Astron Belt

The upright is approximately 75 inches tall. The sides of the cabinet are fully covered by a picture of a large space ship flying through a rocky canyon. The single-trigger joystick control panel has interesting futuristic designs on it.

The sit-down version has a vibraseat and uses illuminated buttons on the control panel. This machine uses a 25" monitor along with the LDV1001 laser disc player and logic boards.

Move your fighter craft around the screen to avoid enemy fire, colliding with the enemy fighters, mines, and other objects. Basically shoot anything that moves.

The game is divided into different waves. At the end of a wave there is a command ship which must be destroyed. Some waves required the player to maneuver their fighter through a trench while trying to destroy enemy fighters. With each successive wave the enemy fighters became more aggressive and accurate with their shots.

The first 60 seconds of game play are penalty free, meaning that your fighter can be repeatedly destroyed without the game ending. After 60 seconds, if the player is destroyed, the game is over unless an extra ship was earned.

The enemy fighters are all laser disc generated along with the backgrounds, except for the mines. Enemy fighters shots are computer generated and come from the fighters as they move around the screen. This results in a greater interactivity with the laser disc video and makes the game play seem less linear.

Some of the video came from a 1979 Toei SciFi space film, while some came from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and the 1980 film "Battle Beyond the Stars." The rest was made specially for the game.

The game was made by Sega and licensed to Bally Midway for manufacture and sale in the U.S.A. The game displays Bally Midway presents, copyright by Sega.

Astron Belt can be converted to either Star Blazer or Galaxy Ranger by swapping the game ROMs from another game using the same board model. For example, the LDV1001 version of Star Blazer ROMs can be used in the LDV1001 version of Astron Belt and the corresponding disc would also be required.

There were two versions of the Astron Belt laser disc. One was a Pioneer pressed single sided (metal backed) disc, LD No. A55, used in the LDV1001 version of the game (game PCB board model 834-5194-06, 834-5174-03, rev "P"). The other disc a Sega labeled disc with the Sega part number 200-5019, used in the Hitachi VIP9500SG version (game PCB model 834-5270 rev "A" to "C"). Both disc versions had the same information and could be used in place of each other.

Monitors used in the game were Wells Gardner, Electrohome and Nanao. The Nanao monitors were only used in the Japanese made sit-down and upright games.