Can most boots get reconverted back into the original game?

[Shuri]

As far as I know, it seems that most MVS boots are using re-converted copies of older, less popular games with new roms. But I'm not an expert and I would not be surprised if custom made pcbs were used.

It's also safe to assume that most boots arent exacty done with quality control in mind and I assume that a lot of those conversion jobs multilated the original game boards beyond just just a romset swap.

It's pretty obvious that certain boards are probably only compatible with a small sets of other games.

Instead of trashing boots, or storing them away forever as the mutant abominations that they are; perhaps it would be better to reconvert them in the original games, or use them for 'NOVELTY' stuff like the corrected version Samurai Shodown 3, unreleased games like IronClad, copies of those weird KOF superhacks; I don't know!

Most boots are probably unfixable, but what if we could save a few of them.

We're not near extinction level of MVS games, but let's face it, some carts are getting hard to find. If there a way to resurrect carts; it would be for the greater good

We already have mvs-scan that shows pics of legit carts; would there be an interest in a site that shows pcb scans of bootlegs? At the end of the months, I'll be opening my carts; I never checked for bootlegs, Hopefully I wont have any, but if I dont find suspicious stuff, I'll take pics and upload them to the forums.

 

[Fox1]

Of course they can, but unless you have the original Mask roms..they will still look like converted games.

 

[shadowkn55]

What you're proposing sounds like converting undesirable boot titles into more desirable boot titles of games that had official releases. That's really no better than having the 'original' bootleg to begin with. Many games share the same board set and it's nearly impossible to tell which game it originally was unless some of the mask roms from the donor game were still left in the boards. Most of the tech savvy people on the forum usually dismantle bootlegs and save the boards for future repairs or reconvert them into a game that never had an official cart release (i.e. Ironclad and Ghostlop).

 

[xsq]

What you're proposing sounds like ...

OP is actually talking about multiple things. One of them is what you're saying at the end of your post... which is like the only idea that makes sense

As to the question posed: No, not all boots can be used for sensible projects. If they have custom boards, the chance is slim.