Spectacular printing service for Arcade art. Must see!

[Justin]

After months of searching and trying diferent options, I finally found a place that will print my custom Centipede Bezel professionally.

I tried printing this thing in 3 places, and the results varied from terrible to 'just OK'.  I was after a professional quality print, something equal or close to a real bezel.  Well, I found it!  Actually someone from the forum pointed this out to me, and it has been mentioned before on other threads.

The place is called http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com/ and the results are spectacular, I kid you not!

They specialize in arcade graphics for CP, Bezels, and Marquees among others.  they will even resize to fit your custom dimensions.  Note that I did not buy any of their own graphics, so I cannot say anything about the quality of their art.  But I sent them my own Adobe Illustrator vector file of the Centipede Bezel I had traced (took weeks to complete the bezel BTW), and I can tell you the print quality is unbelievable.   I consider myself quite the anal person, and I cannot imagine how this printout could be any better.  It can't.  Nope.

If you are planning on printing your stuff, I wouldn't look anywhere else.  Oh, did I mention pricing for this was $35 shipped?  And excellent customer service from them.  Arrived in 3 days or so, and well packed (quite cleverly too) so the vinyl arrived in perfect condition.  

I am posting a few pics now for you to see.  First a picture taken with my digital camera: (at an angle to avoid flash reflection)

[Justin]

This is a scanned version, directly fed from my scanner:

[Justin]

And now a Mega-Closeup.    

The important thing is to note there is virtually no print pattern, graininess, or any other artifact from the printing process itself.    With other prints, I could see grains with my bare eyes.  Not here!!!

[Howard_Casto]

the pictures are pretty impressive, but i would hope so of a print with such a low color count and such high contrast.  Some full color prints, like the tmnt sideart, would make for a better example of their abilities.  

[gprime]

wow that's pretty impressive quality. i wonder how much they charge for shipping to canada.

[Lance]

Looks great!  Can't wait to see pictures of it installed on your cabinet.  Are you just going to apply it on top of your smoked plexi or are you going to sandwich it between another piece of plexi?

[Carsten Carlos]

Congratulations! Looks absolutely great!  
Good news that your neverending search for the ultimate print is over.  

Makes me wish to redo my bezel - sometime I've to print it brighter to look better behind the smoked glass.

Can't wait to see it attached in your cab!

[Goz]

Thanks for pointing out that they do custom printing and including the exmaples.

 Has anyone had bad experiences with them?

 They have a few decent looking CPO's that I am considering and need some side art printed as well.

-Goz

[usedelectronics]

Just one question...
If you send them a "rare" CP overlay that not many people have, to get repro's made, do they suddenly "have" that olay for their inventory?

[Minwah]

Very nice indeed

I wonder if there is anywhere like that in the UK??...

[GroovyTuesdaY]

WOW, did anyone get a look at their GAUNTLET  CPO?
Now THAT would ROCK!  
hehe

I wonder why a few of the side art pieces are so expensive. Its like most of 30- 50.00, but some of them were like 140.00. Whats up with that? lol.

g~

[Stingray]

Looks like a good service. I'll keep them in mind. Thanks for the link.

-S

[Stormy151]

I was checking these guys out when I was looking at getting side art done.  I just may go with them now.  Thanks for the review!

[Karman]

Where are these guys located?  Is it Florida by chance?  

[Justin]

UPDATE:  Look here for mounted bezel pics, and finished cab!

http://www.vesperworks.com/mame/index4.html

[Stingray]

Your cab looks spectacular! The bezel looks great mounted. Love that Cenepede keychain too!

-S

[KevSteele]

I'll second the excellent custom printing done by ClassicArcadeGrafix.

Here's my custom marquee I had done by them:



Great printing, great materials, just a fantastic all around job.

Of course, I've got a full review  

http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/classicarcade.html

Highly recommended!

[Minwah]

UPDATE:  Look here for mounted bezel pics, and finished cab!

http://control-click.com/mame/index4.html

Wow, lovely cab

[Justin]

By the way, any suggestions on how to finish off the TrackBall?  I've been looking for rubber washers that would 'seal' that area nicely, but haven't found the exact size  

[Fat-Johnny]

Check out their site, in the FAQ, about "dithering":

LINKY

Scroll down a few lines, and look at the closeup of the MAME marquee from the "competitor", then look at theirs.  WOW!!!  Thats sharp, saturated, and crystal clear!!

I first heard wind of classicarcadegrafix from RetroBlast, but now I definitely have to order a marquee from them.

FJ

[Justin]

Scroll down a few lines, and look at the closeup of the MAME marquee from the "competitor", then look at theirs.  WOW!!!  Thats sharp, saturated, and crystal clear!!

