A tale of two MD3s -- both legit?

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.

cases.jpg

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.

blackcase.jpg

clearcase.jpg

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.

blackb1.jpg

clearb1.jpg

This board is identical. All chips have the same numbers, and for all intensive purposes, appears real to me.

blackb2.jpg

clearb2.jpg

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.

black-s.jpg

clear-s.jpg

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
 

BioMotor_Unitron

Global Moderator,
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Although it doesn't happen often, once in a while the case can get cracked. I had no idea about after-market cases though, I have never seen any stateside.
 

N80G80

Igniz's Servent
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Jun 27, 2006
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yeah they both look legit to me as well, there have been members who have had sold repoduction cases here in the past.
 

RocketLawnChair

Dyslexic Mods FWT!, , got me 2 scalps, ,
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Legit as hell. Toshiba ROMs with correct numbers, and flawless soldering. Replacement cases are common.
 

danox574

Krauser's Shoe Shiner
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Posts
234
Thank you...

Thanks a lot guys. It was a very strange purchase, I ended up picking up a Money Puzzle Exchanger, a RB FFS, a Twinkle Star Sprites, anAerofighters 3, this MD3, and a Nightmare in the Dark, as well as a 2 slot board, all at once. The games were all in shockboxes. The funny thing is -- every cart is in an aftermarket case. Some black, some clear, and some translucent blue -- and the labels are of course all fake. All the boards and ROMs appear legit. Quite a strange collection...maybe someone was putting together a 'perfect' matching set of some sort and wanted to do away with all the scuffed/dirty cases.

Again, I appreciate the verification -- something just smelled funny, especially because the price was so good as well.

Now, the 2 slot board volume pot is bad, otherwise, A++ on that one too!

-Dan
 

Circa2113

Duck King's DJ
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danox574 said:
Thanks a lot guys. It was a very strange purchase, I ended up picking up a Money Puzzle Exchanger, a RB FFS, a Twinkle Star Sprites, anAerofighters 3, this MD3, and a Nightmare in the Dark, as well as a 2 slot board, all at once. The games were all in shockboxes. The funny thing is -- every cart is in an aftermarket case. Some black, some clear, and some translucent blue -- and the labels are of course all fake. All the boards and ROMs appear legit. Quite a strange collection...maybe someone was putting together a 'perfect' matching set of some sort and wanted to do away with all the scuffed/dirty cases.

Again, I appreciate the verification -- something just smelled funny, especially because the price was so good as well.

Now, the 2 slot board volume pot is bad, otherwise, A++ on that one too!

-Dan


Wow, those are some great games you picked up.:buttrock: I've replaced quite a few cases myself, they often get cracked or are just scratched and dirty.
 

Superfamifreak

Ralf & Clark's Drinking Buddy
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Yeah, both legit.

I wouldn't worry about the use of different boards as SNK were incosistent with stuff like that. I guess they just used whatever boards were in the factory at the time.
 

aria

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39,546
That sticker almost looks like one of those attempts by NGF to go into the MVS biz
 
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