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MSTREET-6 Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition Bootleg: Restore & Upgrades

I actually used a bootleg MK1 (2 board stack) to repair 2 faulty boards :D

The MK1 boot had fairly major corrosion from a battery leakage (it used the same kind of NiCd battery as MVS) and while I could potentially have fixed it, it's far better off as a parts board

The GPU replaced a dead GPU on an MK2 (bootleg used identical part) and the ZIP style RAM went onto a faulty Mega Drive :)
 
xodaraP said:
This. $400 is on the low end for an original BB these days, way out of my league. I did however just fix a 56 pin bootleg which is in great condition and I'll be modding it to be both a Redux and Lost Caves board :)

I have an MSTREET6 board I plan on throwing Red Wave or Rainbow onto, my original SF2 will stay original

I do however agree with @jassin000 that most bootlegs are trash. Prime example the CPS1.5 bootlegs. Yuk.
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nice! I’m planning on picking up one of those BB boots so I can get Lost Caves on it. I can’t allow myself to convert my original board.

Good to know about the value though!
 
I just picked one sf2 champion edition bootleg here in Mexico, waiting for it to arrive. Your post made me take a chance with my first bootleg.
 
I think that the only reason to still buy PCBs is if you are either a purist or a collector. If you don't mind it not being perfect then groovymame on a CRT is fine. There is no reason to spend any money on a bootleg.

If you are a collector (or investor), bootlegs have no value at all. They are a lose lose thing.
 
Zebra said:
If you are a collector (or investor), bootlegs have no value at all.
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While I agree with the theme of this post its simply NOT true.
Much to my dismay, people actually do collect and preserve bootlegs as a part of video game history.

Some bootlegs are incredibly rare, thus do actually have value.

I know, I think its crazy too. :S
 
Yup, jassin is right. There are plenty of bootlegs that hold, if not gain value over time. Some bootlegs, like SF2 can still fetch sometimes up to $150. Same with MK. Even some classic ones as well like Popeye for instance is over $100 now.

Some bootlegs have multiple games on it, like Super Bubble Bobble/Bubble Bobble for example, which fetches up towards $200.

Then you have rare booties like Equites , Omega Fighter. Or you have bootlegs of games that are pretty high priced costing about half of the original, R-type is an example. The original R-type PCB goes for over $400 these days, but a bootleg is about $200.
Zebra said:
I think that the only reason to still buy PCBs is if you are either a purist or a collector. If you don't mind it not being perfect then groovymame on a CRT is fine.
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Really? And holding tournaments or high score submissions to places like Twin Galaxies isn't another reason?

Emulated fighting games are also not the most ideal to play in because of the input lag. Some games have some 1 or 2-frame links that get difficult to do if there's any lag. Timing is everything when it comes to those types of games.
Sure, Casual players won't mind running emulation, but if you're serious about an arcade game, original PCB's is the only true way to go.
 
Holy shit! A Bubble Bobble bootleg is up to $300!!
That’s almost the price of an original. Bananas!

Nvm. Turns out the guy offering me the board was over-bloating the price.
 
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Some of the KLOV guys that PM’d me say the board should be in the $90-120 range.
I’m gonna try to get one here in the States, international shipping prices always kills it for me.
 
Problem with BB is even the boots are rare as all get out, which of course inflates the price of those and the originals even more

It's really amazing given how popular the game was back in the day just how hard it is to find one.
 
opt2not said:
Some of the KLOV guys that PM’d me say the board should be in the $90-120 range.
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When it pops up yea, but I haven't seen one in a while now.

I really don't like bootlegs of this game because at the time the MCU custom's code was still unknown.
That's a big deal because in BB no events (big fruit, bonus items, etc) are random, they are triggered from the MCU code.

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I say go for the real Bubble Bobble before it jumps even higher in value than it currently is.
It's a fantastic game, and one of my "grail" acquisition when I recieved it.

JNX makes the Taito classic adapter, if you are going to get a real BB PCB you NEED this too!
1OrYDvw.jpg
 
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jassin000 said:
I say go for the real Bubble Bobble before it jumps even higher in value than it currently is.
It's a fantastic game, and one of my "grail" acquisition when I recieved it.
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yeah buddy!
bYcH9rV.jpg

I’ve already had an original board for a few years now. It was one of the titles I had to own. But I’d like to get a boot leg to convert to The Lost Cave, rather than messing with my original board.
 
opt2not said:
Yup, jassin is right. There are plenty of bootlegs that hold, if not gain value over time. Some bootlegs, like SF2 can still fetch sometimes up to $150. Same with MK. Even some classic ones as well like Popeye for instance is over $100 now.

