Metal Slug 4 Problems

Are there any noted problems with Metal Slug 4 for the MVS? I just bought one and the seller did mention that this game sometime freezes on some boards (I have a MV1FZ). I took a chance due to the price. It worked good on the first try, but the game just turned off and then reset to the intro. I only spent 10 minutes on it so far, but I would like some input.

NEgO MANIAC said:

Are there any noted problems with Metal Slug 4 for the MVS? I just bought one and the seller did mention that this game sometime freezes on some boards (I have a MV1FZ). I took a chance due to the price. It worked good on the first try, but the game just turned off and then reset to the intro. I only spent 10 minutes on it so far, but I would like some input.

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Sounds like it "might" be a bootleg..

Can you take board pics or do you see any EPROMS or....upon opening it up..?

Otherwise I'd give the carts connectors a real good cleaning..

................
I saw an auction on Ebay for a really cheap MS4 recently.
In it's description I think it mentioned something about resetting but it was noted that the cart had problems.
Though it was cheap I passed.

Did you buy that one..?

I opened it up and didn't see any wires, stickers, or chalk marks, but I'm no pro at identifying them. The case for this game is different from my other games. All my other games usually are black, smooth, and shiny, but this one is black, textured, and matte black. I don't know if this means anything or not. I did clean the contacts and it did work longer, but still resetted itself after a while.

NEgO MANIAC said:

I opened it up and didn't see any wires, stickers, or chalk marks, but I'm no pro at identifying them. The case for this game is different from my other games. All my other games usually are black, smooth, and shiny, but this one is black, textured, and matte black. I don't know if this means anything or not. I did clean the contacts and it did work longer, but still resetted itself after a while.

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Just so you know all Slug 4 carts are that differently type of cart case. It's weird its also a lot heavier than normal carts.

NEgO MANIAC said:

I opened it up and didn't see any wires, stickers, or chalk marks, but I'm no pro at identifying them. The case for this game is different from my other games. All my other games usually are black, smooth, and shiny, but this one is black, textured, and matte black. I don't know if this means anything or not. I did clean the contacts and it did work longer, but still resetted itself after a while.

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Do you see any EPROMs..?..glass window looking type chips.

How's the soldering look on the bottom of the boards..is it factoty/very clean looking whereas the soldering looks pretty much the same between pins..


Otherwise..
I'd say maybe the cart is warping in that case and losing connection.

You may have a dry joint /solder that is losing connection.
A cracked lead or solder that is losing connection during vibration or heat.

The chips look normal, and the soldering is fine. I'll work on getting some pics of the boards.

Good news...sort of. I bought a MV1C for my supergun and the game work just fine all the way through. Maybe the game has issues with the MV1FZ boards. Now that I have played the game, I do agree with everyone that it is the weakest of the series, but I still haven't played 5 yet. Good game though.

slug

My copy of metal slug 4 has this matt black case also,

My cart also has the end chopped off of one end of the pcb connector, ie one pcb edge connector is 5mm shorter than the other, has any one else seen this ?????

By the way all the chips are solid with serial numbers on......

Dredging up an old thread....

I just got Metal Slug 4 new from yaton on ebay (so I know it's legit) and its showing the same problem. I've got an MV-1FZ, and it's resetting every once in a while. I've gotten as far as the third or fourth mission (whatever the snowy mission is) before it reset, but it still did it. Checked the voltages on the PCB while it ran through the attract mode (it had reset there and in play), and when it reset, the +5 was rock solid at all times (5.28v). None of my other carts do this, including KoF2K3, so I'm wondering if its just a compatability issue. Any confirmation?

I've heard the MS5 carts won't play on anything but the single slot boards (haven't witnessed that myself though), but I've never heard of problems with MS4 until now.

FMonk said:

Dredging up an old thread....

I just got Metal Slug 4 new from yaton on ebay (so I know it's legit) and its showing the same problem. I've got an MV-1FZ, and it's resetting every once in a while. I've gotten as far as the third or fourth mission (whatever the snowy mission is) before it reset, but it still did it. Checked the voltages on the PCB while it ran through the attract mode (it had reset there and in play), and when it reset, the +5 was rock solid at all times (5.28v). None of my other carts do this, including KoF2K3, so I'm wondering if its just a compatability issue. Any confirmation?

I've heard the MS5 carts won't play on anything but the single slot boards (haven't witnessed that myself though), but I've never heard of problems with MS4 until now.

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I got my MS 4 and MS 5 kit from Yaton,not to long ago..

Neither Cart will work in my Candy cab correctly with UNI BIOS Chip vers 1.2...4 slot mobo
MS4 has no sound and MS5 is totally glitches,no sound...

In my US Bios Chip 2 slot Mobo(Neo Gold) and US Bios Chip 4 Slot Big Red Both Carts work fine and fine together..

They both needed extensive cleaning of the contacts,using my: open cart,light grain sand paper,91% Alcohol.

The MS4 carts come in this weird case that would not fit into any of me mobos right..the boards in the cart are to tight..the gae slides in too tight and caused glitches and the send to go out..
It just was to tight sliding in..
So I opened that cart and(slightly) shaved some of the insides of the case to make the boards wobble a little...I do this with most of my tight board carts.
I need to have a slight wobble in my carts boards for them to go into the mobos nicely ..
The shaving is a slow process of getting the boards in the case to have some freeroam..but you have to keep checking by closing the case to see if you can get some "slight" movement on the boards.
After I did this with MS4 it slid into the mobo so nice it was freaken sweet!!..and I have no more problems with it..

