I fired up my Asteroids cocktail table yesterday for a quick game while waiting for the minutiae of daily life to fall into place, and I discovered something quite disturbing...
The game "resets" frequently and spontaneously. It is as if you were toggling the power switch, but faster than that is possible to do. Basically, you can be in the middle of a game, and suddenly, without the screen going out, it's back to "PRESS START" as if the machine had just been turned on.
Sometimes it does this many times in quick succession, before you can even start a game, and I can only tell it's doing it because the asteroids that drift around pre-game reset to their off-screen positions.
I am not sure why this is happening... I am wondering if the power switch is flaking out, or if possibly it's a problem with the wiring of the electrical outlet.
The machine just endured a 1300-mile truck ride last month, but I have played it 3 or 4 times in its new location with no problems, and I am not aware of anything having happened to it between the last time I played it and now. Any ideas?
(While we're at it... I've also just discovered that my Intellivision is not producing any sound, although the picture is perfect and games play fine. It also worked initially after the move but has just now begun to demonstrate this problem.)













