Asteroids Deluxe Cabaret

[ieure]

I used blue t-molding for mine but did not paint the sides. I also used aluminium cones to match the CP silver and colored buttons to draw out some color.

That looks really nice. I think I'm sticking with white buttons, since the Deluxe CPO is more colorful. If/when I ever pick up an Asteroids cabaret, I think black sides and white T-molding. might look nice.

Sweet keyring, too. I haven't found any I like. It'd be awesome to get a metal one in the shape of an asteroid.

 

[toolguy]

Thanks! Oldtymetoys made the key chain, he can make you one too I'm sure. See this thread: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=108774&highlight=tyme

I too wanted to find an Asteroid, if I could that is.

 

[ieure]

Colder weather, holidays, and having my kids full time mean slower progress. I found a few minutes to replace the locks with the ones I got from Bob Roberts. The old ones weren't the originals anyway, had different keys, and felt really flaky. Also installed the new mini marquee YODAinMN was kind enough to part with, and damn does it ever look good:

install the marquee I got from YODAinMN.

This is how the old one came off:

I honestly had no idea how it was even supposed to look. The old marquee was so faded, you couldn't see the 3D aspect of the text.

I only put one bolt back in for a test fitting. It looks like they were painted flat black originally, but I think I'll see if I can find some black powder coated ones to replace them with. Failing that, I guess I'll rattle-can a new set. Put a drop of oil on the one I used, they were all a huge pain to get out by hand.

Huge thanks to Yoda for the marquee.

 

[YODAinMN]

You're welcome. Honestly hated to part with it but it needed to be put to use. Originally, those marquess were riveted and were painted black from the factory. Try to find some flat headed bolts and paint them black. Looks good and glad I could help!

 

[toolguy]

Marquee looks great!

Almost looks like two different marquees.

 

[ieure]

Marquee looks great!

Almost looks like two different marquees.

I checked the part numbers just to be sure, but they are the same.

New buttons came today, so I mounted them up:

The old CPO looks pretty bad next to those shiny new buttons. I used some Goof-Off and a shop rag to get a layer of grime off, and it's looking a bit better… But its days are numbered.

These are the nasty original buttons:

Shot the heads of these carriage bolts for the marquee with two coats of flat black spray paint. Looking really nice now.

I seem to have misplaced some of the wing nuts, so I'm going to have to make a hardware store run soon. I also used the time the marquee was off the machine to attack it with more Goof-Off, as there was some adhesive residue in a couple places.

I'm hoping I have time to attack the CPO next week. Pull and recap the monitor after that, then see about making a new bezel. Get a new big blue installed somewhere in there. The rest of the cab is in pretty good shape, so I think that gets me 95% of the way to where I want to be.

 

[ieure]

Played a couple games after I got it all back together. I am still not great at the game, but I nearly broke my (admittedly unimpressive) high score of 29,500.

After playing it a bit, I really like the game. I had only played an upright before, and I found the large display and backdrop terribly distracting. I like the focus on the gameplay that the cabaret has, and I find myself enjoying the game very much, even more than plain Asteroids.

I still love the Asteroids cabaret cabinet, though.

 

[toolguy]

Does your machine have all the stckers on the back panels like this one?

If not, see the aluminium sticker thread and get them!

 

[ieure]

Does your machine have all the stckers on the back panels like this one?

If not, see the aluminium sticker thread and get them!

It does, but I was thinking of getting a couple spares.

 

[HFK]

Nice. I just picked one up last week. Did AD cabarets originally come with a blue overlay? Didn't know that as mine came without a monitor but a friend had an extra out of a cocktail.

Looking very nice so far.

 

[Paladin]

Yes, the cabarets have a blue gel stuck to the monitor face.

If you want to get your control panel to look even better, go get yourself some 'Magic Erasers'! You won't believe what a difference they'll make.

 

[ieure]

Yes, the cabarets have a blue gel stuck to the monitor face.

If you want to get your control panel to look even better, go get yourself some 'Magic Erasers'! You won't believe what a difference they'll make.

I love magic erasers, but I found that Goo Gone worked better for the CPO.

Spent some of my down time today on the machine.

Pulled the top trim off and block sanded with 40 grit, then hand sanded with 150 & 220. Looking pretty good here:

Shot it with a coat of Rustoleum sandable primer:

Good thing it's sandable, it's really thin. It doesn't look quite so much like an orange peel after drying a bit, but a bunch pooled down on one end because the piece wasn't completely flat. This was after an aborted attempt to spray it vertically — the primer immediately ran all over the place. I'm not too pleased with this stuff, and I don't think I'll be buying it again. Anyone have recommendations?

