Puzzle Bobble Bootleg or SNK Repair??

ledfrog

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I'm curious about this game I bought. It looks like a bootleg because it has EEPROMs and a couple daughterboard add-ons, but the boards themselves appear to be SNK originals. Naturally, I would assume this was either a repair or a conversion of some sort, but what throws me off is that the un-used spots where other ROMs would go (on say a different game), do not appear to have ever been used.

As you can see in the pics, the blank holes have solder on them, but they don't appear to have been soldered by hand.

I do own another Puzzle Bobble (original) and it has quite a few more chips than this one does. So that makes me think that whoever made this board probably upgraded to larger capacity ROMs.

I'm curious if something like this could have come from SNK or if there are any other opinions on what I may have here, please let me know! I only paid $17 for it, so I'm not too concerned about having paid for a bootleg...I'm just curious. And the reason I bought another Puzzle Bobble is because the one I have has some slight graphics glitches...a cleaning didn't fix it. :(

IMG_20170403_224149.jpgIMG_20170403_224221.jpgIMG_20170403_224328.jpgIMG_20170403_224349.jpg
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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SNK never used unmarked chip adapters or exclusively eproms. That there's a boot.
 

ballzdeepx

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Filthy boot.

There appears to be some bridged legs all over that CHA board as well. Shoddy soldering work is always a dead giveaway.
 

trenton_net

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Slightly off topic, but is there a way to tell what original game was sacked to make this boot? Are the serial numbers unique to the game or is it just a PCB revision identifier?
 

madman

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Slightly off topic, but is there a way to tell what original game was sacked to make this boot? Are the serial numbers unique to the game or is it just a PCB revision identifier?

Unless original ROMs are leftover, which happens sometimes, I think it's impossible to tell.
 

ledfrog

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Thanks everyone for the information! I didn't realize that some boots were done on actual SNK boards. I have a boot of Metal Slug 5 and it's a terrible one...the boards are generic, there are EEPROMs all over the front and back and there are wire mods and extra resistors in various locations. So when I saw this one, I thought maybe it wasn't a boot. I guess the SNK logos and the areas that still look factory soldered through me off. But like I said, I didn't pay much for this, so I'm not too worried about it. Thanks again!!
 

ShootTheCore

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Thanks everyone for the information! I didn't realize that some boots were done on actual SNK boards. I have a boot of Metal Slug 5 and it's a terrible one...the boards are generic, there are EEPROMs all over the front and back and there are wire mods and extra resistors in various locations. So when I saw this one, I thought maybe it wasn't a boot. I guess the SNK logos and the areas that still look factory soldered through me off. But like I said, I didn't pay much for this, so I'm not too worried about it. Thanks again!!

Almost of the boots I've seen are done on actual SNK boards. Booters gotta do something useful with all those old Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury MVS carts kicking around...
 

madman

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There are "newer" boots on custom PCBs, I'm not sure when those started becoming very mainstream and it seems they're still outnumbered by sac boots. There are some examples of the custom boards in the Bootleg Gallery thread here.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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Unless original ROMs are leftover, which happens sometimes, I think it's impossible to tell.

Without the original ROMs, there is no way to tell. SNK boards are completely general purpose and can be used by a lot of different games. You can even mix and match PROG and CHA boards, makes no difference to the MVS mainboard.
 

GutsDozer

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I'm under the assumption that at least 80% of all copies of PB in circulation are boots. My cab literally came with one.
 

xsq

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I'm under the assumption that at least 80% of all copies of PB in circulation are boots. My cab literally came with one.
add to that the legit ones with flickering pixels... finding a good PB can be hard.
 

ledfrog

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add to that the legit ones with flickering pixels... finding a good PB can be hard.

That's a true statement. The first one I bought was legit, but has flickering pixels. The one I posted here was supposed to replace it, but I ended up with a bootleg! I actually went ahead and bought a third board that was proven to be original and had screenshots showing no graphics issues, so I think I finally got my problem resolved!
 

madman

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I'm under the assumption that at least 80% of all copies of PB in circulation are boots. My cab literally came with one.

Easily the most bootlegged game on the Neo. Which makes sense due to its popularity, I can imagine that raking in tons of money back in the day.
 
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