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The vector display seems to have a decay time so there are some trails I think but not as strong as the picture. I remember the shots being really really bright on the display, but the camera seems to add a bunch of flare.

Compared to asteroids in a MAME emulator the real display is way different.

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I think it's because of the shutter. The camera is capturing the image over a period of time so the photons for those trails will be additive.

It certainly does have that effect, but you're right in that it's not quite that pronounced.

I spent a lot of time playing Asteroids in the arcade growing up (that and Tempest). I have a physical problem with my left hand so I found playing a lot of later arcade games that required a lot of very specific movements of the joystick difficult so I kept coming back to those two because the left hand control was basically just a dial.

I found a video with some really good close-ups of gameplay, and it looks like the sparkle effect may actually be caused by the bright bullets refracting through tiny scratches in the display, which is fascinating. I've queued up 3:12, and there's a specific shot around 3:16 where the concentric radial glow is very clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w60sfReTsRA&t=3m12s

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