just out of curiosity, have there been any known boots with the grey board? i've seen a lot of people posting that like it's some sort of gospel but if you're going to try to get a massive price for it it seems worth it to go the extra mile and fake the color as well. i don't know dick about aes tho
The dark gray board obviously isn't a perfect guarantee. A determined asshole could sever the traces to the decryption chip (Altera MAX, NEO-SMA, etc) and hand wire the P1 and P2 ROMs to the cartridge edge. The problem is that's around 40 wires, most of which will have to be soldered to the tiny thin traces near the edge connector. You can't solder right on it or just above it, the plastic guide thing gets in the way. Oh and let's not even get into the missing logic chips (74xx74 and 74xx08) that are needed to bankswitch the P ROMs properly.
That said, most of the time, the dark gray PROG board is a very good sign with games like Metal Slug X, Metal Slug 3 and Mark of the Wolves, because each of those games has a unique decryption chip that is not swappable with another game. The CHA board on the other hand is interchangeable.
And for those who don't know where the PROG board is when looking at the edge connectors, it's on the bottom, closest to the "Made in Japan" molding on the back of the cartridge. The CHA board is closest to the label and warning sticker.
