Going to do some very minor "blinging" on mine.....will post a couple picks when I'm done.

Just put up a 1.9+Billion score last night. 3-Ball game with 13-Ball set to Hard. This is a fun game that can be really tough to score on! My score put me at #3 against the Factory Set Scores!!!

Got the Rocket shot down but the outer lanes will never be easy.

That looks great, nice job!

Love playing this game on my virtual pin, hoping to play a real one at some point.

2.76 Billion and that was without playing a single 13-Ball multiball. Still have not gotten to "Master Alarm" yet. I'm really enjoying this pin.

Good Score Astropin. I got 2.86 B but had the continue game feature (and 5 ball)on with the mission set a couple of missions from master alarm. Turn on the continue game feature and play master alarm every other game. It's cool. 5 balls at all times no matter how many balls drain. Set 13 ball to extra hard, the game got so many other multi-ball games you dont need the 13 ball. By far the best multi-ball game I have ever played.

Love my Apollo 13 machine. Even though its my first and only machine I find it challenging. I have only made splash down twice. (Orbit game does not continue).

Awesome Saturn V Pappyboyington- I'm going to get me one- which one did you buy on amazon?

I've done a lot of LED upgrades to mine, I'll try to post some pic, but by far the best is
1. Slow color changer behind the astronaut (Tom Hanks) on the backglass. it looks like a slow changing sunrise or sunset.Beautiful.
2. Slow color changer on the rocket on the backglass.
3.Fast color changer on the A13 on the CO2 ramp and the Video Ramp.

I played this game in the wild and was not impressed. I was reluctant to buy one, but it was close to home and price was good so I did. First thing- replace flippers and all flipper parts. Good strong flippers make all the difference- especially with all the multi-balls and the hard ramp shots. When you get this game rolling, it can sling the ball all over the place. It's a fast, fun game and I've had it for about 1 1/2 years now and I have no plans on getting rid of it.

I would say at this point and time it's number 2 in my collection, right behind STTNG.

yes, i might replace mine. which scale are we looking at?

I want one, one of my favorite movies! Next time I run into a clean decent priced one in canada, I'll have to grab it

have one up for trade. fun pin but just doesnt get alot of playing time. pm me any trade offers

Hi All, My Apollo 13 moon magnet stopped working although the moon still rotates. I thought it might be the wires, as suggested in this forum, but I found that the 4amp fuse for the magnet under the playfield had blown. So i replaced, started another game and it blew again. Any thoughts?

You probably have a short somewhere along the line. Might take some investigating.

I love this game but haven't seen one in at least 15 years. Would love to find one close for sale. I don't have many that are on my dream list, but this would be one of them.

So, I took the moon apart and found three connections. Two wires came from the playfield and a third that comes from within the magnet. I tested the resistance and found that it was 4.3 ohms, 4.3 ohms,. and almost 0 ohms between the connections. As you look at the picture, the wire at 3 oclock reads 4.3 to the other leads and is not connected to the fuse. The wire at 6 oclock is connected to the fuse, and the wire at 9 oclock goes into the magnet. I get zero ohms between 6 and 9 oclock.UntitledA13-2.png
Do the ohm readings make sense?

Joined the club today.

I had unloaded it at work last night. So many of the guys from the floor came up and asked me about it, that I decided to set it up for a few weeks at work, for use only during "break"--haha.

As you can see by the pic, the launch handle is missing. Since I've got a full machine shop & 3D printer at my disposal at work, I thought I might be able to make myself a new one. So...

Can someone do me a favor and take pictures of the lauch handle (on both sides of the cabinet)? For extra bonus, some dimensions on the handle part would be great.

Thanks a bunch!
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Just joined the club! But its still in my car, and must wait tomorrowafternone for help carring it inside.

