OK, I got my camera back (well, long story, it's actually a brand new one, same model....
So it was time to test it when I got home and what better way to do it than taking some shots of the CPO.
I ordered this from Mamemarquees.com. I chose for them mainly because I have the Irish built Centipede which has the lighter (brighter ?) blue. All other Centipede CPO repro's I've seen are the dark American style.
So thank you Scott for being able to get the right color !!
Talking about color, let's show the pics:
(All pics at once here and you can download the FULL size pictures if you want here:
http://gallery.mac.com/andre.huijts#100081)
First look: Nice deep blue, good colors, great detail. Looks great !
OK, let's compare a bit with the original CPO:
and another:
That blue is spot on !! The structure of the new repro is somewhat finer, but the total effect is not hurt by that. Feels really nice.
Very, very nice ! The green and yellow are a very nice match too !!!
Remember that the original is 27 years old so it has suffered a bit from hands, light etc. I think those colors are a perfect match !!
So it is 100% perferct ? Regretfully, not 100%...:
There's some color differences in the "rainbow part". However, that's not too noticable. The part that is white on the original and striped on the repro....I think that my original has faded there. There are some of those stripes visible on the other side with the same graphics (in mirror, not on the pic). But that's all not too important. The most noticible is the color differences with the slashed stripes on the right. That's a rather noticable difference...and also the spacing between the lines is different and that's strange, as everything else seems perfect sized.
Same color is also used in the middle part of the CPO:
And now for an interesting one:
Look at the line around the red area.....blue on the repro, pink on the original. This may be one of those US/Irish color differences. You see this on the Marquee as well. The US has dark blue (purple ?) parts f.i. where the Atari logo is, on my marquee it's pink there. Not a real problem, I actualy think the blue looks better
Now I guess Scott printed this from the files from that other company that stopped the repro production (I acually don't remember the name !). So I guess these things are in that file.
Overall, the CPO looks fine, and I'll use it on my cab, no-one else will notice this (it's nothing like the Galaxian misprint I had before (for the record, that one was NOT from mamemarquees.com !!!))
Maybe Scott can touch up the file for any next customers, but then again, I guess he'll sell the American/dark blue version a lot more. Anyway Scott, if you read this, I can send you the scrap pieces I still have if you'd like so you can compare.
I'm really pleased with the overall quality and colors of the CPO. I was a bit afraid about the blue color, but it's top-notch !
The only thing that worries me is that I will have to make the holes myself. Especialy the trackball hole maybe tricky. The Galaxian CPO I got from ThisOldGame.com had the holes right in there....but I guess it's a lot more work if you don't run a series of CPO's for a certain game.
Anyone has any tips on safely making the holes ?
[Edit] It suddenly dawned upon me that I could cut out the trackball hole after the CPO is installed on the CP.....duh. However, this won't be true for the start buttons, as the holes in the metal were made bigger because of the funky fruit-machine buttons that some dork fitted on there.... but that won't be too much of a problem.
AND I should be ashamed of myself that I did not first look for this:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Applying_CPOs