Pirate Garou MVS Cart!!!

Just so no one else ends up with one of these, I thought I would post up a quick web page to inform others. Please take a look at the link below and find out how to identify these bootlegs that are making their way to the US!

ID a Bootleg 101

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-RyoGeo

Man that a great job you did! Thanks for reporting that bootleg cart so many could identify any future bootleg carts.

Man that sucks about the endings and the flash chip longevity.

Hope you get your authentic cart.

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Lord Illicious
Primal Massiah
Soul Reaver
SNK DEVIL
Wu Dan Neo Devil of Illness

Thanks for that info, RyoGeo. I certainly didn't realize there were so many of those Garou bootlegs out there, and I really wouldn't want one at all.

But here's the $64,000 question: HOW do you avoid getting one? Obviously buy from a reputable seller, but the board must be disassembled to tell that it is a bootleg, right?

Unlike games like Strikers 1945 Plus and Ganryu, which come in a translucent blue plastic case, where you can see INTO the case, and actually locate the protection chip. Games that don't come in that type of case can't be identified that way, I guess the only way is to take them apart.

Thanks. That's a very detailed report. It's good thing I have a home cart instead of MVS cart--don't have to worry about it.

I remember Kain Dc mentioning that his MVS MOTW cart had no ending. Hope he didn't get the bootleg version...

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"Come on, get serious!"

Master Terry, DCKain did indeed get a bootleg. He was actually the one that tipped me off. And Chimp, you raise a very good point. For a cart such as MOTW, you HAVE to open it to be able to tell. Now, this will NOT harm your cart (more specifically the label) if you are careful. I check 5 more of my other carts and they were all legit and I didn't hurt a single label. Like you said, you just have to find good dealers that you can trust. And if you end up with a boot from one of them, know that you can return it.

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-RyoGeo

[This message has been edited by RyoGeo (edited January 13, 2001).]

I have never seen that color green for an MVS cart. Is that a tipoff, of do other games come in that color too?

Anthony

Nice info! bootleg MVS carts suck!

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About the case color. That is the correct color of the Japanese case, the English version is in a smoke grey clear case. I must say though, for a boot leg that second board looks pretty weird, the shape atleast. I have two boots here one of Puzzle Bobble and one of Sam Showdown and both have the same size board, but have tons of flash roms on them (sam showdown has 6).... Anyway, these games are about 6 - 8 years old and both have scratchy distroted sound, but play fine... so yes, I can attest to the boot legs degrading over time. Where the heck did they get those cases though... those are the real (or real looking atleast) blue-green Garou cases.

-Nick

On a side note, I did notice a while back that my Last Blade 2 MVS cart was a little odd though, anyone else have one to compare? When I opened it up to inspect the cart I saw all SNK logos and the like, no flash rom chips... but the top bard says SNK 1994 and the bottom board said SNK 1997. That just kind of hit me, I was expecting to see two 1997 marks. Anyone else have something like this?

-Nick

Originally posted by nruva:
On a side note, I did notice a while back that my Last Blade 2 MVS cart was a little odd though, anyone else have one to compare? When I opened it up to inspect the cart I saw all SNK logos and the like, no flash rom chips... but the top bard says SNK 1994 and the bottom board said SNK 1997. That just kind of hit me, I was expecting to see two 1997 marks. Anyone else have something like this?

-Nick

Click to expand...

Nick, the dates on the boards really don't mean anything, they're not a sign of some kind of problem. My Strikers 1945 Plus cart has 1994 on one of the boards, and although I can't see the date on the second one it is probably 1997. The reason in this case is that Strikers includes the new protection chip on the back board, and that board is therefore a newer revision than past boards. The same holds true for Ganryu, which has the protection chip as well.

