I recently acquired an Asteroids Deluxe cocktail from a great fellow KLOVer in KC. I am hoping to get it cleaned up and working to donate to my son's school auction coming up towards the end of April. This is something my wife volunteered me for. 
I am calling is a cleanup, because I do not have the time or skills to do what I think would qualify as a restore. But I am hoping that I can get it to a point where someone would want it and be happy with it. It appears to be in pretty good shape. I have already started taking it apart and ordered things like cap kits for the PS (big blue), AR, and PCB, plastic end plugs for the legs. I thought I would go ahead and start chronicling it here in case anyone finds it interesting or useful.
Hmmmm...I guess I will break this down into sections and go from there.
First, cosmetics...
The glass seems decent, but the underlay is not as good as I would have hoped. I am assuming that the original art was silk-screened onto the glass? This looks more like decals. There are 4 decals for the signs in each corner. And then a decal for the outer black striping and the inner black strip around the monitor. All of it was coming away from the glass where you could see the air in-between the glass and decal and the stripes were cracked in places. One of the signs in the corners has discoloration where it looks like some liquid, probably soda, leaked under the glass at some point and stained the decal. When I removed the glass, I was not aware that there was an adhesive strip under the outer black stripe. It was not doing anything at all on the side I initially started lifting, but it was still grabbing on the other side and pulled the stripe off in pieces. I wasn't too worried as I felt the stripes needed replacing anyways.
I looked everywhere for an overlay for an Asteroids Deluxe cocktail with no luck. Asteroids, yes. Deluxe, no. I am thinking I might order the Asteroids overlay if it is the same size and cut out the areas with the 4 corner signs and then see if I can clean up the existing signs on mine. I also have a line on a possible complete top that I could just replace mine. I will know more about that this weekend. It will be a little more expensive at the least, but may be more cost effective and desirable than the alternative.
The inside corners of the top, above the control panels, have some mild swelling to the wood. I am guessing that this is common with these things. It's not too bad and I think it is only noticeable because the top is removed at the moment.
The rest of the cabinet wood seems pretty good. The legs are even in pretty good shape with very little rust. The 4 caps for the legs need to be replaced and are on order.
When I cleaned out the bottom of the cab, I saw what I thought was going to be a coin stuck under a piece of the side wood. When I got it out, I was happy to see it was a key. It fit in the first lock (both locks were in the open position when I got it) and it turned. I then tried the second lock and it would not go in. Upon closer inspection, I saw that a key had broken off in the lock. I removed the lock and brought it to work. Luckily a guy at work had a set of small picks and tweezers, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling, I got the key out. I have yet to confirm if the other key fits, but I am optimistic.
The CPOs are dirty and cracked. TOG has them on their site, but shows as out of stock. I emailed them and Kendra replied saying that they will try to do a run soon. In time for the upcoming auction I hope. If not, I have seen some others that say they are fro Asteroids Deluxe but have the silver stripes instead of gold.
I think that is it for cosmetics for now.
Next, the electronics...
The game plays blind. So that is a good sign. But, I am thinking I should do cap kits since someone else is going to end up with this and I want them to have a good experience and not have it die 3 months after they get it.
PCB looks great and all original. It doesn't appear any work has been done to it in the past. (I need to look closer. This is based on a very quick look when I removed it and put it in a static bag.) Cap kit on order.
AR board also looks good and all original. Cap kit on order. From what I have read, I really want to make sure this is in good working order.
PS is very dirty which is to be expected sitting in the bottom of the cab. The big cap is blue, and so I assume original. Replacement ordered. I also ordered the bridge rectifier, but I am curious if I really need to replace the old one if it is working. Do those break down over time?
On to the V2000. This was not working. It was already diagnose as needed a new HV diode and 2 new ones came with it. You could see discoloration of the metal on the HV box. I read up on discharging and was going to order a resistor to put inline, but I read that the HV diode is what is in danger of being damaged and since I was already going to replace it, I thought I would take the chance.l, I guess since it had not been powered up since early Feb, it had discharged since then. It did nothing when I shorted the anode to the frame.
Once I opened it up, the damage was obvious. The boot that should have been on the wire to the flyback was missing. The bare wire was sitting against the metal wall and looked like it charred the wall so bad that it discolored the other side. From what I read, I will be soldering the new diode to the wires and then using silicone to insulate it. I also have a cap kit ordered. Just hope the transistor? is ok that was on the other side of the cage wall.
Start buttons look good. Coin door is all intact and should cleanup good. Coin box is there but the lock is missing. I have looked all over, and I can't seem to easily confirm if it is the same as the cabinet locks or not. Were they usually keyed the same or different? And even if the lock is the same, the cam is obviously different. If someone knows what I need here and where to find it, I would appreciate any info.
