This brought a smile back to my face, I'm 49 and autistic, Astro wars was my one toy I would always play. I had three during the 80's as I would wear them out often and if I remember correctly the first toy that we used Tandy rechargable batteries on. I miss the 80's.
I had the exact model played it for hours on end. Now aged 53 watching your video and hearing that melody and sounds when you powered it on brought back so many nostalgic memories. Thank you so much for sharing.
Loved my Astro wars when i was about 13 and I'm now 56 and i still have it but its dead so i am going to try and fix it after watching your video several times. I've already ordered the parts so touch wood it will work when parts arrive :) Many thanks Vince for the detailed instructions on what to do.
Took me right back when you switched it on. I remember I got one for Christmas. Before I got it, I used to sneak it out of the box and play it. Never told my mum till years later 😂. You're right it wasn't cheap then either. So wish I had kept it.
I had Astro Wars as a kid. I learned it so well that I could win with the absolute maximum points every time. I sussed the docking levels so I could score max points (544?) on every go. I never lost a life. I loved it so much.
Loads of emotional memories seeing this. Mum had a tupperware & toys party. Played on demo item all night. Next day one was on kitchen table when I got back from school.
greetings from across the pond, years ago I use to do alot of repairs for resale, (at a time when you had to browse a local flea market to find broken appliances to repair and sell.) Watching your videos has inspired me to get back into doing the repairs (or reapers on ones you cant fix) :)
Great game I'm 55 got it unboxed from one of my classmates in 1983 for £10 or £12.Showed it to my mum look what i got,very impressive had it for a year or so and sold it to a friend via my bedroom window for £5.Astro wars by grandstand ,CGL is always cool.
I received an Astro Wars for Christmas the year they came out (my younger brother got the CGL Galaxy Invader 1000), it was a fantastic present, but disappointment quickly set in as we exhausted every suitable battery in the house with a short period of time. On Boxing Day we used to go to my Grandparents, so I took it there and depleted my Grandads draw full of batteries (even used AA and packed the ends out with tin foil!!!, until they ran out). Then had to wait what seemed like weeks before my parents could get me the Grandstand Power adapter (this had switchable polarity, which may explain why so many Astro Wars have failures). Needless to say I still have mine and it’s boxed.
Brilliant repair and fix, Vince. I remember a friend of mine had one of these back in the 80's and i sat and played it for hours, truely an addictive and classic retro game.
halfway down your video and already feeling like i have found out a treasure to my taste of videos. I just cannot resist stopping to watch your videos. Lucky to find your channel. Good luck!!!
Very much nostalgia for me back in early '80s. I absolutely loved having my own personal version of Midway Galaxian. I played it with a wall adaptor at home, but when going on extremely long tube journeys in London (we are talking half an hour to a 10 year old here) the portability with batteries was great. The bleeps I am sure annoyed 90% of commuters but I was totally oblivious. Some passengers told my mum how amazing technology is in the '80s and couldn't believe it! Hoops, sticks and spinning tops was their technology.
Dear Vince I just wanted to thank you so very much for your videos mate. You have been such an inspiration to me my friend... I have always been a Mr. . fix-it for everyone I know and just taken for granted with limited knowledge. But you and Sorin have have given me the confidence to have a proper go at this. I have recently bought a digital microscope and a cheap SMD rework station, power supply and blue mat 😉 I just need some stuff to fix now... Many thanks for your shared knowledge from Tony in Australia 👍😊
We bought our son one of these for his 14th birthday in 1982, it cost £32 from Tandy.s. After the first couple of weeks we got so fed up with the noise my son and mates made playing Grandstand, I opened it up and placed a piece of foam behind the piezo speaker to shut it up a bit. He took it everywhere, in the car, on holidays etc Sadly it died after around 6mths, it was around Christmas time and both of my boys received a sinclair zx spectrum +2 complete bundle from Tandys shared between them. Oh! the joys of the 80s electronics boom.
