Asteroids Restoration

whitefox

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Donor 5 years: 2016-2019, 2024
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This is my entry for a $100 Asteroids acquisition this monday from a spring cleaning sale posted by ec Amusements on craig's list.

I ended up also getting a Sega Turbo for $100, and had a friend pick them up for me with his trailer. The guys at ec Amusements were very helpful in getting them loaded and tied down correctly. Great place overall, hope to get some more deals like this from them again!

Asteroids was sold not-working and in the early stages of restoration. Some wood-bondo has been already done as well as an early sanding. Overall, the cabinet is in great condition physically, there's only minor bangs here and there and no major loss of wood, and absolutely no water damage that I can see. It just looks like hell right now. :)

Inside the cabinet is just very dusty, after looking at the pathetic power cable and the caked-on dust on the power block, I'm not going to plug this thing in. Found the usual random bits of plastic inside, and .35cents.

The marquee is in excellent condition, and the control panel has a new overlay just put on. Some early work on cutting the holes out has been done, and that's it. The plastic bezel for the front is in rough shape, thankfully those are easy to come by. I will try my hand at fixing this up from other posts I've read before I just get a replacement. The cardboard overlay for the monitor is all there and looks great.

The coin door is completely fucked, it has a large dent in the front, but the mechanisms on the back look to be fine.

So after the work I've done on my Asteroids Deluxe restore, this should go pretty smooth since it's a more basic cabinet than AD is.

Resources:

Parts:

Supplies:

Videos:
 

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A few more interior shots

Interesting that the power block is put in upside-down compared to Asteroids Deluxe, makes sense since the power cable comes out the left side instead of the right.

PCB was removed for testing which will be discussed in the next post.
 

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PCB test in Asteroids Deluxe

The first, easy thing to do is throw the Asteroids board into Asteroids Deluxe and see what happens. No game. Flipped into test mode and got the test-pattern and wavy lines.

Alright, let's pull all the IC's out and clean the contacts with 200grit sandpaper, DeOxy and replace. A few of these chips were nearly blackened on one side.

So much for an easy win, this didn't correct anything.

Here's a quick instagram video I took of the failure. Probably can't hear the odd noise from the video either, but it's there. Anyone with experience know what this might be?

I do know that some work has already been done to this board, there is a very obvious replacement that looks odd to me, why is there a wire on top of this (see photo attachment)? Should that be connected to something?

Looking at some of the other IC connections, there may be some lifting occuring. Some of the points don't seem to be soldered too well. This may just take some time to resolder connections.

Also, does anyone have an idea what that yellow sticker on the back of the board means?
 

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I've seen eBay auctions with the yellow tape.... so whomever that seller is is probably where this board originated from.

Someone tried to 'restore' this game by buying (likely an untested) board off eBay, and it didn't work.

The crystal appears to have been replaced with one from a different game, make sure it's value is correct.

Are those wire links on the underside on the RAM chips ?

Some asteroids boards have traces that life easily when removing components. If I had to guess, that happened where those links are (on the top side), and they've been bridged on the bottom side.

This board has had some lesser quality work done on it.

In the areas that have been worked on, use a DVM to see if any pins are shorted (side by side pins) that shouldn't be, and check continuity in each direction from the work.

I recently repaired an asteroids board. a couple of traces had been lifting under a RAM repair and were making intermittent connections. I used really thin PCB repair wire (I forget the proper name), and cut the traces back to where they were not lifting, soldered on the wire, and brought it into the through hole... then I put in a dual wipe socket, and soldered it all up. Rock steady after the repair.

The best way to remove a chip (if you get into that) from PCBs that have easily lifted traces is to use flush cutters and cut the legs of the chip then desolder each leg using an iron and needle nose pliers. If it is a socket you are removing, work the plastic off and then desolder each pin individually. Once the chip or socket is removed, clear the holes with a desoldering iron, a soldapult, desoldering braid, compressed air (air, not duster spray which may be flamable).
 
The yellow tape is most likely choochooarcades.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/choochooarcades/m.html


The extra wire on the crystal is just there to help hold the part down mechanically. This should be a 12.096MHz crystal. On some Atari boards (e.g., Tempest), the crystal is mounted 90 degrees rotated from what it is on Asteroids, and there is an extra hole for that pin, just to help keep it from breaking off.

Asteroids boards originally used the crystals that stuck up vertically, but had very thick pins, which made them harder to break off. That's a thin-pinned part, which someone tried to mount vertically. It can work (if it's the right frequency), but it'll be easier to get caught on stuff and snap off. Clip that pin off, and tape the part down at least.

I have new low-profile crystals that I replace a lot of Atari crystals with. They're the same frequency, but in a much smaller package, and sit low to the board.

