Opinions on phoenixed CPS-2 boards

arch8ngel

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I'm considering picking up a blue A/B board set for Shadow over Mystara, but I'm concerned about dealing with the "suicide battery" on a regular basis.

It seems like the easy answer is to get the boards Phoenixed, since that's a permanent solution.


Does this drastically alter the resale-ability of the components?
Do people tend to prefer them one way, or the other?
 
It seems to me that Phoenixed boards sell for more than their non-Phoenixed counterparts.

OTOH, Replacing a battery every five to seven years is not really what I'd consider a "regular basis".
 
It seems to me that Phoenixed boards sell for more than their non-Phoenixed counterparts.

OTOH, Replacing a battery every five to seven years is not really what I'd consider a "regular basis".

Well, I'm sure you'd know about the battery issue better than I would, since it's all new to me, but I read that replacements were needed more frequently than that.


Anyway, good to know about the stance on phoenixed boards. I was just concerned that collectors might be deterred since the chips had been reflashed.
 
Well, I'm sure you'd know about the battery issue better than I would, since it's all new to me, but I read that replacements were needed more frequently than that.


Anyway, good to know about the stance on phoenixed boards. I was just concerned that collectors might be deterred since the chips had been reflashed.


Honestly, collectors grabbing these boards are not at the "it must be all original" stage yet. This may change down the road, but hopefully not. The collectors with that mindset are currently collecting golden era (early 80's) games.
 
How would those collectors know if their 80's game ROMs are all original?

The way EPROMs work, if you reflash it with a copy of the original ROM there is no way to tell that the chip has been altered, since redumping the chip and checking it against a known "good" copy would be functionally identical.
 
That's just the thing. Phoenixed roms are not original code. Phoenix code was written by Razoola in order to resurrect suicided boards. Once a board has been phoenixed it has a Phoenix edition spash screen and provides options not found on the original board.

Some people will only buy originals and not all CPS2 boards have phoenix code available and once they die they're dead until the code has been written.

CPS2 boards are from the 90' as well not the 80's. If you are using original code on original boards it shouldn't matter to anyone.
 
Some collectors do dump ROMs and compare them to the known files in the MAME database. I am referring to the data, not the chip. If the data is not original (usually a specific version) then they feel the board is worth less money. Also, most of the original ROMs had factory labels on them and any missing or altered labels can hurt the value as well (again, I am referring to the obnoxiously anal guy not the average collector).

In the case of the Phoenix ROMs
 
That's just the thing. Phoenixed roms are not original code. Phoenix code was written by Razoola in order to resurrect suicided boards. Once a board has been phoenixed it has a Phoenix edition spash screen and provides options not found on the original board.

Some people will only buy originals and not all CPS2 boards have phoenix code available and once they die they're dead until the code has been written.

CPS2 boards are from the 90' as well not the 80's. If you are using original code on original boards it shouldn't matter to anyone.

I'm fully aware that Phoenixed ROMs are not original code. They're decrypted versions of the ROMs. That's not was was being referred to in the previous comment.

I'm also aware that they're not from the 80's. That comment was in response to discussion upthread about anal retentive collectors.


I didn't think it was possible to reflash CPS-2 boards with original encrypted code and have them work, since you can't readily re-synch the encryption keys. Basically, you'd be in the same spot you were with a dead battery and original ROMs.
 
Some collectors do dump ROMs and compare them to the known files in the MAME database. I am referring to the data, not the chip. If the data is not original (usually a specific version) then they feel the board is worth less money. Also, most of the original ROMs had factory labels on them and any missing or altered labels can hurt the value as well (again, I am referring to the obnoxiously anal guy not the average collector).

In the case of the Phoenix ROMs

Unless the labels are holding the chips in their sockets there is no need to tamper with them.
If you're rewriting an EPROM with it's original image you don't need to erase it before re-flashing it.
 
Unless the labels are holding the chips in their sockets there is no need to tamper with them.
If you're rewriting an EPROM with it's original image you don't need to erase it before re-flashing it.


Missing labels and altered data are two different examples of things the overly anal guys look at.

Like I said above, in the current market Phoenix doesn't hurt the resale to most buyers and some buyers are willing to pay more for the added security provided by the mod. However, there are a few guys out there that demand original and I am certain that the number of people who think that way will increase over the years.
 
Missing labels and altered data are two different examples of things the overly anal guys look at.

Like I said above, in the current market Phoenix doesn't hurt the resale to most buyers and some buyers are willing to pay more for the added security provided by the mod. However, there are a few guys out there that demand original and I am certain that the number of people who think that way will increase over the years.

Well, I suppose on the flip side, it's not like it's going to be in an original cabinet, so how much can it really matter :p
 
I phoenix games for people every now and then. I probably phoenix more working boards than dead ones just because people don't want to worry about the battery destroying their boards. I phoenix all of mine as soon as I get them and test them. If you'd seen as many battery-damaged boards as I have then you might understand why. And no, you can't pass off a phoenix version as an original. Razoola did that for a reason. As of right now I don't see much of a difference in price between original and phoenixed versions.
 
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