Original VS bootleg PCBs - opinions

Tornadoboy

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Occasional I see much cheaper bootleg PCBs turn up for games that otherwise I couldn't afford, so I was wondering, for games like Bubble Bobble, Ghost and Goblins and such, are bootlegs pretty much indistinguishable from originals as far as gameplay, reliability and such?
 
It very much depends on the actual game.

Bubble Bobble is a great example, the original TAITO version was never cracked 100% by the bootleggers, and so all the bootlegs do not play 100% correct.

Ghosts n Goblins seems to be fine though, add to that it is easier to repair as the tracks are not masked.

I've had some bootlegs like Mr.Do where the sound was never quite right, but had other more modern stuff like Outzone on a bootleg where it was 100% accurate.

I remember I had this NOS Gyruss bootleg once, it was the cleanest PCB I have ever had. It was called Venus, and it's layout was identical to the Konami original, but the PCB build quality was better.
 
While I can't question anything my esteemed fellow member EclipseEye has pointed out, I do have one question:

Who can repair these things?

If it is a "copy job" and everything matches, this could be a non-problem.

If the board isn't a "copy job" (same traces, same chips, same power), does it have a manual with it? That takes the troubleshooting from "Average Arcade guy" to "Uber-Arcade Guy, with logic probe and other specialized skills.

What about sub-component quality? Did they use good or better piece parts? How can anyone tell? (It's not like you can see the K-Mart brand on the chip, right?) Did they use cheap knockoffs from China or South Korea for chips, or get good stuff? If they went cheap, your failure rate could be higher.

That would be the biggest hurdle as I see it. "I'm seeing a lot of "if" coming off this proposal."
 
I have had parallel Black Dragon, Ghost N Goblins and, Legendary Wings, Shinobi boards and all worked with no major issues. Kung Fu Master was also heavily cloned. Gallag boards are also really solid once you do the rom swap and resistor fix they are probably more reliable than the original Galaga.

A good tech can fix without issues as the main layouts are similar using a scope.


Michael
 
I had a Qbert bootleg once. The board was very reliable (just one pcb for everything). ROMs and gameplay were identical. It lacked speech though... But was screened for it if you wanted to solder in 20 components. :)
 
What about sub-component quality? Did they use good or better piece parts? How can anyone tell? (It's not like you can see the K-Mart brand on the chip, right?) Did they use cheap knockoffs from China or South Korea for chips, or get good stuff? If they went cheap, your failure rate could be higher.

The only real issue with lesser quality components is premature failure of capacitors, and even that's only a recent issue (last 10 years or so). As far as ICs go, a lot of it is manufactured in China anyhow. There's not a significant difference between most ICs when comparing the same chip made by different manufacturers.

Manufacturers almost ALWAYS buy whatever is cheapest when you're talking quantities as big as the arcade manufacturers were doing. Brand isn't as important, unless a certain brand is known to be prone to failure.
 
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