If you haven't seen an Asteroids cabinet in action, I suggest you find one at an arcade museum near you. Actual Asteroids is quite different from any port or emulation of it. The slow-decay phosphor leaves visible trails for your ship and shots, and the machine has control over electron-beam intensity in a way that raster units do not, which means that your shots and enemy saucers glitter in the dark, creating a "spacey" atmosphere that's hard to replicate on a raster display.
Maybe you should invest in a Vectrex, the only vector console.
I can remember it also came with a version of Asteroids. This had the CRT magic you describe but despite the charm it looked a bit like an oscilloscope to me. I played this in Woolworths circa 1982 when the thing to buy was a 'proper computer' even if that meant a ZX81 that you soldered yourself.
If I can remember correctly the Vectrex was price competitive with the humble ZX81 when new, now they are bound to be worth a relative fortune compared to those allegedly more useful computers that are worth little.
Size was also good, you could have a Vectrex on your desk, an Asteroids cabinet would be a bit too bulky for that.