And BTW, for anyone who cares, on the carts that have translucent cases like Strikers, you can SEE the big protection chip on the back board, by looking between the boards near where the plug-in edge connectors are. Its a big square chip with MANY pin connections, sitting right in the middle of the board. Thank GOD SNK didn't use a battery for the encryption chip, as Capcom did on their CPS2 boards. The battery basically makes the CPS2 boards commit suicide after 5 years or so, depending on usage (i.e. if the board is in a cab constantly, it won't suicide, but detached from the "A" motherboard and sitting in storage, it will lose current over time and eventually DIE!!!).

Thanks AGAIN RyoGeo for posting this information, you've really done a huge service to the fans here and elsewhere and enlightened us on a serious problem that can be avoided if we're careful!!

Well, in less than 24 hours since having posted the page, there are three of us with bootleg carts. What a shame.

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-RyoGeo

My last Blade was acting funny--numerous lines within the picture, so I opened my Last Blade cart up, I found that 1/2 of the chips had holes and were replaced by Singapore, or such asian country brands. When I looked at the work, it looked as if someone definetly tried to patch or fix the game. Ugh... I don't know if that affected the graphics, as I think the main problem is that the connectors are loose. Like Kain DC, I bought my MVS cart from a respectable arcade cart seller at ebay, though it was from a different guy. Still, it was nice of him to offer to replace the cart when I told the guy he said that I opened up the cart. But,I declined his offer--not worth the shipping charge. So far, I bought several carts from him, and this was the only problem.

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"Come on, get serious!"

My MOTW turned out to be a bootleg also. I bought it from ASLAN11 on Ebay. Still waiting to see if he'll replace it.

I'll let everyone know.

Aslan...he was the one that Kain got his MOTW cart from. But, Don't worry. He is a nice guy. I had some problem w/ a Kizuna Encounter cart in one of my other deals, and he replaced that game. He sent my other games first, w/ a greeting card stating that he wanted me to get the other games first, so I get to play them until Kizuna was being ordered from a supplier. And he said that he would send the defective game soon as he get it. Needless to say, I got that game within a week. Fairly a classy guy, if you ask me

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"Come on, get serious!"

Aslan11 (Rich) is an excellent seller. I bought quite a few MVS carts from him in one big order, outside of eBay. He'll back his stuff up for sure. I'll go check the carts I got from him to be sure they're OK, though.

I'm quite sure that even he didn't know that the Garou carts were bootlegs using a beta dump. Hopefully he'll be compensated for the problem by the distributor that sold them to him.

I think I'll check out the carts I got from him just to be sure, even though I don't have Garou yet . . . can't be too careful.

Well, it's been a couple days since I e-mailed Aslan11 about my bootleg Garou cart. No response yet, though he did find time to post some more auctions today.

I'm hopeful that he'll come through, and I'll try to be patient. (but it's not working - can you tell?)

If I can get the time tomorrow I'll give him a call.

Brent

Brent,
Aslan is Rich at Game Sales. He does not answer his emails. I had a problem with some Neo stuff I ordered from him. I sent him two emails and got nothing in return. Finally I called, quite mad, and he was very polite and took care of the problem right away. Call him, it is the only way the problem is going to be solved.

-Nick

I don't even know how yet but I'm GETTING a MotW AES cart... lol

Hey guys, im new to the forums.

That expose you have just begs the question.You said that eproms have limited life and they lose data over time?
Has this ever been confirmed by any video game console's cartridge's?
i still have a atari 2600 where all the games work perfectly.
Is there a life expectancy to Neo-Geo games?
You got me thinking ahead and thinking what will happen to my collection.

thanks
Peter

That's interesting. Neo Geo home system and cart is quality stuff. Since it's not cd based, they are built to last. Just take good care of them, and they will work fine for a long time. But, all the systems eventually break down w/ age--I don't know how long that's going to take though. No one's that old enough here.

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"Come on, get serious!"

I bought magician lord when it appeared in europe at the beginning of the 90's and it still work perfectly so there is no problem with it.

Hey I got a Puzzle Bobble in an MVS clear case. After reading the article you had I looked real close at my Cart. On both boards it says SNK 1994 but when I looked at one of the chips it has a hole in the top and I noticed a white checkmark on the chip its self. It also says on the chip Mitsubishi. Then the other chip says flash. If you want I can post a link to a scan of it so you can tell me if it is or isn't one. Thanks!!!

