Amano Jacu said:
And now board history lesson for you. The idea of closing the doors to new members was brought by Tarma some time ago, and I OPPOSED that idea in that thread, look for it if you want. Then Tarma posted in another stupid thread made by a Noob, saying that we should have closed doors. Tarma's number is a bit more than 2000 and mine is a bit less than 2000, that's why I made a (oh the horror, a joke) and said "yeah, cut it at exactly 2000" as it was a nice number and it left me in and him out, so I "counterattacked" his closing doors idea. Obviously I had no intention to have this seriously done.
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It was merely a suggestion to cut the tollerance of trolls. As it is things have improved a lot since then. T'was an extereme suggestion I know, but quality over quantity is my motto
Anyway...
Conversions are just a total grey area. Yes, many of them use genuine 'parts' but it is still not an official AES release, and therefore should never be passed off as one.
The term 'bootleg' has always refered to a fake or illeagal copy - ie a copy that does not contain genuine parts.
So, a conversion of say, Zupapa! that contains eproms is a bootleg, but a conversion that does not is merely that - a conversion; an unoffical AES cartridge.
However, I would class a conversion of an offically released AES title as a bootleg because it is a copy of something that actually exists.
AES releases of Prehistoric Isle 2, Zupapa!, Money Puzzle Exchanger etc. do not exist in any offical form. So, they can only be classed as mvs conversions.
I appreciate why people buy bootleg AEs titles, and really the blame for a market being created, can only lie with those who pushed the price up beyond unreasonable levels. Those people would probably argue though that demand outstripped supply and therefore the games went to the highest bidder.
It is something of a vicious cirlce. In general I do not advocate the creations of bootleg conversions of offically released titles.
As for the unreleased games. the mvs ONLY titles, until such time as offical releases are manufactured (never likely), conversions of these games are an excellent way for the AES owner to enjoy SNK product. Yes, there is the Phantom 1, but I'm not entirely convinced it would be a worthwhile investment, and I've read too many complaints about its design to make me feel comfortable buying one. I don't fancy knackering my AES, or me for the sake of an mvs cart.
There are those that argue that the phantom 1 is also illeagal because mvs carts are not for home use, so thererfore an AES conversion of an mvs only title would only seem logical, because you're transfering the game to homeformat.
It is a shame that you lose a game to create a game in this process, but I would rather have a conversion using genuine SNK parts than one made up of eprom burns.
Yes, I do own a handful of conversions of unreleased mvs games, but no bootleg conversions of offical AES releases.
In short:
AES conversions of mvs only titles = yes.
AES conversions of titles offically released in AES format = no.