Play Meter

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6ravitar: it may be
'a very reliable game'
tari's latest release, Gravitar , is
what I would call a combina-
tion of Lunar Lander and
Space Duel.
It seems like I just reviewed Atari's
Kangaroo only a few weeks ago, and
here is still another Atari game . We all
feel that too much equipment is flood-
ing the market, and the bubble will
burst shortly-if it has not already.
The Gravitar cabinet is very similar
to the type used on Kangaroo, Centi-
pede, Dig Dug, etc. The front section,
below the control panel, is painted
black . This color and type of paint has
stood up extremely well to the frequent
kicking video games receive . The cabi-
net's sides are painted a glossy white
and are covered with brightly colored
decals . These side decals adhere to
Atari games very well. Even on games
a few years old, the sides can be cleaned
and the decals look attractive . Atari
has this aspect down well.
Gravitar utilizes the Coin Control s
Inc. two-door system (over I under)
with a separate cashbox area located
under the coin door. As promised,
Coin Controls has put a key hook on
the inside of the coin door. We all
appreciate this very much.
Atari has cut two key notches into
the sides of the utility panel which is
mounted to the top back of the coin
box frame. These notches can be used
to hold the back door ke ys and I or coin
box door keys, but I would recom-
mend using the hook instead. The
reason is that the keys can fall out of
the notches if the game is tilted back
far enough or gets a severe jostle.
Searching for keys in the bottom of a
A
64
cabinet and not finding them wastes
valuable time.
Speaker grills have been rivoted to
the cabinet over the two speakers, one
mounted over the coin door and the
other under the marquee or attraction
glass overhang. These grills are much
stronger than those used on most
games but can be bent from the edges.
Shielded high
fidelity speakers
with magnets
give the game
better sound
quality overall.
Thicker, stronger metal
The heat vent grill on top of the
game is made of thicker metal and is
much stronger than the speaker grills.
The speakers in Gravitar are newly
improved. Shielded high fidelity
speakers with shielded magnets give
the game better sound quality overall.
The marquee or attraction panel is
made of tempered glass. This has
worked better than plastic, evident by
the infrequency that Atari marquees
have to be replaced . The marquee can
withstand a mild punch (I don't recom-
mend hitting it.) and is held in place
with two sturdy metal guide brackets
(top and bottom). The guide rails are
not easily bent with your fingertips , so
chances are that the marquee will stay
in place. Atari has secured the guides
to the cabinet with special Allen
wrench screws .
A section of foam tape is on the top
and bottom front edges of the marquee
to cushion the edges from the metal
brackets. This is a good idea.
The PCB logic board and the regu-
lator audio board are located on the
right side wall of the cabinet, looking
from the back door. The power supply
is located on the cabinet floor. This is
the same setup as in past Atari games .
It may be helpful to know that the
fuses on the new Atari power supply
are of different amperage than many
technicians are used to having. The:
power supply uses one 20-amp slo-blo
fuse, four 4-amp slo-blo fuses,and one
7-amp slo-blo fuse .
The monitor is a Wells-Gardner
Quadrascan XY color. This is the same
monitor that was used on Tempest
that frequently gets overloaded and
blows diods, transistors, and caps.
Atari put a monitor protection board
on its Space Duel to shut down the
game when the board locks up . I didn't
see any protection board on Gravitar,
so let's hope that your board doesn't
lockup.
The monitor is bolted to the cabinet
in front with four bolts. In the back, on
PlAY METER. December 1, 1982