Boot question

Hi all,

What are some of the common problems when playing an MVS boot? Is it mainly graphical and sound glitches or are there some out there that are just plain unplayable? I ask as I only own 6 carts so far and found one of them to be a boot thanks to this site for teaching me what to look out for (Super Sidekicks 3 which was part of an ebay lot). I'm going to be climbing aboard the MVS train in the very near future, and while I'm not looking to start a massive collection there are a few games that I really do want from my childhood, such as SS3. Knowing I have a boot of it sucks, but if it's going to be playable I can live with a few small glitches here and there.

What are some of the main problems you guys have seen with boots? (aside from the simple fact that they are boots, of course)... also, seeing as the 161 in 1 cart is basically a boot, how bad can that act up?

Most boots I have encountered have played fine - no glitches at all. Over the years I've had boots of Waku Waku 7, Metal Slug 3 and 4, Strikers 1945 Plus and Puzzle Bobble, and they all played exactly like their original counterparts (at least to me). Just depends how you feel about having the original or not.

Never owned one of the multis, so can't say much. I know for some games (Garou MOTW), it's an earlier proto version that is different from the final retail release, and thus different in many way. I'm sure others know more about the multis though.

It depends, some boots might not work at all, some may have audio or graphical glitches or otherwise be unreliable.

The big issues with boots, as the Old Tymers will recall, was that it negatively affected the sales of authentic MVS carts back when the Neo-Geo was alive and well. Some really bad boots would usually have some glitches, but otherwise I see no problem with them today. Hell, some of the custom PCBs are rather cool IMO. I'd take an SVC Chaos Super/Plus and KOF 2004 Hero over an official SVC or KOF 2003 any day of the week.

Well it's good to know that i'm not automatically left with a pile of crap that absolutely won't work.... I appreciate the input, folks

With boots you never really know. The biggest issue is the quality of the hardware itself, since they are cheaply made they are prone to failure or just not being put together correctly to begin with. I've actually had pretty good luck with boots though, I had a Slug 1 boot at one point that I didn't know was a boot for years, it actually played better than the filthy Yaton legit cart I replaced it with. I currently have a Slug 3 boot that plays fine, but the shell is too large to fit into some 1 slots so I had to swap the shell. I also have a Strikers boot that plays fine in some MVS systems, but has audio problems in others after the first stage.

GohanX said:

With boots you never really know. The biggest issue is the quality of the hardware itself, since they are cheaply made they are prone to failure or just not being put together correctly to begin with. I've actually had pretty good luck with boots though, I had a Slug 1 boot at one point that I didn't know was a boot for years, it actually played better than the filthy Yaton legit cart I replaced it with. I currently have a Slug 3 boot that plays fine, but the shell is too large to fit into some 1 slots so I had to swap the shell. I also have a Strikers boot that plays fine in some MVS systems, but has audio problems in others after the first stage.

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So even the shells on some boots are made so crappy that they don't even fit the slots? I had no idea....

Yeah, I had a MV1FZS at the time, that board doesn't have much tolerance for overly large shells. It probably wouldn't have been a problem on a 2 or 4 slot board, or my current CMVS.

spacemanrocks said:

So even the shells on some boots are made so crappy that they don't even fit the slots? I had no idea....

Click to expand...

It's all about quality control and different levels of "good enough." Some have graphical/sound issues which might be acceptable, but some might have worse issues depending on if they did a hack job, used the right chips, solder wires to different points, etc. I'm not sure how much consistency there is between bootlegs of the same game, but I'd imagine it can vary a lot, even if it generally doesn't.

Then, as previously mentioned, there's bootlegs which "enhance" the game in some way, like the Metal Slug 2 speed fix.

I have a MVS Neo Bomberman boot I bought knowing it was a boot that on occasion will have glitches leaving the explosions on screen during the underwater levels, while I'm okay with this as its playable as a kid in the arcade I would have been pissed to lose my coins to this glitch.