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

[jepjepjep]

- 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.

Yosai, both of your points make sense. If I ever get the right equipment, I'll check the 03 and 04 roms to verify. In light of everything I've found out, I'm inclined to agree with the guys on the neo-geo forum who think it's a legit conversion from Capcom USA. Some of the reasons are that hand-written labels aren't uncommon on later games considering their relatively small production runs, the majority of the US blue boards do not have the sub board, and the official US blue boards have eproms instead of mask roms.

I also took a pic of the capcom warranty stickers that I had to cut to remove the security bolts. You can see from the pic the silver part that is left behind when it is pealed. If it is a bootleg conversion, it is a very elaborate one. They would've had to have access to Capcom warranty stickers, created a Stealth Phoenix edition and modified the rom test.



I also updated the pics of the pcb with better quality ones.

Is there a way to tell if the label is original or a reproduction?

[wonderbanana]

They would've had to have access to Capcom warranty stickers

These would be easy to copy.

Our company had huge counterfeit issues and used these type of stickers. They were copied almost straight away.

We then moved to what was supposed to be a special holographic type label that reacted to a certain light and even that hasn't proved 100% successful.

And this was for £10 pots of rubbing compound...

[yosai]

I've just though. If you put a burnt encrypted ROM in the board and it boots then you will know 100% either way. I have a load of spare 27C4096 if you want me to burn one and post it to you (free of charge) drop me a PM.

[Spectre]

The wire on the underside means nothing, I've seen this before with legit boards, particularly conversions.

The presence of the capcom warranty stickers suggests to me this is a legit board and in all likelihood a conversion by capcom. Yes the stickers can be bootlegged, but I doubt there are any bootleggers out there who are willing to go to so much trouble. If they were going to bootleg the warranty stickers so well, they would have fully bootlegged the rom labels too and not hand-written them.

The board label also looks very legit, note the classic capcom peeling

Imho you can only ever be 99% sure on anything, unless you saw it come off the production line with your own eyes. I'm certain this is a legit board.

[richy13]

i would say the board is Original as i have seen a USA ver. with socketed ST 27c322s eproms not like the simm version in the japanese rev.

i also think the asia version is like this also capcom really did hack there hardware towards the end of its life but thats was also going to be becuase of the way the hardware was made ie: soldered jumpers / socketed PAL & socketed eproms/mask roms.

the wire on the board is to join the audio bus lines up you see this wire on all vampire savior B boards.

if it is a boot which im 99% sure its Not the bootlegger as gone to alot of trouble for such a simple conversion.

[idc]

I'd say original. Capcom did do a lot of this kind of stuff, particularly the hackery with that wire coming from the PAL.

I don't think I've ever seen a bootleg CPS2 board where the bootlegger has gone to the effort of producing fake Capcom-logoed ROM stickers and case seals.

Hope you can get a dump of the program ROMs, as that is the only way to know for sure if it's original (other that removing the battery to see if it stops working ).

[jepjepjep]

I've just though. If you put a burnt encrypted ROM in the board and it boots then you will know 100% either way. I have a load of spare 27C4096 if you want me to burn one and post it to you (free of charge) drop me a PM.

Hope you can get a dump of the program ROMs, as that is the only way to know for sure if it's original (other that removing the battery to see if it stops working ).

According to this post, if you try to remove an eprom from a working board, the board will commit suicide .

http://www.sega-naomi.com/forum/viewtop ... 2647f#7516"

[yosai]

I've swapped the 03 EPROM out of a board without killing it... Razs' suicide tester also requires swapping out the 03 EPROM. Maybe it's removing all of the EPROMs?

[idc]

That is complete balls. Removing the EPROMs won't kill the board. I upgraded the revision of my Marvel vs. Capcom board and it didn't kill it.

Where they state that attempting to read the chips kills the board, they are referring to attempts at reading the battery-backed RAM which holds the encryption key.

It should be perfectly safe (aside from the usual issues involving static electricity or ham-fisted physical damage to components) to remove the program EPROMs from the board without killing it.

[Spectre]

I'm just guessing, but maybe having roms off the board when the security circuit does it's thing will kill it. Probably not a good idea to leave roms off a board, but there is little danger switching them, similar to battery swaps.

[capcomguru]

There's lots of speculation going on regarding the Progear USA version, as well as how CPS2 boards function. Let me clear a few things up.

First off, that Blue Progear is 1000% original Capcom. I know this for fact as I had one (part of a full kit) with hand-written eprom labels. Towards the end of Capcom USA's arcade division, they started creating EPRom based battery-backed cartridges, and used hand-written Capcom branded labels. I have seen this same EPRom treatment (instead of Simm or Mask rom) used on Hyper SF2 Anniversary PCB's. I've got a picture of a legit HSF2 USA if anyone is curious.

Regarding CPS2 suicide- removing the program roms (or any roms for that matter) will NOT trigger suicide on the CPS2 board. The only ways of triggering suicide are shorting out the 3-pin ceramic-disc like IC's near the program roms and suicide battery for a period of time, or by letting the pcb sit without a battery for more than an hour (I've seen some go over night without a battery and still live). The boards are much more durable than people think/realize.

[IntrepidRockman]

I've got a picture of a legit HSF2 USA if anyone is curious.

I'd like to see this picture, if that's ok, please - I've learned plenty about identifying legitimate CPS2 boards lately, and I would be grateful for the opportunity to learn more.

[yosai]

From the other thread on here somewhere.




Edit, page 4

http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10780"

[IntrepidRockman]

Thanks much.

[richy13]

I've got a picture of a legit HSF2 USA if anyone is curious.

I'd like to see this picture, if that's ok, please - I've learned plenty about identifying legitimate CPS2 boards lately, and I would be grateful for the opportunity to learn more.

Original japanese rev 031222 AV single type.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w7PRcoGEvJY/T ... C06777.JPG"
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w7PRcoGEvJY/T ... C06779.JPG"


Original japanese rev 040202 B board type unit.
http://richy13-arcade4life.blogspot.com ... -unit.html"

[RTL]

Hey guys,
I have a HSF2A and i was wondering 2 things the battery changing is it easy to do i have a supergun and can use soldering gun/iron ect well.
also can the Black all in one board be pheonixed as thats the pcb i have

[idc]

Hey guys,
I have a HSF2A and i was wondering 2 things the battery changing is it easy to do i have a supergun and can use soldering gun/iron ect well.
also can the Black all in one board be pheonixed as thats the pcb i have

You need to replace the battery in the all-in-one black CPS2 boards with the board powered on. Removing the battery on a board not connected to power will kill the decryption keys instantly.

They can be flashed with phoenix ROM images, but the chips need to be de-soldered and removed from the SIMM, reprogrammed and then re-soldered.

[RTL]

thanks so i will replace the battery while its on
thanks for the heads up

[system11]

Hey guys,
I have a HSF2A and i was wondering 2 things the battery changing is it easy to do i have a supergun and can use soldering gun/iron ect well.
also can the Black all in one board be pheonixed as thats the pcb i have

You need to replace the battery in the all-in-one black CPS2 boards with the board powered on. Removing the battery on a board not connected to power will kill the decryption keys instantly.

They can be flashed with phoenix ROM images, but the chips need to be de-soldered and removed from the SIMM, reprogrammed and then re-soldered.

Now that's interesting to know, I have a Gigawing all in one that needs doing. This doesn't sound like it will be much fun, can you use the helper battery method instead and wire a helper in parallel?

[richy13]

Anybody wanting to change a battery on a Black AV cps2 board please take a look here on my blogger...

http://richy13-arcade4life.blogspot.com ... ter-2.html"

cheers richard