Review: The Astro City is (at least for me) one of the most desirable Candy Cabinets out there. Where to start? Firstly - the sleek lines and neon green colourway still look great to this day. It's a cab you can put in your front room and it wont look out of place, also the original side art, and the good reproductions glow under blacklight! Secondly Sega manufactured a lot of these cabinets, along with the slightly updated, and slightly uglier New Astro City these machines were the workhorses of Sega's fleet form 1993 onwards. This not only means there are quite a few around, but also a good supply of spare and reproduction parts to keep them running. Even in the UK where precious few candy cabs of any type were imported, you can find a nice condition example without dropping the house payments. Like most Sega Cabinets, the Astro is well made, durable and very easy to work on. The monitor tube is attached to a frame which makes removing it much easier, access to the CRT for discharging is also a breeze thanks to a generous removable rear panel. Sticks, buttons and wiring harnesses are all easy to swap out. The main body is made of fibreglass which has the advantage of not denting, although isn't quite as tough as a City or Aero City cab. However, everything inside is easy to access and there is a plenty of room - trust me this is a good thing. If you get a Candy Cabinet you are going to spend some time with your head stuck inside it. So it's easy to live with. but the Astro City is also plays great. Astro's were fitted with either the Nanao MS8-29 or MS9-29 which both provide a fantastic, crisp15khz picture. If you haven't played on one of these machines before, it's quite something. In the UK, we generally had upright cabs with slightly smaller 20" or 25" screens. Candy Cabs like the Astro plant you right in front of a huge 29" tube, there is an argument that it's maybe slightly too big? As I sometimes have to move my head to scan over the screen! Some MS9-29 variants will also support 24khz and make a great candidate for Sega Model 2or 3 boards.. It's worth nothing that earlier Astro Cities were supplied with a lower power PSU, which is fine for jamma games, but not for power hungry Model 2 or 3 boards. Overall whilst it's not as feature rich as the Egret 2 or Blast City. The Astro City is a great place to start your Candy Cab journey!

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