Agh that tune over and over LOL Back in the day when this was the computer game everyone wanted and then drove everyone bonkers with the sounds. I was a bit old for this but got myself a spectrum computer a couple of years later and then these consol things were old news as you could get numerous progs for the speccy and they were around £3 each for a cassette tape with the same game on both sides( to save having to rewind).
Had one as a kid in the eighties along with a round yellow Grandstand Pac-Man / Munchman electronic game. Had hours of fun playing them, wish I still had them now! Thanks for jogging some great memories.
Great vid as usual. Just a quick tip … I keep some emery boards (used to file fingernails) to scrap battery terminals as well as a grinding pen like yours. PPS also changed the tip to small wire brushes as well. 😛
I got one for Christmas in the 80s, the noise brings back memories. I'm almost sure it's sitting in the loft at my parents house, may have to get dusty and have a look for it
Great Job Vince👍 as soon as I saw it I was thinking 2SD882. It seems a common problem on these types of games. I had one go on a Firefox F7 and a couple of others I repaired. Keep up the great work, and Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanks for the last video of 2023 Vince! Thanks a lot to you, Elliott and Steve I've learned more and attempted more than I ever thought I would and I love it! I received my first hot air soldering station in the mail today!
By 1981 we had the ZX81 and soon after, colour computers like the Oric, Spectrum and Commodore Vic so these basic stand alone games were a dying breed. Great to see one fixed though, nice 👍
My cousin had this game back in the 80s. It was great fun back then as video games were still fresh and new and simple. Nice fix. Wish I knew how to do this.
Awesome job! Now I've just watched this back I remember I did work on mine but it had blown a hole in the pcb where the transistor was so I decided not to continue with it. I do still have a bunch of those transistors in my box of bits though lol
Im 52 now and believe it or not I still have mine in the loft, will have to get it out to see if it works, I remember playing it all Xmas day and by the night I had clocked it and completed the game, oh fun times.
good fix. My brother got 1 for xmas maybe around 1980ish. Think it was in a catalogue for about £34.99. Seem to recall them being sold off cheaper at £24.99 when home 'computers' became the norm. Yes a blast from the past and still sounding as annoying now as back then. Happy new year to you and yours Vince and to all your viewers
Great video. Reminds me of how proudly people I know who is in their fifties, brags about how much better kids we were than kids today. Better cos we played outside, climbed trees, etc. etc...while kids today play computer games, live their lifes on social media and so on. Always kind of fun reminding them of the fact that the most popular kids often were the ones with electronic games like this...with other kids surrounding them in the schoolyard between lessons watching them play. Not sure we would have been better than todays kids, if we had the same toys and computers as today. Wish to think so, but not sure... :)
Just purchased a boxed Astro wars from my local charity shop £1.50, got one back in the day for Christmas, has power and sound but no display hopefully be an easy fix 👍
Astro Wars, OMG, that sure does bring back some memories. I must say that I was rather good at it also until it all went tits up. Very addictive though.
I had one of these and the display failed. It's probably long gone now. Anyway, for the battery contacts I would use a contact cleaner or label remover that is citric acid based. It cleans up the corrosion quite well with no impact on the device. Best one to get though is one with the built in brush so you actually spray through the brush. Very handy.
I've repaired a fair few of these and I'd say 8 out of 10 it's the D882 failure alone. I think I've only replaced that other NPN once. The real problem is when the S06 zener diode under the VFD has gone! It's a real PitA to get to and find decent replacements.
I loved those kind of game counsils when i was a kid i had a few of them, takes me back a long way to a better time...had this one for many years there was another one with more ofba square screen cant remember the name of it played that one a lot...
Wow I had one of these too! I always find this stuff interesting to watch. I was never into electronics even though we had a great teacher at school. Im more into building and repairing pcs, configuring software and stuff. I guess I got more into the software side.
Thanks for this. I have one of these and not played it for years as the spring went on the left-right toggle. Might dig it out and see if it still works.
That toy is as old as me. I'd recommend checking its cholesterol levels and giving it vitamin D supplements. Also, tell it to walk every day for at least 15 minutes outside.
Also, make sure to try to address each and every issue with the question: „Did you drink enough water?“. That is essential and really helps in the fault-finding process.
