Boot or Original : Post original/bootleg PCB photos here.

[Unite2k]

thats a useful website, thanks. The pirate/bootleg 2002 looks completely different. These are definitely original boards. Do you know if it came in that odd green case?

[Spectre]

Judging by the label scans, the Japanese version came in ugly green.

[andygeezer]

like that :


the slug 6 is here for comparison, but obvisoulsy not the best one to compare as it's different from most game i've heard.

and here's how a real Japanese hnk is :
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7145/dsc00002eh.jpg
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5193/dsc00003fv.jpg

Sam Showdown and FOTNS are chinese copy - Recognise the Revision sticker - clonebergh also had it..

There is a company in China that copy a lot of arcade boards 1:1..

[andygeezer]

like that :


the slug 6 is here for comparison, but obvisoulsy not the best one to compare as it's different from most game i've heard.

and here's how a real Japanese hnk is :
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7145/dsc00002eh.jpg
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5193/dsc00003fv.jpg

Sam Showdown and FOTNS are chinese copy - Recognise the Revision sticker - clonebergh also had it..

There is a company in China that copy a lot of arcade boards 1:1..

Actually according to my sources, Sega/Sammy JP allow Chinese to bootleg there stuff - providing they pay a license/royality fee. China is there biggest market in Asia - so they turn a blindeye..

If you got to Chinese websites you'll see a lot of Sega games in Chinese built cabs - all Chinese hardware, Rambo, HOTD4, Sega Rally 3 etc..

[Spectre]

There is a company in China that copy a lot of arcade boards 1:1..

Ah yes, AGS China...

[MrSandman]

Hi!

On some pictures of MVS lables, I have seen somthing like a "holographic signature" (like a DNA helix) on MVS lables.

Is the missing of such a holographic print a telltale sign of a repro/fake label?
Is a missing serial on a lable also proof of a repro/fake label?

Thanks

[Spectre]

Hi!

On some pictures of MVS lables, I have seen somthing like a "holographic signature" (like a DNA helix) on MVS lables.

Is the missing of such a holographic print a telltale sign of a repro/fake label?
Is a missing serial on a lable also proof of a repro/fake label?

Thanks

Depends on the game, some titles (in some regions) have holo labels, some not. Same with serial numbers. The only way to be certain on the label is to look it up.

[MrSandman]

Hi!

On some pictures of MVS lables, I have seen somthing like a "holographic signature" (like a DNA helix) on MVS lables.

Is the missing of such a holographic print a telltale sign of a repro/fake label?
Is a missing serial on a lable also proof of a repro/fake label?

Thanks

Depends on the game, some titles (in some regions) have holo labels, some not. Same with serial numbers. The only way to be certain on the label is to look it up.

Many thanks!

[jepjepjep]

I recently picked up a Progear USA version locally. The seller told me that he never changed the battery, so I opened it up to take a look :





There's no daughter board, unlike all of the other Progear PCBs that I've heard about. The first that came to mind was uh oh, this must be a boot. But that doesn't make sense because the capcom warranty seals over the security bolts were intact. I had to cut them so that I could get the board apart.



Also, it can't be a boot, because all of the boots are phoenixed and this one still has a Toshiba suicide battery installed. A couple of other strange things are that the eprom labels are all hand-written,



and there is a strange wire running on the backside of the board to one of the PAL chips.



I went ahead and replaced the battery to be safe, and sure enough it still boots fine.





What do you guys think? It can't possibly be a boot can it? Sorry about the crappy quality of the pictures, my wife has our camera on a trip and I had to use a camcorder to take these.

[davewellington]

It looks like a bootleg to me. The graphics roms (top left) appear to be EPROMs. In normal CPS2 games they're mask ROMS.
I'm not an expert though, hopefully someone here can tell you for sure.

[DandySephy]

Progear - cps2 (Bootleg)

Do the capcom seals leave behind markings? It would be easy to fake a standard label, and easy enough to print Capcom labels for eeproms

[thechop]

Legit Japanese looks like this quite a difference-

[DandySephy]

I would think the wire would confirm it as a bootleg, but this is easily something Capcom could have added along with eeproms to use spare parts for the low US run of the game. I'm sure it would have been cheaper than using left over simms from CPS3, and it's not unusual for legit games to have factory fixes and alterations.

