Electrocoin MVS single

[retrogamingblog]

Picked up my first cab, hence all the questions lately!

I managed to pull a video together and you'll even see the sound die halfway through a playthrough on Pulstar - teething issues.

No EL panels, drilling locks, need to redo the CPO, and sort the power cable out.

Anyway, here she is! http://youtu.be/VD5xO7htjcsretrogamingblog2016-03-24 09:10:22

 

[muddymusic]

Nice cabs those. I have the control panel overlays if you want a replacement.

 

[retrogamingblog]

Hi Muddy,

I'm trying to create the art with the halftone effect. I've seen some for sale with a fade. If you have one with the tone effect I'll bite for sure because recreation is a nightmare on my cpu!

 

[muddymusic]

Ah no halftone on mine, I just can't ever get it to look right using solvent printing. It works best when screen printed and I never found a cost effective way of getting that done, certainly not with the lamination as well.

 

[Steeker]

Ah no halftone on mine, I just can't ever get it to look right using solvent printing. It works best when screen printed and I never found a cost effective way of getting that done, certainly not with the lamination as well.

Muddy, I am guessing you have dissected your fair share of cpos....as a rule on screened laminated ones is the ink applied to the base layer or the back of the clear?

 

[muddymusic]

It was originally ink screened to adhesive vinyl then a clear pinseal lamination applied on top.

 

[Steeker]

It was originally ink screened to adhesive vinyl then a clear pinseal lamination applied on top.

OK, cheers I suspected that would be the case...cut a long story short I have a final fight CPO that started to delaminate and was surprised to see that was screened on the reverse of the clear

 

[retrogamingblog]

I'm quite close with the half tone. Just trying to nail the burgundy backdrop which isn't working out. If I get it right I'll fire the files your way and you can use/add them if you think they're good enough to go.

I'm not sure how you could set this up for screen print nowadays. I was a screen printer way back and we never used halftone/fades - that was airbrushed on limited runs, the style was after my time as thermal prints were in. So unless it was setup in the artwork then transferred on to Amber (which was what we used) - then again it would still need weeding which would be insane on such an effect.

Was it in the print process the halftone had issues or in the setting up artwork? I'm struggling as CC just can't cope with the vectors of the halftone. I'm gonna keep pushing though. Might just take a bit longer than I thought.

retrogamingblog2016-03-24 13:47:50

 

[muddymusic]

I had pretty unsuccessful results with both the prep and the print, horrible moire patterns usually the worst thing, and difficult to judge how things will vary from on monitor to actual print. I had a couple of ok results with some smaller black and white stuff and some smaller decals where I manually copied each dot and softened the edges but that's the only way I could get it to work at all. Sounds like you really know your stuff for the different techniques so I expect you'll be able to get something nice done.

 

[Steeker]

Amberlith is no longer used for screen printing, nowadays its either film positives with photographic emulsion or a fancy printer that prints the positive straight onto the coated screen

Given the age of your cab chances are the CPO would of been screened using spot colours rather than CMYK process screen printing.So to prep your files for print you need each colour on a separate layer and also figure out which order the colours were printed in then add trapping accordingly.... Oh and also work out if they used any translucent ink and what pantone colours they used....a veritable minefield!

Steeker2016-03-24 14:48:36

 

[retrogamingblog]

The prints in my CPO are not great. The registration is all over the place and I was considering copying these.

The halftone I've produced is not perfect, not exact. But it's in a good direction.

halftone illustrator test

 

[Steeker]

Yeah I doubt a massive amount of care would of been put into printing these originally! So if you are gonna go digital maybe copy the misregistration? But if you are gonna go for screen printed its best to start with bang on registration to allow for it to wander off a touch rather than starting with something wonky and it gets even worse! Looking at your halftone test that won't be suitable for screening as all the colours need to be solid in order for the screen to burn successfully.... Hence why halftone was invented in the first place

Steeker2016-03-24 15:05:53

 

[retrogamingblog]

Setting these up for digital prints, I need to add white speaks within the fade, maybe adjust the spread. I only know one screen printer and the setup cost would be insane for a print! Digital is the way to go.

Going back to screen printing I do remember using lamps and a reverse black image on acetate to burn a positive - and peroxide was also used to expose. I never questioned what that process was - I just did it. We used inks called Vinylglaze (I think). This process must have been used for halftone as we used it for very fine detail work only.

Never forget the smells!

 

[Steeker]

Vynaglaze

again peroxide is no longer used...photographic emulsion supersedes that process. And yes one print from a screen printer would be crazy money...its all about the bulk orders with screen printing

 

[retrofabs]

Really nice arcade, lucky to have this as your first! If you still have this and ever want to sell I'd happily take it off your hands!

 

[_Matt_]