Chomping Quarters|

Since I acquired my Atari Asteroids back in January 2010 I’ve really wanted to replace the more common Atari coin door with an Owl Eye coin door. Being a collector I usually don’t encourage modifying an original dedicated game. However, in this situation I figured I’d make an exception especially because it’s something that can easily be changed back at anytime.

First thing I need to mention is that Atari Lunar Lander and used the same cabinet design and Lunar Lander used Owl Eye doors. So, when Atari started producing Asteroids many of them used this early Atari coin door. So, even though my game came with the most common Atari coin door for this game the Owl Eye door is still far from a modification.

After casually searching for a few months Shane Ritter from CoinOpSpace.com came forward and we worked out a small trade in order for me to acquire the coin door. When it arrived I inspected it and then ignored it for several months.

Then a few months back I finally pulled it out again and started working on retrofitting the coin door into my game.

Unrestored Coin Door (Front)

Unrestored Coin Door (Back)

After fully disassembling the coin door I gave everything a good cleaning, polished all the chrome parts then sand blasted and painted the door.

Freshly Painted Coin Door Parts

Polished Coin Door Frames and Coin Reject Buttons

New Old Stock Coin Door Insert

Restored Coin Door Fully Reassembled

Unfortunately this door didn’t come with a wiring harness but seeing the harness from the door that came with my machine was easy to removed (and already slightly hacked) I decided to remove it and install it on the Owl Eye Door which worked great!!!

Coin Door Wired Up

Well, there you have it… A nice Owl Eye coin door installed on my original Asteroids! I think it added a lot of character to the game!