Poll: Researching Defender cabinet art varieties

[Russ]

Has anyone ever determined how many different versions of Defender cabinet art exist?

I decided to take the plunge and fully restore the artwork on my Defender standup.  I originally was going to cut stencils from the excellent Mahuti artwork (see http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/details.php?image_id=5 and http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/details.php?image_id=3).  However when I printed out a work copy and compared it to my machine, there were many subtle, yet distinct, differences.   

A different set of Defender art can be found at at http://vectorlib.free.fr/Defender/. This was closer to my machine but still exhibited certain differences.

For example, notice the differences in the color of the stars, the features on the top left planet, and the details of the spaceman's face & chest:

Mahuti front:


vectorlib front:


Defender s/n 483406 front:


As for the side art, there are similar differences, most notably, on my machine the spaceman has a star shape for his right eye whereas some others do not.  Also, the red background under the word "DEFENDER" on the right side of my machine has perspective lines descending from the letters, whereas on the left, the red background runs straight across.  So, even on a single machine the artwork differs from side-to-side.

Defender s/n 483406 left side:


Defender s/n 483406 right side:


All this has got me wondering how many different versions of Defender artwork were actually produced by Williams (not counting the famous prototype artwork found at http://www.andys-arcade.net/personal/defproto/).   I have seen pics of at least one machine online with a front that was obviously sprayed with the same stencil as mine, and many other Defenders which clearly used different stencils.  As it stands now, in order to perform the most faithful restoration of my machine, I'm creating my own vector art from my actual machine's artwork thanks to Frostillicus's awsome Illustrator tutorial at http://www.arcadecontrols.com/files/Miscellaneous/VectorTutorial_v1_3.zip.

Perhaps fellow Defender owners could take a moment to post pics of their own machines, and comment on their machine's artwork as compared to others.  It would be interesting to see whether a pattern develops, whether a timeline can be established, and so forth.

[FunWithFire]

Remember that those were done with stencils and they weren't exactly trying for perfection as much as speed.
It looks as if the red stencil on your left side is shifted to the left, causing the perspective angles to be hidden behind the yellow paint. Or the person on the assembly line painting them just didn't try too hard.
I would say that the vecotlib file is much closer to original, the only difference I can see is that the paint has some bleed to it from the stencils on your cab.

[prOk]

Actually, there are 2 variations I know of for sure.  Not saying one is right or wrong...

The first variation seems to be tied to those with the silver coin doors originally and most of the european ones.  The single biggest thing that's different about them is the way the spaceman on the sideart faces.  On silver door defenders the spaceman's back is to the back of the cab on one side and to the front of the cab on the other.   In addition, the front from Vectorlib applies to this particular art.

The other variation is far far more common and matches Mahuti's art.  On this one, the spaceman has his back to the back of the cabinet on both sides.

Other than that, i've seen dozens of variations of the little dots around the cab being red, yellow, different patterns, not there at all..   I think it was probably related to many different stencils being used over time.

Oddly enough I recently learned all this when someone bought a set of my defender stencils and made me aware of the differences on his cabinet!

/brian

http://www.oleszakcreative.com  <-- arcade stencils
http://www.rgvac.com <-- my collection and restoration site

[Russ]

FWIW. here's a sample of the front vector artwork for my Defender:



Here's the original:



And for comparison, here's another Defender which was cut from the same stencil - the similarities are clear:

[prOk]

Looks to me like you just have the Vectorlib version.. what do you feel is unique about it?

[Russ]

I agree they're similar, however the thickness and precise shape of the details on the spaceman's chest and the top left planet are different, and so is the precise curvature of the yellow space clouds on the left.  Also, the aspect ratio of the spaceman is taller on my machine:

vectorlib:


Defender 483406: