NGPC - pre-retail versions

[Tehcno]

Hey guys just looking for someone with some knowledge about these carts. I just got them from eBay and they came from different sellers so it seems legit. I got a US copy of Faselei that was originally sent to EGM as a review copy. I also 2 more that were review copies sent to Silicon Gaming Magazine for review. The games in question are Card Fighter Clash Capcom and SNK versions.

I have dumped the Faselei ROM and sent it to a friend so I can have him scan the ROM and see if it has any differences from the European counterpart. I will be doing the same with the other two when I get them in the mail.

I'm trying to, first of all, see if these are legit copies of pre-market carts. Each one of them has just a small sticker where the label usually is and just has the name of the game handwritten on it. I'm assuming it's legit as the story from the first seller was backed up by the story from the other seller.

The labels appear to be aged so I'm sure it was not just done recently.

 

[Lach]

PM 'thewildlombax' for any proto's you might require, he is very adept at sourcing them and has a wealth of knowledge you can draw from. Be patient though because his articulation skills aren't the best, I think language barrier or something.

 

[Tehcno]

I thought that was only with PS2 prototypes?

 

[Morden]

I have dumped the Faselei ROM and sent it to a friend so I can have him scan the ROM and see if it has any differences from the European counterpart. I will be doing the same with the other two when I get them in the mail.

You could do it yourself, depending on what you're using to dump the games. If you're using Flavor's Linkmasta, I think you can dump the "save", which is the entire writable area of the cartridge. You can then use a hex editor to compare that save file against the full dump to see where the save data resides. After that, anything but that area is pure game data, which you can compare against another dump of the game from the same region.

 

[Tehcno]

You could do it yourself, depending on what you're using to dump the games. If you're using Flavor's Linkmasta, I think you can dump the "save", which is the entire writable area of the cartridge. You can then use a hex editor to compare that save file against the full dump to see where the save data resides. After that, anything but that area is pure game data, which you can compare against another dump of the game from the same region.

Actually it is the Linkmasta that I've dumpped it with, and Flavor is the one who is going to check the ROMs for me. I trust him more than I trust myself to compare the ROM sets. I'm just trying to get some details about the carts themself. The first auction the guy bit my head off for asking a simple question about the legitimacy of the cart (due to the nature of eBay). He ended up blocking me from his auctions. Then I found a guy selling the CFC games and he was great with answering some questions for me, it at least eased my nerves about the carts themself. I ended up making a new eBay account just to purchase Faselei from the other guy.

 

[ndiddy]

If they're localized versions, I'd expect them to be final or near-final, but who knows-they might have debug flags, etc. enabled.

I think I bought the same copy of Card Fighters as you, but the seller tried to pull the ol' "my keyboard screwed up when I was entering the price"

 

[Tehcno]

LOL yup, sorry that's the seller I bought it from. They did sell them for 79.99 so I'm sure what they said was legit.
Turns out that Faselei is identical to the UK counterpart. I hope the CFC at least has a slight difference, but still waiting for it to show up in the mail.

 

[Tehcno]

Well, the data on all three games are identical to the retail counterparts. So they were obviously 100% complete by the time they were sent off for review. Now if there is just a way for me to document their authenticity. Not that I disbelieve the people I bought them from and after I got them in hand you can tell the age of the stickers on it. If I ever want to offload them, later on, I'll want to at least be able to prove they are the real deal.

 

[wingzrow]

They're legit. They don't pop up too often but there's more out there than you would think. Picture from an atariage topic. These came from an EGM storage locker.

http://archive.is/U5OFq

 

[Tehcno]

They're legit. They don't pop up too often but there's more out there than you would think. Picture from an atariage topic. These came from an EGM storage locker.

http://archive.is/U5OFq

Buyatari was the user that owned the Faselei before me, I've been trying to get in contact with him, I guess you ended up finding his post to confirm with me that he did get it from an EGM staff member. Thanks for the info.