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Parker Brothers Q*Bert Tabletop Labels
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StephenJ
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 05 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 16 Sep 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Perry Hall, MD

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:13 am    Post subject: Parker Brothers Q*Bert Tabletop Labels Reply with quote

Has anyone refurbished a Parker Brothers Q*Bert tabletop?
If so, I'd like to know how you went about getting scans of the labels.

Thanks,
Stephen
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vcoleiro1
Tiger Jawbreaker


Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 07 Jul 2020
Posts: 221

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 3:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting you should post this as I'm after a Qbert and have often thought about printing a set of stickers for one as they all seem to have terrible stickers (glue spots).

My thought was to get a color scan of the stickers via my color scanner, photoshop the stains out and ensure the colors are right - easy to do in photoshop. Then print them(using a normal inkjet printer) on Gloss Photo Sticker Paper - Done this many times for my micro arcade machines - the stickers produced are excellent.

Check out the stickers I created for my micro arcades here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MblnbUURHjY&feature=plcp
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StephenJ
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 05 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 16 Sep 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Perry Hall, MD

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

vcoleiro1,
First off...GREAT job on the mini-arcades. You are an artist!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the QBert labels...my concern is that there may not be a way remove the labels from the control panel and view screen without destroying them...even beyond Photoshop repair. The ones on the side and top shouldn't be an issue because they could probably be scanned without removing them.
If I ever get this game, and I'm successful in reproducing the labels, I'll let your know.

Keep up the great work,
StephenJ
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
Posts: 1932
Location: California

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It just so happens that I have a very nice set of the side and top stickers that cleanly fell off a game... Cool I didn't put them back on because I want to scan them first... Now I'm motivated. I'll get to it this weekend, and put up .TIFs somewhere for anyone to download. You can still see the glue seepage on them, but they should be nice clean scans otherwise, I'll leave it up to whoever downloads them to clean them up if they want (I will eventually if no one else does, but probably not any time soon).

The marquee bezel I think you can lay flat on a scanner if you take the game apart... I'll see how that works too.

The control panel will be a tricky. I don't think the sticker is loose on my game, so it won't come off easily. I might try a heat gun and see if I can get it to come free... Otherwise, I'll take a high-quality photo of it with my camera and post that. Since it's just a simple drawing of arrows, someone with proper skill can probably make a vector version of it pretty easily (or just clean up the photo and print that...)

I'll let you know how it goes... Cool
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vcoleiro1
Tiger Jawbreaker


Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 07 Jul 2020
Posts: 221

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rik wrote:
It just so happens that I have a very nice set of the side and top stickers that cleanly fell off a game... Cool I didn't put them back on because I want to scan them first... Now I'm motivated. I'll get to it this weekend, and put up .TIFs somewhere for anyone to download. You can still see the glue seepage on them, but they should be nice clean scans otherwise, I'll leave it up to whoever downloads them to clean them up if they want (I will eventually if no one else does, but probably not any time soon).

The marquee bezel I think you can lay flat on a scanner if you take the game apart... I'll see how that works too.

The control panel will be a tricky. I don't think the sticker is loose on my game, so it won't come off easily. I might try a heat gun and see if I can get it to come free... Otherwise, I'll take a high-quality photo of it with my camera and post that. Since it's just a simple drawing of arrows, someone with proper skill can probably make a vector version of it pretty easily (or just clean up the photo and print that...)

I'll let you know how it goes... Cool


That sounds fantastic Rik, I'm sure quite a few people will find it helpfull.
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StephenJ
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 05 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 16 Sep 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Perry Hall, MD

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent Rik!!...Much appreciated.
Stephen
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blanka
Atari Cosmos


Joined: 14 Dec 2010
Last Visit: 13 Oct 2022
Posts: 561
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll give it a go with my macro lens. Problem with scanners is that you get the raster of the print resulting in moiré. With a camera, you can slightly defocus or zoom out if moire occurs. As the lens can focus to 1:2, I can achieve 1400dpi with my camera. Also do you have more options for lighting the sticker, from an angle for example if there is too much gloss or bubbles. With a scanner, it is just full front on it.
Would still need a scan for exact outer measurements.
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
Posts: 1932
Location: California

PostPosted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, there's all kinds of filters in the scanning software and Photoshop for removing the moire effect of print scanning... And they work quite well if you know how to use them properly (I never use the built-in 'DeScreen' options, best to scan raw, and edit in Photoshop). You can also de-focus the image in Photoshop if that's all you are going to do with a camera...

The idea is to get clear, sharp edges of all of the artwork. Then re-fill the colored areas completely, thus it looks like a vector artwork again (and if you have the skills, just make it a vector file, but that's not something I know how to do.)

But even with the Moire, if you scan it at 600 or 1200 DPI, and then print it back to the 1" x 4" size (estimate), you won't see the raster pattern anymore than you can see it on the original sticker. That kind of problem is usually introduced by scanning at lower resolutions, or scanning something small and trying to print it large.