The higher the Hfe, the better the current gain of the transistor. However, most circuits don't rely on Hfe to provide amplification as it is subject to thermal runaway (its H parameters depend on temperature and as the transistor gets hotter, things become unpredictable). Rather, a useful design has gain set by surrounding and biasing resistors to make it fixed.
Perfect nostalgia items, these Grandstand games, I still have the 'Invader From Space' & Munchman (like a miniture Pac-Man) ones, complete with all their boxes & instructions & original power adaptor!
Vince, my mate, why is this so captivating??!! I used to have one of these back in the day - but all the same, this shouldn’t be that interesting should it?! 🤣 Love your engagement and talk through. I have no idea what most of it means but it’s still captivating! 🤣 Happy New Year, Mate! 🕹️👾
I'm fairly sure that in the late 80s, I had one of these, took it apart, and got a mild shock. lol That's when I learned about VFDs, inverters, and to respect "high voltage" more. We had an Astro Wars again about 8 years ago, but we gave it away. Hopefully a kid was able to play it for a while after that.
Only 0:09 in but wanted to say how excited I was to find another new video out before the end of the year! Keep up the awesome content! Happy new year to MMV and all the MMV Massive!!
I had one of these in junior school back in the day, I am guessing it would have been 1982/83. I received it as my main Christmas present we used to get a £100 budget and used catalogues to find our gift list. So I am betting this would have been about £70 in the day, so indeed a lot of money. Mine is still in my mothers loft, along with a lot of my toys and I know I also have an Atari Lynx that was definately faulty, so I think I may have to dig them out.
54 now and i have fond memories of getting this for xmas years ago. That intro start up jingle brought back a wave of nostalga. Great fix Vince.
This brought a smile back to my face, I'm 49 and autistic, Astro wars was my one toy I would always play. I had three during the 80's as I would wear them out often and if I remember correctly the first toy that we used Tandy rechargable batteries on. I miss the 80's.
I'm 54 now and got one for Xmas many years ago them sounds take me back a bit,great fix.
I know Vince has no responsibility to any of us but lets just say I am very keen to see a new video soon
I 'm 55 and loved Astro Wars!!! classic!
I had the exact model played it for hours on end. Now aged 53 watching your video and hearing that melody and sounds when you powered it on brought back so many nostalgic memories. Thank you so much for sharing.
That's the joy of old technology!
Loved my Astro wars when i was about 13 and I'm now 56 and i still have it but its dead so i am going to try and fix it after watching your video several times. I've already ordered the parts so touch wood it will work when parts arrive :) Many thanks Vince for the detailed instructions on what to do.
Took me right back when you switched it on.
I remember I got one for Christmas. Before I got it, I used to sneak it out of the box and play it. Never told my mum till years later 😂.
You're right it wasn't cheap then either. So wish I had kept it.
I had Astro Wars as a kid. I learned it so well that I could win with the absolute maximum points every time. I sussed the docking levels so I could score max points (544?) on every go. I never lost a life. I loved it so much.
Loads of emotional memories seeing this. Mum had a tupperware & toys party. Played on demo item all night. Next day one was on kitchen table when I got back from school.
Awesome to see it again man ❤
greetings from across the pond, years ago I use to do alot of repairs for resale, (at a time when you had to browse a local flea market to find broken appliances to repair and sell.) Watching your videos has inspired me to get back into doing the repairs (or reapers on ones you cant fix) :)
The sound effects take me way back. Awesome job Sir.
Great game I'm 55 got it unboxed from one of my classmates in 1983 for £10 or £12.Showed it to my mum look what i got,very impressive had it for a year or so and sold it to a friend via my bedroom window for £5.Astro wars by grandstand ,CGL is always cool.