There isn't really any conclusive evidence either way (labels vs eeproms and a wire), but I'd assume it was a bootleg.

[geotrig]

didnt richy say somethign recently about how it tests the eproms is another way to tell if its a boot !tbh the seal could have been lifted and then replaced !

easiest way is you could take the battery off and see if it dies if it does then maybe it was original

[yosai]

The fact that the chips in sockets 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 & 19 are not mask ROMs flags it as a boot immediately.

If you can dump the ROMs in sockets 3 & 4 to see if they're already decrypted. If you can't do that get someone to burn you Razoolas suicide tester. If the SRAM on the board does not contain the decryption keys the battery is just there for show and it's a 100% certain a bootleg.

I would think the wire would confirm it as a bootleg,

I've seen a couple of genuine boards that have a additional wire on the PAL3.

[jepjepjep]

Do the capcom seals leave behind markings? It would be easy to fake a standard label, and easy enough to print Capcom labels for eeproms

Yes, in fact I tried to peal back the seals at first and they left markings, so I went ahead and cut them.

If it's a bootleg, then it would have to be phoenixed and the battery would only be for show? Wouldn't I see a phoenix logo as the board starts up?

Unfortunately, I don't have any equipment to dump the ROMs. How does Razoola's suicide tester work?

[DandySephy]

I've seen a couple of genuine boards that have a additional wire on the PAL3.

Thats what I first thought (I rewrote my post), but people swear blind that a cps2 which looks like x is always a bootleg. In a similar way that a lot of people assume that eeprom mvs=boot even though SNK did it all the time. I don't know enough about CPS2 to argue

[jepjepjep]

I guess the only true test would be to dump the ROMs?

For me, there just seems to be too much anecdotal evidence that points to it being a legit board.
- The capcom warranty labels over the security bolts that separate when you peal them off. Would a bootlegger be able to reproduce these?
- The capcom eprom labels. If these were reproduction labels, why wouldn't the bootlegger print the rom names along with the labels instead of hand-writing them?
- Stealth phoenix edition? Is it possible to have a phoenix edition without the phoenix boot logo. And if it was phoenixed, why would they leave the suicide battery attached?


I also just ran across this post on neo-geo which says that "Official U.S progears DO have eproms instead of mask roms, the only way to catch a boot blue progear is to just plain avoid a blue board that is phoenixed or not sold in a whole kit. All green progear use cps3 simms however." (http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showpost. ... stcount=11")

[jepjepjep]

Also, posted by Razoola in that neo-geo thread, "Something you can look for to detect a phoenixed game thats had the splash screen removed is to go into test mode and do the memory check. Firstly the phoenix edition changes the test to check the entire program ROM space and not 1 byte in every 4096. This means on most games (not all however) the EPROM test takes a few seconds for each program ROM. So if you see that then its a good indicator its a modified phoenix edition, the test for the program ROMs is almost instant with the original games."

I just ran the memory test and it took about 12 seconds to run through all of the tests (Work RAM, CPS RAM, OBJECT RAM, SOUND RAM, EEP ROM, PROGRAM ROM 0 and 1). But when it checks PROGRAM ROM 0 and PROGRAM ROM 1, it is almost instant as Razoola states.

[yosai]

- Stealth phoenix edition? Is it possible to have a phoenix edition without the phoenix boot logo. And if it was phoenixed, why would they leave the suicide battery attached?

Yes. Both of the above are done to sell bootlegs for more money.

Something you can look for to detect a phoenixed game thats had the splash screen removed is to go into test mode and do the memory check. Firstly the phoenix edition changes the test to check the entire program ROM space and not 1 byte in every 4096

If the Phoenix was not made by Razoola then this will not be accurate. The only way to know for sure with your board is to dump the 03 and 04 ROMs and see if they're encrypted.