Asteroids Story/Help

jdennis1989

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Hello,

New member here. The other day I thought to myself "wouldn't" it be fun to restore an old arcade machine. So I looked on craigslist, did some looking around and could not find a cheap arcade machine that still works (go figure right lol). Well anyway I come across an old Asteroids machine. This was one of my favorite retro games, so I email the people who have it. He tells me it lights up and sound works but the monitor doesn't come on and is in bad condition. He ends up selling it to me for $75 dollars, and I lug the thing back to my place. I had to pry open the coin door(looked like someone had already done it before) and the back door to get in due to no key. And after doing some looking around inside I spot three fuses in the monitor that look burnt out. I make the trip to radioshack and buy new ones, and put them in. Turn the machine on again, still no sign of the monitor working. I then find the brightness and contrast dials. I turned them and presto! the monitor works! I drop a quarter in and my wife starts playing the game. The screen isnt perfect, infact its almost like it has white squares checkerboarded across the screen flickering away. She doesn't even finish the game because my tape on the back switch falls off(had the door open doing the switches.) When I turned it back on it just starts flickering everywhere, and you can make out the words press start and stuff, but there are white lines going everywhere. Also when I try to drop a quarter in the game wont start. Anyways thats the story so far, now comes that hard part. Does anyone know how deep im really in on trying to restore this thing? The cabinet looks really bad, as you can tell by the pictures. Before you start saying I shouldn't have bought it since I didn't know anything about restoring these things let me say this. I love arcade games, and even though i'm only twenty I really do want to restore this beast back to its glory days. I have done some research and I know that its going to take a lot more research and hard work but I really want to do this, and do it right. So any help would be awsome.

Here is some of my concerned areas.

Cabinet (iv seen online where people are selling side art for it for like 175, is this just a sticker or something? Iv seen some pictures of some arcades restored on here and it looks like repainting it is the route to go. Any insight on the restoration of the cabinet would be great.)

The game itself, any clues why its not working? Im doing some research on it before I go pokeing around on the inside too far because I dont want to ruin the motherboard or monitor.

Also with the cabinet, is it smart to take everything out while redoing the cabinet? also its made out of like partical board on the sides and stuff, is this normal for a cabinet and how hard is it to work with it when its in the condition its in.

Anyways, if anyone would take the time to help me a little I really want to get into this. Arcades are amazing and I love them. Please either post back on here or shoot me an email. [email protected]

Thanks again!
 

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I'm not going to tell anyone not to buy a machine they would really appreciate, as far as the resto you have to start learning sometime and here's a great project to work on.

I'm doing my first (DK) right now, I'm taking my time and doing a little here and there when time and money permits, I'm under no timetable to get it done and the learning process is more imprtant to me.

Good Luck and glad to see you are starting in the process. :)
 
Wow looks like you have an older model Asteroids with the "owl eye" coin door. That funny thing is despite what the rest of the cab looks like, the control panel looks to be in pretty good shape. You can get replacement side art for it to make it look new again, just look at some of the other restorations around here.

Do as much reading as you can on these boards first and you'll have more than you'd ever want to know about Asteroids, its a popular game and my favorite out of mine :) I also think its a great starter game.

With the monitor in that, you're going to have to learn to do some soldering :) The monitor will need all the white plugs on the circuit board resoldered, but before you reach in and start pulling wires, be aware there's high voltage inside a monitor, enough to hurt you bad or worse if you're not careful. Never reach into the monitor while its on, and learn how to "discharge" a monitor before you work on it. (just do some searches). A lot of people make a big deal out of it when its really nothing.

Lastly, those white "interlock" switches on the back door and coin door can be pulled out for testing purposes. Just pull the button out and it'll stay on.

Have fun and welcome to klov!
 
