Atari Asteroids Restoration

Introduction

Goal at Beginning of Project

The goal for this project is to restore the current non-working Atari Asteroids to working condition, then repair and replace cosmetic defects with the cabinet.

Background

This Atari Asteroids machine was inherited from my father. He used to repair coin-operated machines in the early 80s in the Phoenix, Az area. Through this job he was able to get this asteroids very cheap.

Machine Information

Current Machine State

Physical

The interior of the game is in sub-optimal condition and has extensive damage to the coin mech from water and soap damage. Interior condition would be rated 6/10.

Interior Pictures

The exterior of the cabinet is also in sub-optimal condition. Though no catastrophic damage there is much wear and tear from moving and use. The player control panel shows extensive damage primarily due to rust and sun damage. There is damage to the bottom corners of the cabinet as well as rust on the coin door. The back of the cabinet has a lot of pain wear but is not damaged. The side art panels are peeling at the bottom and has been completely peeled off near the player controls on the left side. The cardboard art bezel around the monitor (not pictured) is in good condition but faded. The attraction pane at the top of the unit is in excellent condition. The plexiglass bezel around the monitor has severe scratching as if vandalized. The black paint is flaking off in some places. The underside panel just above the monitor has some modifications including a headphone jack and an on/off switch. These are both custom additions. Overall the exterior would be given a rating of 7/10.

Exterior Pictures

Logical

The game plays correctly but has no video. When power is supplied the game humms to life and the P1/P2 lights begin blinking as normal. Still no video. The game board's LED lights and the Spot Killer light on the Electrohome does not light (normal). You can start a game by pressing P1 or P2 and the game sounds work completely and the controls also work, just no video.

Progress

Prior to Wiki Entry

Moved machine into apartment, cleaned the cabinet. Discovered I left the keys to the cab in storage in another city. Decided to just drill out the coin door lock. Found the key to the back panel inside the cabinet.

Decided to open the cabinet and see if there was any obvious damage. No obvious damage was found so I plugged the machine in. I closed the coin door and used a clamp to depress the rear door safety switch. The machine hummed to life and I was able to play without video.

Did some research online and some websites discussed replacing VR2 on the PC board. I decided against this as the monitor did not have a glow look from the tube end. After much research and some posts online it was discovered that the likely culprit was not the game board but rather the monitor. In this case the monitor is an Electrohome G05-801. A suggestion online that has been discovered to fix several problems is to reflow the Electrohome boards.