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Yeah I would have liked to kept it original for as long as I could, if I was on top of it more.

This cart and boardset has a lot of sentimental value for me. It was the one and only arcade related present my wife gave me about 11 years ago for my 30th birthday. In those days, Third Strike was going for $300, complete, and that’s off eBay. Cheaper from the forums. My wife did her research, polled my friends, then asked many questions from the eBay seller before surprising me with it.

It came on battery, and I kinda feel shitty for neglecting this fine present and amazing game, to let it killed itself.

It’s beyond just being a purist (which I am anyway), it’s the principle of taking care of a thoughtful gift given by a loved one.
 
It’s beyond just being a purist (which I am anyway), it’s the principle of taking care of a thoughtful gift given by a loved one.
We completely get it. Best option you have now is to put my BIOS there.

my wife gave me about 11 years ago for my 30th birthday. In those days, Third Strike was going for $300, complete, and that’s off eBay
Don't tell me, I got my first CPS3 about 8 years ago and price was like $300. Nowadays, no chance to get it for less than $600
 
Why not remove the battery, and keep the PCB safe? Replace it with one of Mitsurugi-w’s repros running SuperBIOS.

If anyone ever figures out how to reload the keys, you can resurrect your original.

Not sure if anyone’s looking at it, mind you. I’d kind of hoped Eduardo Cruz would want the CPS1/CPS2/CPS3 hat-trick, but he’s always super busy with other things. :D
 
Thanks guys, I’m talking to mitsurugi-w about getting it superBios’d.
:thumbsup:
Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your opinions. Like I already said, I’ll get it SuperBios’d and move on.
 
I got a message from Mitsu about my 3rd Strike cart:

Mitsurugi-w said:
Just finished it. The bios chip had actually gone bad so I had to replace it. The battery wasn't the issue. Nothing you could have done to save it."
My poor 3rd Strike cart, never stood a chance... ;( here I was blaming myself for neglecting it.

I don't know how common it is for Bios chips to go bad, but it sounds to me like a rare occurrence.
 
Fairly common for the flash chips to fail on the cart. People just assume it's a dead battery because it's suicide but I pulled a chip off a cart on the weekend and it was dead :(

You don't know until you remove it and read it/try to erase and reuse it
 
Oh wow, more common than i thought.

Well at least now I won't have worry about the battery, so if it fails again, I have a more narrow troubleshoot to look at.
 
wow good to know. I wouldn't have thought of the flash ic
 
Oh wow, more common than i thought.

Well at least now I won't have worry about the battery, so if it fails again, I have a more narrow troubleshoot to look at.
wow good to know. I wouldn't have thought of the flash ic
Remember that most of these carts/flash ICs are more than 20 years old too. At least they're still making new flash ICs so you've got a long time before you need to worry about it again if it's been replaced.
 
Thank you @Mitsurugi-w !

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