Odd find (NES: Wild Gunman)

[Sabz5150]

Picked up a few extra titles at the PnT, one of which included a copy of Wild Gunman that felt a bit heavier than the other games... usually means a Fami adapter. Anywho I get it home and crack it open and unfortunately no adapter BUT the PRG chip has been replaced by an EPROM, apparently hand done due to the remnants of flux on the solder points and use of different solder. It has a tape cover saying "PRG WG"... as it should be. But I wanna know if this is something out of the ordinary, is it just a quick replacement, or what.

I will provide pics as soon as I get to a PC with an image manipulation program.

[NESaholic]

A pic would clear alot up.

[Sabz5150]

Granted :D

http://www.enginevoodoo.com/images/collect/wguneprom.jpg

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I've seen boards come out of 1st gen NES carts with EEPROMS and stickers before. (Usually when searching for games with the Fami adapter in them.)

I don't think those are protos per'se, but there's probably a story behind them being like that.

One that I don't have.

[Sabz5150]

I've seen boards come out of 1st gen NES carts with EEPROMS and stickers before. (Usually when searching for games with the Fami adapter in them.)

I don't think those are protos per'se, but there's probably a story behind them being like that.

One that I don't have.

I didn't think it was a proto, I was more like "WTF is with the EPROM". I still wonder why they'd hand replace the PRG chip... sounds a bit more expensive (in both time and costs) than just putting them in a defect pile as with most mass production runs.

[Tempest]

That is odd. It could be a very early review copy or final test copy of some sort. I too doubt that they would go through the trouble of reparing a defective ROM chip by hand like that. I assume it plays the same as the final?

Tempest

[jb143]

I didn't think it was a proto, I was more like "WTF is with the EPROM". I still wonder why they'd hand replace the PRG chip... sounds a bit more expensive (in both time and costs) than just putting them in a defect pile as with most mass production runs.

We mass produce circuit boards where I work and we do set the defects off to the side. We also have a guy that looks through the defects and fixes the ones that won't take too much work.(I was that guy for a while) There might be something like that going on here. It's still strange that it would be an EPROM instead of a normal ROM though.

[Sabz5150]

That is odd. It could be a very early review copy or final test copy of some sort. I too doubt that they would go through the trouble of reparing a defective ROM chip by hand like that. I assume it plays the same as the final?

Tempest

I'll have to find out... unfortunately the Zapper doesn't like my LCD television. Time for the lightbulb trick :)

When I get a bigger Room o Doom, I'll have to get an old TV for things like this.

[NESaholic]

Are you sure the game on this cart is Wild Gunman? I mean sometimes they used retail carts for proto's, like this one in the picture. It contains Bases Laoded, they used a smb/dh cart for it. Did you pop the game in by any chance? If this is not the case i really doubt this is a proto, it's too akward to use a retail Wild Gunman cart for a Wild Gunman proto, but hey i can be wrong corse.

Bases Loaded proto.
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq173/gameheaven/montagenk5.jpg

[DreamTR]

Maybe someone's messing around and put that somewhere where people would find it and claim it was a proto? LOL, I've never seen released NES games first party with EPROMS before.

[Sabz5150]

It is in fact Wild Gunman. I put it in my NES and it works. Again I highly doubt it's a proto... I just put it here because you guys might know why it would have the stocker chip replaced with an EPROM. If I could dump it, that might give some sort of answer... although if it's the same PRG, then the question marks keep stacking up.

Could it be for some obscure competition where the scoring was different perhaps?

[ProgrammingAce]

If it were a defective repair, they'd just use another IC, no point in burning an EPROM. That's a WTF you have there.

Stupid question, but are you sure there's a window under the sticker?

[Sabz5150]

If it were a defective repair, they'd just use another IC, no point in burning an EPROM. That's a WTF you have there.

Stupid question, but are you sure there's a window under the sticker?

I just checked, and it does in fact have an EPROM window under the sticker. Had to gently lift it up where the adhesive had already died and not peel the rest of it. However it is an EPROM, no doubts there.

[Sabz5150]

I played through the game, doing the good old lightbulb trick, and after round 99 it went black and brough up wireframes and data on an aircraft I've never seen before. Looks kinda neat...








































;)