The Metal Slug 4 kit i bought of Yaton has no reset problems, but it does have one minor problem. When i try to boot the game in US mode, the Warning Parental Advisory screen is corrupt. I cleaned the contacts and it helped, but every now and then it still does it, other than that no probs. The case is also has that matt plastic feel.

So do they work fine now? Sorry if you said that, I'm tired and your post confused me somehow

When I first got the cart, I had problems getting it in and running without graphics glitches... I used alcohol on the contacts and I got it going ok, but I may pull it apart and sand the contacts with some high grit paper if that'll help. I'll try shaving the cart to see if I can get it to go in easier. Which edges are you talking about specifically? The outer case, or the flat piece that holds the two boards in place? Or both?

FMonk said:

So do they work fine now? Sorry if you said that, I'm tired and your post confused me somehow

When I first got the cart, I had problems getting it in and running without graphics glitches... I used alcohol on the contacts and I got it going ok, but I may pull it apart and sand the contacts with some high grit paper if that'll help. I'll try shaving the cart to see if I can get it to go in easier. Which edges are you talking about specifically? The outer case, or the flat piece that holds the two boards in place? Or both?

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(Yes,they work prefect now....MS5 took just the cleaning/the boards has my preferred wobble-looseness.

First try the light sand paper-91% alcohol cleaning..

If a cart feels like it's going it to tight then IMO that can lead to problems.....

If the cart feels like it's going it to tight then I suggest the shaving..
You open the carts and check/look how they sit in the case/what holds them..You need to slightly shave all the little pieces of plastic to make them get side to side wobble of each pcb...and it doesn't take much to do this so go slow doing a little at a time..
The two center towers that hold the cart pcbs in place I shake all around slightly as they are the main thing that makes the boards tight..You just have to make sure not to shave the spots that hold up the pcbs.
I have shaved the spots on the towers a little to creates wobble/looseness when other shaving wasn't enough..or closing the case still made it tight..
It's trial and trail again..and when I mean shaving you are hardly taking anything off..It's all about finding what holds the carts in place..
The biggest thing not to do is change anything that keeps the pcbs away from each other.
I've done this so many times now that I know just how much to shave..After you do it once you'll totally understand what I mean..
When you see how nice the cart goes in after this you'll want to do it to other carts that are to tight going in..

Me: I think a lot of mobo problems are caused by carts that go in too tight messing stuff up..
I just can't put tight going in carts in my mobos..and MS4 was one of the tightest I ever came across.

I've found carts that had warping of the boards and they would go in real tight..the warping caused by the case itself....shaving required to fix them..

northernsoul said:

The Metal Slug 4 kit i bought of Yaton has no reset problems, but it does have one minor problem. When i try to boot the game in US mode, the Warning Parental Advisory screen is corrupt. I cleaned the contacts and it helped, but every now and then it still does it, other than that no probs. The case is also has that matt plastic feel.

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Mine does that too..no cleaning or anything I've tried has stopped it.
Upon reaching that cart after power up the Warning Parental Advisory screen is corrupt..(4 slot/US BIOS)
On the second demo,second time around it's normal...not corrupt.

I have no clue why it's like that..

I have just learned to live with it, that and playing the game in JP mode so i dont have to see the corrupt screen when i boot up my Candy Cab.

northernsoul said:

I have just learned to live with it, that and playing the game in JP mode so i dont have to see the corrupt screen when i boot up my Candy Cab.

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I have just learned to live with it

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Yea me too...

Ok, thanks for the help chris! I'm in the process of moving, so I was really beat last night

I'll try out the stuff you suggested, I'm looking forward to being able to play through the whole thing And btw, my warning screen is messed up the first time I boot too. I was worried at first, because I couldn't get it to boot without corrupt graphics (although that's happened every time I've gotten a new cart until I cleaned them), and even after I got it running, it still had the corrupt warning. No biggie as long as the rest of the game works, and it only does it the first time it runs through.

Can anyone else confirm the bit about MS5 only working in one slot boards? I heard this from an old arcade tech whom I have a very high regard for; he knows everything there is to know about repairing monitors and other game repairs. I'm inclined to believe him, but I just haven't heard it repeated anywhere else.

FMonk said:

Ok, thanks for the help chris! I'm in the process of moving, so I was really beat last night

I'll try out the stuff you suggested, I'm looking forward to being able to play through the whole thing And btw, my warning screen is messed up the first time I boot too. I was worried at first, because I couldn't get it to boot without corrupt graphics (although that's happened every time I've gotten a new cart until I cleaned them), and even after I got it running, it still had the corrupt warning. No biggie as long as the rest of the game works, and it only does it the first time it runs through.

Can anyone else confirm the bit about MS5 only working in one slot boards? I heard this from an old arcade tech whom I have a very high regard for; he knows everything there is to know about repairing monitors and other game repairs. I'm inclined to believe him, but I just haven't heard it repeated anywhere else.

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My MS5 works in my Two Slot mobo and 4 Slot mobo (US Bios chips)fine..
....I never tried it in my 1 slot mobo ((though that's not the question asked))

My Candy cab has a 4 slot mobo with UNI BIOS Chip version 1.2 and MS5 will not work in that mobo due to the BIOS chip.

Just got a brand new MS4 kit, i cant get as far as the first boss without it crashing, seems to happen as soon as I aim and fire upwards with the dual machine guns.

Sandpapered/cleaned the contacts. even tried putting the boards in the mobo (minus the cart casing) to see if it could be the non wobbly board problem.

I have a MV1-FZ with unibios 2.0, everything else that has been found to be problematic works fine, ROTD, Matrimelee etc but not MS4, I dont think it warrants the purchase of another mobo.... i dunno what to do.