Robo Army and Shock Troopers

Greetings,

Went through every cart in my collection today...because I recently found I had a boot...

So, after going through 90 carts I have (2) that i'm not sure on.

Robo Army I believe is legit.
Shock Troopers I think is a boot.

Before moving on to those...a question.

I have seen it posted that windowed roms are a dead giveaway. When opening stuff up today I found a few w/windowed roms that were dead matches for the scan sets on got-walls.

Others I thought for sure were 100% boots - were 100% legit.

Burning Fight, board set 1, is the set I have...it is a hot mess of wires and wacky looking blisters - but mine is a dead match for it: http://mvs.gotwalls.com/index.php/Burning_Fight

Was surprised to see a jumper wire on Aerofighters 2.

Was surprised by windowed rom on 8Man.

...but again, all were matches.

Here are the 2 games that did not have matches on got-walls.

Robo Army:
pros - SNK PCB's
Almost exact same layout
Windowed rom on same side of PCB as the one on got-walls
SNK foil security sticker intact (uncut...until today)
Original label (it appears)

Cons -
just not a match for the set on got-walls
the PCB is extended at the top, it juts out like 1/3"

pic:


My thought - the roms are a close enough match to got-walls, I believe this was a League Bowling or Thrash Rally blank pcb (based on the extended PCB in the top right corner) but it is in fact a factory original Robo Army.

Thoughts?

Now, Shock Troopers:
Pros
SNK PCB's
No jumpers
layout of board 1 pcb is a match, including copper edge connectors

Cons:
All roms are windowed
fake label
No matches on got-walls
layout of board 2 pcb is completely different



I'm pretty sure this is a boot, but until today I also thought there were no official games with windowed roms.

Thoughts?

Robo Army is legit (security sticker, legit boards, mostly mask roms) I would guess the lone EPROM is probably a last minute code revision as opposed to a repair because the security sticker was in tact. I've never seen a fake silver serial sticker, has anyone else?

ST is a boot. No authentic games exclusively contain EPROM's

Here's my ROBO ARMY.

Same as yours.

The scans are just not on ack's site.

Thanks, Jason.

So is my thinking that the PCB extension (top right) is because these were originally cut as link up games, but ended up being spares and then repurposed?

Robo Army looks original to me. Does the solder on the eprom look factory? I have the same layout on my robo army as you have and the solder on the eprom is factory fresh the same as the masks. The shock troopers looks like a boot. All eprom. Repro label. What's the soldering like on the pcbs?

Robo is a 1991 game, along with Mahjong Bakatonosama Manyuki, and Thrash Rally.

http://www.mvs-scans.com/index.php/Mahjong_Bakatonosama_Manyuki
http://www.mvs-scans.com/index.php/Thrash_Rally

SNK just grabbed some COM (link) boards when they make a few ROBO carts.

As long as the roms are wave soldered, then you're ok.

mjmjr25 said:

Thanks, Jason.

So is my thinking that the PCB extension (top right) is because these were originally cut as link up games, but ended up being spares and then repurposed?

Click to expand...

mjmjr25 said:

Thanks, Jason.

So is my thinking that the PCB extension (top right) is because these were originally cut as link up games, but ended up being spares and then repurposed?

Click to expand...

It's definitely a repurposed Thrash Rally pcb, you can see the screening and unused space for the MCU. Legit and cool oddball variation.

Every Robo Army has an EPROM, as do all Zupapa, Pochi and Nya and a few other MVS titles. Nothing to worry about. I wouldn't go slicing security stickers if you don't need to. You can see through the slats of most MVS carts if you tilt them to the light which should give you a pretty good view of the top board and the solder joints of the bottom. I'd do that if the cart was sealed with an original SNK sticker, though I admit that I have cut a few suspects in my day too