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

[Malenko]

I spell my name Thom too. that is all. I have no clue how to fix an ateroids machine either.

[taylormadelv]

You will get better answers about mame here! KLOV'ers will insist you spend tons of $$ and restore the game and never be able to recup your investment if you ever want to sell it...
Get a 19-21" CRT in there, get an ipac and a turbo twist and some joysticks and start drilling the crap outta that huge, metal CP!
Asteroids has that huge Control Panel, it just begs for more controls!
Look on these forums for inspiration...it's out there.

[CheffoJeffo]

Killing a complete classic vector is very bad for your arcade karma. 

[Malenko]

You will get better answers about mame here! KLOV'ers will insist you spend tons of $$ and restore the game and never be able to recup your investment if you ever want to sell it...
Get a 19-21" CRT in there, get an ipac and a turbo twist and some joysticks and start drilling the crap outta that huge, metal CP!
Asteroids has that huge Control Panel, it just begs for more controls!
Look on these forums for inspiration...it's out there.

WTF are YOU smoking? BYOAC =/= MAME
if he posted this the restorations on misc arcade he might get better answers.  This forum has helped me fix my NBA Jam boardset, my MKII machine, and advice on restoring my Killer Instinct machine as well.

[Beretta]

i agree with taylormadelv to a degree.

most people will want you to restore it, i'd tend to agree if the machine is complete..
but you're not necessarily the one that needs to do it..

a complete asteroids machine would be highly desirable for a collector, even if it had issues.

i do believe you could mame it without doing irreparable damage.
swap the monitor, make a new CP (dont just drill the original), gut the insides.

all that could be reversed later.. but chances are once it's dismantled and mamed it never will be.

i'd suggest finding someone who would give you a nice cab + maybe some parts or money in exchange.
thats not always possible though to find someone.


it's your choice i see both sides of the coin if it's mostly intact i'd hate to see it mamed but i would'nt hold it against you either.. if someone feels strongly enough to save this asteroids they'll find a way for you to get a cab no one's gonna care about in exchange.

[RayB]

Don't MAME. Drive it up to Toronto. I'll PM you an address. 

[taylormadelv]

This is all great but what will peoople actually offer for the Asteroids? What will KLOV'ers offer for a working Asteroids? Unless the game needs only minor fixes, you probably will not be able to compensate just for the vector monitor being fixed. If you just LOVE Asteroids, well then tht's a different story but the way this posted did not seem like you were completely nutz about Asteroids.
I love vectors but the amount of money to restore/bring back them to life can become prohibitive if you are on a budget. Also, if you are on these forums, you may already be interested in playing more than one game on that cabinet and that basically implies mame. The Asteroids "multiboard" is not ready for public consumption yet...
And if the thread started HERE, there's interest in maming that biatch! Pay attention!

[CheffoJeffo]

What I am saying is that killing a complete vector is bad for your arcade karma. If you try to rationalize it, then you don't understand what I am saying.

But, if you want to rationalize it, Asteroids makes a crappy MAME cabinet due to the angular stance and closed in nature of the monitor and CP. I've got one and there is no nice way to get two players in there with a decent view of the monitor without totally butchering the cabinet. But, hey, what do I know ? Apparently I don't know what BYOAC is about !

Please do be mindful that we don't destroy what we're trying to re-create.  Many classic arcade machines are rare and worth a heck of a lot more intact than altered.  Ideal candidates for this type of project are machines that have already been abused by previous owners - artwork destroyed, poorly converted, etc...  If you have a classic cabinet in good shape, you can probably sell it to a collector and get a trashed but usable cabinet in the bargain.

If the OP wants a MAME cab, then Asteroids is a crappy choice. A complete Asteroids is a worse choice since it can at the very least be traded to someone who can provide a decent donor cab.

Fixing vectors is typically easier than fixing rasters and is often much cheaper, unless you need a new monitor, which we don't know yet.

There is nothing wrong with finding out what is wrong before making a decision to kill it -- THAT is how you learn and I wish more MAIMers would try.

[Thom]

This is all great but what will peoople actually offer for the Asteroids? What will KLOV'ers offer for a working Asteroids? Unless the game needs only minor fixes, you probably will not be able to compensate just for the vector monitor being fixed. If you just LOVE Asteroids, well then tht's a different story but the way this posted did not seem like you were completely nutz about Asteroids.
I love vectors but the amount of money to restore/bring back them to life can become prohibitive if you are on a budget. Also, if you are on these forums, you may already be interested in playing more than one game on that cabinet and that basically implies mame. The Asteroids "multiboard" is not ready for public consumption yet...
And if the thread started HERE, there's interest in maming that biatch! Pay attention!

I was an Asteroids fanatic back in the day (along with Space Invaders, Defender, Centipede, etc., etc., etc.). Asteroids and Space Invaders were my favorites. If I'm able to restore this machine without it being totally cost/time prohibitive, I'd love to do that. While cost is a concern, it's not my biggest concern - time is an issue for me nowadays; I don't have the spare time that I'd like to devote to learning how to troubleshoot, etc.

