The artist that worked on this one made an effort to do some color and design matching for the layout so the cpo wouldn’t look out of place on the game. He(?) even worked up a cool looking Centipede to add to the CPO, an element that was missing from the original design. Good color, cool Centipede, mushrooms and horizontal stripes. What else could you possibly need? I’ve only been able to find a couple of hacked up versions of this overlay and I’m on the lookout for a nice example. Check out my Willis artwork page for more information about Willis and their history.

I would like to add one of these overlays to the Willis artwork archive. If you have a nice example of this control panel overlay for sale or trade, drop me a line!

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!

Operators were notorious tight wads and didn’t like to spend money on OEM parts, often turning to Willis for their more cost effective products. While not always the best looking, they were better than a worn or ratty original (in the ops eyes at least). So here we have the Willis Asteroids cpo, released in 1981, and measuring in at a whopping 26-1/4″ x 23-1/3″. This thing will completely cover the original metal control panel.

Now with every Willis overlay the production quality is excellent, and this overlay is no exception. 3M backer paper and adhesive, artwork screen printed on lexan, and die cut button holes. This particular example still has the majority of the die cut outs in place. My favorite little Willis men adorn the p1 and p2 buttons, but there isn’t much more to say about this one. Very simplistic, kinda boring, and lacking in color variety. I’ll add it to the archive anyway.

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.

How do I know? There are lots of reasons, the first one is that Willis never copied existing work. I can only assume that because of licensing agreements they were forced to create new art for each piece they reproduced. Take a look at my artwork page if you want more proof. Similarities exist in some cases, but not direct copies. Another reason is the quality. This cpo is printed on some cheaply backed material, not the industry standard 3M stuff. It is also missing the manufacturers text, copyright info and die cuts which were standard on Willis reproductions.

While I was disappointed that this wasn’t a Willis overlay, it is still a unique piece. The one thing that struck me in particular are the odd, ragged black borders. Now the original Elevator Action cpo had rough borders, as you can see in the last image, however they weren’t as bad as this. It almost looks as if an original cpo was pulled from a control panel, ripping it on the edges. Then a photo was taken with one of those giant bellow cameras. Cutting edge back in the 80′s, this piece of equipment would allow a silk screen company to make screens directly from a giant photograph. A little touch up and removal of the Taito logo and bingo, you’ve got an unauthorized copy! Seems like a lot of work just to make an overlay. This one gets added to the archive. (Taito control panel image courtesy of KLOV)

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

However, the original was reversed screened on lexan and the artwork was a little more refined than the Willis attempt. I keep thinking about prismacolor markers when I look at the details. The spinach can highlights and reflective surfaces look like something a student might do in an industrial design class. While this is not one of my favorite Willis pieces, at least the spinach can makes it pretty obvious what game the cpo is for. I’ll add this to the archive.