Experimenting with Custom Mini Marquees

[TheSegaDude]

So I have a few mini marquees that came with some of my MVS carts.
Some are showing their age. Many looking faded or are yellowing.

I was thinking about printing up some new ones that were more colorful and didn't use any space for showing instructions on how to play the game. I should already know how, right?!
Often the instructions take up about half of the MM.

I wanted to make some MMs with easy to read titles and show off more SNK artwork.

I spent some time searching and found a few nice high resolution SNK pictures and added a title to each. I then emailed them to a local print shop and had them printed on 12 mm backlit film. I think the other option is Vinyl. I don't know which is better.

This is how my fist experiment turned out:



And here's a closer view:



So far I'm really liking the look.

The two issues that bother me most is that it's hard to find high resolution images and titles that are large enough to print well. The World Heroes title is a bit small for my liking. But if I blew it up an larger it really got pixelated.

And the other issue is they get a bit washed out when they are lit. It's OK but I'd like to do better. What you see in the video below makes the 'washed out' issue look worse than it is. It's not that bad in real life.

And here's a quick video of the MMs being lit up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLBbgwWVp30

Any suggestions for improvements?

 

[cr8zykuban0]

you definitely did a great job there man. gives it that modern look and would be a great alternative to the original marquees. I would change the fatal fury marquee though because its fits more of art of fighting

 

[TheSegaDude]

Thanks.
I think you nailed it when you said it gives it a modern look. That's a good way to describe it. It's interesting how different it makes the cabinet look compared to the official mini marquees. I'm kind of on the fence about keeping it looking stock vs. these custom ones. But since it's very easy to make the customs I'll likely keep going with them.

The artwork is great. But I think I should make the titles a bit larger, similar to the Samurai Shodown MM.

And thanks for the tip on the Fatal Fury MM which should be Art of Fighting. I don't know all the series well enough to identify all the differences from the related games. I actually did make that same one with the 'Art of Fighting' title but I read something that made me second guess myself.

I'm starting off by making a single MM for a whole series. Like one that I can use for any Samurai Shodown game and then later I'd like to make one for each specific title (example: sham sho 1,2,3,4 and 5). But I have to find hi-res covers and figure out what game each artwork piece is specifically for.

This is the other version I did with the Art of Fighting Title:



And here's a King of the Fighters that I like the look of:

you definitely did a great job there man. gives it that modern look and would be a great alternative to the original marquees. I would change the fatal fury marquee though because its fits more of art of fighting

 

[Larrs888]

These are fantastic, great work. I really love the fresh designs and hope you can perfect them soon. Whilst I don't have a cab myself I would defiantly be temped to buy something like this to just keep stashed with my MVS carts for the day when I might eventually have a cab. I reckon the modern look of these would suit something like a super neo 29 candy cab pretty well

 

[Neodogg]

I think you are heading in the right direction with these, there are already play instructions in the intro of the game.

 

[xsq]

Not bad. I think I like the classic MMs better, just not into that modern look I guess. I think it's a good approach to make a Marque for a whole series, so you don't have to switch them out that often.

As for material and "washing out", I don't know what happened to the guy* but skinny used to do repro marques that were (supposedly) of a very nice quality. Maybe his threads are a good place to look for what other materials you could use.

Btw. is that a Bust A Move cart in the FF slot? ^^


*(probably everyone hates him because he fucked up in a group buy... or some chat story... or he just didn't have any true reason to contribute after his market privileges were pulled. Meh.)

 

[TheSegaDude]

Yeah, I had the same thought. The game will show us how to play.
Which I always thought was pretty cool. So I'm not losing much without displaying the details on the mini marquees.

I think you are heading in the right direction with these, there are already play instructions in the intro of the game.

 

[TheSegaDude]

Thanks.
My only beef with these is they do not look original and everything else about my Big Red does. But they do look good and I can have them printed up locally so it's easy to get them done whenever I want.

They cost me $8 CAD each from a shop called www.vinylxpress.com

These are fantastic, great work. I really love the fresh designs and hope you can perfect them soon. Whilst I don't have a cab myself I would defiantly be temped to buy something like this to just keep stashed with my MVS carts for the day when I might eventually have a cab. I reckon the modern look of these would suit something like a super neo 29 candy cab pretty well

 

[TheSegaDude]

Where do you get your classic MMs from? Are they original and still looking good and not looking aged? Or repros?

I did find skinny's post when I was looking into how to do this. And I'm starting to think I've got them looking as good as can be. This image below of skinny's MMs look a lot like how mine do when photographed. And just like K-2 said they look better in real life.
And I'm also using EL replacement panels (like in the image below) from Glowhut; which I read on this forum that several people were happy with. *I'm also very happy with them.



I spoke with the print shop again and they say the quality and longevity of backlit film or vinyl are about the same. And he estimated that indoors and not in sunlight they should last for about 8 years or more.