I received an Astro Wars for Christmas the year they came out (my younger brother got the CGL Galaxy Invader 1000), it was a fantastic present, but disappointment quickly set in as we exhausted every suitable battery in the house with a short period of time. On Boxing Day we used to go to my Grandparents, so I took it there and depleted my Grandads draw full of batteries (even used AA and packed the ends out with tin foil!!!, until they ran out). Then had to wait what seemed like weeks before my parents could get me the Grandstand Power adapter (this had switchable polarity, which may explain why so many Astro Wars have failures). Needless to say I still have mine and it’s boxed.
My dad had one of these (and he still does) its awesome to see one of these again! Great video vince!
me and my brother both got one of these for xmas and i'm not gonna lie when it fired up i got a bit choked up. thanks so much for doing this fix.
Nice to see the glorious red mat is making more and more appearances, including for this great vintage electronic game.
Ewts better than the yellow eye burner 😂
Brilliant repair and fix, Vince. I remember a friend of mine had one of these back in the 80's and i sat and played it for hours, truely an addictive and classic retro game.
halfway down your video and already feeling like i have found out a treasure to my taste of videos. I just cannot resist stopping to watch your videos. Lucky to find your channel. Good luck!!!
That power up of Astro without it's face on was VERY sexy! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Very much nostalgia for me back in early '80s. I absolutely loved having my own personal version of Midway Galaxian. I played it with a wall adaptor at home, but when going on extremely long tube journeys in London (we are talking half an hour to a 10 year old here) the portability with batteries was great. The bleeps I am sure annoyed 90% of commuters but I was totally oblivious. Some passengers told my mum how amazing technology is in the '80s and couldn't believe it! Hoops, sticks and spinning tops was their technology.
I had one of those, ohh the good old days in the 80s ❤
Dear Vince I just wanted to thank you so very much for your videos mate. You have been such an inspiration to me my friend... I have always been a Mr. . fix-it for everyone I know and just taken for granted with limited knowledge. But you and Sorin have have given me the confidence to have a proper go at this. I have recently bought a digital microscope and a cheap SMD rework station, power supply and blue mat 😉
I just need some stuff to fix now... Many thanks for your shared knowledge from Tony in Australia 👍😊
We bought our son one of these for his 14th birthday in 1982, it cost £32 from Tandy.s.
After the first couple of weeks we got so fed up with the noise my son and mates made playing Grandstand, I opened it up and placed a piece of foam behind the piezo speaker to shut it up a bit.
He took it everywhere, in the car, on holidays etc
Sadly it died after around 6mths, it was around Christmas time and both of my boys received a sinclair zx spectrum +2 complete bundle from Tandys shared between them.
Oh! the joys of the 80s electronics boom.
Agh that tune over and over LOL Back in the day when this was the computer game everyone wanted and then drove everyone bonkers with the sounds. I was a bit old for this but got myself a spectrum computer a couple of years later and then these consol things were old news as you could get numerous progs for the speccy and they were around £3 each for a cassette tape with the same game on both sides( to save having to rewind).
Loved this game.Played many many years ago. Great Memories.!!!
Had one as a kid in the eighties along with a round yellow Grandstand Pac-Man / Munchman electronic game. Had hours of fun playing them, wish I still had them now! Thanks for jogging some great memories.
Great vid as usual. Just a quick tip … I keep some emery boards (used to file fingernails) to scrap battery terminals as well as a grinding pen like yours. PPS also changed the tip to small wire brushes as well. 😛
i had this when i was 11 im not 53 loved this game i clocked it many times only went up to a 999.happy new yeat Vince
Kip Hakes had the same fix on an Astro wars. I really like fixes on these old games. I'm lost when you repair the newer stuff but still fun to watch.
I had this as a gift back in the day. Loved it
I got one for Christmas in the 80s, the noise brings back memories. I'm almost sure it's sitting in the loft at my parents house, may have to get dusty and have a look for it
Great Job Vince👍 as soon as I saw it I was thinking 2SD882. It seems a common problem on these types of games. I had one go on a Firefox F7 and a couple of others I repaired. Keep up the great work, and Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanks Mick, Happy New Year!!!!
Thanks for the last video of 2023 Vince! Thanks a lot to you, Elliott and Steve I've learned more and attempted more than I ever thought I would and I love it! I received my first hot air soldering station in the mail today!
