How common are eproms in MVS carts?

I've heard that SNK used them on some of the games as standard procedure. Which brings me to another question... can bootlegs be solely determined on board type and soldering job alone?

I used to think that eproms in a cart automatically meant bootleg...

From what I have seen (in my collection), EPROMs are not common at all on Neo MVS boards. I have about 60 carts, and have opened the vast majority of them (minus the complete kits). In EVERY case, I found not a single EPROM, or even wire for that matter. Many carts had Toshiba chips on them, and all had SNK pcb boards.

Well, my Samurai Shodown 3 cart has Eproms, but the soldering all seems professionally done, and there are no wires. Also, I wouldn't suspect the person I got it from of intentionally selling a bootleg.

Check an earlier thread that I started about it, the person who replied said that SNK themselves have used them.

I have a Bust a Move cart with 2 eproms on snk boards, M1 and EP1. the soldering in general is extremely neat(by machine), but at two points it seems that a trace was possibly repaired, but not sure. Those 2 points are the only giveaway to a human touch. The game works properly, but the level is default at 6 (I think all games default at 4 unless I'm mistaken)

It seems like Bust a Move/Puzzle Bobble falls victim to this more often than not. I'd think that a bootleg would have ALL the chips eprom'ed. Can anyone fill in the blanks/give some type of "eprom guideline"?

GohanX: It was your thread which prompted me to ask about this in the first place
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