If you need other help repairing the board, feel free to PM me.
 
The yellow tape is most likely choochooarcades.

Good eye, it does look like it could have come from him.

I'll let you know on the parts, I need to go over this whole board and probably build a shopping list, we'll see.
 
Let's get naked

Minor progress, removed the marquee, speaker, etc., coin-door, and random stuff in the cabinet (found an IC down there) and vacuumed the decades of dust so I am not breathing that in as I work. Starter is missing on the fluorescent light fixture.

Took a heat gun and removed the side vinyl, it didn't come off as easily as my Asteroids Deluxe did, but I only have one side to remove since work was started on the other.
 

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DeLaminated

Spent a couple days in 90° with a heat gun in the garage trying to get the other side of vinyl artwork off. This was tough because it had been sanded down. I was going to leave it and paint over it, but changed my mind. A lot of areas are too thin to heatgun off, the vinyl has been married too much into the wood. Most of it is off, however, so this shouldn't be a problem after some additional sanding and the coats of paint to follow.

Removed the front laminate on the kick panel. Started off by dabbing a cloth into some acetone, padding and dripping it along the top part to get it started. Took less than a minute to see the laminate start popping off from the wood, which is all I needed to wedge a putty knife in between and start separating it. Every once in a while I pulled the laminate back and poured a little more acetone down into it. Wait a quick moment and you can practically pull it apart without much effort. I almost had the entire laminate piece off without breaking, but it was already cracked where the two holes were drilled for a locking bar thing.

Next step is patching up the wood.
 

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The first, easy thing to do is throw the Asteroids board into Asteroids Deluxe and see what happens. No game. Flipped into test mode and got the test-pattern and wavy lines.

Alright, let's pull all the IC's out and clean the contacts with 200grit sandpaper, DeOxy and replace. A few of these chips were nearly blackened on one side.

So much for an easy win, this didn't correct anything.

Here's a quick instagram video I took of the failure. Probably can't hear the odd noise from the video either, but it's there. Anyone with experience know what this might be?

I do know that some work has already been done to this board, there is a very obvious replacement that looks odd to me, why is there a wire on top of this (see photo attachment)? Should that be connected to something?

Looking at some of the other IC connections, there may be some lifting occuring. Some of the points don't seem to be soldered too well. This may just take some time to resolder connections.

The hum you hear may be because it's as Asteroids board plugged into an AD cabinet. There were differences in the audio sections and AR boards that lead to that symptom so that part at least may not be a problem.

The yellow wires on the backside are to fix a bungled repair as others have said, and you should leave them in place. They aren't factory but the pins they are connecting should be connected.

The fact that you get the crosshatch and no tones in self-test implies that the program side is OK and you have a vector-side problem causing a regular reset. Grounding the WDDIS point will probably change that to a more sporadic reset... try it and post a video of that.
 
Blobs of wood

Filled up some holes with DAP Plastic wood on the front kick panel where a large bolted bar went over the coin door, and 4 holes on the back door where screws were drilled in. This game must have been in one hell of a location to warrant all this additional security. There was also a deadbolt lock screwed onto the top of the back door.

Here's a photo of the one remaining coin counter mech which reads 84,106, yielding $21,026.50

Replacement metal door came in from RobMcRaf from his on-going salvaging of stuff. That has one coin counter reading 51,598, about $12,899.50.

I assume I'm doing the math right on this. :p
 

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Are you pleased with the DAP Plastic Wood? I'm working on a Millipede and I'm trying to find a solution for a small broken section. The downside is that since Start used full side vinyl, that small section would obviously not have vinyl on it.
 
Are you pleased with the DAP Plastic Wood? I'm working on a Millipede and I'm trying to find a solution for a small broken section. The downside is that since Start used full side vinyl, that small section would obviously not have vinyl on it.

Yep, the stuff is easy to work with. It can look like a giant blob when you put it on and let it dry, it's all in the sanding that you do afterwards to shave it down and make it fit if it's a corner. Place a portable heater in front of it to help with drying time.

I'm guessing you are not going to replace the entire vinyl. :)
 
Motherboard Mayhem

After a bit of silence, a lot of updates to post. Let's start with the motherboard!

KLOV member cwilbar chimed in after posting my motherboard dilemma and mentioned he does repair work on them. So I took him up on his offer. And I'm glad I did! Here's his final repair log:
  • Removed RAM and sockets @ D2 & E2
  • Repaired traces in the D2/E2 area
  • Installed dual wipe sockets @ D2 & E2 and re-installed RAM chips
  • Diagnosed bad 74LS244 @ C2
  • Removed 74LS244, installed dual wipe socket and installed a replacement 74LS244
  • Diagnosed bad 74LS08 @ B8
  • Removed 74LS08, installed dual wipe socket and installed a replacement 74LS08
  • "Burned in" in for about 1.5 hours, played a dozen games, no more faults.