First off I would say that your cabinet is likely restorable. I see moisture damage to the back door but I don't think I saw any real water damage to the cab itself which is good. So yes, you will want to strip out the electronics from the cab before you do the major restoration work. Be very careful not to damage the fragile parts of the monitor (like the neck). Basically handle the monitor by the frame only. As for the cab, you will want to strip away the old vinyl side art. Then the fun begins. You will want to bondo all the imperfections, from cracks, divots, missing corners ect. Once bondo is on you need to sand it smooth to give the cab a nice even surface. After successfully bondoed and sanded you will want to take a tack cloth or an air compressor or a compressor followed by tack cloth to remove all the dust that would effect your paint job. Once all dust free it's time to prime. Once primed you want to sand smooth any imperfections and once again remove excess dust. After this you want to paint your cab. At least asteroids is all black so that's easy enough. Once the cab is painted you can deal with restoring the coin door. This will mean disassembling the parts of the door, cleaning them, sanding if necessary and repainting. You could powder coat the parts if you wanted to but that would likely be more money than most would add to the project. Although some folks do it. I imagine your control panel probably has the typical wear and possibly even rust. If so you probabl;y want to sand this down to metal, paint and buy a new overlay for the control panel. The overlay is basically the art work reproduced on a silk screened sticker with a protective coating. I believe there are two options for asteroids. A full control panel size and a smaller one that is just the area where the actual art existed. Now for that side art you mentioned. Yes it is basically a big sticker but it is a high quality silk screened sticker. At least that is the version you want. There are ink jet printing of side art but silk screened art is better quality. Yes the art costs like $150 or $175. Can't remember the exact cost but it's not cheap. If you went this far you probably also want to replace the card board bezel. The art work right in front of the monitor in case you are aware what a bezel is. At this point I believe the cosmetics would be done. Now it's on to the electronics. Luckily there are sources of info for asteroids to help figure out what your issue may be. Of course weather you can fix this yourself or not will depend on how good you are with electronics. If you can diagnose the issue you may be able to send the parts that have issues to be repaired or possibly repair them yourself. It's a lot of work and sometimes a lot of money but it really is fun until you end up with more projects than you have time and space.
 
Wow looks like you have an older model Asteroids with the "owl eye" coin door. That funny thing is despite what the rest of the cab looks like, the control panel looks to be in pretty good shape. You can get replacement side art for it to make it look new again, just look at some of the other restorations around here.

Do as much reading as you can on these boards first and you'll have more than you'd ever want to know about Asteroids, its a popular game and my favorite out of mine :) I also think its a great starter game.

With the monitor in that, you're going to have to learn to do some soldering :) The monitor will need all the white plugs on the circuit board resoldered, but before you reach in and start pulling wires, be aware there's high voltage inside a monitor, enough to hurt you bad or worse if you're not careful. Never reach into the monitor while its on, and learn how to "discharge" a monitor before you work on it. (just do some searches). A lot of people make a big deal out of it when its really nothing.

Lastly, those white "interlock" switches on the back door and coin door can be pulled out for testing purposes. Just pull the button out and it'll stay on.

Have fun and welcome to klov!
Thank you Orion!

Ya Iv already been warned by my dad about the monitor voltage. Not sure how to discharge it or what tools I would need, but I will do some research before I touch it lol.

On the cab itself, what should I do? Im still thinking it over but I thought get everything out(somehow without screwing the stuff up) sanding it down, fill in the chunks thats missing with wood putty, repainting it black then buying new side art for it. Any advice on that since you have done one of these before? Seems like that partical board will be difficult to mess with.
 
I haven't done much restoration myself but many others here have. I think you're right on track with basically stripping it down, removing the side art, repairing the wood but probably with bondo (seems the thing to use), sanding then repainting and getting new side art.

Good luck with it!
 
First off I would say that your cabinet is likely restorable. I see moisture damage to the back door but I don't think I saw any real water damage to the cab itself which is good. So yes, you will want to strip out the electronics from the cab before you do the major restoration work. Be very careful not to damage the fragile parts of the monitor (like the neck). Basically handle the monitor by the frame only. As for the cab, you will want to strip away the old vinyl side art. Then the fun begins. You will want to bondo all the imperfections, from cracks, divots, missing corners ect. Once bondo is on you need to sand it smooth to give the cab a nice even surface. After successfully bondoed and sanded you will want to take a tack cloth or an air compressor or a compressor followed by tack cloth to remove all the dust that would effect your paint job. Once all dust free it's time to prime. Once primed you want to sand smooth any imperfections and once again remove excess dust. After this you want to paint your cab. At least asteroids is all black so that's easy enough. Once the cab is painted you can deal with restoring the coin door. This will mean disassembling the parts of the door, cleaning them, sanding if necessary and repainting. You could powder coat the parts if you wanted to but that would likely be more money than most would add to the project. Although some folks do it. I imagine your control panel probably has the typical wear and possibly even rust. If so you probabl;y want to sand this down to metal, paint and buy a new overlay for the control panel. The overlay is basically the art work reproduced on a silk screened sticker with a protective coating. I believe there are two options for asteroids. A full control panel size and a smaller one that is just the area where the actual art existed. Now for that side art you mentioned. Yes it is basically a big sticker but it is a high quality silk screened sticker. At least that is the version you want. There are ink jet printing of side art but silk screened art is better quality. Yes the art costs like $150 or $175. Can't remember the exact cost but it's not cheap. If you went this far you probably also want to replace the card board bezel. The art work right in front of the monitor in case you are aware what a bezel is. At this point I believe the cosmetics would be done. Now it's on to the electronics. Luckily there are sources of info for asteroids to help figure out what your issue may be. Of course weather you can fix this yourself or not will depend on how good you are with electronics. If you can diagnose the issue you may be able to send the parts that have issues to be repaired or possibly repair them yourself. It's a lot of work and sometimes a lot of money but it really is fun until you end up with more projects than you have time and space.
Also thank you P1899M,

Very informative and eactly the kind of help I was looking for. Thanks! I will likely stick around this forum, im very impressed with the amount of users with experience and knowledge.
 
