Are there any KOF 95 MVS carts without EPROMS?

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

OK,

I want to share with you all a little story. Last week I bought a few games from MDGameSales. I got, what I believed to be, a bootleg version of KOF 95. It had three EPROMs on the top board and had wires running to and fro. I wrote Mike and he was surprised, see these games came from SNK! But, he agreed to take it back and swap it for me. He then wrote me a letter saying that all the KOF 95s he had from his SNK distributor had EPROMs and some had wires some did not.

OK, let me describe this a little better. All EPROMs are machine soldierd, but every one of them has a chalk color marking on it. I have my replacement sitting in front of me now. It contains an almost full board of ROMs... and has the following EPROMs:

EP2
EP1
SP2
M1

There are no wires at all in this cart, but the P1 chip has also been replaced by a NEC Mask ROM and is marked with silver chalk.

So my question is this: Does anyone have a version of KOF 95 that doesn't look like this? Are there copies with all mask roms? Or should I stop looking and be happy with this one. Mike assures me these are SNK original, and came from an SNK offical distributor. I am thinking repair job, or was KOF 95 so popular that SNK converted some other games to it, or ran out of boards and needed to make do with what they had (wiring some and using EPROMS in others?).

-Nick

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

By the way, the M1 chip was covered with a sticker with the SNK logo on it and reads "SNK 17". That one is the only one I am not confused about, the chalk markings on the other chips are clear signs of a bootleg!

-Nick

gt6plus · Oct 8, 2002

I have a JPN KOF 95, almost positive there are no eproms or wires. Will check tonight..

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

Thanks, oh and this is a White SNK-G cased original label Japanese KOF 95. This was from the rental market (SNK-G)... the wired one I sent back was a Japanese standard Black case with original label.

-Nick

gt6plus · Oct 8, 2002

Originally posted by nruva:
Thanks, oh and this is a White SNK-G cased original label Japanese KOF 95. This was from the rental market (SNK-G)... the wired one I sent back was a Japanese standard Black case with original label.

-Nick<hr></blockquote>

Mine is a original Japanese in a black case.

Amano Jacu · Oct 8, 2002

I have a black with English label KoF 95 cart with serials, I'll open it later and post results...

Bishamon · Oct 8, 2002

I have a black case, English label KOF '95, but I don't want to open it up and damage the label. I know it's just a label, but still.

HPMAN · Oct 8, 2002

Many, many MVS KOFs (94-96, maybe also 97) comes with EPROMs into them.

AES editions however usually uses standard ROMs.

Guess those carts using EPROMs are early produced carts, with last minute changes/fixes.

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

Originally posted by HPMAN:
Many, many MVS KOFs (94-96, maybe also 97) comes with EPROMs into them.

AES editions however usually uses standard ROMs.

Guess those carts using EPROMs are early produced carts, with last minute changes/fixes.<hr></blockquote>

Well my 94, 96, and 97 are all mask ROMs, this is the first I have ever seen of this kind of EPROMing from SNK... And I have over 80 MVS carts (all of which I have opened and inspected)... So... I am shocked at this release if there are tons of carts like this, it is just not like SNK to have this kind of sloppiness inside the cart. Sure you will see the rogue EPROM here and there... But never have I seen chalked up EPROMs and boards with more then one or two!

-Nick

[ October 08, 2002: Message edited by: nruva ]

HPMAN · Oct 8, 2002

Well, didn't saw hundreds of MVS KOF carts, but from those I saw most (if not all) were using EPROMs...

You can easily found 4+ EPROMs in one cart, as program code is sometimes splitted in 4 small chips (cheapest than one lage

)

SNKFreak · Oct 8, 2002

My KOF95 has no EEPROMs. Check the board, if the printing on the board itself says EP1 EP2 etc, then they are official EEPROMs.

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

Originally posted by SNKFreak:
My KOF95 has no EEPROMs. Check the board, if the printing on the board itself says EP1 EP2 etc, then they are official EEPROMs.<hr></blockquote>

Thanks, so some do exsist. The quest continues

-Nick

RabbitTroop · Oct 8, 2002

OK, I have ordered one from NCSX, I will have to see how this differs from the one bought from MDGameSales.

-Nick

takuman · Oct 9, 2002

I BUY OF MDGAMESALES 3 CARTS OF MVS

ANDRO DUNOS ,TOP PLAYERS GLOF ,PUZZLE DE PON R
3 CARTS ARE BOOTS,

<img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" /> <img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" /> <img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" />

[ October 09, 2002: Message edited by: takuman ]

gt6plus · Oct 9, 2002

Checked mine last night, none of my chips are Eproms and no wires... Looks like any other authentic cart.

