Games in space, with rocks and saucers......Atari Italy Asteroids

[level42]

Right.....let's switch to a proper camera....tired of lousy Samsung pics....

While waiting for sockets....let's clean the inside.....as usually, let's work from top to bottom....(always a smart thing to do...)

So what's at the top.....yep....the marquee area.....the good: it's there, it looks pretty damn good but the light...mehhh...that can be a lot better....looks "mushy" and a bit dim now...

Let's open it...the tube works but.....that's about all that's good. It flickers pretty badly at the ends and it feels HOT !
On the far right you can see a weird "metallic" looking spot...this tube is very near it's end....let's give it it's deserved rest...
Oh...and another thing: it's a daylight tube.....to get the "freshest" colors your need to get a cool white (color code 840) tube.

Next....the speaker.....from what I've heard so far.....I'm not really impressed.....the deep -Tud-Tud- sound is just not that impressive...it lacks the bass....

[level42]

The cause: this is a pretty tiny speaker...

I might upgrade it....it also has a small hole in the supporting ring...maybe this is also a cause for the less fantastic sound...but the magnet is really light.
Although heavy speakers do not guarantee a good sound, a light weight speaker NEVER sounds great...

It _IS_ a Pioneer speaker (double conus) though...

Not pictured....but the speaker grill looks really pretty cheap. The holes in it are TINY and thus "stops" a lot of sound...oh well....we'll have to live with that and you can barely see the thing...

Another look at the tube....there's tape on the edges. Seen that before on Japanese cabs...I guess some precaution that it won't fall out during transport ? If so, they were never removed.....so that would mean it's the original tube...

I removed them and the tube holders are still in great shape and hold the tube firmly, no need for this tape !

[level42]

Nice, a 50 Hz 220V ballast for a change. I'll just clean it.

Tube, starter and ballast are all Osram. Starter still fine...also cleaned.

Of course I clean the entire inside of the marquee area...plenty of "spiderweb" and of course 35 years of dust...

Went to the DIY store to get a nice new tube....nice bright and no flicker

[level42]

And of course it's a Philips with a little hidden Dutch "signature" for this machine

The inside of the marquee looks as they usually do....like a smokers' lunge...

Carefully clean it with some mild detergent and a bit of water and a soft spong (no magic sponge here !)

[level42]

In between....here's proof they used multi-plex instead of cheap particle board like Atari used in the US and Ireland. Big plus for the Italians here !

[level42]

The marquee retainers......It's always funny, at first look these usually look pretty nice, but once you remove them and take a good look........

[level42]

Going to "do" those but not tonight as we had some thunder and lightning and rain here...

So, put everything back for now and let's see how it looks....

NICE !!!

[level42]

No kidding....

The pulsating bullets on a real Asteroids vector monitor is one of the coolest graphical effect in the history of videogames.

I am STILL mesmerized by it....  

[PaulSwan]

It's amazing how similar that is to a Zac! The coin door connectors are the same, gloss artwork, plywood construction, silver T-molding, same speaker (Pioneer)  and speaker mount design, same tip chain on the bottom, same fluorescent design (same Osram ballast & dutch tube!) etc...

[anunaki]

I think it's so cool to see how you take pics of every little detail

[level42]

Thanks Patrick .....yeah sometimes I feel a bit crazy to keep documenting all this but then again.....i just like doing it

It's also funny that I first thought....let's fix it and then it's "ready" and next you realize you want to get rid of the dust and grime ASAP, then discover I need to replace/restore some things anyway...and you feel you hit The "restore mode" again

Bit this one wont take long for sure.

Paul what you mention is Exactly what RobinHolland said a few times when he was here.....I don't own a Zacc so I'm not hat familiar with them but he felt that this was produced in the same factory.
The way they made the panels is the same too (glossy finish) so I said that maybe they sourced the cabinets from an external company ?

Who knows....maybe Betolino was too busy and outsourced production to Zaccaria ?

What I am also always very curious about......production number of Asteroids is registered as about 100.000 from what I've read......but how many will have been built in Italy ? How many in Ireland and France.
I did read that they estimated that the number of bootleg Asteroids was about the same as the official one's and I wouldnt be surprised by that....there are SO many bootleg versions of this game...

[level42]

So.....my mind kept giving me the feeling of "having seen this all before"......and I didn't mean Vernimark's machine but another one....


So I did some googling and guess what came up.....:

https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=5854.0

Machine is almost identical to mine except, the green buttons are on the left side of the panel instead of right. Makes more sense that way as they are both rotating buttons (i.e. they have about the same function) while if they are on the right they are different functions (thrust, shoot)......

Also...there's a diode-bridge on that power supply board...just like we hacked it in....only they used a heat-sink...mmmm, maybe a good idea

Also, the coin door is all alu-looking, the coin return button bezels are black on mine.

[PaulSwan]

Transformer style, fuse block style, label style, AC filter, all on a wooden plinth looks the same design as Zac...
http://www.zzzaccaria.com/images/Projects/AstroWarsRestoration/DSCN0516.JPG
Paul.

[level42]

Wow.....yeah that looks scarinlly the same. Did Zaccaria also not use any plugs around the power supply board ?

It's not very handy as you can't switch out the unit as a whole (as operator) or get it out to clean it (as a collector ).


Wouldn't be surprised if this was outsourced to Zacc or something like that...

[Q*ris]

No kidding....

The pulsating bullets on a real Asteroids vector monitor is one of the coolest graphical effect in the history of videogames.

I am STILL mesmerized by it....  

EXACTLY!
Great topic to read!
One of my all-time favourite game )))