Those images are 'examples'.  Read: for illustrational purposes only. That second image ("their image") is actually the original vector art file.  This is not a picture/scan of the printout.
How do I know?  I zommed in 500% and you can see a perfectly horizontal and vertical lines, as well as a perfect diagonal line..   (see below).  

But don't worry.  Their print quality is indeed phenomenal.

[OSCAR]

Scroll down a few lines, and look at the closeup of the MAME marquee from the "competitor", then look at theirs.  WOW!!!  Thats sharp, saturated, and crystal clear!!

Those images are 'examples'.  Read: for illustrational purposes only. That second image ("their image") is actually the original vector art file.  This is not a picture/scan of the printout.
How do I know?  I zommed in 500% and you can see a perfectly horizontal and vertical lines, as well as a perfect diagonal line..   (see below).  

But don't worry.  Their print quality is indeed phenomenal.

Thanks, I'm glad you like my perfectly horizontal and vertical lines!  

I actually drew those MAME logos in AutoCAD, if you can believe that.  Then I exported the .dxf file into Photoshop for the rendering.  Classicarcadegraphix.com actually prints the MAME logos I drew on their marquees, they don't print true vector files because the vector files don't exist, other than the outlines that I used in Photoshop.

Nice cabinet, BTW!  Very nicely done, and fantastic artwork!

[paigeoliver]

This is funny reading this, because I think this is the same company that the restoration guys trash all day long. Now I come here and you guys give them glowing reviews.

Of course the resto guys trash them because they use large format inkjet printers rather than screenprinting the graphics.

As far as that goes. It looks fine, but you can tell the difference, easily. In the recent past I have gotten to see one of their Defender marquees, my own repro Defender marquee (printed at Kinkos), and an original. The original was the best, followed by theirs, followed by mine. All were acceptable, but the original did look best.

As far as sending them artwork to reproduce, their website says

All artwork scans submitted, emailed, ftp'd, or provided for inspection or scanned images of artwork we scan become our property and may be reused as we see fit with the exception of original artwork(ie what you create) which we make no claims on. We reserve the right to reuse scans of vintage artwork as we see fit.

I am considering using them when the time comes to create the missing artwork for my City Connection!

[KevSteele]

This is funny reading this, because I think this is the same company that the restoration guys trash all day long. Now I come here and you guys give them glowing reviews.

I'm not sure, but I think you're thinking of "Arcade Grafix" - that's the company that all the restoration guys are ragging on (and with good reason, it appears!)

Very similar names, but they don't seem to be affiliated with each other, as far as I can tell.

Kevin

(mod: added name of other company)

[Stingray]

From their faq:

All of our artwork is made using a proprietary high quality pigmentation process not cheap inkjet dyes. The innovative process we use delivers long-lasting, lightfast prints with an expected indoor life of fade resistance of over 100 years.

I took this to mean that they do not use large format inkjets.

-S

[Carsten Carlos]

I took this to mean that they do not use large format inkjets.

Not necessary - you can get pigment ink for these printers, too!  :)Unfortunately this ink is more expensive and not as good in colors as dye ink. Though I don't know if its that noticeable.

[Justin]

Guys, get over it.  Their quality is SUPERB!    

It's beginning to sound like I am making commision out of this. LOL   I am not.  

[Carsten Carlos]

No doubt about that!

[KevSteele]

Justin,

I'm raving about them as well -- do we sound like shills or what?   (Just to clarify, I have no business relation at all with Classic Arcade Grafix, but after seeing some samples and buying a custom marquee, I'm a big fan of their printing services!)

Seriously, they do great work, far better than any inkjet print I have ever seen, and the materials they use are fantastic (you can even windex the print to clean it)

Kevin

[patrickl]

Could you put a control panel overlay print from them directly on the control panel (as opposed to protecting it under Lexan/Plexi as one would with a regular inkjet print)?

How would you mount their bezel prints? It's says on the site it goes behind the glass, but then you need to put something behind it? What like cardboard or plexi or something?

[KevSteele]

patrickl,

I do think you could get one of their self-adhesive control panels and put it down with no plexi at all. I'm not sure if the overlays are done the same way as the marquees, but if they use the same process it would be very durable.

As for mounting a bezel, the best way I've found is to use two 1/8" pieces of plexi - just sandwich the bezel between them and mount. Keeps the bezel flat and safe.

Kevin

[Justin]

patrickl,

As for mounting a bezel, the best way I've found is to use two 1/8" pieces of plexi - just sandwich the bezel between them and mount. Keeps the bezel flat and safe.

Kevin:  I did just this, you know...?  But the 1/8 plexi is too thin to stay totally flat, and it is too lfimsy/light to apply enough weight of its own onto the plexi behind.   I am trying to figure out how to sandwich this together strongly, evenly across the whole surface.  Perhaps some light adhesive that some folks have mentioned on this site?

