Main > Main Forum
What to do with my Asteroids machine
Thom:
First of all, thanks so much for all the great info here.
I have an non-working Asteroids machine. When I plug it in, I get a hum from the monitor-area, the back of the monitor glows red, but that's it. No marquee lights, no Player 1, Player 2 lights, no coin return lights, no image at all on the monitor. I have some experience with electronics, but am certainly no pro - I can solder on a circuit board, etc., but I'm lost when it comes to troubleshooting.
Now for my reason for posting here - I'm interested in doing a MAME cabinet too. If I could get the Asteroids machine working fairly easily, I'd love to keep it - I would then build a separate MAME cabinet. But if I can't get the Asteroids machine up and running (which I would imagine is most likely), I'm thinking that it would make a good start for a MAME cabinet.
So my questions are - can anyone offer any any suggestions on troubleshooting the Asteroids machine? And - if I turn it into a MAME cabinet, can anyone suggest what Asteroids parts I should save/sell?
Thanks in advance,
Thom
Veeb0rg:
have you checked fuses? There should be a fuse panel in the machine somewhere. Maybe post a few pics of the internals to give folks an idea of what your dealing with.
If the asteroids is complete, then turning it into a mame machine would be a shame. Where are you located? Maybe a local could give you a hand getting the old girl going, or at least give you a shove in the right direction. You might want to check over at the KLOV forums, they have a very knowledgeable group of guys.
For a mame machine I would keep an eye out for an already gutted cabinet, or if your handy download the instructions and get building.
Thom:
I meant to mention that in my original post - I did check all the fuses in the fuse block; there's also one screw-in fuse, and a fuse by the monitor - all were good. I'll try to get some pics taken in the next day or two and post them.
Thanks for the tip about the KLOV forums; I'll try that.
I'm located in the Midwest (Bloomington, IL).
Thom
CheffoJeffo:
Welcome!
The first step is to get a multimeter and check to see where you are getting power. The issue of the lights could just be burnt bulbs, although no flashing of the P1/P2 bulbs *and* no sounds on boot-up make me think you have a power issue that needs to be dealt with before looking at anything heavier.
There are a couple of Asteroids-specific resources in the Restoration section of the wiki.
Thom:
I went ahead and posted about this machine at the KLOV forum also.
I had replaced the florescent light in the marquee -it still didn't light.
I do have a multimeter, but as I said, I'm fairly lost when it comes to electronics troubleshooting (without some pretty specific direction).
Here's a link to some pics of the machine. As you'll see, I haven't really done anything toward restoration yet (no cleaning, etc.):
www.thewhistleshop.com/misc/asteroids/asteroids.html
Thom