What? How can you have a reproduction Willis overlay? Didn’t they make reproductions already? Not exactly. Willis was in the screen printing business and made lots of the original artwork for some of the major manufacturers, but they also made replacement overlays. The replacement overlays had design elements to relate them to the game they were supposed to go on, but they weren’t exact copies or reproductions. The replacement overlays were targeted to operators who wanted to earn more from existing equipment. Nice looking games earned more money, everyone knew that. The Willis Centipede overlay is one of the few Willis pieces that is well liked by the arcade collectors and enthusiasts, so they tend to be difficult to find, especially in good shape. So yes, this is a new reproduction of the old Willis Centipede aftermarket overlay.
Rich from This Old Game reached out to KLOV community awhile back and asked to borrow an NOS example of the original Willis Centipede, so he could reproduce it. I obliged and now we have a new screen printed version of the Willis classic available for purchase. You can see a screen shot from his website below. While it does not have die cuts, it is on quality 3M materials and is a 6 color design. Willis originally made this in 1982 and the design is pretty cool, with a much more menacing feel from the bug on that control panel overlay. It would be a tough call, but I would consider using this on my Centipede if I was doing a restoration. Do you have the Willis version installed on your game? If you do, drop me a line as I would love to see it.
