This pirated pal carts of mine...
So it seems I ended with a couple of fake/pirate/wtv snes cart. After some reading, I'm just posting here to definately settle my mind to it and maybe understand how the process went. I don't own not have access to an SNES where I can test. Otherwise I think I'd have the whole puzzle together.
So, this was a CIB Robocop 3, Pal version (though there's no mentioning of it whatsoever).
The cart looks like this.
One can immediately tell (well, except me...) the label is phony. It's misplaced (slightly angled), has a somewhat low resolution image, lacks the nintendo seal and the serial #product code. Seems more like it was put together with an image editing software, using a basic layout and sfc elements. On the positive side, it has a thickness and touch very similar to my other originals (not too glossy nor to pale). So I thought it was a reprint.
The cart's shell has the same look and feel. Or at least I think it has. The backside has a slightly different variation on the embossed text but I think it's legit. Just a late (maybe?) version of a japanese shell which would make this a donor cart? Also, it has some reentrances on each side (bottom) which are only simitar to those on NTSC-U carts. Not sure what these are for, though.
Then I noticed that instead of those common gamebit there were a couple of phillips type screws. While googling for it I came across some similar carts on MercadoLivre (Brazil) but those lack the front screws and seem more like the cart's front and back are glued (they show kind of a seam).
Opening that fucker up, here's the pcb. Again, it seems to be highly professional to be a handmade job. There are none of those traditional jump wires or solder blobs. The mask rom seems to be a one-time writable one, maybe? but not anything like the ones I saw before (but then again I know shit about electronics too...). And the other chip doesn't add much to my knowledge.
There's a 3-letter code and a date (left on the pcb) and then theres this SNGAME-1 8M kinda reference. Text isn't as sharp as most pcb's I've seen. The reverse has no text whatsoever.
Finally, this comes up with a box and a plastic support. Much like the japanese ones. It even came with instructions manual (both were USA manuals, so I assume they kind of grabbed them) and those were legit, that I am sure.
The case is brown carton inside, like the one I've seen (Pal at least). They seem to be a scaled down version of the US ones and keeping proportions while adjusting to the size of the japanese ones, that left a great margin (right, on the front side; left, on the back). Now, print quality is way to phony, even though details like serial number were kept on the inner flaps of the card. Here, one can easily notice also the colour smearing, making the white text have a blueish border (over black background).
Now the funny thing is, on the back there's a distributor sticker. By law, import products are required to have a translated description and translated manual. And believing what the sticker says, they were included. So, apparently this was being sold as legit. There's the address of the distributor, I haven't yet made any research on it but I immediately remember some shaddy shops where you could by some stuff under the counter (silver pressed ps1 discs were on a daily basis, as an example). But even though legislation existed, back in the early 90's many pirated copies where often sold as legit and some vendors wouldn't even know about it (I don't think its the case with this particular vendor).
So, this is the most frankenstein'd pirate I've came across. Hell, if the rom is indeed PAL, this could be a WOR region
(yeah, I know it doesn't work like that, just kidding). But given the overall quality of it, I can only think these were produced in asia, assembled together with some japanese parts (cart shell and plastic case) and usa manuals and sold worldwide, maybe imported to "privilegde" distributors. But it seems so me to be of a considerable scale, not just something one would do in their basement. I haven't seen many of these (just the couple two I found on Mercado Livre but those seem different) and would love to know more about it. I figure since I burned in almost 50€ on these two, at least I should be more knowledgable about them and the overall snes pirate scene.
Full image gallery of my Snes Rober Cop Tree Fiddy.
So, this was a CIB Robocop 3, Pal version (though there's no mentioning of it whatsoever).
The cart looks like this.
One can immediately tell (well, except me...) the label is phony. It's misplaced (slightly angled), has a somewhat low resolution image, lacks the nintendo seal and the serial #product code. Seems more like it was put together with an image editing software, using a basic layout and sfc elements. On the positive side, it has a thickness and touch very similar to my other originals (not too glossy nor to pale). So I thought it was a reprint.
The cart's shell has the same look and feel. Or at least I think it has. The backside has a slightly different variation on the embossed text but I think it's legit. Just a late (maybe?) version of a japanese shell which would make this a donor cart? Also, it has some reentrances on each side (bottom) which are only simitar to those on NTSC-U carts. Not sure what these are for, though.
Then I noticed that instead of those common gamebit there were a couple of phillips type screws. While googling for it I came across some similar carts on MercadoLivre (Brazil) but those lack the front screws and seem more like the cart's front and back are glued (they show kind of a seam).
Opening that fucker up, here's the pcb. Again, it seems to be highly professional to be a handmade job. There are none of those traditional jump wires or solder blobs. The mask rom seems to be a one-time writable one, maybe? but not anything like the ones I saw before (but then again I know shit about electronics too...). And the other chip doesn't add much to my knowledge.
There's a 3-letter code and a date (left on the pcb) and then theres this SNGAME-1 8M kinda reference. Text isn't as sharp as most pcb's I've seen. The reverse has no text whatsoever.
Finally, this comes up with a box and a plastic support. Much like the japanese ones. It even came with instructions manual (both were USA manuals, so I assume they kind of grabbed them) and those were legit, that I am sure.
The case is brown carton inside, like the one I've seen (Pal at least). They seem to be a scaled down version of the US ones and keeping proportions while adjusting to the size of the japanese ones, that left a great margin (right, on the front side; left, on the back). Now, print quality is way to phony, even though details like serial number were kept on the inner flaps of the card. Here, one can easily notice also the colour smearing, making the white text have a blueish border (over black background).
Now the funny thing is, on the back there's a distributor sticker. By law, import products are required to have a translated description and translated manual. And believing what the sticker says, they were included. So, apparently this was being sold as legit. There's the address of the distributor, I haven't yet made any research on it but I immediately remember some shaddy shops where you could by some stuff under the counter (silver pressed ps1 discs were on a daily basis, as an example). But even though legislation existed, back in the early 90's many pirated copies where often sold as legit and some vendors wouldn't even know about it (I don't think its the case with this particular vendor).
So, this is the most frankenstein'd pirate I've came across. Hell, if the rom is indeed PAL, this could be a WOR region
(yeah, I know it doesn't work like that, just kidding). But given the overall quality of it, I can only think these were produced in asia, assembled together with some japanese parts (cart shell and plastic case) and usa manuals and sold worldwide, maybe imported to "privilegde" distributors. But it seems so me to be of a considerable scale, not just something one would do in their basement. I haven't seen many of these (just the couple two I found on Mercado Livre but those seem different) and would love to know more about it. I figure since I burned in almost 50€ on these two, at least I should be more knowledgable about them and the overall snes pirate scene. Full image gallery of my Snes Rober Cop Tree Fiddy.
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