Authentic MegaMan Carts (!?)

[rhetoric]

I recently purchased some NES MegaMan games to finish off my set. I opened them up to validate that they are in fact authentic, but I'm not entirely sure. I verified most of the info on the respective PCBs with that found on http://nintendoage.com/ and they seem to align correctly.

What has me most concerned are some of the chips on the board originating from Korea (MegaMan 1) and Malaysia (MegaMan 2). I haven't been able to find any info regarding whether this is normal or not with games from that era. I have an extra MegaMan 2 (labled MegaMan2_Real) and it looks vastly different than the questionable one with the Malaysia chip. However, there appear to be two variants of the hardware on nintendoage.com, but they don't have pics of the PCBs.

Long story short, I was hoping I could get some feedback from you guys, especially those who may already have the titles, in order to authenticate these games. If I'm posting in the wrong forum, I apologize, but any direction into getting this solved would be appreciated.

Thanks!


FYI: the pic with no cartridge in the background is MegaMan 1.

[Tanooki]

Have you tried checking the variant listings with images up on the bootgod database? They look legit to me.

[XYXZYZ]

I've never heard of bootleg Megaman carts. Is this a problem?

[rhetoric]

Have you tried checking the variant listings with images up on the bootgod database? They look legit to me.

Thanks for that site - was unaware of it. I cross referenced what I have with the pics they have on the site, and while some didn't match up perfectly (including the MM2 which I know is real), they have a chip identification guide which did align with my carts. I feel a bit more confident of this, but if anyone has other thoughts, let me know!

[Tanooki]

I've never heard of bootleg NES Mega Man carts, but there are SNES ones. It's all about price, usually when a game gets into the three digit realm the pirates are far more attractive if they're made right and with good parts because if you just want a physical game without eating it badly due to the politics of used game buying these days it's a solid alternative and game makers know it. I would not be surprised if you could find a Mega Man 1 or 5 that's a bootleg because they're getting towards being close to the 100 mark for just the loose cart.

[SparTonberry]

There have been Famicom bootlegs since forever, but I guess NES has been less common because of CIC?
Though there certainly are NES bootlegs. But I don't think bootleggers usually go to the extent of faking legitimate markings on the PCBs? (like PCB names and copyrights)

[Tanooki]

I think that's entirely why. The bootlegs you do find on the NES tend to be fairly modern and they'll be an existing board with the right chips and someone pops a chip off and puts another on there, or piggybacks a chip with a bypass. The famicom had no lockout as you said, there's probably more bootlegs than legit games for it on a global level depending on the title and many of them are even made from a full set of boards and chips and not cheapy glop tops too. I've got a couple famiclones that use real boards/chips and they're solid.

The fakes I recall seeing for NES though are your usual 'repro'(lie) bootleg stuff where you run a bunch of wire to another chip with the game flashed to it bypassing the original and then they run a new label usually using a crappy deskjet printer so they look offcolor/faded and never cut right being done by hand. I'm sure there's nicer stuff now as I don't care to keep paying that much attention, but before I stopped caring it was becoming a lot wider of a problem on SNES with these secondary flat chips piggybacked over an original chip on a board to make it into another title and one I did see was for Hagane with a fairly convincing replacement label on the shell.

[kainemaxwell]

So should we be checking all our carts now we buy?

[bust3dstr8]

Those are all mask roms from well known manufacturers of the time. (Fujitsu, NEC, TI, Hitachi, Sharp) These companies often have multiple plants in different countries, so no surprise to see this. The KM6264 is just a common ram, that one just happened to be sourced from Samsung Korea.

[Gatucaman]

Just one question, why has Megaman 1 spiked in price?, i don't think is even that rare considering is a fricking Gen2 NES game.

[Tanooki]

Well if you paid attention you'd know that it was the first game and released in a fairly limited number compared to 2-4 and 6. Capcom had little to no faith in Rock Man/Mega Man since it was an untested generic console platformer at the time to them. When the sales were solid they went about making the sequel MM2 which they press in vast numbers compared to it and it sold like hot cakes. They even took the difficulty criticism of the first and lack of save to put the difficulty choice and password system into play. With MM3 and 4 they mass ran those too but removed the difficulty but found people liked the perks from Rush dog so they did more of that fluff. MM5 was a late release on the NES so it wasn't pressed again in large numbers since they moved onto the SNES. Nintendo though looking to extend the NES longer along with the top loader, they took up MM6 which never would have been released outside of the Famicom in Japan and published it for Capcom in large numbers which is why it's cheaper. MM1 and 5 were not in large numbers so they cost notably more than the other 4 titles. It may (MM1) be a gen2 NES game, but it wasn't made in large numbers and since it's tied to a very hyped up loved franchise you pay up for it. There are a lot of other Gen2 games that aren't worth crap because they're not franchise blowouts.

[kainemaxwell]

MM1, 5, and 6 go for the most on ebay...

[Niku-Sama]

yea 6's number weren't that high in production. I think it just seems that way when stores at the time had tubs and tubs of games for $10 and under.

I got megaman 6 for less than $5 new out of a tub at kb toys in front of the register. I really liked megaman and totally missed 5 and I was amazed to see it for so cheap in that bin. I almost bought 2 but a grade schooler is hardly parted from a bill with Lincoln on it often

[SparTonberry]

When the sales were solid they went about making the sequel MM2 which they press in vast numbers compared to it and it sold like hot cakes.

I heard the sales were actually pretty bad, and Capcom only let the development team (who really wanted to) make Mega Man 2 as an extra-curricular activity as long as they worked on the next game they were told to make (I think it was this graphic adventure game The Pro Baseball Player Serial Murder Mystery).

[Tanooki]

I hadn't heard that, but I haven't been all over the mega man fan sites to dig up random nuggets. I just recall in the past it was written that MM1 showed solid enough sales to meet the expectation of the period to go forward and give it one more try to see if it was a true hit to continue with. If it's true, good thing they did MM2 the way they did or it would have been a 2 hit blunder and been finished.