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

[MrSandman]

Hi all!

My next postings are for reference (I think all PCBs are original - if you think otherwise, please let me know).
I have some more pics (Namco System 10 Taito F-3 Puzzle Bobble 2, original CAPCOM seals on USA Mobo and B-Boards - if anyone is interested I can post them as well for reference).

I will start with the ZN-1 Hardware and a HW fix (as indicated above the JAMMA connector, in case you have a simmilar item and are worried) - don't think copies of Mobos exist

[MrSandman]

These are MVS Modules, Samurai Showdown 3 (repair Board), Last Blade 1 and 2 and Garou MOTW.
You can compare the numbers on the ROMs with the Master List, they should all be original games.
Alternatively, you can check Scans of MVS boards here.

[MrSandman]

These are the Last Blade carts continued...

[MrSandman]

BTW: I dont think a bootlegged MVS cart comes with decryption CPUs like Garou - it rather come on a sac board or generic board or similar, wouldn't it

[MrSandman]

This is an original CPS2 Street Fighter Zero 2 Board and a phoenixed Vampire Hunters - The Night Warriors. The ROMs have tags similar to the MVS ROMS; in the case of SFZ2 its simply SZ2. You can also see the suicide battery on this board

In the case of Vampire Hunters its VAM. On this board you can see that the suicide Battery has been removed, and in the lower left corner of the board, you see EPROMs that have tape accross them. These are the Program ROMs that are patched for a dead board to be phoenixed (just in case you have a board looking like this and wondering of it is a bootleg or conversion).

You will find a better description of the CPS2 Hardware and copmonents of the B-Board here.

Hope these postings helped anyone out there - feel free to correct any mistakes I made.

[Spectre]

Bootlegged namco 246?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0643812473
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0643811863

Highly suspicious lack of label on the first dongle, second looks totally wonky like it was lifted from a photo. Also his previous listings includes a boot progear cps2...

I had been told this was possible, but he must have the means to do it at a sensible cost in order to turn a proft.

[subbie]

Bootlegged namco 246?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0643812473
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0643811863

Highly suspicious lack of label on the first dongle, second looks totally wonky like it was lifted from a photo. Also his previous listings includes a boot progear cps2...

I had been told this was possible, but he must have the means to do it at a sensible cost in order to turn a proft.

I think bootleg since he has posted them before and they sold. I'm not 100% but I think that person is a user on this forum as they where for sale here in the past and he contacted me on another forum offering them for sale.

-edit-
Hell what more proof do you need then this.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Namco-246-Fates-u ... 4aa7dc464e"

The dongle SW ID is NM00004 aka Tekken 4 Dongle.

[Spectre]

I think bootleg since he has posted them before and they sold. I'm not 100% but I think that person is a user on this forum as they where for sale here in the past and he contacted me on another forum offering them for sale.

-edit-
Hell what more proof do you need then this.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Namco-246-Fates-u ... 4aa7dc464e"

The dongle SW ID is NM00004 aka Tekken 4 Dongle.

Name and shame the scum!

Have reported all 3 listings to eBay. If he had listed them as bootlegs, fair enough, but trying to pass them off as original dongles is another matter.

[Spectre]

Seems jammanutz is ao member tonybolony, http://www.jammanutz.co.uk" - never dealt with the guy personally but seems a real shame as he has very good feedback here. Guess it just further proves you can't always trust seemingly trustworthy folk

[yosai]

To be fair you can't list things as boots on ebay.

I also suspect most people that would be interested in buying the stuff would have a pretty good idea that it may not be 100% legit.

[Spectre]

If he can sell a boot progear on ebay as a "conversion", then he can sell boot 246 stuff as "conversions" (gundam sac dongles I guess). It may still be piracy, but at least the buyer knows what they are getting.

It's easy to turn a blind eye to shady business practices on eBay I guess, but if I paid £60+ for an original dongle I would be less than impressed if it turned out to be a boot. I don't want to make unfounded accusations or create a big drama, but there is some speculation that these have been offered, as originals, to arcadeotaku members too. Either way, as someone who likes it here because of the community spirit, and as someone who is into 246/256 stuff, it's a concern to me that these bootlegs are out there and that it seems a member here is trying to make a dishonest profit from them.

