Best way to determine legitimacy of mini marquees?

[primarydirectiv]

Hello everyone and Happy New Year. I've been around for a while now and been collecting since. As someone who directly has access to high-end printing equipment and backlit films, I was wondering what tell-tale signs of reproduction are used to determine veracity of the mini marquees. I assume that the originals are screen printed, as those printing inks have superior opacity, (especially white) to digitally printed inks, but that is still an assumption. Any pointers would be appreciated. I have several duplicates that I would like to list for this forum to thin my collection a bit, but I want to ensure complete transparency before listing anything.

I am a graphic designer and directly contribute to the reality of blurring the lines between authentic and reproduction, but not knowing the history of the originals, I would again appreciate any information which would allow me to decipher between original art and reproduction. Thank you.

 

[max 330 megafartz]

Oh boy.
Well, theyre real if they are stained nicotine yellow or burnt crispy from a bulb illuminating them for 15 years straight until theyre the consistency of Shaniqua’s press-on nails.

 

[JoeAwesome]

I am a graphic designer and directly contribute to the reality of blurring the lines between authentic and reproduction, but not knowing the history of the originals, I would again appreciate any information which would allow me to decipher between original art and reproduction. Thank you.

In other words, you’d like to bootleg them without being detected?

 

[Neo Alec]

Oh boy.
Well, theyre real if they are stained nicotine yellow or burnt crispy from a bulb illuminating them for 15 years straight until theyre the consistency of Shaniqua’s press-on nails.

I agree with all of this, but let me expand on the "Oh boy" for you:

There is no consistency to the print quality that different iterations of SNK and others did over the years. I even have some that are different sizes. Unless it looks old, you'll be hard pressed to know whether you have a really high quality fake without knowing some provenance.

 

[wyo]

None of the repro ones look remotely real, so there's that.

 

[primarydirectiv]

In other words, you’d like to bootleg them without being detected?

No not at all. I was saying that I am capable of doing so. I want to get rid of some of the extra carts, kits and art that I have, and I do not want to mislead anyone by offering a repro-marquee when I think that it is original.

 

[prof]

Regardless of whether your intentions are pure or not, experts posting tips on how to determine authenticity on a public forum is problematic for the hobby as a whole. As you are undoubtedly aware, the market has been flooded with pirate neo geo materials for ages now. I doubt anyone here wants to contribute to that by posting tips which would be easily found in a google search.

 

[Heinz]

Next question will be asking about cart jumper settings.

 

[theMot]

You print ‘em and I’ll piss on them to turn them yellow.

 

[lithy]

Honestly after having bought some repros, if you have ever seen one real one you would never mistake any of the repros for a real one.

I'd actually like to see some better quality stuff out there in this regard, or someone can tell me that I've just ordered from the wrong place but for now I think these are just scans (that themselves are decent down to barely passable) printed onto some photo back lit film.

I'm assuming to do it right they're all going to have to be redone in vector art by someone that knows what they're doing and then figuring out how these were actually printed because the stuff I see isn't right.

They're certainly serviceable, but it would take me a second or two at most to pick out repros, even less time if you can see the backs. The best comparison I can think of is a '10-footer' in car talk.

I'll be picking up decent condition real ones for games I want when I can.

Can you tell which is which?

Lights on


Lights off EL panel illuminated


The backs

 

[BlackaneseNiNjA]

Honestly after having bought some repros, if you have ever seen one real one you would never mistake any of the repros for a real one.

I'd actually like to see some better quality stuff out there in this regard, or someone can tell me that I've just ordered from the wrong place but for now I think these are just scans (that themselves are decent down to barely passable) printed onto some photo back lit film.

I'm assuming to do it right they're all going to have to be redone in vector art by someone that knows what they're doing and then figuring out how these were actually printed because the stuff I see isn't right.

They're certainly serviceable, but it would take me a second or two at most to pick out repros, even less time if you can see the backs. The best comparison I can got is a '10-footer' in car talk.

I'll be picking up decent condition real ones for games I want when I can.

Can you tell which is which?

Lights on
View attachment 82588

Lights off EL panel illuminated
View attachment 82589View attachment 82590

The backs
View attachment 82591

There was also a set of reproduction marquee cards that SNK themselves released back in the SNK Playmore era alongside the Neo Geo Online box sets.

The package contained a nice repro for all the games contained in each box set and if not for the Playmore copyright and “Not for Resale” markings are pretty much identical to the real thing (sans lamp discoloration, of course):

 

[Neo Alec]

lithy, where did you buy the repros from?

I'm surprised anyone makes them at all, but that's maybe just because I don't really care about this. This is one aspect of the hobby I'm really not interested in, myself. I understand there are other people who really care about art and stuff. The minis I have that came with carts are nice to have, but I don't have much need for them. I have a random selection of picks displayed in my 4-slot.

 

[wyo]

Every time this thread is bumped I get annoyed.

 

[GohanX]

bump

 

[lithy]

Let's make this the longest thread in n-g history just for wyo.

lithy, where did you buy the repros from?

I'm surprised anyone makes them at all, but that's maybe just because I don't really care about this. This is one aspect of the hobby I'm really not interested in, myself. I understand there are other people who really care about art and stuff. The minis I have that came with carts are nice to have, but I don't have much need for them. I have a random selection of picks displayed in my 4-slot.

I tried both arcademarquee.com and arcadeartshop.com

All of the arcadeartshop minis were notably darker (and I think too dark) than the arcademarquee ones. arcadeartshop did have a few I was looking for that arcademarquee didn't or they only had fan made ones or the cropped style instead of full bleed and I was just looking for original style repros.