Opened my SNES Starfox to clean, what is this??

[tobymanhattan]

I bought a copy of Starfox for the SNES off of eBay in November last year but never could get it to work. I cleaned it using the rubbing alcohol and qtip method a bunch of times, always making sure to leave it to dry before putting it in the system, and it still never worked.

I finally got around to opening it up recently, and here's what I found





Does that look at all normal? I mean, I don't see any ROM chips at all, so that would explain why it isn't working. Has anyone seen anything like this before or recognize where this might have come from?

I might message the seller to see if he'll replace it, but it's been like 6 months so I definitely wouldn't blame him if he doesn't want to. Good thing it's a cheap game...

[AppleQueso]

My first guess is it's a pirate of some sort.

How odd

[BoringSupreez]

I second the pirate motion.

And I wouldn't contact the seller about it. I'd think it was ridiculous if someone I sold something to 6 months ago contacted me for a refund now.

[Opa Opa]

Why would a pirate bother to write "(C) Nintendo 1993" on the board twice?

[dunpeal2064]

Could be a conversion?

The board looks like a nintendo board iirc, but the rest seems.... obviously odd.

Then again, for it to be a conversion, it would have to be a SFX game, right?

[tobymanhattan]

I second the pirate motion.

And I wouldn't contact the seller about it. I'd think it was ridiculous if someone I sold something to 6 months ago contacted me for a refund now.

Ya I completely understand. The only reason I considered it is because I contacted him right after receiving it saying it didn't work. He said to clean it a few times and try again and if it didn't work he'd replace it. But ya I'd probably be annoyed if someone contacted me after that long as well.


Does anyone have shots of the inside of a pirate cart to compare to this? Do people really pirate NA Starfox? It just seems ridiculous with how easily obtainable they are.


As far as being a conversion, do you mean they tried to make a SF2? I wondered the same thing and found this site to compare the board -http://snesdev.romhack.de/sf2.htm

Considering the size difference, I can't imagine what they were trying to do.

Think there's anything underneath those black epoxy-like spots?

[cookie monster]

If you got a super famicom try the board in that or a modded snes.

[MrPopo]

That one resistor stretched along the back tells me this was a home job; someone modified the original board. Also, look at the stamps. There are three separate copyright stamps for three separate years and two different companies.

[tobymanhattan]

That one resistor stretched along the back tells me this was a home job; someone modified the original board. Also, look at the stamps. There are three separate copyright stamps for three separate years and two different companies.

Those things stuck out to me as well. I just can't imagine why someone would take the time to do this. I think I'm secretly hoping this is something really cool, but it's probably not.

edit - I posted the same thing on NA and apparently it's just a regular Starfox board. SNES Central has pics posted there that look exactly the same. http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0636

Guess I just have to clean it a little better. Sorry for the pointless thread, I didn't see the PCB photos on SNES Central, just other photos that looked way different.

[harper]

Honestly after reading the title of this thread, I somewhat expected there to be a rare species of insect or something inside your cart. haha