Asteroids (1979 Atari)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: Asteroids was Atari's answer to the quarter munching "Space
Invaders" of the time. It was also one of the first games to utilize vector
graphics and a top 10 high score table. Unfortunately that's about all I can
tell you about this game because I never saw it or played it in the arcade. Like
most, I grew up playing this game on the Atari 2600. With that said, this game
is a crucial piece of video game history, and that alone intrigued me to own one
someday.
This is actually the third time I have had some form of Asteroids in the
lineup. However this is the first one that was working from the start. The first
time I brought home Asteroids was about 5 years ago. I had won an eBay listing
for that game at a mere $90. The game was over an hour away and it wasn't
working, but I was stoked. It looked complete, looked to be in decent shape and,
at the time, I thought it was an absolute bargain. My excitement was shattered
pretty quickly when I picked up the game and began to notice major swelling on
the cabinet. The photo's failed to illustrate the damage, and I wasn't about to enter into a pissing match with the seller. I had drove all this way
and just wasn't in the mood. I loaded it up, paid the seller and decided to
survey it further once I got it home. The game played blind, but I just couldn't
get past the water damage. My friend Jim wanted it and offered me enough cash to
break even, and by break even that included any time and gas money I had in it.
The second game was an Asteroids Deluxe that I acquired from Slackers. Asteroids Deluxe adds a few new features to the original, most notably a blacklit asteroid field backdrop that the game's image is projected onto via a 2-way mirror. This
one was also playing blind but was in overall good shape and complete. They had
apparently sunk alot of money into this game and the monitor going out was their
last straw. They wanted it gone and offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. I had
planned on fixing this one and adding it to my collection. Then I ended up
buying a Challenger and this project ranked lower on my priority list. Once
again I passed this one on to Jim (he seemed to enjoy working on these Asteroids games). From there I really wasn't looking to add an
Asteroids to my lineup anymore. But then a real steal came along and I couldn't
pass it up.
The Score: This one turned up on the Kansas City Craigslist. Seriously,
what's going on in the KC market? Seems I can't stop finding the bargains
there. Anyway this game was listed at $250. It was working and looked great from
the photos. However I kept reflecting back on the first time I bought this game.
I wasn't about to get burned again. But I was curious enough to call the seller
and ask him about it. His story was that this game had been in his home for the
last 20 years. That alone grabbed my attention. Sure, it's spent some time in
the wild and I'm sure it got it's fair share of abuse. But it's not very often I
find one owned by the seller for two whole decades. He says the game is in great
shape but has a resetting issue, and his dog had chewed on some of the edge
molding. Keeping my first pickup in mind, I had to look at this as a project and
look at the possibility that Fido might has chewed up the cabinet as well. As
confident as I was with the seller I had to try and talk him down. We haggle and
agree to $150 as long as I could pick it up right away. I decided to take a
chance and go for it, so I quickly found myself on another road trip to pick up
my third Asteroids. Hopefully this one was worth it.
Upon pickup of the game I wasted no time checking out this game. It was
dirty, but the seller was spot on. The cabinet was in great shape, no swelling
or damage from the dog aside from the molding. The game worked great and had a
good picture. Now my confidence rose with this purchase. He had mentioned the
thought of converting this game to a 60-in-1 multicade but would rather have sold
it. Seriously, a 60-in-1 in an Asteroids? I wasn't about to let that happen. I
quickly paid the man, loaded up and headed for home.
The Service: The first thing was to clean up all the grime and see if I could
duplicate the resetting issue he was talking about. I then noticed a flaky power
switch that was literally crumbling apart. Could this really be the problem? I
replaced the switch along with the big blue capacitor in the power supply as a
preventative maintenance measure. I looked over all of the wiring, measured
voltages and looked over the PCB. I found no problems and to this day have never
had a resetting issue. So it really must have been that power switch. Nice. His
dog had chewed up about 8 inches of the molding. Someday I might replace all of
the molding, but for now I simply cut off the chewed molding and patched in a
scrap piece I had. It look's fine for now. Recently I added a hack to the PCB
which allows me to speed up the game with the flip of a switch. The game does
not save high scores. I may address that someday, but for now I plan to just
enjoy this gem of a pickup which needed next to nothing to rescue.
