Asteroids Repair -- what am I getting myself into?

hindered

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I might be picking up a couple of Asteroids cabinets (one is Asteroids and one is Asteroids Deluxe) which I haven't seen yet. They both "worked 7 years ago but I haven't used them since", which I know means "they don't work.

If I picked them both up, with the goal of combining them into one good, solid, working machine, and selling off the extra parts, what am I getting myself into? Monitor problems, board problems, power supply problems... what seems likely and what's the worst case?

I do not plan to do any restoration to the cabinets -- if both cabinets are in poor shape, I'll be passing on the deal.

EDIT: I guess my real question is: Should I even bother doing this? Am I really setting myself up for heartbreak, frustration, and a money pit, or should it be relatively easy to get together? I'm relatively competent with a DMM and a soldering iron... I understand it's hard to successfully predict odds of success with such a lack of information, but still.. I guess I'm looking more for advice like "Asteroids is easy to repair and maintain! Go for it" or "Vector monitors are impossible to keep up and running -- don't bother unless you know it's a good one" etc.
 
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Go for it as long as the price is reasonable. I almost passed on one because I had no idea what it would need. I was in the same boat you were, should I get it, is it worth my time? The guy I bought it off of got it off a guy a year or two before who claimed that it only needed a board. Since I was so far removed from the last guy who actually saw it running I figured it would be a nightmare. The one thing that has gone right for me in this hobby is that the game only needed the board, it was my personal "it's only a fuse" moment. I was prepared for the worst and got lucky. Worst case scenario you should be able to get 1 working monitor out of the two, the rest of the stuff is readily available online. Do it!!!
 
Where would people recommend going for Asteroid board repairs?

Have a friend with an asteroid with a bad board, he had it repaired at (Eldorado?? I think) and a few weeks or so later it died. He says the voltages are fine.
Its been at least a year since it broke(mabe longer

Saw lots of bad stuff in the past year about Eldorado, and GLS1 Electronics. Last I saw Mark was moving and not doing repairs and I'm not finding much in searching here...
Thanks in advance.
 
Where would people recommend going for Asteroid board repairs?

Have a friend with an asteroid with a bad board, he had it repaired at (Eldorado?? I think) and a few weeks or so later it died. He says the voltages are fine.
Its been at least a year since it broke(mabe longer

Saw lots of bad stuff in the past year about Eldorado, and GLS1 Electronics. Last I saw Mark was moving and not doing repairs and I'm not finding much in searching here...
Thanks in advance.

Mrbill08 on here is supposed to be the Asteroids repair guru... I would PM him if you end up needing board repairs.

http://forums.klov.com/member.php?u=38470
 
Where would people recommend going for Asteroid board repairs?

Have a friend with an asteroid with a bad board, he had it repaired at (Eldorado?? I think) and a few weeks or so later it died. He says the voltages are fine.
Its been at least a year since it broke(mabe longer

Saw lots of bad stuff in the past year about Eldorado, and GLS1 Electronics. Last I saw Mark was moving and not doing repairs and I'm not finding much in searching here...
Thanks in advance.


Also, www.arcadesolution.com/

Andre' is a friend of mine and has fixed many many Asteroids machines....
 
As far as fixing the boards I recommend Alex at Elektron Forge. He fixed both of my boards. Both games shouldn't be that difficult to fix, it's just going to take you a little while to figure it all out. I would try to save both games if possible.

http://www.elektronforge.com

FYI there is a repair section in these forums where this should have been posted. Good luck.
 
As far as fixing the boards I recommend Alex at Elektron Forge. He fixed both of my boards. Both games shouldn't be that difficult to fix, it's just going to take you a little while to figure it all out. I would try to save both games if possible.

http://www.elektronforge.com

FYI there is a repair section in these forums where this should have been posted. Good luck.

+1 for Alex; he fixed my Sea Wolf boards and was very thorough. Game plays awesome...
 
Go for it as long as the price is reasonable.

What would you consider reasonable? He's asking for too much for them in their current condition, but how low do you think you need to go before it becomes reasonable?

Assume two cabinets, complete, cabs are in good condition (good enough to build one excellent cab out of the two if necessary), but both monitors and PCBs are unknown.
 
i dont see how you can combine 2 to make 1 when its not even the same game. Honestly, if the idea is to end up with only one working, and yet both cabinets are nice, then you should pass and just spend your money on a working game elsewhere. We dont need another game parted out for the wrong reasons.
 
Where's Chris25810 with his axe when you need him?! :D

I've personally seen descent condition Asteroids machines that are dead sell in the $200/ea plus or minus. I know I could pull that EASY for a dead but descent Asteroids, even in the crapo economy. Therefore, if they're both nice condition cabs I would think as a pair $300+ Once you get an Asteroids / Atari vector game repaired and dialed in they're actually pretty damn reliable.

Parts are plentiful, boards are available, the monitors can be a PITA to diagnose but don't be scared, there is alot of help here on KLOV and all the resources/parts/links that you'd need to get 'em both running!

Also I agree with ArcRevival, don't part out a complete dedicated classic cabinet unless it is trashed... If its solid let it live!!
 
i dont see how you can combine 2 to make 1 when its not even the same game. Honestly, if the idea is to end up with only one working, and yet both cabinets are nice, then you should pass and just spend your money on a working game elsewhere. We dont need another game parted out for the wrong reasons.

They're both in Asteroids cabs. Just one has an AD boardset from what I understand. Just for you, I think I'm going to make one good machine, and paint the other black, MAME it with 2p capcom layout, 2 trackballs and a flightstick.

Better yet, I'll just leave them in the dude's basement, where they've sat powered off with no monitors in them for the past seven years. Surely that's much better than one being played in my apartment and the other parts going towards fixing someone elses machine. Done and done.

EDITED again to add: Sorry if I'm unnecessarily bitter here, but I'm really tired about people complaining about people parting out machines and not saving cabs on here. If I can get both up and running cheaply, cool. If I need to gut one to get one good machine, I'm going to do it. If I end up not wanting one of the cabs, I'll give it to someone who does. If nobody wants it for free, it'll go by the dumpster.
 
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I've personally seen descent condition Asteroids machines that are dead sell in the $200/ea plus or minus. I know I could pull that EASY for a dead but descent Asteroids, even in the crapo economy.

Looking at ebay completed auctions shows fully working ones selling for $150-175 right now. To be fair, one did sell for $311, but another didn't sell for $150.. Regardless, I'm skeptical that a dead one is worth $200 right now, especially locally where machines sit on CL for weeks/months unsold.

FullThrottle said:
Parts are plentiful, boards are available, the monitors can be a PITA to diagnose but don't be scared, there is alot of help here on KLOV and all the resources/parts/links that you'd need to get 'em both running

Yeah, the only problem is that I don't want to sink too much money into it. Maybe I should just take Arcs advice and spend $200 on a functional machine and leave these two in the basement.
 
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If you are trying to fix an asteroids "cheaply" with little or no experience, you're kidding yourself. Leave them in the basement or pass the deal on to someone else. Good way to make connections. Now if you love Asteroids and want to jump into the hobby and learn a ton and can spend the time and some money, go for it. Two cabs gives you an awful lot of parts to get at least one game up and running.
 
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