Another option:

I use a bezel that I made. Get asteroid.png and asteroid.cfg from here if you're interested. https://github.com/busywait/retroboxes/tree/main/overlay/Asteroids

I've tried lr-mame2003-plus and lr-fbneo. They need different ROMs, get the correct one from a relevant romset.

lr-mame2003-plus has more control over vector lines, but the screen is slightly squashed in height (black unused space at the top and bottom). The screen shot below shows that problem.
asteroids game with a bezel running in RetroArch

You can scale the picture to be a little taller, but then motion doesn't look as smooth. So, I use lr-fbneo.

With either core I used with the "normal" resolution, and integer scaled 2x to fit my bezel in the retroarch video options.

I don't use a shader. I do run with video_threaded = "false" to reduce latency by a frame. (I can't remember if I tested if that actually made any difference! I assume that it's taken away 16mS of lag).

Exactly! It's a bummer, as my plan was to use a Raspberry PI to emulate in an original Asteroids cocktail cab. The other games I put in there work well (Space Invaders, Galaga, etc.), but the Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe just aren't up to par. Sounds like my only real option is to use a PC/MAME that can handle more advanced effects. I recognize that vector games relied on specific monitor hardware to get the desired effects, but as a novice, it just seems crazy that there isn't a good way to emulate 50-year-old visuals on a modern (albeit low-powered) PC and monitor. I'd be happy to forego the glow if I should just SEE the bullets. Maybe someone smarter than me will eventually work out a way to size them up! :)

@steve8091 said in Setting up Asteroids Control Panel with USB Controller:

I want to be able to fine tune vector settings, which the default-installed MAME doesn't allow me to do.

But mame2003-plus does. Just FYI.

Thanks for sharing your solution, have fun with RetroPie.

Actually just switched to a different monitor and now its working fine. I also installed Mame 2003 plus, but not sure if that would have done anything.

Apologies for wasting your time and thanks again.

Has anyone figured out how to use LEDspicer with MAME to automate which buttons are used per ROM? I have LEDspicer running but can not for the life of me figure this out.

@OneSwitch glad it worked for you too!

@GreenHawk84 - I think the vector code for mame2003 and mame2003-plus are pretty much identical now.

One thing that has changed is instead of a vector resolution multiplier of 1, 2, 3, etc. it will be the actual render resolution under the Quick Menu -> Options settings.

If one of the core resolutions match the native native resolution of your monitor it should like decent. If you can't match the resolution to the display exactly then shoot for something close. I find using an HD display (1920x1080) that 1440x1080 looks decent for both horizontal and vertical vector games.

Try a vector beam width of 1 or 1.2 (Quick Menu -> Options) and if it still doesn't look satisfactory try turning on bi-linear filtering under Settings -> Video.

Some of the options require a core restart, basically exit the game and restart it.

@hsamuels
Same problem after update 1.7.5 - MAME 2003 (0.78) 95bb558

I'll open a new topic.

Wow, nice work!