Greetings from South Korea! And a teaser of a crazy story to come...

[Hammy]

Looking forward to the roms of those unknown bootleg looking pcb's!
110745 and 105734 i've never seen before

112309 is hammering harry bootleg.

 

[Neo-Alec]

Thanks, bro for the welcome!
You are actually spot on about Korea during those years. The traditional arcade scene took a massive hit in the late 2000s, and unlike Japan, Korea never really had a massive console-collecting culture.
I also think it's very important to separate home console collecting from arcade collecting, and this is where it gets really interesting for me. I’m originally from Russia, and our gaming history evolved in a very unique, parallel way to Korea's.
In Russia, the arcade scene is basically non-existent (outside of old Soviet-era electromechanical machines). Our entire nostalgia is built on late, pirate Famicom/NES clones (like the famous Dendy) rather than original consoles. Because of this, the general public has absolutely no idea what arcade PCBs are or what they are worth on the global market.
In fact, the professional arcade/pinball community in Russia is incredibly tiny—maybe only three guys in the entire country who seriously restore them, and most are focused on pinball. I actually got inspired to go "garbage hunting" after watching a video of a Russian enthusiast who bought 50 kg of untested arcade PCBs for just $150, only to find several gems worth over $1,500 each inside! (If anyone is interested, I can share the link to his channel/videos).
I then went digging on our local Russian online marketplace (our equivalent of eBay/Craigslist) and my mind was completely blown. I got in touch with a local collector who told me you can find original cabinets for pennies there. He literally snagged an original, dedicated Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet for about 3,000 rubles—which is roughly $35–$50 USD!
So in a way, countries like Russia and Korea are absolute goldmines for treasure hunters. Since there is no established retail market or "Akihabara-style" shops for this stuff, you can find things that defy all logic if you are willing to get your hands dirty in the trash.
Thanks again for reading, and I'll keep sharing more updates as I clean these up

Great post. Sounds like growing up in Russia uniquely prepared you for the scene in Korea.

The abvious analog for Akihabara in Seoul is the Yongsan electronics market. I've seen a few old console stuff there: Japanese Saturn stuff, nothing Korean. They had modern Nintendo, Sony and MS stuff, but they mostly sold jailbroken, hacked machines.

 

[treasure hunter]

Great post. Sounds like growing up in Russia uniquely prepared you for the scene in Korea.

The abvious analog for Akihabara in Seoul is the Yongsan electronics market. I've seen a few old console stuff there: Japanese Saturn stuff, nothing Korean. They had modern Nintendo, Sony and MS stuff, but they mostly sold jailbroken, hacked machines.

You are totally right about Yongsan being the Korean Akihabara, but honestly, nowadays Yongsan is mostly dead for retro stuff. The real retro goldmines now are the local tiny antique shops hidden in almost every city. Most sellers look up prices online now, but you can still haggle. Just recently, I stumbled upon a literal sack filled to the brim with Famicom/Super Famicom carts, and a giant bag full of Dreamcast controllers just sitting there.

In the meantime, I have another batch of weird Korean boards that just surfaced (photos attached below). Since I don't have the time or tools to restore or reverse-engineer them, and they are just taking up space, I’d love to give them away to the community for free.
You just need to cover the actual shipping cost from South Korea to wherever you are.
Here is a complete technical breakdown of this new batch:
The "Ring 87" Platform: One of the PCBs has a distinct "Ring 87" silk-screen/PCB marking. This is a highly specific, rare Korean bootleg/hardware platform from around 1987. Local companies (like SunA, Comad, or similar Seoul-based shops) used this universal clone base to run various hacked arcade titles or unique local Korean games.
Nichibutsu Hardware Base: Based on the layout, EPROM count, and the audio setup, the main board with the rowed chips is built on Nichibutsu (Nihon Bussan) architecture (likely from the Terra Cresta / Kid Niki era), utilizing a Z80 CPU and Yamaha audio (YM2203).
The "Sandwich" Sub-board: One board features a prominent green sub-board stacked on top as a multi-tier sandwich. There is custom rewiring and extra logic soldered in-between the main board and the sub-board to redirect data/address lines.
The Black Epoxy Blob: There is a large black epoxy/resin capsule covering a custom protection chip or a logic array—a classic Korean anti-piracy method from back in the day to stop competing bootleg shops from copying their work.

Drop me a PM or reply here if you are interested in taking them. I can ship worldwide via post. Let me know your location so I can calculate the shipping cost.

 

[Neo-Alec]

You are totally right about Yongsan being the Korean Akihabara, but honestly, nowadays Yongsan is mostly dead for retro stuff.

Was it ever alive for retro stuff? It's a place to buy PC's, parts and random electronics.

 

[Hammy]

110000 is indeed nichibutsu, 105931 is bubble bobble bootleg. not sure of the others.

I don't think the ring 87 has many games , probably just another manufacturer.

Any luck on getting good reads from the strange ones?