Officially in
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I've realized my apron is completely bare (no decal in upper left or right, nor the sega logo at the bottom). Anyone know if someone sells decals, or can someone provide me with a good hi-res photo?

at least you scored getting one with an actual launch handel

Sadly, I think I may be selling mine. I am moving, and need to raise some money. Only had it a few months. Beautiful machine, all LEDs (very nicely done be previous owner), everything working perfectly (including the moon), has topper, overall amazing machine.
Near Baltimore, if anyone is interested.

Yea, I HAVE noticed a few that were missing and replaced with a button. Functionally the same, but not as fun as turning a rocket handle.

Decals aren't a huge deal, I'm sure I can recreate them based on some photos I found on google, just would be easier if I had a straight down shot.

I should be able to get these, if you can wait a day or so. I just need to get the camera out, instead of my phone.

Yea no rush, just putting it out there. I appreciate it.

Not my mod, but I'm digging it:

Don't know if anyone else has a good scan of the launch label (most I've seen are horribly faded), but I managed to recreate one that looks pretty close
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Fixed a pop bumper (bracket broke, coil was hanging). Managed to create a SEGA sticker for the apron. Replacing bulbs underneath was a pain with the subway tunnel. Bulbs on top are even worse (spent like an hour replacing the 2 bulbs in the upper right corner), but mine is finally fully LED'd. I went with white in the bottom, and all blues towards the top. Also replaced all 4 reflectors for the spotlights, mine had almost no chrome left on them.
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Photo is brighter than it actually is. One thing I don't like about any of the plastics, the printing is very light so it tends to bleed a lot. If there was ever a case for CPR to do a new plastics set, this would be it.

i agree. id' be in for a full set..

im in the process of adding LEDs to mine, going with the 2835s in most GIs. will see what works/looks best, clear or frosted.... will probably go cool white in slings, and blue down in bottom lane guides.
no sure on rest of GIs, probably mix of white and blue. will also powder coat the wires and at some stage remove the mylar. i originally had 4smds in the left hand side GI spots, but im preferring the 2835s. larger spread of light.

Finally completed "Master Alarm"!

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Not the biggest score considering but not horrible. Played exactly zero 13-ball multiballs (set it to "hard").

That looks awesome. I went straight there and ordered one. Just found this thread, here's my A13. I've had it since 2006. It's my wife's favorite game as well.

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All I have done so far is put a couple of LEDs in the lights that light the back of the playfield. I think I may do a full LED change over for this machine. For others that have done this, what kit would you recommend?

I had problems with my moon magnet as some others have noted, but my issue was with the driver board (under the playfield) transistor shorting. I replaced it a few times before I finally rebuilt the whole circuit. It's been fine ever since.

Hi, some of you have the original manual? Mine (copy) its too blur. My Q9 (left bumper) transistor its dead, so I should probably needs to replace the resistor and small capacitor next to the transistor too. I know the resistor its 22K, but i couldnt read what is the size of the small capacitor. 100v 0.1 uf? 0.01 uf? 50v?
Thanks a lot.

I ended up buying that same kit. I've been changing out all the bulbs. I forgot how many parts there are on the playfield. It's taking me forever! I've got a PinballPro speaker kit to put in as well. Can't wait to see/hear it with all this done!

It took forever, partly because I fixed all the stuff I didn't realize was loose or needed to be fixed while I went through everything. Guess it was time well spent. Ignore the backbox lighting, I just was experimenting with different colors behind the backglass. I think I'm going to just use warm white frosted bulbs behind it.

ColorDMD Sigma
PinballBulbs light kit
Pilball Pro speaker kit
Speaker lighting kit
New instructions cards
Cleaned and waxed

Mounting the ColorDMD was a little tricky as it has to be mounted above the "Blastoff" lights, which means it is in the way of the lightboard. The compromise is that you have to open the speaker panel first, then the lightbox when working in the back box. No big deal since the speaker panel is on hinges on A13.

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Was wondering what the speaker light kit and a colordmd would look like in apollo, thanks for posting pics! It looks glorious!