Nice fix once again Vince. Thanks for the new year's eve present! I wish you a happy new year!
Thanks Marcel. Happy New Year to you and your family. Wishing you all the very best life can bring in 2024!
Great memories having one of these as a kid. I could max out the score every time. I got my money's worth.
By 1981 we had the ZX81 and soon after, colour computers like the Oric, Spectrum and Commodore Vic so these basic stand alone games were a dying breed. Great to see one fixed though, nice 👍
My cousin had this game back in the 80s. It was great fun back then as video games were still fresh and new and simple. Nice fix. Wish I knew how to do this.
I bought one of these a while back. I paid a lot more though but I don't even think I ever got around to working on it lol
Awesome job! Now I've just watched this back I remember I did work on mine but it had blown a hole in the pcb where the transistor was so I decided not to continue with it. I do still have a bunch of those transistors in my box of bits though lol
Played one at Xmas toy week in school in the 80s ..that game play and music ..im 10 again !!!
I got this for christmas in the 80's great memories
Im 52 now and believe it or not I still have mine in the loft, will have to get it out to see if it works, I remember playing it all Xmas day and by the night I had clocked it and completed the game, oh fun times.
Excellent video. I have mine in the cupboard. Let's see if it works after 35 years
a new year and a new year of progress in your diagnostic abilities.
Great Fix i remember that game playing it but in a different plastic box it broke also lolol thanks again ,,,, Frank from the USA
Childhood memory unlocked! 😊 Happy New Year Vince
I had one of these in the early eighties, loved the game.
The toy fixes are my absolute favourites cos I love the repair and the nostalgia! Thank you Vince
good fix. My brother got 1 for xmas maybe around 1980ish. Think it was in a catalogue for about £34.99. Seem to recall them being sold off cheaper at £24.99 when home 'computers' became the norm. Yes a blast from the past and still sounding as annoying now as back then.
Happy new year to you and yours Vince and to all your viewers
Me and my brother had one of these when they first came out many years ago!!. More interesting than playing games on your smart phone!! 😁
I repaired one of these in the late eighties that needed the ribbon cable repairing. No battery cover but had mains adaptor.
Thanks. I learned a lot about NPN transistors in this video!
That brought a smile to my face. Had 1 as a kid.
Taking this in on the last day of school. That and the multi point adapter. Just to have one of those days back.
I had it. What a great piece of nostalgia...
Great video. Reminds me of how proudly people I know who is in their fifties, brags about how much better kids we were than kids today. Better cos we played outside, climbed trees, etc. etc...while kids today play computer games, live their lifes on social media and so on.
Always kind of fun reminding them of the fact that the most popular kids often were the ones with electronic games like this...with other kids surrounding them in the schoolyard between lessons watching them play. Not sure we would have been better than todays kids, if we had the same toys and computers as today. Wish to think so, but not sure... :)
Great fix Vince, brought back some memories there I used to have one, thanks for sharing 😊
Happy New Year Vince 🍾
what a gem!! i had one of these for my birthday played it for hours loved it!👍
Happy New year My mate Vince ! ....... Treat Vince well and Vince treats us all to good quality Vids !
I had one of these when i was a kid amazing game great fix
Just purchased a boxed Astro wars from my local charity shop £1.50, got one back in the day for Christmas, has power and sound but no display hopefully be an easy fix 👍
This is the first UA-cam video I watched in 2024. Happy New Year!
Thanks Vince and a happy new year to you and your family 😀
Vincent I am loving the orange work pad I love your repair video keep up with the good work especially the Roller
Ah, memories, had this and one called super space jack, the good old days indeed. Great fix.
Astro Wars, OMG, that sure does bring back some memories. I must say that I was rather good at it also until it all went tits up. Very addictive though.
Another great fix. Happy New Year and best wishes from the USA!!
Omg I feel old now seeing this work of art(cough), Happy New Year Vince
Great video, so many memories 😊😊😊😊
I had one of these and the display failed. It's probably long gone now.
