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AllenBomber

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Greetings. I'm Joshua. I used to work in an arcade years ago, fell in love with the classic machines, and started learning how to fix them. After doing a tour in the military, I got out and started studying EE at the University of Colorado. I was talking to someone a week or so ago about past jobs, and it brought back enough memories for me to go searching for a cab to restore. I started surfing craigslist and it wasn't long before I found a guy dumping a non-functioning Astron Belt cabinet for 50 bucks, so I jumped in my truck and drove to Greely Colorado. I found a cabinet with a little wear, but the side art that Astron Belt is relatively famous for is nearly pristine. The guy told me that he picked it up as non-functioning as well, but couldn't figure it out. He said it worked intermittently at one time, but now nothing. After getting it home, I noticed that the coaxial video cable from the Laser Disc player to the demodulator board wasn't grounded properly, so I re-terminated it. Despite this, the LD wasn't spinning up. Eventually I found a shipping screw on the LD player that prevented spinning. As soon as I released that, everything aside from the joy stick fire button functioned perfectly. I'll be messing with that a bit later, but for now, consider another classic restored.
 
Hi...

Joshua,

Welcome! Nice to see someone else who likes laser games!

And thanks for serving our Country!!

Merry Christmas!

Jess
 
Welcome... you've also encountered a common type of seller in this hobby. The "liar".

He said it worked intermittently at one time, but now nothing.
I wonder how it worked intermittently at one time with a SHIPPING SCREW preventing the disk from spinning up? Hmmmm....

:rolleyes:

Great deal though!
 
Sorry guys. Didn't realize you were so untrusting. ;) Excuse the cell phone pics, but here she is. Don't harass me about it being outside. It is under cover, I additionally kept it covered with a blanket for the night it lived out there, and I'm making room inside now.

Yes, the guy probably was lying, but what does it matter when he was practically giving it to me? I suppose he could have put the screw back in for the sake of my transportation and just never told me, but maybe I'm reaching. I will say that the video cable I mentioned above was fairly bad (BNC connector done by someone who had no idea what a BNC connector was or how it should be terminated) and could have accounted for an intermittent game.
 

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Nice sideart. I always liked Astron Belt as a kid. The big old fireball explosions were pretty cool for the time and gameplay didn't require specific moves at specific moments like other LD's. Of course there were't too many variations of the explosions and the "collision software" seemed slightly off. It was basically your ship overlayed on a movie. A simple design but fun to play and good for young kids with its guaranteed minimum game time. I believe the game will still play without the laserdisc working. Just your ship and the occassional shots coming at you from an invisible source.
 
AB when you first introduced yourself, it made me think of Joshua from WarGames, the network defense computer. And I immediately heard in my head "Would you like to play a GAME?"

Surprised noone leaped on that here.
 
Greetings. I'm Joshua. I used to work in an arcade years ago, fell in love with the classic machines, and started learning how to fix them. After doing a tour in the military, I got out and started studying EE at the University of Colorado. I was talking to someone a week or so ago about past jobs, and it brought back enough memories for me to go searching for a cab to restore. I started surfing craigslist and it wasn't long before I found a guy dumping a non-functioning Astron Belt cabinet for 50 bucks, so I jumped in my truck and drove to Greely Colorado. I found a cabinet with a little wear, but the side art that Astron Belt is relatively famous for is nearly pristine. The guy told me that he picked it up as non-functioning as well, but couldn't figure it out. He said it worked intermittently at one time, but now nothing. After getting it home, I noticed that the coaxial video cable from the Laser Disc player to the demodulator board wasn't grounded properly, so I re-terminated it. Despite this, the LD wasn't spinning up. Eventually I found a shipping screw on the LD player that prevented spinning. As soon as I released that, everything aside from the joy stick fire button functioned perfectly. I'll be messing with that a bit later, but for now, consider another classic restored.

Careful these guys will accuse you of being me. Just make sure to check your spelling and you should be safe. Anyway stop while you can this is a sad addiction and can ruin families and cost you a ton of money and space.
 
Careful these guys will accuse you of being me. Just make sure to check your spelling and you should be safe. Anyway stop while you can this is a sad addiction and can ruin families and cost you a ton of money and space.
.....not to mention soon you'll like wearing black thongs!!!
 
Welcome to the madness my friend! You've been infected - fairly soon you'll turn into a zombie game junky with no room, no cash, no hope for ever fixing all the projects you've suddenly accumulated. :D
 
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