danox574
Krauser's Shoe Shiner
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2006
- Posts
- 234
I have two copies of MD3 - one came from a seller here, and I trust it to be real. The second came in a lot of game, all in shockboxes, that I bought from someone in NY. In the following photos, the black cased game is strongly believed to be original -- the clear cased game is the new one I received. I opened both cases to compare them, and attempted to validate the clear-cased game as legit or not.
The black case is legit, smooth, original black case with Japanese warning label. The clear case is matte finished, and by what I have read about aftermarket cases, appears to be a non-original case. The labels on both cars are non-original.
The small plastic insert at the opening of the case is cheap, and bows in different directions when not under the tension of the boards.
This board is identical. All chips have the same numbers, and for all intensive purposes, appears real to me.
The other board, however, is a different revision. The black-cased version has a CHA256B, the clear cased game has a CHA256. The ROMs seem to be identical chips.
The soldering, on the back of the 2nd board, looks very even to me, and if there is any difference in the clear-cased board, it's very minor. The only notable thing is that many of the pins from the chips are heavily bent, looks like post-solder, because the solder flows up uniformly and then the pin is bent over.
So, overall, they both look to be made of original components, but different enough. On the clear case one, I can't imagine these chips coming elsewhere to make this MVS cart. There are no wires. Do original boards sometimes end up in aftermarket 'pirate' cases? If someone hacked it together, why didn't they use original plastic from an original cart case from the donor pile?
Anyone care to take a shot at confirming the legitimacy of the black cart, and telling me why I might see so much variation in the clear cart, and whether or not you'd be comfortable calling it original?
Thanks for any opinions,
-Dan
The black case is legit, smooth, original black case with Japanese warning label. The clear case is matte finished, and by what I have read about aftermarket cases, appears to be a non-original case. The labels on both cars are non-original.
The small plastic insert at the opening of the case is cheap, and bows in different directions when not under the tension of the boards.
This board is identical. All chips have the same numbers, and for all intensive purposes, appears real to me.
The other board, however, is a different revision. The black-cased version has a CHA256B, the clear cased game has a CHA256. The ROMs seem to be identical chips.
The soldering, on the back of the 2nd board, looks very even to me, and if there is any difference in the clear-cased board, it's very minor. The only notable thing is that many of the pins from the chips are heavily bent, looks like post-solder, because the solder flows up uniformly and then the pin is bent over.
So, overall, they both look to be made of original components, but different enough. On the clear case one, I can't imagine these chips coming elsewhere to make this MVS cart. There are no wires. Do original boards sometimes end up in aftermarket 'pirate' cases? If someone hacked it together, why didn't they use original plastic from an original cart case from the donor pile?
Anyone care to take a shot at confirming the legitimacy of the black cart, and telling me why I might see so much variation in the clear cart, and whether or not you'd be comfortable calling it original?
Thanks for any opinions,
-Dan