Welcome...

Here are a few suggestions for you and your restoration:

1. Take pictures before you do anything. This will help you when you start to put the pieces back together. I also suggest you take pictures of each step that you do, so you can relive your restoration when you are done. These pictures will also help when you need help. Posting pictures helps all of us diagnose problems faster.

2. You also may want to do one item at a time.

3. Remove most of the innards so the cabinet is not so heavy while you do restoration (paint, bondo, side art, etc.). Finish the cabinet and move on to the monitor, etc.

4. Don't rush the paint and prep steps. This shows up in the final product.

Hope this helps for starters. I think you will have a great time, some ups and some downs. In the end it will be very rewarding...
 
welcome to the forums! im 23 and have a 1982 space duel that im restoring and everything you need to know/learn to restore your game can be found here, these people really know what their talking about, also watching as many videos and read as many sites books etc on soldering and desoldering so you know what to do and what not to do, thats what i did and i have learned alot, so good luck and cant wait to see it when your done
 
Ok so i fired the game up again, this time the monitor isn't working really. I can see a couple of lines and thats about it.

While tinkering around I saw a black switch on the inside, to the left of the coin door. I flipped the switch and it beeped three times and then a long beep and everything stopped but the marquee light. Is that like a reset switch or something? See picture.
 

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Today was the first day I had a chance to work on the arcade for more than two seconds. I decided that I would gut the cabinet and and start sanding it down sometime this week. I have fully cleaned it out, carefully, and took tons of pictures so in case I forget how it goes back together I have a reference. I also put different section screws and stuff in baggies and labeled them thanks to a great idea from a member here.

So here are a few pics of the empty cabinet. This is starting to turn into a fun ride. If anyone has any tips or concerns of something i'm doing wrong please tell me, I wont hate you for constructive advice.
 

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Ok so i fired the game up again, this time the monitor isn't working really. I can see a couple of lines and thats about it.

While tinkering around I saw a black switch on the inside, to the left of the coin door. I flipped the switch and it beeped three times and then a long beep and everything stopped but the marquee light. Is that like a reset switch or something? See picture.

You found the self-test switch and it sounds as if one of the RAMs on the board is bad.

Check out page 12 (or 6) of the operator's manual ...
http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Atari_Kee/Asteroids/Asteroids_TM-143_7th_Printing.pdf

Asteroids manuals ..
http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Atari_Kee/Asteroids/

Manual for the monitor
http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Moni...Issue 1 Electrohome G05-801 Monochrome XY.pdf
 
Ya Iv already been warned by my dad about the monitor voltage. Not sure how to discharge it or what tools I would need, but I will do some research before I touch it lol.

you will need a high voltage probe ... I use a Fluke 80k-40 HV prove with my Fluke 179 DMM ...

http://us.fluke.com/fluke/usen/accessories/high-voltage-probes/80k-40.htm?PID=55357
http://us.fluke.com/fluke/usen/digital-multimeters/fluke-170.htm?PID=56027

this is overkill so I am sure others will chime in with cheaper options ... before you buy one or attempt to use one, do your homework ... as stated it can be dangerous ... I also discharge with my HV probe ... The screw driver method works, but I like to see the voltage bleed off ...

Have fun!
 
To add to what Kent said...most monitors are OK with the screwdriver method, but I read somewhere here that the screwdriver method is bad for the vector monitors due to the diode on the anode wire. I think I did it once with the screwdriver method and it survived, so I guess your results my vary. When I do it, it many cases I don't actually touch the screwdriver to the clip until after it arc's out.
 
ok I took everything out of the cab so I can sand it down and repaint it. I have the monitor sitting in the spare bedroom, do I still need to discharge it? Or is it only if I plan on working on the monitor
 
well im going to start sanding down the cabinet. Just want to make sure im doing this right, I need to sand it down, bondo the missing chunks and paint it black(spray paint or roller, and what kind of paint is best cause I really want to make this a legit restore.) then buy the side art wich will set me back around 150?
 
Nice. I'm sure it will come together for you. It is an early cabinet. Can you tell what the serial number on the back top of the game is? It should be on one of those stickers on the top.
 
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