Thanks for your reply, this is very helpful!

I got the new lights for the backbox and the outlane/drains. For the outlanes - I ended up doing orange for part and warm frosted for the other part. For the backbox - I used yellow frosted for the rocket exhaust, sun, explosion etc in the back box and warm frosted white for the rest.

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Those look great! They really fit the style of the cabinet. Where did you find those?

looks great.
question.

as this would the exact same kit as for goldeneye.

do you find you need to have the volume on the control switch that you mount in the backbox turned right up ?..... and the 6pin existing plug to the board, had to be split to allow the use of the 4pin wire from this volume control switch. meaning the remaining 2pins are the existing wires direct from the sub. if that makes sense. : P

Yes to both. I was surprised about the volume, as I recall it pretty much has to be turned all the way to the loudest setting to sound right. I wonder if the amp output on these early machines isn't as powerful as later ones?

How can you test the moon magnet and make sure it's working?

You gotta start moon hurry up then hit the ramp.

Anyone have scoring strategy in general for this machine? 150 games and no high score for me...

I usually start a mission, try and complete it, then shoot whatever I see which is usually just the orbits....ya I need direction after that first mission ends.

If anyone is looking to join the club mine is for sale: https://pinside.com/pinball/market/ad/20803

Great game but I have limited space and it's time to try something new.

There's a mode in the tests that allows you to test it I believe.

thanks, i thought maybe it was just me.

i can hear the difference, especially when the sub kicks in... definately more bass

im getting the wireforms re done. i.e. powdercoated. anyone know the exact color im needing ? or just go
in and try to match the original color as best /and close as possible?

Ill get it for u tomorrow

Getting one this Friday but someone removed the launch handle. They have just a knob that looks like a shooter but is still a twist to launch. I would love to make it right!

You're probably the 3rd or 4th person to have a missing (or wrong) handle in this thread alone. Those things must have broken off by operators a lot. Mine is still intact, and without tearing mine apart and looking at the manual, it doesn't look like it would be a huge deal to reverse engineer it. It's basically a shaft inside a nylon bushing inside a bracket, a torsion spring, and a cherry switch on the inside hit by an offset pin. The only thing that might be slightly hard to find (might have to just 3d print from some tough ABS) is part #1 (t-handle)
apollo13_handle.jpg

Show of hands, if I created accurate replacement shooter rods, who would buy one before I even go down this path?

Basicly all I am missing ins 1,2,3 the rest is there. Technicly 2 is there but has the wrong kind of knob so its really #1

I am new to this forum and just got my first pinball machine. I was having a blast with my new Apollo 13, but have come across some issues with mine. There are some flaky things going on like resets happening at random times. But there are three somewhat repeatable things that I am looking for advice on how to fix. Here they are:

1) the moon does not grab the ball. I assume the electromagnet needs to be replaced? Any videos out there on how to do this?

2) when I get into the 13 ball mode, bad things seem to happen. Usually my machine will reset and then I get stuck in a mode that is hard to describe, so I made a video of it:

(you will have to paste into url, since I am new member and can't post links)

3) another problem that just started after playing with it for a couple of hours. The left flipper is in some type of auto fliker mode when I press and hold the button. Here is another video:

I apologize for the improper names I am sure I am using. This is all new to me, but I love playing my machine. Hopefully I can get it working the way it should be.

Thanks,
Dave

Hi, and welcome!

I had similar problems with my moon magnet. Just a guess, but it's probably a shorted transistor in the control circuitry. I would have to do a little research to say specifically, but I ended up rebuilding a small control board to finally fix the issue. The magnet itself rarely fails (it would have to either heat up and melt the wire, or have some kind of mechanical failure in in winding), it's usually something in the driver circuitry.

2. My guess, it has no idea those other 2 balls are sitting there, and the VUK can't eject the next ball up. I would go into switch test and make sure the shooter lane switch is working. It's in a bad spot and can easily get disconnected. Also make sure there's a diode on it.

3. See flipper pulsing or stuttering

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flipper-stuttering-usual-solutions-not-working

I haven't been able to make much progress, but here is what I found out:

1) Moon: right lane entered switch is working. I wiggled the two black wires under the moon and one of them does feel loose. But, I can't get down there or see down there to really tell. How do you guys access the back of the bottom panel?

2) Balls stuck in shooter lane: Went into switch test and the shooter lane switch is working fine. Although I wiggle the wires and they do keep triggering the switch. So that might be the problem. Here is an image... it clearly was resoldered before. How would you correct this. Remove everything and clean up?

switch.jpg

3) I watched the video and it was helpful in understanding how it works. But, I checked all wiring and everything seems to be okay. However, in switch test, the left flipper does not indicate anything.

I greatly appreciate any insight you might have!!

Dave

One follow-up question. After 13 ball mode, what triggers the 8-ball reload and when does it happen? I can't seem to get it to reload on its own and then it eventually does it, seemingly at random.