Here's a video

Thanks, I've been really pleased with the way it turned out. I can see some fine tuning that I want to do with the LEDs now that I've played it a bit, but overall I think it has really enhanced the game! Thanks for the recommendations.

Wow, these mods are awesome! Thanks for posting the video. I have been thinking about adding LEDs to my A13 for a while now but I was not sure which kit to buy. This one sure looks fantastic. Out of curiosity, did you buy the ultimate kit? With or without flashers? And why did you pick this specific kit? Thanks.

I'm glad to hear mounting the speaker light kit wasn't a big issue. I've never done an install on one of the games with the hinged speaker panels (Apollo 13 or Goldeneye), but it defiantly looks a bit trickier that most speaker panels (that can be laid down flat) that the light kits support.

It looks like you did a nice job on routing the wires so the panel could still swing open freely. From those pictures...I'm also glad I recently started including longer wires for the light frame connections and a RGB controller with a longer remote eye wire. I know my older kits did work on these games, but the original shorter wires had to be a pretty tight reach.

I'm surprised you didn't pick up a ColorDMD SIGMA / Speaker Light Kit Interface cable to try out. I know it's not something that everyone cares for, but having the ColorDMD change colors along with the light kits is pretty cool in my opinion. Having the Interface Cable connected or not connected also only takes a minute to switch from one to the other so it's not a big hassle to connect or disconnect it.

Good work on the game. I don't have any local pin friends that have an A13. I've only had a chance to play it a few times at various pinball shows.

Thanks for the kind words. I had a lot of fun doing all these mods. I haven't done much to A13 over the 8 years I've had it, but it is probably my family's favorite game.

Thanks for the awesome kit, what a great idea! The difference this makes for the speaker panel is amazing. I like letting it cycle through the colors in slow mode. It's a great fit for this game.

Adding the upgraded speakers at the same time as the kit saves some time too. Maybe you and PinballPro could put links to each others kits on your web pages?

I just read about being able to do this today when I was going through the ColorDMD thread. I can't believe I didn't see that before. I am seriously tempted. It looks like a cool feature. My 11 year old daughter loves playing with the remote control and changing the colors/patterns.

Hey, I see you live in Ripley OH, I grew up in Beavercreek, south of Dayton. I really miss that area, I have a lot of fond memories of Ohio.

Thanks. It was dumb luck really. I was reading through this thread and there were references and pictures for this kit so I figured I go with it.

I did buy the ultimate kit, it has flashers but not for the backbox. I also bought a sample kit to have some extra bulbs to try out.

The only thing I think I would change on the playfield is the lights under the right and left out lane plastics. The kit calls for clear white bulbs, which look great, but when I'm playing the machine immediately to the left of of A13 they are really bright and glare in my eyes. I think I'm going to replace them with frosted white.

In the backbox I think I'm going to use some colored bulbs behind some of the graphics rather than the white frosted bulbs that the kit calls for. Maybe some yellows behind the rocket fire, and the lander explosion, and the sun reflection on the visor.

I don't have much experience to compare these LEDs against, but I really like they way they look, and they are really nice and bright. Very easy to install in the sockets. The instructions that come with the kit are great too, they take a lot of the guess work out for a novice like me. Now that I have some experience doing one of these I may pick out my own colors for the next machine I do - which might be BOP.

Pinball Pro actually sells lighted speakers that are single color and not color changing. They are basically just a single color light strip that they put inside of the round spacer that they have on their speakers. I don't really care for the look of them (especially in games that have square speaker holes) as they are a bit too "direct view" in my opinion. Coincidentally they got the idea to add lights to the speakers just a short time after I released my light kits.

Beavercreek...I used to know a pack of girls from Beavercreek (the Beaverchicks..I called them) that would come down to Ripley every couple of weeks during the summers for boating / camping fun. I also went up there from time to time to visit them. It's been awhile since I have been up that way.