Fellow Asteroid DX owners...Blacklight on,or off ??

sohchx

Active member
Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
3,755
Reaction score
11
Location
frederick, Maryland
Fellow Asteroid DX owners...Blacklight on,or off ??

So I have owned my ADX for almost three years now and it has never had a running BL bulb since I got it. Fast forward to this week and I finally remember to buy a BL bulb for it. I put the bulb in, fire it up and all is good. I coin up a game and start to play but am so distracted by the background that I can't concentrate. This was never the case when the background was black. I feel like maybe the bulb is to bright but the specs on it are what came in the game from the factory. My question is do you prefer the bulb on,or off ? Besides the awesome gameplay the whole blacklight/background combo was one of the things that made me want to own one of these in the first place. I just don't recall being so distracted during play in the past but I guess I need to get used to it.
 
I just got my AD back up and running. I did put a normal blacklight bulb in my cab as well. I really like the backround and the feeling it gives to the game. I also have a Space Invaders Deluxe, which has a blacklight backround in it as well. They look great sitting next to each other... :D


Personally, I don't think the backround pops enough with a normal "blue" blacklight bulb. I want it to "pop" more. I am considering ordering a "white" blacklight bulb to make it stand out even more.
 
I just replaced a dimming "black" black light bulb in mine for a new "white" black light bulb. I love it. The background lighting up is what makes the game. My daughter had a friend over last night who was mesmerized by the 3d effect. She had never seen anything like it.

My wife did comment that she thought it was too bright now. :)
 
I just replaced a dimming "black" black light bulb in mine for a new "white" black light bulb. I love it. The background lighting up is what makes the game. My daughter had a friend over last night who was mesmerized by the 3d effect. She had never seen anything like it.

My wife did comment that she thought it was too bright now. :)

Yeah, mine has the "white" blacklight bulb in it and it's really the only way to go if you want it to pop.
 
I've had a blue black light bulb in mine since I restored it in '07. I tried the WBL bulb at first but nothing really popped with it. Mine is an Irish cab though, so I think the back drop may have different colors/bl ink levels than the American version.

P5170667.jpg

P5170666.jpg

P8040583.jpg
 
If you just have a black background the 3-D effect is severely diminished. Definitely needs either the black or white black bulb. I found the white black bulb to look better in the game.

I have mentioned this before, but it is possible to mod this game to a color version and play it on a color monitor.
 
I just got my AD back up and running. I did put a normal blacklight bulb in my cab as well. I really like the backround and the feeling it gives to the game. I also have a Space Invaders Deluxe, which has a blacklight backround in it as well. They look great sitting next to each other... :D


Personally, I don't think the backround pops enough with a normal "blue" blacklight bulb. I want it to "pop" more. I am considering ordering a "white" blacklight bulb to make it stand out even more.

The white bulb is what I have,it is pretty bright,almost to bright.
 
I've had a blue black light bulb in mine since I restored it in '07. I tried the WBL bulb at first but nothing really popped with it. Mine is an Irish cab though, so I think the back drop may have different colors/bl ink levels than the American version.

Thanks for posting those pictures. That looks real nice. Did you replace the blue gel overlay when you did your restore? I replaced mine this weekend with one from Wizze's Workshop but have been unable to get all the wrinkles out.
 
prob is the marquee tends to glow in your eyes,mine has a seperate power plug for the black light and marquee so i dont use it,its more for show and dont help the game in my opinion..
:)
 
Here is a picture of my "color" version. ;)

Actually, probably gets most of the "cool" comments of all the games in my gameroom. From young to old like the 3d effect with all the color bling.

-- Bruce
 

Attachments

  • 100_0096.jpg
    100_0096.jpg
    83.1 KB · Views: 97
  • 100_0097.jpg
    100_0097.jpg
    85 KB · Views: 95
I like to run the black light bulb in mine, the white version it too brite. It's also important to dust the background cardboard pieces using something like a Swiffer duster that won't damage them.

It should be a submersive experience playing, if you're seeing too much light then the half silvered mirror is probably dirty. There are a pair of wooden blocks and a metal retainer strip that hold the mirror in place, they are located at the bottom of the cardboard backdrop in the back of the cabinet. Remove those and carefully remove the mirror for cleaning.

Clean mirror + clean gel overlay + clean monitor + clean backdrop + black light bulb = AWESOME
 
Is that a Star Castle overlay?

I think it is,mine is all blue.I bought mine with the bulb blown but promptly put in a new one its way better with than without.I have an overlay i got from another game i need to put on mine but in a pinch you can go to hobby lobby and buy there clear blue plastic wrap on a roll and put 3 layers on it.
 
It should be a submersive experience playing, if you're seeing too much light then the half silvered mirror is probably dirty. There are a pair of wooden blocks and a metal retainer strip that hold the mirror in place, they are located at the bottom of the cardboard backdrop in the back of the cabinet. Remove those and carefully remove the mirror for cleaning.

Clean mirror + clean gel overlay + clean monitor + clean backdrop + black light bulb = AWESOME

I actually did ALL of this 2 weeks or so ago. Reinforced the shroud, mounted the overlay again, cleaned the mirror...

**CAUTION** - Wear gloves when removing the mirror. It is a piece of cut glass and it usually fits tight, I couldn't figure out where all the red paint on the edges of the glass was coming from... :( My fingers are still healing... BUT worth it.
 
Is that a Star Castle overlay?

It's not a Star Castle overlay -- but one that looks pretty close. It actually came off an Asteroids machine.

Rumor has it that years ago these were provided by Atari (and Midway for Space Invaders) to "spruce up" some of the old black and white games.

I'm not sure how true that rumor is, but it does look WAY cooler with it than with the plain old blue.

-- Bruce
 
I've bought a couple Asteroids that had them on them, but somebody else was suggesting that they were provided by Wico to turn a black & white into a color vector (hehe). The way you can tell them apart is Star Castle only has three colors (Blue for everything, then a yellow and orange circle in the middle).... the asteroids/wico/whatever ones have about 6 colors.

I just finished up an Asteroids today, we tried it with the overlay on it but it just didn't look good at all to me. So we went back to plain white on that one :)
 
Interesting. I have an AD cocktail which just has the smoked film under the glass and was thinking of sprucing it up with some blue. The multi-colored one is kinda cool though!
 
Back
Top Bottom