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You know what you're right I think it is a bootleg. Look at the clk board with the radial caps being used instead of axials, Nintendo would never allow that. That board is a bootleg but it was made in the same factory as Nintendo. If I'm not mistaken the factories just kept producing pcbs even when Nintendo didn't have orders with them and sold them on their own independently and forced Nintendo to pay them a licensing fee or something, similar story with crazy kong. Definitely a Japanese board set at the very minimum if it isn't bootleg.My memory may be flaky, but from my understanding, these boards with the weird connectors and non-conforming TKG labels are regarded as bootlegs among the Japanese collectors. I seem to recall that they don't use an inverted monitor either. Is that the case with yours?
The cabinet that this was pulled from didn't have a Sanyo but instead a 19K4675 so I'm going to guess it is not invertedseem to recall that they don't use an inverted monitor either. Is that the case with yours?
and they do have a cool use case if the monitor signal isn't inverted.
From what I understand there was no copyright protection in Japan for code or programs at the time of Donkey kongs release so these factories which really made them for Nintendo would just make them independently as well but yeah using some lower quality components to increase profit margins. You can see that pcb itself is the exact same quality as a real Nintendo board set because it really is the same. Not sure if all bootlegs did non-inverted.There is some speculation about these boards. I've always taken the stance that they are bootlegs or were at a minimum not made by Nintendo. These boards do not use the same connectors, lack the typical ROM labeling (of which they had always done), and used lower quality components. Also notice the lack of heatsinked components on the clk board seen with other bootlegs. Also notice the lack of a shield on the clk board over the crystal circuit. Also notice that signetics chips are found on this board, very unusual to find those on donkey kong boards. There is also a severe lack of serial numbering. Nintendo boards always had a serial tag on each of the boards (at least fron block fever forward, computer othello had its serial numbers ink stamped). The power audio amp would have also been wrong. Nintendo was using MB3712 at the time and would not have labeled it as such. That circuit was changed a bit but did not vary between radarscope and donkey kong.
Others have said that they are "grey market" early boardsets. I don't really buy into this. Others say that they were licensed boardsets akin to the crazy kong fiasco. I don't really buy into this either but don't know. These sets are very interesting to me, but I have not sounced one for myself.
The pcbs are not exactly the same. Several silkscreen differences and the power amp circuit is different. That's just from a glance.You can see that pcb itself is the exact same quality as a real Nintendo board set because it really is the same.
The cabinet that this was pulled from didn't have a Sanyo but instead a 19K4675 so I'm going to guess it is not inverted
what's that use case? I don't have a cabinet to put this in and it's just collecting dust on a shelf like so many others