Asteroids Bezel Yellow or White?

Early games with serial numbers below 18900 had yellow text on the bezels, G05-801 monitors, a copyright sticker on the picture tube and round owl eye coin doors.

Later games with serial numbers greater than 18900 had white text, either 19V2000 or G05-802 monitors, and typical slot coin doors.

Internally, the early games also had a different harness to accommodate the monitor connection. You'll also notice an evolution in control panel construction, with early games containing a plywood control panel assembly under the usual metal panel. The leaf switches on very early games are screwed to this plywood assembly.

Later models used a leaf inclusive button assembly. I'm unsure if the change in control panels coincides with the major changes above serial number 18,900.
 
Makes a lot of sense now, with all the different machines I have come across. Great history lesson, thank you.

One more thing, are the earlier cabinets more desirable?

Early games with serial numbers below 18900 had yellow text on the bezels, G05-801 monitors, a copyright sticker on the picture tube and round owl eye coin doors.

Later games with serial numbers greater than 18900 had white text, either 19V2000 or G05-802 monitors, and typical slot coin doors.

Internally, the early games also had a different harness to accommodate the monitor connection. You'll also notice an evolution in control panel construction, with early games containing a plywood control panel assembly under the usual metal panel. The leaf switches on very early games are screwed to this plywood assembly.

Later models used a leaf inclusive button assembly. I'm unsure if the change in control panels coincides with the major changes above serial number 18,900.
 
Makes a lot of sense now, with all the different machines I have come across. Great history lesson, thank you.

One more thing, are the earlier cabinets more desirable?

That's going to vary from collector to collector and come down to personal taste. There isn't any necessarily disliked aspect of the early or late cabs to differentiate.

Personally I like the later cabs simply because the monitors are easier to fix. The HV diode in the early G05-801's is tough to source and sometimes has to be replaced with a substitute from a microwave.

I do like the bug in the early code and there's something cool about having an easy to cheat coin door along with a monitor that had to bear a sticker since someone forgot to include the copyright in the code.

Early or late Asteroids? It's just not as cut and dried as say Donkey Kong UR verses the CT. The cocktail is *almost* universally disliked because of the tiny monitor and horrible control layout.
 
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