Suggestions On Marquee Printing

[InsaneDavid]

I'm working on fishing up my 3/5th size Galaga MAME cabinet and I have something a little special in mind for the marquee. While I don't want to get into the details of the cabinet until I'm finished with it (still don't know the original origin of the cabinet, originally housed a TV and Jakks TV games stick), the original marquee is simply printed on paper between two glass panels. While I could go this route for my replacement marquee, I've noticed the black lets through too much light for my liking. In other words, when it's illuminated it looks like a sheet of paper. I'd like to use the existing glass and sandwich the new marquee in between as things are now but that's where the uncertainty sets in.

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga002.jpg
(it's not as bad as it looks in pictures)

For those who have created custom marquees, good quality custom marquees, any and all help would be great. What materials did you use? Thickness? Printing type? National location or website you had it printed at? I guess my main goals are to get something that can slide between the glass panels and that the black parts will block out more light. My new marquee design will essentially be the same as the arcade Galaga marquee.

It'll be about three to four weeks until I'm able to get back to the cabinet to finish it up (currently at another location) so I have until then to get the marquee sorted out and printed. As the cabinet is smaller than normal size, the marquee is going to be 18" x 7".

All that remains is the replace the marquee, put in a wireless mouse, PS/2 extension to the back of the cabinet to allow a keyboard to be plugged in externally when required, and I plan on bumping up the monitor size another two inches to 17" (maximum that will fit - original display in this thing was 13" horizontally).

She's coming along pretty nicely...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/MiniGalaga001.jpg

Again, any assistance would be great, thanks!

[NYLatenite]

I'm going back through my records now to try and find the company I used to have custom marquee art printed, as I was insanely happy with the way mine came out.

With a little luck, I'll post the info shortly.

[NYLatenite]

Found it faster than I expected -

The place I used was MameMarquees - http://www.mamemarquees.com

One thing to note is that at the time, they wanted you to include a high resolution sample of the art you wanted printed (If I recall correctly, it was suggested it be sent in photoshop format at about 200dpi or so - the file for my marquee came out to be about 60mb)

I went with their "ultimate" material which is sort of a laminated heavy plastic - lights quite well from behind.

Here's a shot of my marquee when it arrived for reference - picture isn't the greatest as my camera sucked, by it should give you an idea of what to expect.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/NYLatenite/marquee.jpg

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I'm currently getting a custom CPO printed from a place that also makes custom marquees. There's a regular posting member named Rikitiki over at KLOV who runs the site called www.thisoldgame.com A lot of people over there seem to be really happy with his work and his price wasn't bad either, which is why I went with him. Like NYLatenite mentioned, a lot of people use MAMEMarquees for their custom art needs and it's a site that's also well regarded over at KLOV. A believe most of the marquees are printed on plexi, as it seems to be more durable than glass with the printing process (and doesn't lend itself to flaking as bad).

[InsaneDavid]

I'm currently getting a custom CPO printed from a place that also makes custom marquees. There's a regular posting member named Rikitiki over at KLOV who runs the site called www.thisoldgame.com A lot of people over there seem to be really happy with his work and his price wasn't bad either, which is why I went with him. Like NYLatenite mentioned, a lot of people use MAMEMarquees for their custom art needs and it's a site that's also well regarded over at KLOV. A believe most of the marquees are printed on plexi, as it seems to be more durable than glass with the printing process (and doesn't lend itself to flaking as bad).

This Old Game had some reproduction CPO's out at the last California Extreme. The work was awesome, I was especially impressed with their Pole Position CPO.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

This Old Game had some reproduction CPO's out at the last California Extreme. The work was awesome, I was especially impressed with their Pole Position CPO.

Well I'm anxious to get mine, and when I get it I'll share my thoughts on it. Of course, whoever you end up going with let us know (with pictures)... because I may need one in the future and I'm always interested to see custom arcade art.