Q*Bert will be a little more difficult in that area since there is shading and gradients in the characters themselves....

You also don't get shine, gloss or bubbles with a scanner (at least, I never have...). You just have to make sure the item to be scanned is completely flat on the scanner. If you can't do that, then you might get less than desirable results...

I have a lot of experience scanning DVD covers and re-printing them to fit into thinner DVD cases (saves shelf space). And, other than the quality of the print and the paper vs professional printing, it's very hard to tell the difference between the original and the printed version.

The most difficult thing with these stickers will be removing the bleed-thru of the glue... I don't think I've ever seen a Q*Bert that didn't have at least a good amount of that (and my stickers have it all over)...

But, one thing to focus on with your photos might be characters, especially if your stickers are clean and bright in those areas. Q*Bert himself, Coily and the red ball. Everything can be cleaned up easily, but the textures on those elements we wouldn't want to loose if possible...

Measurements you can take of the stickers themselves if you want to... But the scans will give a nice template to work on...

Rik
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
Posts: 1932
Location: California

PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, here's an example of what I was talking about:



The first one is the original scan, the second one is with about 20 minutes of cleaning it up... Kind of a quick-and-dirty clean up job to give an example of how it'll look. The shade of red, blue and yellow can be easily changed (and if you were going to print these, you might want to tweak them based on your printer...). I didn't touch Coily, Q*Bert or the red ball at all, but even they could be cleaned up pretty easily. There's an off-set error on the printing (the blue was shifted slighty when it was printed), so that takes a little more work to clean up perfectly... But, like I said, that's just 20 minutes of cleaning... I usually spend a few hours (at least) per sticker cleaning them up to make them print perfectly (or damn near perfectly... Cool ) And, when scanned at that high resolution and scaled back down (via printing) to the original size, the screen-printing artifacts don't show up (the moire patterns).

Maybe others here have more Photoshop skills than I do and can do even better with them...

So far, I've scanned the top, left and right side stickers (those were the ones that had fallen off my game), they are here:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/_Temp/QBert

They are large, 600 DPI scans. I recommend right-clicking on them and saving them locally versus just clicking them and waiting for them to load in your browser. They are about 5-6 MB each. The second one is the .TIF of the cleanup seen above. You can skip that if you want to do your own cleanup work... Or start with that one and do more.

The bezel and a photo of the control overlay are coming...

Rik
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StephenJ
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 05 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 16 Sep 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Perry Hall, MD

PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Downloaded the scans...
Waiting patiently for the bezel and a photo of the control overlay.
I look forward to working on my tabletop.

It's great having you as a resource,
StephenJ
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
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Location: California

PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bezel and Control Panel are up...

Control panel is a .JPG photograph, still comes out pretty good... And, since it's just line art, should be easy to clean up, even rebuild if you want. The 'Start' would be the most difficult thing.

I'll attempt further cleanup on all of them eventually, but they are there if you want them.

Rik
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vcoleiro1
Tiger Jawbreaker


Joined: 08 Jan 2012
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Posts: 221

PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thats awesome Rik, thanks so much for doing all this.
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StephenJ
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 05 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 16 Sep 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Perry Hall, MD

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rik,
Certainly no rush intended on the clean-up of the rest of the scans. But please let us know when they are completed. I will attempt to do them myself but my PS skills aren't the best.

Many thanks,
StephenJ
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slydc
Entex Crazy Climber


Joined: 24 Sep 2011
Last Visit: 16 Oct 2012
Posts: 66
Location: QC, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No need to scan the rest of the Q*Bert labels, i got all the labels on one
sheet that someone (don't remember who) on Digital Press forum some
few years back who did scan all the Q*Bert labels.

So here's the PNG file:

http://www.ccjvq.com/slydc/q_bert_artwork.png

Size of the PNG is about 12 Megs and dimensions are 2543 x 2980
(pretty big file).

But these are untouched. Just kept it this way until maybe one day
i would need to replace the labels on my P.B. Q*Bert.

P.S.: Hopefully that Rik will put this one with the Coleco label scans! Wink


--- Sly DC ---
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
Posts: 1932
Location: California

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

slydc wrote:
No need to scan the rest of the Q*Bert labels, i got all the labels on one
sheet that someone (don't remember who) on Digital Press forum some
few years back who did scan all the Q*Bert labels.


Actually, I already have them all scanned and available for download... Smile

The print screening is really bad on those though, I wonder if that's just how some of them look... Or maybe the excessive glue bleed on mine muted that affect a little, these like they were from cleaner stickers. Looks like they were scanned 300 DPI, that might be why the print screen is showing so well... But with some cleanup they might work too...

The overlay scan is nice though, since I couldn't get mine off the game...

I see the color offset problem here too, must be like that on a lot of them...

Thanks for posting it.
Rik
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