His diagnosis and work took quite a bit of time and tedious analysis. I can't say enough about his excellent PM updates on the work he was doing. This was arduous to say the least on his part. Well worth it, as I don't think I could have done this considering I do not have the equipment and extended knowledge for this. Can't say enough good things about his work and communication!

And while he worked on the board, I worked on the board. Boards. Wood. The cabinet needed a lot of that, as you'll see in a few more posts.

I attached a couple before and after photos of the board. He really cleaned this up, removed the jumpers and undid a lot of poor soldering and trace work.

Here's a quick video of the board playing in my Asteroids Deluxe (upside down of course).
 

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Paint. Sand. Repeat.

This post may see a few edits over time.

This game differs greatly from my Asteroids Deluxe restoration in that someone started sanding over the old artwork. Well, I heat gunned that shit off. However, sanding over the old stuff would have worked just fine I think, it was fairly smooth when I bought it. I couldn't get all of the old vinyl off because it was sanded so thin it wouldn't want to peel off. Now, some of this came off when I was sanding it down after heat gunning it, but some of it remained, but it was all very smooth in the end.

For a base coat I used Kilz white primer oil base, and a top coat of latex matte black paint.

Two coats of primer, Two coats of paint.

I made a noob mistake on the first coat of primer and put it on way too thick. I had to really sand this down with some rough grit. It was worth it.

In the end the vinyl artwork went on smooth and flat, despite some air bubbles that occurred. I will say I do not like vinyl artwork with that protective layer crap on top. It made it a bit more rigid and difficult to know that bubbles were forming. I did not get a single bubble on the Asteroids Deluxe artwork from Pheonix Arcade. Also, there's a noticable difference in the black from the printed artwork and the surrounding area. The printed black is glossy and the outside is matte. Not a huge deal, but noticeable nonetheless.

The primer took a good while to dry. The first coat I left on for about a day. The second coat I let dry for about two days because I couldn't get to it right away. The top coat paint dried very quickly, but I still let it dry overnight before sanding.

In the end it was worth the work, I had the smooth finish needed to get the flat surface desired for the side art.

Kilz Exterior/Interior Oil Based Primer
Behr Interior Flat Black (home depot)

Diablo 60 grit
Warroir 150 Grit
Mirka 220 Discs
Mirka 320 Discs
Mirka 400 Discs



All sanding was done with a 5" variable orbital sander:
  • 150 grit initial sanding
  • 220 grit sanding
  • 320 grit sanding
  • Primer Coat
  • 60 grit sanding
  • 150 grit sanding
  • 220 grit sanding
  • 320 grit sanding
  • Primer Coat
  • 220 grit sanding
  • 320 grit sanding
  • 400 grit sanding
  • Black latex paint coat
  • 220 grit sanding
  • 320 grit sanding
  • 400 grit sanding
  • Black latex paint coat
  • 220 grit sanding
  • 320 grit sanding
  • 400 grit sanding

Sanding process using the orbiter used 2 discs per side, moving left-right. Halfway down, mid control-panel, I switched a new disc on, moving fairly slow on the primer passes and first layer of top coat paint. Once I hit the bottom, I made my way back up, sanding in between the edges of the previous pass. I just kept the same disc on for this upward pass. The final pass, I moved a bit quicker. For the back/middle part, one disc was enough. I did run along the sides of the very top and back before doing left-right to ensure I got the edges.

Be sure to wear a face mask while sanding!
I can't stress this enough. I did not wear one during one pass with the paint and I felt the caked up muck in my nose for a few days afterwards. Yes, I was a mouth breather for those days. I can only imagine what that did to my lungs. I placed a fan behind the cabinet to blow out of the garage so none of this crap would get into the ventilation system of the house (yes, the idiot who designed this house placed the heater/AC unit in the damn garage).

I did try using a 2000 grit wet sanding pass, but it didn't seem to make a huge difference with this matte paint.
 

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A few more artwork install photos

Gotta give a big thanks to John's Arcade and his Journey videos. He lets the camera roll to capture everything, helping immensely on filling in the mystery stuff that a noob like me wanted more info on. Be sure to check out the videos in his Journey series for all the wood working, painting and sanding goodness!

So here's a few more follow up photos of the vinyl side art application. Again, following the awesome video by This Old Game on Installing Arcade Side Art, the process went fairly similar even with the top protection layer. It was heavier to work with, and the pre-cut artwork was pretty close with not much room on the overhang. Still, I was able to heat-gun the entire thing to wrap it over the edge. I like how this looks when the molding is attached.

Pulling that protective layer off was an unnecessary, arduous task. I don't see the point for it.
 

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