Asteroids Deluxe - Light Restore

[wp34]

I picked this Asteroids Deluxe last week.  I had been looking for one for some time and had finally given up when this one popped-up on Craigslist 5 minutes from my house.

It is pretty clean for being 30 years old.  Best of all it is playable.   

The guy I bought it from had a cat --- which he tried to sell to my wife for $25  .

The cabinet has a slight smell to it and I'm trying to "refresh it" using some of the techniques talked about here.

[wp34]

So my next steps are -

1. Clean the cabinet
2. Repaint the coin door
3. Install a new black light bulb (ordered)
4. Install the blue gel that goes over the monitor
5. Remove the casters that the previous owner installed
6. Install new CP Overlay

I'm debating on the following -

1. Repaint the black sections of the cabinet
2. Replace the T-molding
3. Replace the 5 white leaf buttons ( I have 5 NOS leaf buttons but am not sure they are much better)

I've already got two cabinets in my garage that are unplayable so my goal is to keep this one as playable as possible as I work on it.

[opt2not]

Very beautiful cabinet. Looks to be in wonderful shape! Looks like a weekend's worth of work on this light restore. 

[wp34]

My wife's step-dad has a sand-blasting booth and he offered to clean my coin door.  Made things a lot easier.









I'd like to replace the red coin reject buttons but I've not been able to find any.

[wp34]

I picked up a replacement blue overlay from Wizzes Workshop.

I wasn't able to find any information on how the overlay was originally mounted.  I ended up making a frame out of cardboard.


I wasn't happy with the results.  The overlay wouldn't lay flat and you could see wrinkles in the mirror.  I ended up just laying the overlay over the monitor and spreading it as flat as possible.  It is good enough for now.  I'll take another shot at it when I redo the CP overlay.

I cleaned the monitor and mirror as well as the bezel.  I also replaced the black light bulb with a white black light bulb and tweaked the brightness.  I had a hard time getting a good picture but I'm real happy with the results.  It looks 100% better.




I'm waiting to do the T-molding until I need to place an order for my Tron build.

[jasonl2972]

that cabinet is in awesome shape.Real nice find,looks great.And i learned something new,was not aware of the gel stuff over the monitor and the blacklight.But after seeing it on screen now i understand how it works and what you were talking about.Love the look

[MaxVolume]

Do you mind me asking how much you paid for it?  You can PM me if you prefer, but I understand if you'd rather not reveal the price.  The reason I ask is that the guy who applied the sideart to my current MAME cab had an original Asteroids he was thinking of selling and I was trying to figure out what it would be worth.  My guess was that nobody's gonna pay more than $200 or so for a cab in this economy, but I think he paid over a grand for it several years ago.  My opinion is that he got ripped off, but it is in really nice shape and is almost all original, at least on the outside.  It has a repro CPO, which kind of bugs me, but the paint on those things does tend to get worn over time.  I wouldn't really have anywhere for it, and I told him to put it up on Craigslist, but I don't know if he ever has.  He seems to want a return on his investment, or at least close to what he paid, and I don't think that's ever gonna happen.  Feel free to let me know if I'm wrong about that, though.  Thanks.

[yotsuya]

Do you mind me asking how much you paid for it?  You can PM me if you prefer, but I understand if you'd rather not reveal the price.  The reason I ask is that the guy who applied the sideart to my current MAME cab had an original Asteroids he was thinking of selling and I was trying to figure out what it would be worth.  My guess was that nobody's gonna pay more than $200 or so for a cab in this economy, but I think he paid over a grand for it several years ago.  My opinion is that he got ripped off, but it is in really nice shape and is almost all original, at least on the outside.  It has a repro CPO, which kind of bugs me, but the paint on those things does tend to get worn over time.  I wouldn't really have anywhere for it, and I told him to put it up on Craigslist, but I don't know if he ever has.  He seems to want a return on his investment, or at least close to what he paid, and I don't think that's ever gonna happen.  Feel free to let me know if I'm wrong about that, though.  Thanks.

He ain't getting a return on his investment.

[MaxVolume]

He ain't getting a return on his investment.