Ok, enough for now. I will try to fill in details as I go and add some pictures later.
I am calling is a cleanup, because I do not have the time or skills to do what I think would qualify as a restore. But I am hoping that I can get it to a point where someone would want it and be happy with it. It appears to be in pretty good shape. I have already started taking it apart and ordered things like cap kits for the PS (big blue), AR, and PCB, plastic end plugs for the legs. I thought I would go ahead and start chronicling it here in case anyone finds it interesting or useful.
Hmmmm...I guess I will break this down into sections and go from there.
First, cosmetics...
The glass seems decent, but the underlay is not as good as I would have hoped. I am assuming that the original art was silk-screened onto the glass? This looks more like decals. There are 4 decals for the signs in each corner. And then a decal for the outer black striping and the inner black strip around the monitor. All of it was coming away from the glass where you could see the air in-between the glass and decal and the stripes were cracked in places. One of the signs in the corners has discoloration where it looks like some liquid, probably soda, leaked under the glass at some point and stained the decal. When I removed the glass, I was not aware that there was an adhesive strip under the outer black stripe. It was not doing anything at all on the side I initially started lifting, but it was still grabbing on the other side and pulled the stripe off in pieces. I wasn't too worried as I felt the stripes needed replacing anyways.
I looked everywhere for an overlay for an Asteroids Deluxe cocktail with no luck. Asteroids, yes. Deluxe, no. I am thinking I might order the Asteroids overlay if it is the same size and cut out the areas with the 4 corner signs and then see if I can clean up the existing signs on mine. I also have a line on a possible complete top that I could just replace mine. I will know more about that this weekend. It will be a little more expensive at the least, but may be more cost effective and desirable than the alternative.
The inside corners of the top, above the control panels, have some mild swelling to the wood. I am guessing that this is common with these things. It's not too bad and I think it is only noticeable because the top is removed at the moment.
The rest of the cabinet wood seems pretty good. The legs are even in pretty good shape with very little rust. The 4 caps for the legs need to be replaced and are on order.
When I cleaned out the bottom of the cab, I saw what I thought was going to be a coin stuck under a piece of the side wood. When I got it out, I was happy to see it was a key. It fit in the first lock (both locks were in the open position when I got it) and it turned. I then tried the second lock and it would not go in. Upon closer inspection, I saw that a key had broken off in the lock. I removed the lock and brought it to work. Luckily a guy at work had a set of small picks and tweezers, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling, I got the key out. I have yet to confirm if the other key fits, but I am optimistic.
The CPOs are dirty and cracked. TOG has them on their site, but shows as out of stock. I emailed them and Kendra replied saying that they will try to do a run soon. In time for the upcoming auction I hope. If not, I have seen some others that say they are fro Asteroids Deluxe but have the silver stripes instead of gold.
I think that is it for cosmetics for now.
Next, the electronics...
The game plays blind. So that is a good sign. But, I am thinking I should do cap kits since someone else is going to end up with this and I want them to have a good experience and not have it die 3 months after they get it.
PCB looks great and all original. It doesn't appear any work has been done to it in the past. (I need to look closer. This is based on a very quick look when I removed it and put it in a static bag.) Cap kit on order.
AR board also looks good and all original. Cap kit on order. From what I have read, I really want to make sure this is in good working order.
PS is very dirty which is to be expected sitting in the bottom of the cab. The big cap is blue, and so I assume original. Replacement ordered. I also ordered the bridge rectifier, but I am curious if I really need to replace the old one if it is working. Do those break down over time?
On to the V2000. This was not working. It was already diagnose as needed a new HV diode and 2 new ones came with it. You could see discoloration of the metal on the HV box. I read up on discharging and was going to order a resistor to put inline, but I read that the HV diode is what is in danger of being damaged and since I was already going to replace it, I thought I would take the chance.l, I guess since it had not been powered up since early Feb, it had discharged since then. It did nothing when I shorted the anode to the frame.
Once I opened it up, the damage was obvious. The boot that should have been on the wire to the flyback was missing. The bare wire was sitting against the metal wall and looked like it charred the wall so bad that it discolored the other side. From what I read, I will be soldering the new diode to the wires and then using silicone to insulate it. I also have a cap kit ordered. Just hope the transistor? is ok that was on the other side of the cage wall.
Start buttons look good. Coin door is all intact and should cleanup good. Coin box is there but the lock is missing. I have looked all over, and I can't seem to easily confirm if it is the same as the cabinet locks or not. Were they usually keyed the same or different? And even if the lock is the same, the cam is obviously different. If someone knows what I need here and where to find it, I would appreciate any info.
Ok, enough for now. I will try to fill in details as I go and add some pictures later.
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