Mame is an option for this cabinet only if I discover that it will take way too much of my time and/or money to restore. I like the idea of scratch-building a MAME cabinet anyway - I have all the proper skills, tools, and space for the build. And I do have the room in my house for more than one cabinet.

For now, I'll continue to try troubleshooting/repairing it.

Here's a link to the topic that I started over at the KLOV Forum, if anyone's interested:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=132294

Thom

[CheffoJeffo]

You are getting good advice over there so far.

You should also grab a copy of Atari's The Book for help in measuring/troubleshooting/etc:

http://arcarc.xmission.com/PDF_Arcade_Atari_Kee/

 

[CheffoJeffo]

This is all great but what will peoople actually offer for the Asteroids? What will KLOV'ers offer for a working Asteroids? Unless the game needs only minor fixes, you probably will not be able to compensate just for the vector monitor being fixed. If you just LOVE Asteroids, well then tht's a different story but the way this posted did not seem like you were completely nutz about Asteroids.
I love vectors but the amount of money to restore/bring back them to life can become prohibitive if you are on a budget. Also, if you are on these forums, you may already be interested in playing more than one game on that cabinet and that basically implies mame. The Asteroids "multiboard" is not ready for public consumption yet...
And if the thread started HERE, there's interest in maming that biatch! Pay attention!

Apparently! I was just reading shil's Zektor thread and noticed your machines listed in your sig line -- nice lineup of vectors!

Kinda puzzled that a vector guy would encourage MAIMing over even a basic investigation, but I'm not going to let it keep me up at night.

 

[taylormadelv]

Vectors can be a huge PITA to fix. At least for me. If you don't absolutely LOVE the game or have a plan to flip it, why dump tons of money and effort into a game you really don't care that much about, even if it IS a vector, who cares?
Saying that a collector will pony up good cash for an Asteroids is complete speculation. I can't stand it when posters insist on peeps restoring a game and then I see their own sale threads parting out all kinda of games. Total hypocracy and it happens too often on KLOV.
I'm not a huge fan of Asteroids, so I personally would have passed on this cab project and placed my efforts into a game I really enjoy, like say... Gravitar!
BTW one vector that is worth restoring and will keep or increase its' value is Star Wars. I don't like Star Wars but that's a game KLOV'ers WILL pay big bucks for. Peeps there seem to have a real hard on for Star Wars, even though I personally think the game is not that great.
The Asteroids could be mamed back to life but the bullets will never glow unless you go AAE and that has it's own issues.

[CheffoJeffo]

Saying that a collector will pony up good cash for an Asteroids is complete speculation. I can't stand it when posters insist on peeps restoring a game and then I see their own sale threads parting out all kinda of games. Total hypocracy and it happens too often on KLOV.

Actually, I don't think Asteroids is going to get good cash, ESPECIALLY on KLOV -- they are the cheapest of the cheap. I do think that it can be swapped for a cabinet that is much better for MAME.

Gravitar is awesome ... and is also a more suitable cab for MAME. 

[Veeb0rg]

Actually, I don't think Asteroids is going to get good cash, ESPECIALLY on KLOV -- they are the cheapest of the cheap. I do think that it can be swapped for a cabinet that is much better for MAME.

Gravitar is awesome ... and is also a more suitable cab for MAME. 

I have a space duel cab for my mame machine. It's a decent mame machine, plus it has 4 6x9 openings which also makes it a decent juke.

I would have hated to have seen that older asteroids machine torn apart. Over on KLOV, he had it running, but it lacked audio. He checked the speakers and shorted a lamp out in the process, so he's back to the non-functional state. It should be something simple again though.

[Thom]

Actually, I don't think Asteroids is going to get good cash, ESPECIALLY on KLOV -- they are the cheapest of the cheap. I do think that it can be swapped for a cabinet that is much better for MAME.

Gravitar is awesome ... and is also a more suitable cab for MAME. 

I have a space duel cab for my mame machine. It's a decent mame machine, plus it has 4 6x9 openings which also makes it a decent juke.

I would have hated to have seen that older asteroids machine torn apart. Over on KLOV, he had it running, but it lacked audio. He checked the speakers and shorted a lamp out in the process, so he's back to the non-functional state. It should be something simple again though.

'Just wanted to let you all know that I did get my Asteroids machine up and running again, thanks to some very helpful people over on the KLOV Forum - total cost to get it up and running was around $15.00 (not including the new speaker that I still need to get). As Veeb0rg mentioned, after I got it up and running, I had a short, but that was just a bad lamp holder in the coin door (and replacement of a fuse). The audio problem was just a bad speaker.

Now I'll start on restoration. Thanks again for everyone's help!

I'm still going to do a MAME cabinet. I've been reading up on it a little just about everyday, and hope to start fairly soon. I'll post at this forum as I go.

One more question - I've been reading the Kindle version of "Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine". Is there a way to obtain the CD that came with this book?

Thanks again,
Thom