Help with Asteroids deluxe- Laser graphics

ShacklersRevenge

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Was having a grand old time playing this game last night and right in the middle of a game, I heard a small noise like a crack or a pop and then my ship became a dot. The game plays but there are laser lines all over the screen, sort of looking like a game of tempest!
the asteroids are still there, but the ship is hard to follow and is the size of a pencil point. When it hits an asteroid, is when it turns into a laser light show, or at attract mode before a game.

Any ideas what this could be?

thanks in advance, James
 
Pics or a vid would be nice.

If you have an oscilloscope, you can determine if the issue lies with the logic board (X,Y,Z out) or the monitor.
 
Nice vid.

Probably a logic board issue as the asteroids/text look OK.
Put it in TEST MODE and see what the cross hatch looks like.
Might want to see if there are any errors noted (RAM/ROM).

Since you heard a "pop" ... take the board out of the cabinet and look it over for any damage. (I also tend to get my nose close to it and sniff). :)
 
Agreed on the test mode. Have you ever gone over the monitor board and/or the HV cage to replace the caps at any point? Random failure during play is kinda weird. I had a similar situation with mine and to make a long story short I had a stray solder piece which caused a small bridge as the culprit. A scrape with a pic to remove it was all that was needed.
 
Alright soooo
My test button consists of 3 stray wires. When together, a grid screen comes up and the numbers 00000
01000
00000

in that fashion. I can see what looks like my pencil point ship there as well, Idk.

Took the board out and it's real clean, I don't see any burns or popped anythings.

So that's where I am. I acquired this game from a guy that got it from a childhood friend. When I got it, the monitor was out, the coin door was off, the glass was off, the control panel was off. I put the pieces back on, fired it up and thought ''cool, let's play!''

I've had it running idle for about 10 hours and play time probably a good 2 -3 hours and there were no issues.

Who thinks monitor and who is thinking board?
 
so you are saying you don't have a test switch inside the door but just 3 wires? Any beeps indicating ram failure? I am pretty sure those numbers are just dip switch settings but would recommend downloading the manual if you haven't.

I am saying board issue and my hunch is ram.
 
Yes. They sound like dip settings too. I am away so I can't fire mine up to confirm what the 0s and 1s mean. Can you post a pic? You should should see your ship and a diamond cross hatch pattern.

If I'm not mistaken then the 0s and 1s are the settings for the bank of 8 dip switchss on the main board. If a ram chip is bad it should say bad ram at xxx or something like that.
 
I haven't worked on an Asteroids Deluxe in a while but it looks like a board issue to me. Scaling is way off. Check in the Vector Timer section, believe that M6 brings in the data for scale factors.
 
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