Show your EMDKAY Marquee! And Some Questions on Artwork Printing.

[Vulgar Soul]

Hey y'all. I'm currently designin and shoppin around for my current cabinet build artwork.

I'm leaning on EMDKAY for my marquee because I know he has a good rep right here on BYOAC, his price can't be beat compared to others, and his options are great and inexpensive to!

However, I am curious to see for myself the difference between his LUSTER, GLOSSY, and TRANSLITE BACKLIT marquee materials. If anyone has printed through EMDKAY, I'd like to see how his marquees look, and tell which material you went with!

Otherwise, I have a few questions before deciding how to print my work:

The premium Backlit film sounds nice, but I'm most interested in bare bones, generic authenticity for this build then with extra flare and frills. Which one of his materials was most common for real cabinet marquees back in the day?

CPO artwork printing seems a little more expensive to come by, especially considering my CP art is 37"x14". I might go with gameongrafix for this, but any recommendations on where to get a CPO printed?
Is there anything wrong with a local printing shop instead of an online vendor specifically for arcade stuff?

[darkkniyt]

VS,

Old Time arcade cabs used screen printed marquees that were/are backlit.
The translite material that's being used today mimics the screen printed glass marquees, but is much less expensive.
The material holds up extremely well.
And with today's printers and ink technology, the Dye ink also holds up extremely well.

So, short answer on the marquee:
If you are backlighting it -
Go with translite material with either Gloss or Lustre laminate on top.
I think the Lustre looks closer to "Original", but almost everyone orders the gloss - it just looks much better.
If you are backlighting it and don't get the artwork printed on translite material, you won't be happy with it.
It will not backlite well at all.

As for your CPO, you don't want to go with a local printer unless they've got the material and experience doing arcade prints.
Again, CPOs can be screen printed, but can be cost prohibitive.
To have it printed correctly, it should be printed on an Adhesive-Vinyl with a very durable laminate that has UV protection.
No laminate is required if the CPO art will be under plexi, but if not, you need the right kind of laminate to protect the artwork.
If your CPO artwork will be under glass a gloss laminate is still suggested as it helps bring out the colors.

If you have any other questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
My email is john@basementarcadegrafx.com, phone 517-851-4286
Yes, I run an arcade printing & design business but am happy to help whether people use my service or another.
By the way, GameOnGrafx & Emdkay do excellent work.

John