Family member has acquired an old Asteroids game made by Atari. Price was right, but needs some work. Any suggestions on a path to take to have it's condition assessed and potentially fixed? Thanks in advance.

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Life is a journey, not a destination.

A few weeks ago I spent about six or seven hours restoring an old circa-1970's pinball machine, and I've worked on a few arcade cabinets before.

I take it from what you said that you've not even powered it on. Is it a cabinet or cocktail machine? The ROM board arrangement may be different, but it should have pretty much the same equipment. In fact, there's a DIP switch on the arcade hardware which tells it to operate in cocktail mode. The only difference between cocktail and cabinet mode is that cocktail games flip the screen when Player 2 is up, that way they can sit on the other side and not have to play hot-seat.

At least try to power it on. Any damage that could potentially be caused by doing this would have needed to be fixed anyway, and the odds are pretty good it's in working condition.

The controls, on the other hand, are bound to be sticky. Is it an arcade stick "Asteroids", or a rollerball "Asteroids"? Be sure to test the button response. The manual should give you information about what switches to toggle to enter diagnostics mode. That'll show you any electronic responses the game makes to controls movement/presses. You may need to dismantle the control assembly and remove the coverplate to check for grime underneath the button triggers.

As for the screen and cabinet, the best thing is to really just get in there, take it apart, and clean it up. Those ROM boards probably need a good dusting. Use compressed air and a reasonably stiff wide-head paintbrush WHILE THE GAME IS POWERED OFF! Also, not that you'd overclock the gameboard or anything, but you might wanna make sure there's a small fan installed in the cabinet. The ROM boards don't get that hot, but inside a large mostly-sealed wooden box, the heat CAN build up. Dust and contaminants will only make it worse.

Give more specifics and I can probably help more.

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"And knowing is half the battle!"

It is a stand-up model...non-cabinet. When the power is turned on, there are some green lights that come on on the baord, but no light are activated on the control console and nothing shows up on the screen. There's power, but it just doesn't seem to want to come on, even into a self-test mode.

I've never messed with these and spent a few hours on the phone trying to find a place to repair it locally. No luck whatsoever. I may have to depend on this board for all my help.

This could take some time. I'm being proactive and printing out every schematic available out there on the web. I'm in no hurry, but I wonder if I've taken on too much. I'm already thinking I may need to replace pieces and parts depnding on how the troubleshooting progresses and if it gets TOO involved, I know when to cut my losses. For now, I'm patient and willing to try anything.

BTW, this is a button model with rotating (left/right), thruster and fire and hyperspace. Brings back memories huh?

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Life is a journey, not a destination.

i take it that you just have the pcb and button pannel and tube, the one thing that i can think of is that you need to have a grounding strap to eack of them for some reason they all depend on a common ground, this was a big thing with the early game cabinets, next thing is that you need to find the five wires that are for your tube control/signal in(i belive it's five or it's three(b&w)) and make sure that you are getting siginal through them, if you have the diag, for the box then that helps in finding them, other than that i belive you can find other information form:

Atari
675 Sycamore Dr
Milpitas, CA 95035-7430
Phone: 408-894-9985

this is there game dev and assembly address

other than that good hunting for parts and the such that is a Great find

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~Jon~
if you have to stop and wonder then you have already lost

Thanks J and Cutriss, this is turning into a pretty decent learning experience. My earlier post was inaccurate. It's a full cabinet...non-cocktail. It's one of the earliest model...pre 1980. (non-deluxe).

I spent some time yesterday printing out manuals, schematics and the like. Looks like I need to get out my soldering tools and testers. I did find a place locally that would work on it for around $50 / hour. If I can't solve some problems and at least get closer to fixing it I may just take it into them. They obviously would have more parts and such than I.

All the controls seem to be in good shape, the tube looks good (no signs of being broken or even too dirty). The only thing that kinda of bothers me is some of the clamps that hold the modules are a little on the loose side makein securing the boards a bit hard. Good thing is there just doesn't seem to be much indication of wear and tear, even of the coin panel.

I'm sure it could use a major cleaning, that I can do. I can test wires, examine boards for solder mistakes, check fuses etc. Be nice to at least get this thing to a point where the repair place could fix it in an hour or two. That would make it worth the time, effort & money to save this classic.

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Life is a journey, not a destination.