Did Asteroids ever have a color overlay?

DaveyPocket

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I saw a listing on my local Craigslist for a Home use only Asteroids. I can't seem to find the listing now but I did save a picture of the machine. I noticed that it seemed to have a color overlay, did all Asteroids games have this? I don't recall seeing this on any of the Asteroids games I've played. Was this after-market?
 

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lol......that's different. notice how well it goes with the side art of asteroids, color orientation and all.
 
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It's after market. I asked a while back in another thread when one of these turned up because I initially thought it was from Star Castle (and it's clearly not).
 
eh, damn. it is a little bigger than sc circle wise...fail i guess. didn't know you could rice out an asteroids.
 
Back in the day, there used to be a Hills Dept store in Natrona Heights, PA that my uncle was the manager of. They had an Asteroids in the lobby that had a Star Castle overlay on it. Until now, it was the only one I had ever seen like that. Thanks for bringing back a childhood memory.
 
Wow, thanks guys!

I too had thought it looked like Star Castle, but the overlay on this one has larger circles which is why I asked.

I'm sure it makes the game look cooler!
 
Yeah, that must be the aftermatker one...wrong diameters.

STARCASTLE.jpg
 
There was a guy selling these a while back and I bought a few. He said Happ Controls used to sell them back when Asteroids was still popular.
Down in the bottom corner of the overlay, I think it has Happ Controls written on it.

I happened to get my Asteroids back in 1986 (Bar closed and I grabbed it) and it had one of those on it.
 
found another

Found those in an owl eye edition Asteroids.

Definitely not Star Castle.

I don't see any wick or happy branding in the corners.
 

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I've seen a couple of these in Pittsburgh BITD. There was an arcade Richland called Electogames. I swear they had a Red Baron (with side art) and it had a Red over lay on the screen. It actually looked very cool. I thought they were all like that (cuz that's the one I played) I was shocked when I found them as just black and white.
 
I've seen a couple of these in Pittsburgh BITD. There was an arcade Richland called Electogames. I swear they had a Red Baron (with side art) and it had a Red over lay on the screen. It actually looked very cool. I thought they were all like that (cuz that's the one I played) I was shocked when I found them as just black and white.

Red Baron is supposed to have a blue overlay (to simulate sky).
 
That's the Star Castle overlay.

I believe these ones were made by Willis or one of the aftermarket guys back in the day. I have the same one on my Asteroids and a it's little different from the gel overlay on my Star Castle. I also believe the operators would put these on Asteroids and other B & W games to give them the illusion of colour as colour games were coming out shortly after Asteroids was released?

My Cinematronics Rip off has a Blue Gel colour overlay and my Midway Omega Race upright has a Yellow overlay, pretty sure the Omega race is original but not the Rip Off?
 
BITD, there was an Asteroids upright at our local bowling alley. We all visited there and played that machine. I'm sure that particular game was what started my desire to collect. Anyway, one day we go there and the black and white asteroids were color. It was quite the shock to see the game "transformed" with the ringed color overlay. Not sure I liked it though ... :cool: (I wouldn't even consider adding it to my own game now either).


Blue gel overlays, however, well that's another enhancement I might consider for some of the B/W vectors.
 
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