Does this describe what's happening after 13 ball?

(kicks one into shooter lane, loads it, auto launch Goes off couple times with nothing in the lane, then it finally kicks another into the shooter lane, loads it, etc?)

Or is it just nothing for a bit and then loads them all quickly?

After 30-60 seconds in 13 ball mode, the flippers go dead and all the balls fall down. Then nothing happens for about 10 seconds. After that it tries to load the balls into the shooter lane without shooting them. The shooting lane switch does appear to be working okay, but for some reason is not firing the shooter. If I flick the balls manually through the shooting lane, they go into the game field and not are not reloaded into the 8 ball storage area. Eventually it figures out they need to be reloaded and it will start firing them up to the reload area.

I ended off calling in a tech to help me out and did get everything working. Here were the issues:

1) Flipper stutter was due to poor connection of the wire harness on the board. Once cleaned up an reseated, it worked fine.

2) Moon rotation problem was caused by a blown fuse. But the new fuse also blew right away. Turns out there was a transistor shorted out on the magnet interface board. Once this was replaced the magnet worked fine.

3) Spent a while debugging the 13 ball mode problem. Ended off updating the software from version 2.05 to 5.0 and that seems to have fixed the problem.

So, all is well. Cost me a little to get it fixed, but happy it is all working as it should!

Dave

sometimes paying a tech $100-$150 to fix a few issues is worth not pulling your hair out.

Just bought myself an Apollo 13, been looking for on for a while now. Hope to get it within a couple of weeks which will give some time to find a space for it. Bring on the balls

Congrats! It's perhaps the one machine my (non pinhead) wife does not bug me about getting rid of. Says a lot about the machine I think

H. Tech help needed. The moon magnet grabs the ball but moon does not move. Moon moves in test mode. Any idea before i fault find. Mike

Have a spare LCD, coming soon...
a13_lcd_mod.jpg

I had some strange occurrences from my A13 over the last few weeks. My brother was visiting a few weeks ago, and he was playing my a13, trying to beat my high score as he does... and he says "it's acting funny, the ball won't kick up to the shooter lane".

I've had some issues with the ball trough intermittently that I haven't been able to completely fix, so I didn't think much of it. Then we smell smoke. The coil on the upper pop bumper had melted, and the driver transistor had fried as well.

I didn't have a replacement coil so I ordered one, but I did have a spare transistor, so I replaced that and put the board back in the game to await the coil.

I got around to rebuilding the pop bumper with the new coil and put the game back together to test it out. I started playing a game, and got the video mode and landed the lander, but the ball would not kick back out of the VUK. And then I smelled smoke again.

I looked in the backbox, and the driver transistor for the VUK was really fried. Have a look!

Fried transistorFried transistor 2

I replaced the fried transistor. The VUK coil looked ok and I have so rarely had issues with coils that I didn't really check it very well, I put everything back together, but the coil wouldn't fire in test mode. Hmmmm... to make a long story short after about an hour of testing things, I realized the coil only had .8 ohms resistance. I guess it melted and shorted internally. The only thing I can't figure out is why these problems occurred. The only theory I have at this point is some weird glitch with the CPU/Driver where these coils locked on.

Anyway, now I'm waiting on a VUK coil. Hopefully I won't have another coil melt when I put this one in... Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Fixed and cleaned up

explosion damaged command module mod my brother came up with for his , & purple led's behind the moon on the translite .... couldn't resist

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can anyone tell me when the song "Spirit in the sky" is supposed to play on this game ? my brother insists that its supposed to play in attract mode & we have checked the settings but never can get it to play

Roger that , & thanks will check on it

I will ask him when I see him at work tomorrow & get back to you

I bought an apollo 13 recently. It had a few issues but they are all worked out now. I'm posting to show a little mod I did on the rocket. It's easy and inexpensive.

Carefully drill out the middle rocket engine with a 1/2" drill (you can go larger or small if you want). Then, cut a small piece of red DMD film and put a small piece of double sided tape on one side, on each end. Affix it to the inside of the rocket so it covers the hole you drilled. If you touch up the newly created white area inside the hole you drilled, you won't even know there's a hole there until it lights up RED!

Mod#2 - The plastic piece (inside the rocket) that my 2 flashers are mounted on is supposed to be red but over time it had turned white from bulb heat. So, the light didn't really look red coming from the rocket. I cut a piece of red DMD film and stuck in on the entire bottom side of the plastic piece. Now, the light that comes from under the rocket is much more red and looks a bit more like a rocket taking off.

Both are very subtle mods but they do make a difference.

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My game had the exact same issue! I think its from people installing incorrect bulbs which get way too hot and melt everything. Under your bulbs you'll notice the plastic is now white instead of reddish. When your new bulbs shine through the white plastic, it's not going to look right under the rocket during "take off". Check out my mod above to fix it.

brainfart triple post!

brainfart triple post!