Top Plate (Marquee?) Recreations

[jugsta]

Hey guys and gals.  I'm fairly certain that this is my first post on the boards.  I just wanted to run a personal project by you that I've been working on in my free time.  

Having been modifying a Vewlix I purchased nearly 2 years ago, I have found myself with a 2560x720 monitor mounted to black plexiglass in the header plate location (where the vewlix logo is).  I've also affixed a 22in 1080p monitor to the top of the housing (this is typically where a "marquee" or instruction set would go).  What I've kept telling myself is that the people who will find themselves playing this cabinet will find the content pretty obscure and that they may need some help getting started.  Because of this I have begun to build a library of native 1920x1080p instruction sets that will be displayed on the upper screen during gameplay.  Strangely, I can't seem to find a picture to share of it (probably because I'm always working on it and there often isn't an opportunity for a photo op).  Anyways, I thought I'd run some of these by you and see if you find the endeavor worthwhile.  

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a purist- I've taken many liberties and shortcuts just to expedite this project.   As it's personal project, I don't mind the imperfections and inaccuracies that may be found within the project.  I have used AI for both translations and image generation (only once so far!).  As I am not creative or artistic enough to generate content, I have reused modified and manipulated a lot of content to keep things moving along.  Using Adobe illustrator- some things have been simply stitched together and trimmed for fit while others have been completely rebuilt in attempt to be as accurate to the source material as possible.  There really is no rhyme or reason to it.  

MISSION:  To supplement my arcade specific library with a dedicated, pixel perfect marquee image and instruction set which will be displayed during gameplay.

SPECIAL THANKS: I really appreciate anyone who has dug up some old original arcade literature/artwork and got it posted to the GamesDB.  I've used countless items from it.  I am also thankful for the third screen plugin created by Superrob3000.  Without both this wouldn't be possible.

 

EXAMPLES:

Carrier Air Wing - Image stitching from the database.  I also found an original instruction page set on another board.  It was a bit tattered and the style was easy enough to regenerate in illustrator.

Life Force - Took some artistic liberties with the source material; recreated the original ship upgrade section

X-Men - I'm pretty proud of this one.  I had to work pretty hard to get all the information on the screen and found a nice way to tie it all together with the diamond plating and Magneto.  Vectorized and translated the original instruction materials.

Triggerheart Excelica - This is a classic example of not having much to work with.  I used a generic template for the controls and tried to put something together artistically.

Guilty Gear Strive - As with most modern games, GGST doesn't have a whole lot of reusable material for instruction generation.  The solution was to make a generic template that matches the backlit move strip on the control panel.  The plus side of this is you can generate instruction pages very quickly.

*Movestrip for reference; printed on transparency paper and looks pretty good in person.

 

 

I have nearly completed the Capcom CPS set and have been pecking away at some of my other favorites.  Anyways- let me know what you think!  I'll post a picture of my setup when I get a chance.