Another stunning scan clean up by KLOV member redfivexw V, thank you kind sir. Your skillful renditions are a welcome improvement to my meager scans. This time it’s the Asteroids Deluxe upright control panel overlay. As is typical with Willis quality, they made die cuts for the controls and hardware, used top quality 3M materials, and 5 colors in the screening process. Sporting the ©WILLIS IND. INC 1981 marking, but no part number, this was cutting edge production work at the time. Having been produced in 1981 puts it about a year after the official Atari game was released which seems to be the standard release window. While the artist is unknown, we can still appreciate the work. Some effort was made to make it feel like you’re looking through the cockpit of a space craft with asteroids in view. Arguably better than the original art on the control panel but likely not good enough for the purists out there. Love it or leave it Willis was producing some amazing work during the golden age of arcades. If you have this overlay installed on your game drop me a line, I’d love to see it!
Never posted about this one on the original site!
It is highly unlikely that Willis got permission or licensure to make replacement overlays from Atari or any other manufacturer back in the 1980s. With the use of different original artwork and no mention of the game itself on the overlay, I doubt they needed to. Willis was producing original art for many of the major manufacturer’s during the height of the arcade boom, Atari included. So its possible the positive working relationships were enough to keep the lawyers at bay. Aftermarket overlays were just a small part of the business afterall.
