Metal slug mvs cart questions

Just looked inside my mslug cart and have a few questions.

Both M1 and S1 are eeproms.

V2 has a piggybacked chip on it. Pin 13 of the top chip is not connected to the bottom one and it also has a wire coming from that unconnected pin. The wire has come off from where it was attached.

The game works fine, but occasionally the sound is a little crackly.

Both boards are snk items.

Any ideas??

Cheers

sounds like a bootleg for which some other cart was killed to get the PCBs.

Oh.

But what about that wire that isn't connected??

Also, all the chips (p1, v1 etc) all have the code ms**** whatever on them.

I guess that stands more metal slug.

Would a bootleg use original chips for everything execpt m1/s1??

Cheers

Check the following on the mvs cart:

Labels

- Side name sticker printed by snk ? Then it should not bleed/look shiny etc. and hold a serialnumber. All small print should be readable on it.
- Production date on the side (round sticker) month/year will be indicated.
- You have a matching cardboard box to go with it (serial numbers should match) ?

The Metal Slug i borrowed for a while only had the 2 stickers on it mentioned above, and came in a matching cardboard case. Any more stickers other than the arcade supplier or warranty make it more suspicious <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

Also worth noting, my perfectly working Metal Slug 2 has 3 stickers on it, shiny name label that seems laminated, and bleeds the 'multi video system' print below the MVS word. Also the serial # was scratched from that sticker after it was applied (yes there's 2 holes in it..) Coming from cosmicco, that's no big surprise, it was very low-priced <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

- Alex

[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: Asure ]

It has the snk sticker down the side of the cart.

No serial number though.

Either side of the writing 'Metal Slug' has a small section of sticker removed. Wierd.

No other sticker/markings on the case.

What is really bugging me is that wire. If it is a bootleg, then it should be attached.

Just opened it up again. The C chips have 'MS32M-D(1 TO 4), with c5/c6 something else.

V1/2/3 and P1 say MS16M on them.

The underside solder points have not been messed with, unless someone can solder like a factory machine.


Also, just notices on the V board J10 (down the middle)has an out of place bit of solder sticking up. Could this be where the wire should go.

Cheers

if the other chips are indeed original, then it might be a repaired board. if the game plays 100%, i.e. no crashes or corruption of sound or gfx, I wouldn't worry about the wire.

The V roms hold the sound. Is V1 in it's rightful place?

pin 13 is the Chip Enable of that class of roms and should go into either pin 4,5,6 or 7 of the ls139 (demultiplexor). Check the small leads that come out from the ls139 and you should be able to see some residual solder. My bet is that it's pin 5 or 6.

This board is most likely repaired. If you can provide a scan I will be able to be more specific.

Chip V1 says MS16M-W1, in V1 slot.

V2 (the piggybacked one) says MS16M-W4, in V2 slot.

V3 says MS16M-W3, in V3 slot.

Anyone reckon I should try remove the piggyback chip to see if the chip below says MS16M-W2 as would be expected????

Hopefully I'll be able to borrow a dig camera next week.

Oh yeah,

That LS139 chip. It looks like it has never been messed with.

This is wierd isn't it...

Either side of the writing 'Metal Slug' has a small section of sticker removed. Wierd.

Click to expand...

My metal slug 2 has the same. the section is about 4mm high, 2cm width. This is where the serial number would be. Probably whoever opened up the cart in the first place, broke the original label and use a photocopy or something, and then scratched off the small section to avoid double serials ??

To see what was inside my slug 2 i openend it up as well. No wires, 2 boards. Program board (C) 94 SNK, data board (C) 1997 SNK. Chips are Toshiba, not marked SNK or MS2-xxxx whatsoever..

I opened up my Shock Troopers 2 that came from the same order, it has the same Toshiba chips in it.

The other mvs carts i have still have all seals and i don't want to break them.. My Sidekicks 2 however is transparant, and has no-brand chips(!) in it, 016-xxx written on them.. odd.

Anyone know what's supposed to be inside a 'real' mvs cart ? Or are both Doughboy's and mine originals that were just opened up at some point in time ?

Oh yeah, Shock Troopers 2 has a laminated reflecting label sticker on it,with serial..

I also have a no-serial puzzle bobble with date-seal on it.. but that could have been added later right ??

- Asure

My Metal Slug cart has only 2 V roms. Each being 32mbit. Yours are 16 mbit each. Something interesting. Regardless, the wire from pin 13 of MS16M-W4 (which is V4) should be soldered to ls139 pin 7.

If you still face the same problem, remove and solder to pin 5.

Keep us posted. <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

I believe original SNK roms only wear NGH# and ROM name on them (ex : 056-C1). They can also have manufacturer mark and chip ref. on them (ex : Toshiba TC5316200).

SNK also sometimes uses eeproms for S, M or P ROMs.

But I've never see a ROM wearing game name on it (MS****).
Maybe this cart doesn't carry official ROMs and use a lower class cart than metal slug, thus some wiring is needed to 'upgrade' it, just like in some conversion jobs.

Yup, bootleg. I've seen a few of these that people have sent to be converted.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, have you seen Metal Slug roms that are labelled NGH?

I was always under the impression that when Nazca produced Metal Slug, they did it as a independent party. Hence printed their own circuit boards. And speaking of circuit boards, Doughboy, do your pcbs have 2 electrolytic capacitors on each of them? Or are they SNK pcbs?

I suppose a good way to check out if the "MS" labelled roms are original or not is to open a authentic home cart. Anyone?

I just got a Metal Slug cart today.
After opening it, it is exactly like what Doughboy describes.

V2 is piggybacked, and a wire runs from Pin 3 to pin 7 of the LS139. The V chips are labelled MS16M-W4 etc..

The boards are SNK though.

I can't even test it out until Wed when my MVS cabinet gets here.

So what's the ruling bootleg or not?

Originally posted by PBMaX:
<STRONG>I just got a Metal Slug cart today.
After opening it, it is exactly like what Doughboy describes.

V2 is piggybacked, and a wire runs from Pin 3 to pin 7 of the LS139. The V chips are labelled MS16M-W4 etc..

The boards are SNK though.

I can't even test it out until Wed when my MVS cabinet gets here.

So what's the ruling bootleg or not?</STRONG>

Click to expand...

Bootleg. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">