[KevSteele]

I guess you could try a 1/4" front with a 1/8" backing plexi, but it depends on how much room you have to mount, and what sort of mounting bracket you're using (it may work with the Happ bezel holders, I'm actually going to try a 1/4 - 1/8 combo sometime!)

Another option is 1/8" tempered glass. It would give you the flatness and weight you need. (Heck, I may have to try that as well!   )

Kevin

[KevSteele]

Just got clarification from Michael at ClassicArcadeGrafix about the whole company confusion:

...classicarcadegrafix has nothing at all do do with arcadegrafix.com, if anyone has made such a connection please set them straight.

arcadegrafix.com is one of the companies that inspired classicarcadegrafix because of their poor quality and, even though not listed by name, are referred to in the faq because they were the supplier of the poor quality starwars marquee shown.

Thanks
Michael

I've seen lots of bad press about Arcade Grafix, but none t all about ClassicArcadeGrafix. (It's a shame, perhaps, that the names are so similar!)

Kevin

[Tommy Boy]

Just got clarification from Michael at ClassicArcadeGrafix about the whole company confusion:

...classicarcadegrafix has nothing at all do do with arcadegrafix.com, if anyone has made such a connection please set them straight.

arcadegrafix.com is one of the companies that inspired classicarcadegrafix because of their poor quality and, even though not listed by name, are referred to in the faq because they were the supplier of the poor quality starwars marquee shown.

Thanks
Michael

I've seen lots of bad press about Arcade Grafix, but none t all about ClassicArcadeGrafix. (It's a shame, perhaps, that the names are so similar!)

Kevin

It looks like Michael has a great product...but I have to ask: Why on earth would he name his company so close to the other company's name when he new they sold inferior products?  It seems like he was asking for this kind of confusion.  This is a good case study for Marketing 101...

[Justin]

No kidding.  Why he chose such a similar name is beyond me.  

[paigeoliver]

Their stuff is STILL inkjet stuff though, just not "cheap" inkjet. I remember a huge thread about them on RGVAC. If it wasn't an inkjet print at all, then their FAQ would talk about the difference between an inkjet print and screen printing, not the difference between a "cheap inkjet" print and their printing. Plus, if they were screen printing then there is no way they could do custom work that cheap, plus they bought several huge high dollar large format inkjet printers on ebay when they were first getting started.

[patrickl]

Their stuff is STILL inkjet stuff though, just not "cheap" inkjet.

What's your point? Of course it's not screen printed, but for a custom job that won't work anyway. The thread starter merely states that his custom print came out better than on any other service he tried.

[KevSteele]

paigeoliver,

Of course it's not screen printed! Can you imagine the cost of a custom one-up silk screen?

No one ever said they were screen printed. It's a fantastic print, done on a durable media. The process used, whatever it is, produces extremely smooth, sharp, colorful prints. That's all I asked for.

Kevin

[RandyT]

paigeoliver,

Of course it's not screen printed! Can you imagine the cost of a custom one-up silk screen?

No one ever said they were screen printed. It's a fantastic print, done on a durable media. The process used, whatever it is, produces extremely smooth, sharp, colorful prints. That's all I asked for.

Kevin

I think what PO is inferring is that their marketing stuff seems to be designed to make it appear to the uninformed as though their products aren't created on inkjets.  Would it have been so bad to say that they use pigmented ink in their high-end inkjet rather than dye used by others and let the customer decide if that's necessary or even a good thing for their application?

Also, as someone already pointed out, the example from the site doesn't appear to be a real sample, rather a plain old CG.  Why not show real work?  If it's really that good the image will speak for itself.


Here are some facts from someone who has been around this stuff for a while...

1: A great print is a great print.  Period.  Not all content requires that latest gazillion dollar printer to do properly.  If you are happy with what you have, that is the most important thing.

2: For photo quality stuff, dye based inks on a good inkjet still give the best bang for buck.

3: Pigmented inks give better longevity, but are still prone to fading.  Much depends on the environment when issues of durability are considered.  UV resistant lamination can also add an extra bit of protection.  Remember, even paint will fade eventually.  "Never fade" claims are unrealistic at best.

4: Pigmented inks also have a reduced color gamut (range).  There are quite a few colors achievable with dye based inks that are not achievable with pigmented inks.

5:  Image quality has to do with many things.  These things include the quality of the source file, ink, printer, RIP (Raster-Image-Processor), MEDIA and finally operator skill.  Any or all of these things can adversely affect the quality of the final image.


Please understand, I am not making any statements as to the quality of the work discussed here, as I haven't seen it up close.  Just trying to help make sure that certain "industry known" facts are understood by those who may not have the background to evaulate some statements properly.

FWIW,
RandyT