what color coin lights on TEMPEST?

vintagegamer

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I have a gen 1 Tempest cab that came w orange coin lights. My Atari Asteroids came with red coin lights as did my Atari BZ. Should I leave the lights orange or swap over to reds?
 
I have a gen 1 Tempest cab that came w orange coin lights. My Atari Asteroids came with red coin lights as did my Atari BZ. Should I leave the lights orange or swap over to reds?

Your bulbs are colored? Or that is the color of the inserts? My inserts are the standard red with clear bulbs on the Tempest.
 
Atari used Coin Acceptors, Inc. (a.k.a. Coinco) model 2802 coin doors during the production run of Tempest. Orange reject buttons would indicate this was the latest coin door from Coinco (red button doors were earlier).

The orange button doors were different from the red button doors. You can't just change the buttons because they are physically different. Other parts must be changed as well. Here is the parts list:

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Coin_Mechs_Etc/Coinco/Coinco_2802_Series_Game_Door.pdf

Good luck trying to find the correct parts. Coinco has been out of the coin door business for at least 15 years. Stocks of new-old-stock parts are drying up very quickly.
 
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Mine are orange Serial # 2897

My previous Tempest was also been orange Serial # 14242

mine is 0112473 and has the orange inserts. The cab is the one without the orange stripes. And like Ken said, my 2nd cab has the kind of coin door where you can see the bolt heads outside the machine. The edges of the door on cab 1 are rounded and no bolt heads are visible. I like that one better but the coin inserts look orig but are orange. I love how the red inserts look on my other games but didn't know if I should swap out the inserts since the orange ones look like they came w the cab from day 1.
 
Wow it's getting interesting to see how many of these games have orange inserts. And btw, the serial num I gave is the one that's on the frt of the machine. Is that full num actually all the serial num or just a portion of it?
 
Wow it's getting interesting to see how many of these games have orange inserts. And btw, the serial num I gave is the one that's on the frt of the machine. Is that full num actually all the serial num or just a portion of it?

I believe it is the full number.
 
I have two Tempest's. One is an Irish cab with a serial # in the 112000's, and has Atari inserts:

TempestCP.jpg


The other is a US cab with a serial number about 19000:

Tempest2CoinDoor.jpg
 
I have two Tempest's. One is an Irish cab with a serial # in the 112000's, and has Atari inserts:

TempestCP.jpg


The other is a US cab with a serial number about 19000:

Tempest2CoinDoor.jpg

you have raised yet another interesting point Mod, re your Irish cab- on my 112 cab the test switch is in past the coin bucket, not on the coin door. The manual states that if the cab is euro, the switch is inside the game like mine. Could the switch location, orange inserts, and 01 ser num prefix indicate mine's a euro model??
 
Look at the nameplate on the back of the machine. The ones made in Atari's Ireland plant will say, "Made in Ireland".
 
you have raised yet another interesting point Mod, re your Irish cab- on my 112 cab the test switch is in past the coin bucket, not on the coin door. The manual states that if the cab is euro, the switch is inside the game like mine. Could the switch location, orange inserts, and 01 ser num prefix indicate mine's a euro model??

Look at the nameplate on the back of the machine. The ones made in Atari's Ireland plant will say, "Made in Ireland".

Well, mine has the switch back behind the coin switch, just like the manual states for the Euro models, but the tag on the bag says "Sunnydale, CA". However, I have been told the artwork package is the Irish artwork, hence the 112k serial number (only about 22k US versions made).

Check out the marquee on my Irish one:

TempestMarquee.jpg
 
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