Spy Hunter Side Art

Finally! Some art from Arcade Renovations I can complain about! Is this a bad thing? No, it just shows that reproductions can vary from the original. Does this make the art worse? No. Just different.

Now, you may be saying "What in the hell are you talking about??". Let me explain...

I took the Spy Hunter side art over to my friend's house (Shawn) and compared it to his side art.

There are a few things that stood out right away. The first thing was that the corners where cut differently. The corners on the reproduction are a lot rounder than those of the art on the machine. The art was also slightly, and I mean SLIGHTLY (1/32" maybe) smaller in size.

The second thing was that the art is made of a different material than the original. In fact this is probably true with all their art, which is probably due to newer materials being used. This should be a good thing though since it should mean that the art will last longer and be more durable.

When you run your hand over the art on the machine, you can feel the graphics raised. Its also hard to tell the difference where the art stops and the wood starts. This is due to the fact that the original art was a lot thinner. The art from AR has a flat feeling to it and is thicker than the art on the machine.

The last problem that I noticed was that the colors are darker than the original. The easiest places to see this are with the blues and the yellow in "Spy Hunter". However, the whites appear to be a lot better on the AR version than the original. The cars on the reproduction actually look better than the original.

So what does all this mean? It means that if you are going to replace one side, you'll want to replace BOTH sides, otherwise it will look odd.

If you replace BOTH sides, then only the most anal collector would be able to tell the difference.

Would I buy it? Hell Yes. Even with the problems mentioned above the art work is fantastic! The art feels good in your hands and you can tell that it is of high quality. As always, if you don't like it, AR will be more than happy to refund your money. My money says that you wont be asking for your money back anytime soon.