He also told me to make them darker he could 'double hit' them and print the image a 2nd time over first print run. But he said his preference for the double hit would be to only do it if the image would always be lit. I might try one to see how it looks.

And yeah... That is Bust-a-Move in the FF slot.
The wife told me if I want her to embrace the Neo Geo Bust-a-Move must always be in the machine.

Has anyone found a really high res image of Bust-a-Move? I'm not sure how well the one I found will print.

Not bad. I think I like the classic MMs better, just not into that modern look I guess. I think it's a good approach to make a Marque for a whole series, so you don't have to switch them out that often.

As for material and "washing out", I don't know what happened to the guy* but skinny used to do repro marques that were (supposedly) of a very nice quality. Maybe his threads are a good place to look for what other materials you could use.

Btw. is that a Bust A Move cart in the FF slot? ^^


*(probably everyone hates him because he fucked up in a group buy... or some chat story... or he just didn't have any true reason to contribute after his market privileges were pulled. Meh.)

 

[cr8zykuban0]

that art of fighting marquee looks great! and making the letters a little bit bigger would make it look better as well

 

[andsuchisdeath]

Why is Ryo Sakazaki on the Fatal Fury 1 marquee?

Why is Yoshitora on the Sam Sho 1 marquee?

Why is the WH2 Jet cast on the WH1 marquee?

I really don't understand.


EDIT:

I'm starting off by making a single MM for a whole series. Like one that I can use for any Samurai Shodown game and then later I'd like to make one for each specific title (example: sham sho 1,2,3,4 and 5). But I have to find hi-res covers and figure out what game each artwork piece is specifically for.

I would suggest to choose characters that are represented throughout the entire series of the respective games.

 

[TheSegaDude]

I'd love to have characters that are represented in the entire series for a MM that's suppose to represent the series as a whole instead of a specific release but I'm limited to whatever artwork that I can find that is good enough (large enough) to print well.

And I don't yet know the characters as well as you do. I'm bound to make some mistakes. But keep calling me on that stuff! I want to hear about it!

Why is Ryo Sakazaki on the Fatal Fury 1 marquee?

Why is Yoshitora on the Sam Sho 1 marquee?

Why is the WH2 Jet cast on the WH1 marquee?

I really don't understand.


EDIT:

I would suggest to choose characters that are represented throughout the entire series of the respective games.

 

[TheSegaDude]

I think you're right. I will try to make the titles larger for all of them.

I'll need a better image for World Heroes to do that.
Any one have one?
And does any one have a nice high res image for the title of Last Resort?

that art of fighting marquee looks great! and making the letters a little bit bigger would make it look better as well

 

[cr8zykuban0]

I think you're right. I will try to make the titles larger for all of them.

I'll need a better image for World Heroes to do that.
Any one have one?
And does any one have a nice high res image for the title of Last Resort?

it'll make the game title stand out forsure.

that world heroes pic you have would seem more appropiate for world heroes 2 jet in my opinion, the ss marquee would be great for ss5

nonetheless, i think the marquees look nice!

 

[andsuchisdeath]

I don't yet know the characters as well as you do.

I will become a "basketball fan". I can't wait to start making custom posters for my walls with players in uniforms for teams they've never played on!

Have fun. That's all that counts right?

 

[TheSegaDude]

Yeah man, it is fun. And I'll get it figured out.
If there is no artwork out there good enough to represent a whole game series faithfully then maybe I'll scrap the idea and just stick to specific editions.

Help me out here... In the MM for King of the Fighters (pictured in my post above) are Terry Bogard and Ryo Sakazaki in every KOF game? Would this poster not be a good example of something that would do a good job as a MM for any KOF game?

I will become a "basketball fan". I can't wait to start making custom posters for my walls with players in uniforms for teams they've never played on!

Have fun. That's all that counts right?

 

[Boat200]

I spoke with the print shop again and they say the quality and longevity of backlit film or vinyl are about the same. And he estimated that indoors and not in sunlight they should last for about 8 years or more.

He also told me to make them darker he could 'double hit' them and print the image a 2nd time over first print run. But he said his preference for the double hit would be to only do it if the image would always be lit. I might try one to see how it looks.

I do pigment inkjet printing for a living (mainly for artists and photographers) and have printed on an opaque backlit polyester film. If my dream to have a cab comes true one day I might try something similar to what you're doing and use our inkjet machines. Pigment inkjet prints are really stable in regards to light exposure (important here) and good ones can have lots of fine detail and high saturation. Polyester is a solid material choice as well. Not sure what your print shop is using technology wise, but you might ask.

Looks amazing though. Good work. Thanks for sharing-

 

[xsq]

Where do you get your classic MMs from? Are they original and still looking good and not looking aged? Or repros?

No cab, no MMs.