Bought Astrocade - any help/advice?

[4cade]

Hi, everyone -

 

new-ish member of the site, grew up with an Atari/Pong, but just got back into gaming (and retro gaming) after many years lapse. And what better way than to do so than pick up a Bally's Astrocade! I don't think I ever knew of this when I was a kid, we had a 2600.

Anyways, I took a gamble and bought an untested system. It had no RF adapter, so I ordered one and now I have an agonizingly long wait until I get that before I try out my Astrocade. My question to you guys - anything I can/should do. Like should I spray some canned air into it to de-dust it? Looks like that cartridge port exposes the inside all the time. Keep in mind that I am a total newbie when it comes to "working" with these things - I've played many retro consoles, but not experienced like actually fixing or cleaning insides or anything. Would love to hear your input!

[segasaturn]

Astrocades over heat VERY easily, one thing you can do is make a place for it with a lot of ventlation I.e. Off the carpet etc. maybe even get electronic contract cleaner to make it so all the keypad buttons and whatnot don't have any grim and work nice.

Edited August 20, 2015 by segasaturn

[4cade]

Awesome, great advice - my Astrocade is on the carpet right now (not turned on - haven't turned it on yet), so this is really good to know.

[segasaturn]

Yeah I heard some horror stories about it heating up. It runs very hot so I highly recommend it in a open area, off carpet. My intellivision is a system that runs hot, so I actually went to Best Buy and got a cheap laptop Cooling fan to put underneath. (15$) You might find that helpful. So it keeps it cooler.

[4cade]

More great advice - glad I joined the forum! $15 sounds like a good insurance policy for the investment.

[yell0w_lantern]

Open it up and remove the RF shielding. Heat sink the chips. Also re-seat any of the socketed chips.

You know, you don't need the RF box. You can buy a RCA to F-type coaxial adapter from a local electronics store or ebay.

 

 

Go to Bally Alley for more Astrocade information or help.

http://ballyalley.com/

 

 

40 DIP Heatsinks:

http://console5.com/store/parts.html?cat=46

Edited August 22, 2015 by yell0w_lantern

[tep392]

I'll have to pick up some of those heat sinks for my 5200. My 5200 was getting flaky and it turned out to be the CPU. I noticed that both the CPU and the POKEY chip got very hot. Everything else was just barely warm. Was thinking of leaving the RF shield off but noticed that the video got a little interference without it.

[4cade]

Thanks, Yellow Lantern. I'll look into that and hope it's not as intimidating as it sounds. (love the profile pic btw)

 

I'm actually starting to brace myself for it not working. But it looks in decend condition; there's some scuffs on the cabinet. Not too much dirt. The contacts looked a little dirty, though I've attached this pic - they don't look too bad I guess, maybe I'll take another look.