While I had that piece off, I went ahead and pulled the monitor.

Unfortunately, it looks like it has a WG 15V2000, and not the ElectroHome G05 I bought a cap kit for. There was an ElectroHome G05 manual that came with the cab, so I guess the monitor was replaced at some point. Should have looked before ordering. I needed some other parts for this and Tempest, so I went ahead and ordered (big blues all around, WG6100 caps, AR1/2 caps). I want these games rock solid.

These will be my first cap kit installations. The Atari PS and V2000 deflection boards look really simple. I want to get those under my belt before attacking the WG6100.

I also pulled the control panel so I could strip the overlay off and get it primed and ready for the new one. I'm not sure how to get these cones buttons off, though — do I need a flat wrench to get these off?

 

[Paladin]

The cones are threaded, so if you hold the cone and rotate the switch a little from under the panel it should loosen enough to allow you to unscrew the cone from the top.

 

[ieure]

The cones are threaded, so if you hold the cone and rotate the switch a little from under the panel it should loosen enough to allow you to unscrew the cone from the top.

Awesome, thank you. Looks like one is metal and one is plastic — I guess one or both were replaced at some point.

The old CPO came right off:

After some lunch, I'm going to go get it down to bare metal and prime it.

The trim is looking pretty good, but isn't completely dry:

 

[ieure]

Once I got the buttons off, I attacked the control panel. I use a scraper to get the last pieces of overlay off, then coated it in Goo Gone and let it sit a few minutes. After that, I alternated between a wire brush on my drill and block sanding with 60 grit.

Here's around 30% done:

Almost completely naked:

I touched things up by hand a bit after this, getting the last of the adhesive off the front and rear edges. Wiped it down with mineral spirits to get any residual gunk off, then primed:

It's drying now. I'm not sure if I need to slap a coat of normal paint on that before I install the new overlay or not. I think I can probably skip it. Opinions?

 

[YODAinMN]

Looking good. I did the Rustoleum primer and then shot a coat of black Rustoleum paint on the cp too. Keep updating!

 

[ieure]

Looking good. I did the Rustoleum primer and then shot a coat of black Rustoleum paint on the cp too. Keep updating!

Will do. I don't have a ton of time to work on my games, particularly with the winter weather and short days, so it was nice to get so much done today. And I hope you or someone else will publicly shame me into working on it if I don't update for a while.

I have some nice flat black I'll shoot the CP with tomorrow, after some sanding and another coat of primer. I didn't realize that Goo Gone was such a strong solvent — some got on the underside of the CP and ate through the paint there, so I'll touch that up as well.

I got some textured finish, which I was thinking of putting on the upper trim, but I think I want to see what it looks like first. It would be good for a coin door.

Also ordered some repro cones today to replace my mismatched ones. I was going to spray them both flat black, but then I discovered that one is plastic and one is aluminum.

 

[ieure]

Sanded down both pieces today with a block sander and some 220 grit paper. It cut through the primer really easily, then clogged up quickly. I really don'y know what I'm doing here, but that doesn't seem right. Shot both with more primer anyway and they are drying overnight.

 

[ieure]

Still rockin' this project. Primed some additional bits of the panel and touched up the underside where the Goo Gone stripped off the paint. Shot the plexi retainer with Rustoleum hammered finish. Don't particularly like it, so I might sand it back down and use either a flat black or satin finish. I have the flat already, so probably that.

Recapped the monitor today. It was unmolested, with no repairs and a healthy coat of dust on everything. Cleaned it up and installed new caps and transistors. It looks way better, but the main problem is still there. When there are lots of objects on the screen, everything is fine. When there are few objects, portions of the display are invisible. So the start of a level is great, but it's a huge pain to deal with the satellite or UFO when you can't see where they (or you) are. It's not completely blind, stuff phases in and out, and is worse in the center than the edges. Really weird. If anyone has seen this before and knows what's up, let me know.

I have a new big blue, bridge rectifier, and AR1 cap kit ready to go tomorrow. I'm hoping the monitor problems are solved by those, otherwise I'm not sure what to do. New tube, maybe? It could use one with less burn.

If the weather is good, I'll finish painting the control panel and install the new overlay in a couple days when it's dry.

 

[HFK]

Judging by the test screen shots you posted I would say the tube is fine. Put in your new parts and see how it goes.

While you were in there did you reflow all the header pins on the monitor boards? Always do the solder on any part the gets plugged or unplugged and check all other connections. Make sure you reflow on the AR, those pins get abused.