RabbitTroop · Oct 9, 2002

Originally posted by takuman:
I BUY OF MDGAMESALES 3 CARTS OF MVS

ANDRO DUNOS ,TOP PLAYERS GLOF ,PUZZLE DE PON R
3 CARTS ARE BOOTS,

<img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" /> <img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" /> <img src="graemlins/angry.gif" border="0" alt="[Angry]" />

[ October 09, 2002: Message edited by: takuman ]<hr></blockquote>

Was this recently? I am really interested if he is trying to pull something on us. He claims that this is 100% original, I have a letter where he basicly implies it is not his responsibility to replace these games for us unless they don't work, and that he gets them from an SNK distributor... If you recently got 3 boots from MD I would be very interested in knowing,

-Nick

RabbitTroop · Oct 9, 2002

Originally posted by gt6plus:
Checked mine last night, none of my chips are Eproms and no wires... Looks like any other authentic cart.<hr></blockquote>

Thank you, I will get the game from NCSX next week, I am starting to think Mike may be trying to pull a fast one here. He has 15 copies or so he said and all have EPROMs or wires... wires? SNK would rarely do that sort of repair, and if they did, why don't all these carts look the same on the inside (meaning all wired, or all not). Anyway, it is clear that the copy I have is not the norm and is a bastard cart.

-Nick

Talen · Oct 10, 2002

I would be really surprised if Mike was trying to pull a fast one, Nick. He may be a schitso that likes to pretend to be a woman called Christy, but he's an honest guy and has been pretty straightforward with me any time he has boots and is always happy to replace any boots that I get from him by accident. I'm opening up my kof carts right now to check on the eprom situation. I'll repost in a bit.

[ October 10, 2002: Message edited by: Talen ]

Talen · Oct 10, 2002

Nope...No eproms in either of my kof95 carts. <img src="graemlins/spock.gif" border="0" alt="[Spock]" />

SNKFreak · Oct 10, 2002

I agree with Talen, Mike is an honest guy. Every deal I had was a complete success.

...

Well.... there was ONE deal where I was only 95% satisfied. I ordered a 2-slot board from him and it got to me in great condition, only there was no memorycard slot or headphone jacks. it didnt look like they were removed though, the factory pressed solder discs were still there perfectly untouched.

RabbitTroop · Oct 10, 2002

Originally posted by Talen:
I would be really surprised if Mike was trying to pull a fast one, Nick. He may be a schitso that likes to pretend to be a woman called Christy, but he's an honest guy and has been pretty straightforward with me any time he has boots and is always happy to replace any boots that I get from him by accident. I'm opening up my kof carts right now to check on the eprom situation. I'll repost in a bit.

[ October 10, 2002: Message edited by: Talen ]<hr></blockquote>

I've bought carts from Mike for over 5 years. I know he is honest... has been in the past. But, lets just say there is some outside information I am not sharing yet... and may never. I do not feel he is being completly honest with me right now, and I think someone is lying to someone, whether that be Mike to me, or his "official" distributor to him. I know a bootleg when I see it, and this looks like a bootleg to me.

-Nick

bconner · Oct 10, 2002

What's the URL for NCSX?

bconner · Oct 10, 2002

nevermind...http://www.ncsx.com/

Amano Jacu · Oct 10, 2002

OK, I opened mine and there's no eproms at all. Check the 2 pics:

RabbitTroop · Oct 10, 2002

Well aint this fishy, Mike claims all of his have EPROMs, but they are completly offical. The two he sent me are chalked up with non-standard chips (SONY and NEC chips). And when I say chalked up I mean someone has written on the chips with chalk or a marker to distiguish what each burned rom was before putting it on the board. My first board from MD had wires running all over the place. Am I to believe these are real? No one else here has an EPROM version of this game and Mike has a dozen or so. Let me just put this out as a warning, I don't trust the stuff Mike has been selling recently. Either he is buying from a bad distributor, or from a place that rebuilds, but these are not official carts. Luckily this was a $25 purchase, I will soak it up and hopefully my NCSX order of KOF 95 will be EPROM free (to me the final test, since, if it has no EPROMs, I think it is safe to say that Mikes carts are not the norm.)

Anyway, thanks all for the input,

-Nick

Are there any KOF 95 MVS carts without EPROMS?

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