Anyway, for the battery contacts I would use a contact cleaner or label remover that is citric acid based. It cleans up the corrosion quite well with no impact on the device. Best one to get though is one with the built in brush so you actually spray through the brush. Very handy.
Happy New Year, Vince 🎉. Thanks for keeping me entertained in 2023 and I’m sure you will in 2024 too 😀👍🏻
Great job and nice landing!!!
😂👍
Happy new year Vince and all the community!
Ah, the memories. Nice video and fix as always, Vince.
I remember playing this when I was at primary school. they were great. Gameboy of their day.
I've repaired a fair few of these and I'd say 8 out of 10 it's the D882 failure alone. I think I've only replaced that other NPN once. The real problem is when the S06 zener diode under the VFD has gone! It's a real PitA to get to and find decent replacements.
Pure nostalgia. Thank you for posting this.
2 videos in 2 days, that's awesome
I loved those kind of game counsils when i was a kid i had a few of them, takes me back a long way to a better time...had this one for many years there was another one with more ofba square screen cant remember the name of it played that one a lot...
Wow I had one of these too! I always find this stuff interesting to watch. I was never into electronics even though we had a great teacher at school. Im more into building and repairing pcs, configuring software and stuff. I guess I got more into the software side.
Thanks for this. I have one of these and not played it for years as the spring went on the left-right toggle. Might dig it out and see if it still works.
That toy is as old as me. I'd recommend checking its cholesterol levels and giving it vitamin D supplements. Also, tell it to walk every day for at least 15 minutes outside.
Or if youre me..even older than that
Great video as always. There is a one and only full size astro wars arcade cabinet at the retro computer museum. Come and see it!
I love millennial/ gen x humor.
Also, make sure to try to address each and every issue with the question: „Did you drink enough water?“. That is essential and really helps in the fault-finding process.
Leet skillz, Happy New year to you and your family Vince.
The higher the Hfe, the better the current gain of the transistor. However, most circuits don't rely on Hfe to provide amplification as it is subject to thermal runaway (its H parameters depend on temperature and as the transistor gets hotter, things become unpredictable). Rather, a useful design has gain set by surrounding and biasing resistors to make it fixed.
Very cool, this early 80's game still lives on :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR VINCE. I had this also invaders from space and Scramble all from grandstand. 40 Odd years later still have them working and boxed.
Perfect nostalgia items, these Grandstand games, I still have the 'Invader From Space' & Munchman (like a miniture Pac-Man) ones, complete with all their boxes & instructions & original power adaptor!
One of my first ever computer games - God I loved it so lol
I remember getting one of these for my birthday many hours spent on one of these
Happy New Year Vince.
Vince, my mate, why is this so captivating??!! I used to have one of these back in the day - but all the same, this shouldn’t be that interesting should it?! 🤣
Love your engagement and talk through. I have no idea what most of it means but it’s still captivating! 🤣
Happy New Year, Mate! 🕹️👾
Loved this game back in the day. Also brother had Firefox as well with stereo sound
I had this for Christmas when they were first released
Happy days
Blast from the past used to love this game when I was a kid still into gaming coming to 52 years old 😂it’s games like this that started me off
I'm fairly sure that in the late 80s, I had one of these, took it apart, and got a mild shock. lol
That's when I learned about VFDs, inverters, and to respect "high voltage" more.
We had an Astro Wars again about 8 years ago, but we gave it away.
Hopefully a kid was able to play it for a while after that.
My cousin Gave me his one back in the late 80's still have it but sadly doesn't work now. After watching this I feel like having a go at fixing it.
Only 0:09 in but wanted to say how excited I was to find another new video out before the end of the year! Keep up the awesome content!
Happy new year to MMV and all the MMV Massive!!
I had one of these in junior school back in the day, I am guessing it would have been 1982/83. I received it as my main Christmas present we used to get a £100 budget and used catalogues to find our gift list. So I am betting this would have been about £70 in the day, so indeed a lot of money.
Mine is still in my mothers loft, along with a lot of my toys and I know I also have an Atari Lynx that was definately faulty, so I think I may have to dig them out.