Bootlegs or not?

This is my first post here so please bare with me if this kind of post is unnecessary or in the wrong place. Anyway, here I come

I started buying MVS carts early this spring and by now I've got 11 (2 more arriving soon). I've learnt alot when fiddling with my 6-slot uk-style mvs-cabinet and the gaming is great. Now to the question.

When browsing this forum the other day I discovered that there's quite a few mvs bootlegs out there and that got me thinking. I opened all of my carts and tried to determine if they're boots or legit. As I find it pretty hard in some cases to decide I'd be really glad of some of you experts would help me out.

I've posted the pictures here: http://www.snutt.net/arkad/inside

The ones I'm guessing to be real are Last Blade 2, Magical Drop 3, Metal Slug 1, Metal Slug 4, Neo Geo Cup 98 and Ultimate 11. Am i right? Are any of the other ones bootlegs or just fixed?

Try here:
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21248
Or there was a thread about the chip numbers matching the game number from the master list...

here's one about puzzle bobble (from what I know it's the most booted cart)
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70318

And another about bootlegs and EPROMS. Note the bootleg gallery in post number 13
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20851


That's it from me. If you want more info, use the search function.
It can often be hard to tell boots from internet pictures.

I lied - one more post:

Ok, I saw that link earlier but didn't see it's importance. Now all i need is the list of NGH-numbers to crosscheck my roms... Where can I find it?

My metal slug 3 seems to be a bootie but I'm not sure. Can someone help me out?

Sam Sho 2 = bootleg!

That's the only one I have time to look at right now.

Looked at some more:

Last Blade 2 - Original LEGIT

Magical Drop 2 - Looks legit

Metal Slug 1 - Looks legit

Metal Slug 3 - Maybe eeprom fix? I never seen Mslug 3 before.

Metal slug 4 - Looks bootleg I don't know though Who the hell is MEga Enterprises?

NeoCup98 - Looks legit

Puzzle Bobble - Supreme Bootleg

Pulstar - legit maybe?

Turfmaster - legit looking

ultimate 11 - legit looking

Found a list: http://www.neo-geo.com/snk/master_list-ngh.htm

Metal Slug 4 is legit. Mega ent. helped playmore out or helped to produce (at least parts) of metal slug 4.

Samurai shodown has 75% legit roms but has some kind of repair i think. I read somewhere on the forums that snk-repairs sometimes has the colourcoded replacementroms. Must be a repair atleast. Maybe not 100% SNK but why take a legit cart an replacr 25% of it with boot?

Metal slug 3 also has most legit stuff but a wierd looking top right part. Mayb a repair? Has anyone seen something like this before?

Puzzle Bobble used to be an old Power Spikes 2 apparently

ToeJam said:

Puzzle Bobble - Neo Boot Master

Click to expand...

You sir are correct!

Puzzle Bobble used to be power spikes 2 BUT Check this out:

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75312&highlight=Power+Spikes+boot


HPMAN says it's legit. As he seems to be some kind of bootlegspotting guru, I'll believe him. Apparently all PB looks like this for some reson. D96-masked roms and powerspikes2-roms.

All legit, even puzzle bobble, except maybe Samsho2 not sure about that one, could just be a fix, its only 2 eproms. The MS3 is a daughtercard version.

So you are sure the MS3 is a legit daughterbord version? Nice to hear I didn't waste those $125 importing it from japan. It's a great game aswell.

So it all comes down to SS2... anyone?
Let's hope it's a genuine fix. Got it almost for free so I guess I can live with it possibly being a third-part fix. The solderings are all perfectly machined so atleast it's not a fix done by a beer-drinking fat guy in a mobile home

ss2 from what I can tell is real. I have seen these chips in lots of real snk games all over the place. The color coding was from a repair. They do that alot to tell waht chips hold what data. You should take some black tape and cover the windows on all your eproms to prevent damage to the data on the chips. If there seams to be any hand sodering on the back of this game where any of the eproms are then you should be concerned. As for your puzzle B mine is the excat same way so I know thats not a boot.

I'm starting to think ss2 is a repair as well, normal SS2's have only a chip in the P1 slot on the right, you're has the P1, SP1, EP1, and EP2 filled. I'm thinking repair.

all look fine to mine.

i've seen quite a few ss2 like that

I also think that they are all legit.
I have seen a few SS2 like that, especially if they are Jap. (just like KOF 96)
Must be an repair.

Also, great starting collection

Congrats, it's a perfect line up : all LEGIT to me.

Even Puzzle Bobble is OK : it's true 068 is Power spikes ID but mask roms were said to be taken out of the PS production to help produce Puzzle bobble components because of the high demand ... see it as an emergency adaptation at the factory

D96 is the internal coding system used by Taito so you shouldn't try to match that one with the Neo Master List. My Pbobble exactly looks like yours. FYI it passes the Universe bios Program rom checksum like a charm.

What counts in identifying a PBobble is having genuine SNK boards + solid maskrom chips factory soldered, only 2 EEProms are allowed for EP1 and M1, that's all. No wires no daughterboards no systematic uneven soldering.

SS2 okay too, like VWLunatic said, some other legit cards look like that, KOF96 is a good example indeed.
I opened my own cart for you and found out exactly the same, including the colored stripes order : gold for SP2, white for P1, blue for EP2 and orange for EP1

In the case of KOF96, mine has 4 EEPROMS from EP1 to EP4 with the respective stripes being blue, red, orange, gold. P5 is a solid maskrom by Toshiba.

These colored stripes must have a special meaning, if someone knows what, it 'd be great to share the info
I doubt about the repair assumption ... might just be some factory runs including EEPROMS. Look at the soldering on your carts, mine is perfect. Plus, why repair all 4 chips on KOF96 and 2 on SS2 ? cth said he saw many of these.


MS4 : Legit. Mega is the korean company who developped and released MS4 in 2002, after the sad SNK's dismise. No offense but this is something a fan should know !

100% legit in my book. Cover up those eprom windows!

Thanks guys. I'll cover the windows right away.

Tiptonium said:

100% legit in my book. Cover up those eprom windows!

Click to expand...

Tiptonium, that looks like Elvis Costello with a Neo Geo cap on in your avitar.
Surely not ? Freaky