[o1s1n]

I recently got a green AVP board. The PCB itself has Capcom labeled AVP chips, so that looks good (I think?!) -





However what has concerned me is the label. It looks like it's been stuck over another one. You can see another white label underneath down the left side. You can even see the glue on the case where it has been stuck down. Anyone ever see anything like this before?

[richy13]

I recently got a green AVP board. The PCB itself has Capcom labeled AVP chips, so that looks good (I think?!) -





However what has concerned me is the label. It looks like it's been stuck over another one. You can see another white label underneath down the left side. You can even see the glue on the case where it has been stuck down. Anyone ever see anything like this before?

Hi,

The AvP is a 100% Original japanese Version B board PCB & so is the casing the reason the AvP lable as been stuck over the other lable is because capcom used to convert there own games from one to another ie super street fighter 2 TNC to a AvP.

sometimes you can make out the other lable or what the original board jumpers was for the first game used on the pcb.

capcom was very lazy sometimes with there conversions & you will see this sort of thing a lot mostly in japan.

hope this helps

richard

[idc]

Yep, I have a Darkstalkers board and you can easily see the black Super SFII Turbo label with the "X" logo beneath.

I think my Marvel vs. Capcom has a Marvel Super Heroes label beneath. In fact, of the 20-odd CPS2 B-boards I have, I'd say about half of them have (at least) two labels on, some appear to have three.

Lazy, lazy Capcom!

[o1s1n]

Ah seriously guys, thanks a million for the confirmation! I couldn't be happier hearing that

I've wanted to get this board for years and was very saddened when I saw the two labels. Can breathe easy now!

[idc]

Here's my Darkstalkers, look closely and you can see the SSF2T label:

[MrSandman]

Now...how can you tell a Capcom-Conversion from a Conversion ?

Aren't the B-Boards (without the EPROMs) same regardless of the game?

So the only difference then would be the game/sound/graphic roms, would't it?

[idc]

Now...how can you tell a Capcom-Conversion from a Conversion ?

Aren't the B-Boards (without the EPROMs) same regardless of the game?

So the only difference then would be the game/sound/graphic roms, would't it?

Aside from a few different revisions, yes, all B-boards are the same, and the only th ROMs and PALs determine the game. Any revision B-board can run any CPS2 game with the right ROMs, jumper settings and PAL.

Official Capcom B-boards will almost always have mask ROMs for sound samples and graphics, with the details screen printed on the chip. Progear has a daughter board with CPS3 SIMMs.

Any EPROMs in there should have white foil stickers bearing the CAPCOM logo. Most of the time these labels have an abbreviated game title, ROM number and version dot-matrix printed on them. There are some which were also hand-written, but again these were on CAPCOM stickers. I've never seen a bootleg conversion where they've also bootlegged the ROM labels.

I'm certain I heard of at least one exception where the game uses EPROMs for the sound samples and graphics, but 99.9% of the time if you have EPROMs in sockets 11 to 20 then you have a bootleg conversion on your hands.

[MrSandman]

Thanks idc.

So how can you figure out if you have a Capcom conversion (assuming Capcomg wasn't lazy regarding the label on the cover and labeling and masked ROM etc is original)?

The only way would be to know that a particular game was released with a particulat rev. of the B-Board only, right?

Couldn't find such a list with the help of google, so I assume there is none (yet).

[idc]

Thanks idc.

So how can you figure out if you have a Capcom conversion (assuming Capcomg wasn't lazy regarding the label on the cover and labeling and masked ROM etc is original)?

The only way would be to know that a particular game was released with a particulat rev. of the B-Board only, right?

Couldn't find such a list with the help of google, so I assume there is none (yet).

There is no definitive record of specific games only using a particular revision PCB. Bear in mind that, as previously mentioned in the thread, Capcom did a hell of a lot of reusing whatever old hardware stock they had sitting around, so in theory any game could actually appear on any revision board.

I would guess that the earlier CPS2 releases were mostly on older revisions only, depending upon how long they continued to produce copies of each game, but the newer the game, the more likely it is that you could get any revision board.

The thing is, how do you define a Capcom conversion? They could have put a brand new board in a recycled case, a recycled board in a brand new case, or indeed used both a recycled board and case.

To be honest, unless you can physically see multiple labels on the case, you'll probably never be able to tell if the game was converted from another title.