LOL... yep.  Just curious as to whether I should really expect to get a working Asteroids for $200 or whether I'm lowballing because I'm poor.  It would just sit and rot in my garage anyway, so regardless of the price it'd be better off going to someone who'd play it.  A lot of times people would rather hang onto things than admit they overpaid, but I wanted to see if I had a realistic idea of how much working cabs are going for.  I've only ever bought one, and at $150 over a decade ago, I think I got a steal.  These days, not so sure.  I have seen more modern ones priced higher (like a Gauntlet Legacy marked $750 in a pawn shop), but I think the combination of MAME, consoles, etc. and the economy have just destroyed the value of arcade machines, unless someone wants to put them on location to collect money.  When you can just play Asteroids on any smartphone, the perception of value just isn't there for a 300-pound box that does the same thing. 

[yotsuya]

Good points. I just picked up a non-working Asteroids cocktail for pretty cheap. A $30 power brick kit should fix it. If I sold it for half of what your friend paid, I'd still more than double what I put into it.

On Craigslist, in my area working cabs seems to sell for around $175-200. Anything priced over $400 seems to sit there forever.

[HaRuMaN]

Wanna buy a BZ? 

[wp34]

I looked on CL and sent out feelers locally for over a year looking for an Asteroids or Asteroids Deluxe.  The only "nice" ones were $500-$800 and 3 hours away.    I wasn't looking forward to taking a day's vacation and burning $75 in gas so I'd pretty much given up until this one popped-up on CL.    I paid more than $200 but a lot less than the other figures I mentioned.  I'm not planning on selling it any time soon and don't care if I get my money back if I do need to sell it down the road.   Most civilians don't like Asteroids because it is too hard so I don't think there is much of a market for it anyway.

[yotsuya]

Wanna buy a BZ? 

[DeNiro] You talkin' to me? [/DeNiro]

[HaRuMaN]

Wanna buy a BZ? 

[DeNiro] You talkin' to me? [/DeNiro]

Yeah.   

[yotsuya]

I tell you what, once we move, send me a price, and I'll counter with a cash-in-hand offer. I enjoyed Battlezone back in the day. You planning to swap it out?

Conversely, I'll trade you this for it:



 

[HaRuMaN]

You can keep that ugly thing...

Not sure what I'm gonna do with the Battlezone, still working on the monitor.  Thought I had everything fixed yesterday, still blowing F600.     Game plays blind.

[MaxVolume]

I tell you what, once we move, send me a price, and I'll counter with a cash-in-hand offer. I enjoyed Battlezone back in the day. You planning to swap it out?

Conversely, I'll trade you this for it:



 

Is that a Pit Boss?  I had one years ago and wanted to MAME it, but motherboards weren't quite small enough then.  You seriously wanna sell it?  I've never been a huge bartop fan (never went to bars, and still don't) but I could put a touch screen in that and run all the usual bartop games.  Let me know if you're serious and where you are, but I assume shipping alone would blow my budget.

[yotsuya]

What'll you gve me for it? 

J/k. It's actually a running gag between HaRuMaN and I. Some guy locally has had it on Craigslist forever. He started at $100 and has been slowly dropping it. When it gets to $20, I'm going to offer him $10 cash in hand. Then I'll sell it to you for $250 shipped! 

If you are really interested, send me a PM. Maybe I can broker something for you.

[MaxVolume]

What'll you gve me for it? 

J/k. It's actually a running gag between HaRuMaN and I. Some guy locally has had it on Craigslist forever. He started at $100 and has been slowly dropping it. When it gets to $20, I'm going to offer him $10 cash in hand. Then I'll sell it to you for $250 shipped! 

If you are really interested, send me a PM. Maybe I can broker something for you.

Where is it located?  I doubt I'd bother with it unless it was local to me, too.

[yotsuya]

Phoenix, AZ.

[MaxVolume]

Phoenix, AZ.

Nah, way too far and a low priority anyway.  I'd probably be better off with a cab that was already a touchscreen, since I'd have to leave off the plexi on that one.  Thanks, though.

[ChadTower]

AD is one of those games that is a must restore in most cases but is never going to get the cost back.  It just needs to continue to exist.