Invaders" of the time. It was also one of the first games to utilize vector
graphics and a top 10 high score table. Unfortunately that's about all I can
tell you about this game because I never saw it or played it in the arcade. Like
most, I grew up playing this game on the Atari 2600. With that said, this game
is a crucial piece of video game history, and that alone intrigued me to own one
someday.
This is actually the third time I have had some form of Asteroids in the
lineup. However this is the first one that was working from the start. The first
time I brought home Asteroids was about 5 years ago. I had won an eBay listing
for that game at a mere $90. The game was over an hour away and it wasn't
working, but I was stoked. It looked complete, looked to be in decent shape and,
at the time, I thought it was an absolute bargain. My excitement was shattered
pretty quickly when I picked up the game and began to notice major swelling on
the cabinet. The photo's failed to illustrate the damage, and I wasn't about to enter into a pissing match with the seller. I had drove all this way
and just wasn't in the mood. I loaded it up, paid the seller and decided to
survey it further once I got it home. The game played blind, but I just couldn't
get past the water damage. My friend Jim wanted it and offered me enough cash to
break even, and by break even that included any time and gas money I had in it.
The second game was an Asteroids Deluxe that I acquired from Slackers. Asteroids Deluxe adds a few new features to the original, most notably a blacklit asteroid field backdrop that the game's image is projected onto via a 2-way mirror. This
one was also playing blind but was in overall good shape and complete. They had
apparently sunk alot of money into this game and the monitor going out was their
last straw. They wanted it gone and offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. I had
planned on fixing this one and adding it to my collection. Then I ended up
buying a Challenger and this project ranked lower on my priority list. Once
again I passed this one on to Jim (he seemed to enjoy working on these Asteroids games). From there I really wasn't looking to add an
Asteroids to my lineup anymore. But then a real steal came along and I couldn't
pass it up.
The Score: This one turned up on the Kansas City Craigslist. Seriously,
what's going on in the KC market? Seems I can't stop finding the bargains
there. Anyway this game was listed at $250. It was working and looked great from
the photos. However I kept reflecting back on the first time I bought this game.
I wasn't about to get burned again. But I was curious enough to call the seller
and ask him about it. His story was that this game had been in his home for the
last 20 years. That alone grabbed my attention. Sure, it's spent some time in
the wild and I'm sure it got it's fair share of abuse. But it's not very often I
find one owned by the seller for two whole decades. He says the game is in great
shape but has a resetting issue, and his dog had chewed on some of the edge
molding. Keeping my first pickup in mind, I had to look at this as a project and
look at the possibility that Fido might has chewed up the cabinet as well. As
confident as I was with the seller I had to try and talk him down. We haggle and
agree to $150 as long as I could pick it up right away. I decided to take a
chance and go for it, so I quickly found myself on another road trip to pick up
my third Asteroids. Hopefully this one was worth it.
Upon pickup of the game I wasted no time checking out this game. It was
dirty, but the seller was spot on. The cabinet was in great shape, no swelling
or damage from the dog aside from the molding. The game worked great and had a
good picture. Now my confidence rose with this purchase. He had mentioned the
thought of converting this game to a 60-in-1 multicade but would rather have sold
it. Seriously, a 60-in-1 in an Asteroids? I wasn't about to let that happen. I
quickly paid the man, loaded up and headed for home.
The Service: The first thing was to clean up all the grime and see if I could
duplicate the resetting issue he was talking about. I then noticed a flaky power
switch that was literally crumbling apart. Could this really be the problem? I
replaced the switch along with the big blue capacitor in the power supply as a
preventative maintenance measure. I looked over all of the wiring, measured
voltages and looked over the PCB. I found no problems and to this day have never
had a resetting issue. So it really must have been that power switch. Nice. His
dog had chewed up about 8 inches of the molding. Someday I might replace all of
the molding, but for now I simply cut off the chewed molding and patched in a
scrap piece I had. It look's fine for now. Recently I added a hack to the PCB
which allows me to speed up the game with the flip of a switch. The game does
not save high scores. I may address that someday, but for now I plan to just
enjoy this gem of a pickup which needed next to nothing to rescue.
