All right... So I was able to dump the ROMs for this game and here is what I found.
- M.I.A. PCB has 12 ROMs populated, Bloody Wolf only uses 10.
- The two additional ROMs are labeled "BACKMAP" and "DATA."
- Of the 10 ROMs that are comparable, M.I.A. has 3 that have different checksums.
- The three ROMs whose checksums do not match are: ES-00, ES-02 and ES-10.
- Written in pencil on each ROM is a date of "12/22/88" (Some poor sap was in a hurry to get this finished so he could take off for Christmas!)
- Gameplay seems identical apart from the title/attract screen and the credits screen (yes, I played through the whole game.)
- I was able to rename some files and get it to play in MAME under "battlera" (Battle Rangers)
- Written in sharpie on the PCB is "VCOK16AM92UC046AU691" whatever that means.....
- The ROMSTAR label has "BW" red penciled in front of the the serial number ("NO. BW 0234")
Overall, VERY COOL. Thanks to my brother for lending me his board and letting me take the time and archive all this.
I have recorded and posted the entirety of the gameplay to YouTube for archival purposes. Feel free to watch and share, as well as look for differences.
Gameplay:
Here is the ROM dump for anybody interested. The files in the main folder are dumped and named exactly as they sit in the PCB. The files in "MIA Mame" are renamed drag and drop replacements for the files in the "battlera" folder in MAME. You will have to run it in debug mode though as MAME will not run otherwise due to invalid checksums. Enjoy!
ROM dump:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12rNKc_ZiIuT-fGmnm1xJxnryYCqGr0BN?usp=drive_link