every punch out.  This one is labeled with the “©1982 Willis” but there isn’t a Wico part number on it.

Willis Stargate cpo

The last one is the Zaxxon which was also in fantastic shape.  Just missing most of the punch outs and some minor creasing on the right side.  Great piece of artwork IMHO.  Labeled “©1982 Willis” and “Wico No 26-3163″.

Willis Zaxxon cpo