Asterock

[Level42]

Well, I've been a good boy for the entire first half of the year.


No cabs bought.



Not one.



But I couldn't pass on this one ! :



I must be insane.....my 2nd Asteroids bootleg.....

This one has one of the most weird CP's I've seen. Basically the whole thing doubles as a big ashtray !
The buttons are mounted angled inward, which in fact may be a very good idea to have good control....

There's a load of pics of another Asterock (not the one I bought !) on my good friend Andreas' site here:
http://andysarcade.de/data/picseries/asterock/overview.html

Notice that the card-board bezel there is the original Atari one, which is not original on the Asterock....

[RetroACTIVE]

You are the king of goofy bootleg cabs!  Where the heck do you find this oddities? 

[Level42]

Belgium this time ! (A first).


And for a change, I was ON time to get it.


Monitor works, PCB needs to be fixed.

Yeah, the bootlegs are kind of a mixed blessing. I suppose because I'm in Europe I tend to come across bootlegs much easier than originals. Also, the prices fit my wallet much better than the prices of  rare originals like Asteroids over here.

This one has a really interesting story.Found this on www.arcade-history.com :
The official Italian distributor of Atari Arcades, f.lli Bertolino s.r.l., moved a legal attack against Sidam, and won. Many code fragments stored in ROM of Asterock, Missile Storm and other Sidam clones was identical to those contained in Atari originals' memory. Sidam changed the coin accept and sound routines, to get rid of copyrighted Atari POKEY chip. Sidam called this a 'coincidence'; moreover, the Italian legislation did not mention directly the computer programs as copyrighted materials like songs and books. However, the court sentenced about the 'intellectual property' of programs - this was an important sentence in Italian legal history - and Sidam was convicted of copyright violation.

[ChadTower]

I don't even see the typical Asteroids control buttons on there... just the volcanos... ?

[Level42]

Here's a pic that explains it:



So basically you hold your hands over the edge and press the buttons with your fingertips. This may actually prove to be more comfortable this way...

[RetroACTIVE]

So basically you hold your hands over the edge and press the buttons with your fingertips. This may actually prove to be more comfortable this way...

... besides if you get mad you can shake the hell out of the thing! 

[Level42]

So basically you hold your hands over the edge and press the buttons with your fingertips. This may actually prove to be more comfortable this way...

... besides if you get mad you can shake the hell out of the thing! 

Which is an excellent idea as I totally SUCK at the game

[RetroACTIVE]

It does look to be in remarkable shape though...

[Level42]

It is ! Remember the guy with the Ponytail ? He's the seller and he says it's in great shape and I know I can believe it. So the restoration will be mainly getting the PCB running....I guess....

[Spyridon]

I like how they even incorporated the red, white, blue and black box pattern into it. 

[RayB]

Broken photo link in first post

[Level42]

Broken photo link in first post

Fixed.