Apparently Willis was a hotbed of activity, with production deadlines and customers clamoring for artwork so they could ship cabinets to buyers all over the country. Long work hours and tight deadlines often mean that the little projects don’t get as much attention, especially if they aren’t big money makers. From my interview with David Willis, I got the impression that while there was a need for replacement overlays, it got started as a project so Willis would have something to display and sell at the tradeshows! This Willis Gorf replacement control panel overlay is a prime example of quick turnaround. Sure they produced it with top notch screen printing work, die-cuts for controls and quality paper. But the artwork portion was done quick. Get a general feel for the game and crank something out so it can hit production, probably as filler between the larger runs done for game manufacturers. The artist did manage to sneak in a Gorfian on the overlay, which is amusing, but the Willis men are missing and the text logo is an early version “© WILLIS IND. INC. 1981”. The artwork may not be as cool as the original metal panel screen printing, but it is cleanly done and well organized. It gets the job done if you needed to spruce up your game to earn more tokens back in the day.
From the original Tokens Only post…
Nothing from the old website version about this Willis Gorf CPO, so another first!
Not an uncommon overlay to find and I’d say not the most popular just because it isn’t as exciting as the Galaga or Centipede overlays. So if you are trying to collect Willis artwork, you should be able to find this for a reasonable price. Still a great piece of arcade history and if you happen to have one installed on your game I would appreciate a few pictures to share! Thanks.
