Custom/ Repo Virtual On Oratorio Tangram Art from Photographs.

[twistedsymphony]

I'm the proud owner of an original Virtual On Twin unit...

This is what my machine looks like:


...but I'd really LOVE to have Virtual On Oratorio Tangram (VOOT), the sequel which was never released to arcades outside of Japan.
From what I understand only 7 of these VOOT machines ever reached the USA (no doubt all on the west coast) I did discover that "Japan Arcade" in Little Tokyo LA had one as recently as 2011 though living in NH and not having any good contacts in LA I haven't been able to find out if they still have the machine. (they also don't seem to answer their phone or respond on twitter). This is important later.

ANYWAY...

In Japan they not only made a dedicated Twin unit for VOOT but they also made a conversion to convert the original Twin unit machines to VOOT Twin unit machines. this include the new PCB and control panel along with new marquees and new cabinet artwork.

Here is what the Dedicated VOOT machines looks like:


And here is what the Original machined converted to VOOT look like:



As you can see the cabinet it the same as my machine, but the artwork is completely different.

I can find the PCBs, and the control panels do go up for sale every so often, but I cannot for the life of me find a new old stock set of the cabinet graphics. As a result I'm considering trying to make NEW repo art from these images.

Normally I wouldn't even consider something like this but looking at the actual cabinet graphics 99% of it is basic shapes, gradients and text... with the exception of the control panel design all of this artwork is made up of shapes that could (theoretically) be easily drawn by hand as vectors. The hardest part would be the text, but most of the text (such as the VOOT logo and RNA/DNA logos) can be found online.

Here is 100% of the images I've found of this machine:




(a different machine variant but still helpful)
(this one has incorrect seat side art)

That's IT... being that this machine is so rare in the states and it seems as if hardly anyone in Japan takes pictures of arcade machines that's all I could find. HOWEVER that machine in Little Tokyo LA is one of these conversion machine (in-fact that good picture of the side art above is from that very machine, that's how I know they had one) So if I can find someone in that area to take photos for me I might be able to get even better pictures of the machine.

So I'd like to ask the graphics masters on the forum here... is this a crazy idea? how difficult do you think it will be to get done what I'm trying to get done? Any other advice or suggestions are welcome.

For reference here are some images that could be traced to make some of the vector shapes:
http://blog-imgs-35.fc2.com/e/r/w/erwin1/rap_ot240mm.png
http://archive.insertcredit.com/features/virtualonslaught/voot_logo.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418QA4VV9ML.jpg
http://vo-marz.sega.jp/site_e/images/world_dna.gif
http://vo-marz.sega.jp/site_e/images/world_rna.gif
http://vo-ot360.sega.jp/vr.html
http://ot.virtual-on.com/temp/urameshi1109.zip

[twistedsymphony]

I wanted to bump this topic since I'm still wanting to get this done.

I recently managed to source some higher quality photos of the Japanese control panel overlays.

I'm still looking for help with anyone who knows of one of these machines and can get good photos or any graphics artists out there who might be able to make reproduction graphics from these photos.