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Look me bouncy!!!

Originally posted by baller99:
Hey guys, im new to the forums.

That expose you have just begs the question. (1) You said that eproms have limited life and they lose data over time?
(2) Has this ever been confirmed by any video game console's cartridge's?
i still have a atari 2600 where all the games work perfectly.
(3) Is there a life expectancy to Neo-Geo games?
You got me thinking ahead and thinking what will happen to my collection.

thanks
Peter

Click to expand...

(1)
I think the point with the bootleg cart was that EEPROMs may lose data over time. I'm not too familiar with cart manufacturing, but my master's thesis had me packaging chips into DIPs ... so ... as far as I know, the ROMs that are used in most games are either EPROMs or actual packaged chips (more than likely EPROMs) ... the concern is more that the EPROMs in bootleg carts are either UV-erasable EPROMs (which you can erase with a bright enough UV light source - these are the kind with the window on top) or the quality isn't up to the same standard as the OEM EPROMs, hence they're not as stable.

(2)
I actually have some carts for newer systems (Genesis, NES) that aren't working properly, but that's because the battery within has expired, not because the ROMs are losing information. For the most part ROMs are very stable.

(3)
Since Neo games rely on a separate PCMCIA memory card (68 pin, JEIDA later than v3) with their own battery-backed save states, I'd say that carts are probably as reliable as any other cart without a battery.

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[This message has been edited by mliu92 (edited January 17, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by mliu92 (edited January 17, 2001).]

Djbomberman, from your description I would say that there is no question that you have a bootleg cart. That, coupled with the fact that a distributor I know told me that there are more bootleg Puzzle Bobbles out there than real ones tells the same. Evidently, Puzzle Bobble was an still is a decent earner, and Taito is way out of business. The only way to get additional carts was to buy bootlegs and the operator community knew it. So, they bought them and bought a lot of them. That fact alone tells me that you probably have a bootleg and then your description confirms it.

Sucks, don't it. I just found out that a trade that I made in good faith ended up with MY carts being bootlegs. And they were OLD ones too! They were AoF and World Heroes for goodness sake! They have serial numbers on the labels and a silver SNK sticker on the side too. FAKES! This sucks. I'm going to have to open up every friggin' cart I own to find out which ones are real and which ones are boots.

My newer stuff, that I was freaked were fake, have all been ok and it didn't even occure to me that the old ones were fake. Anyway, CHECK YOUR CARTS!!! I am finding out that I may have a lot more than I thought!

PS...Even though I already sent a message directly to him, I want to apologize publicly to KainDC for sending him what ended up being bootlegs. He's the one that originally turned me on to this problem, and here I am trading fakes to him! Sorry about that and thanks for informing me!

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-RyoGeo

[This message has been edited by RyoGeo (edited January 17, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by RyoGeo (edited January 17, 2001).]

originally posted by RyoGeo
Djbomberman, from your description I would say that there is no question that you have a bootleg cart. That, coupled with the fact that a distributor I know told me that there are more bootleg Puzzle Bobbles out there than real ones tells the same. Evidently, Puzzle Bobble was an still is a decent earner, and Taito is way out of business. The only way to get additional carts was to buy bootlegs and the operator community knew it. So, they bought them and bought a lot of them. That fact alone tells me that you probably have a bootleg and then your description confirms it

Click to expand...

Since this is a well known thing is this game an acceptable game to get a bootleg of? I know I hate copied games. I bought this MVS cart of Ebay about 1 year ago. I was originally going to convert it by sending it out to MAS. I never did since they wanted way to much to convert it. I just hung on to in hopes of finding a cheaper conversion. Well I am glad I never did, but now what do I do with it? I can't sell it and it is WAY to long to remember who I bought it from. I never knew that MVS games where plagued with the kind psx games have, Easily copyable.


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Look me bouncy!!!