Some bootlegs have multiple games on it, like Super Bubble Bobble/Bubble Bobble for example, which fetches up towards $200.

Then you have rare booties like Equites , Omega Fighter. Or you have bootlegs of games that are pretty high priced costing about half of the original, R-type is an example. The original R-type PCB goes for over $400 these days, but a bootleg is about $200.
Zebra said:
I think that the only reason to still buy PCBs is if you are either a purist or a collector. If you don't mind it not being perfect then groovymame on a CRT is fine.
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Really? And holding tournaments or high score submissions to places like Twin Galaxies isn't another reason?
Emulated fighting games are also not the most ideal to play in because of the input lag. Some games have some 1 or 2-frame links that get difficult to do if there's any lag. Timing is everything when it comes to those types of games.
Sure, Casual players won't mind running emulation, but if you're serious about an arcade game, original PCB's is the only true way to go.
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I would class people who host tournaments using original hardware as purists (or they would just use emulation).

I own original PCBs for my favorite games (like SF2 CE and anything Neo Geo) because I notice and am bothered by anything that differs from the experience I remember from being a kid. A bootleg with issues like wrong speed or frame rate etc are no better than emulation. The only real issue with emulation is input lag and missing frames...

I am not denying the existence of bootlegs that fetch high prices. I am questioning the common sense in buying them. I don't think they will make great long term investments. Video game collecting is a generational thing. Once the people with nostalgia for a platform reach a certain age, they lose interest (as people who paid top dollar for NES gamed found out).
 
Zebra said:
Once the people with nostalgia for a platform reach a certain age, they lose interest (as people who paid top dollar for NES gamed found out).
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It's been discussed many times:
- for the most of us we hopefully still have 30 or 40 years before us
- younger generations are jumping on the train and buy games from before they were even born
- there are many other fields were collectors buy things way older than them (books, cars, paintings, dinky toys, ...) and this could happen to video games too

P.S.: I don't see NES games beeing cheap at the moment, they might be cheaper than what they recently used to be but on the long run they're only getting higher in value
 
I guess we're into the realm of speculation when it comes to stating future game value so, it's a matter of opinion.

I am not a vintage game dealer or anything like that. I just saw a Youtube video where they interviewed a bunch of vintage game store owners on this topic. They also interviewed more generalist sellers of collectibles. They all seemed to be stating that they saw interest in particular items peak over the 10-15 years where people with nostalgia for them are 25-40 years old.

Their point was that once people hit a certain age (40-45) they topically lose interest in collecting the toys and video games from their youth and they sell them. At that point, "rare" items become less rare while there are far fewer buyers, so prices drop.

Nobody really knows if people will still be paying $500 (or more) for a super turbo PCB in 10 or 20 years. I think not. I can already see a reverse trend starting on eBay. People are still asking, they just aren't getting.

What old games are worth has always been a factor of demand, desirability and scarcity. How many people will still be willing to spend $15000 on a gold Nintendo just for tournaments cart in 10 years??? these items have no intrinsic value beyond nostalgia.
 
jassin000 said:
I really don't like bootlegs of this game because at the time the MCU custom's code was still unknown.
That's a big deal because in BB no events (big fruit, bonus items, etc) are random, they are triggered from the MCU code.
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Thanks to Redux this is no longer an issue, as much as I'd like an original they come up so rarely and when they do are generally stupid expensive

It's one of my grail games as it was yours (the problem is, it's on everyone else's list) so I'm happy to at least be able to play it with a Redux bootleg. Also, chances are pretty good when I played it when I was younger it was a bootleg anyway :P

I plan on installing both Redux and Lost Caves and a switch to go between them at some stage.
 
Zebra said:
I would class people who host tournaments using original hardware as purists (or they would just use emulation).
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No, those people are smart. Emulation is basically stealing. Any legit event that has money involved, and is open to the public must run their games in original or legitimate ownership form. Emulation is frowned upon in the tournament scene, from not only a game performance issue, but also there are legal implications to consider.

Emulation is so common place now that people forget that it’s actually an unspoken level of theft.

But I digress, you don’t run tournaments on emulation. It’s not a “purists” or “hardcore” choice. There are applicable obligations from a legal point of view.

So there are still legit reasons to own pcb’s. They might not be applicable to you, but that’s no reason to dismiss them for everyone.
 
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Zebra said:
They all seemed to be stating that they saw interest in particular items peak over the 10-15 years where people with nostalgia for them are 25-40 years old.

Their point was that once people hit a certain age (40-45) they topically lose interest in collecting the toys and video games from their youth and they sell them. At that point, "rare" items become less rare while there are far fewer buyers, so prices drop.

Nobody really knows if people will still be paying $500 (or more) for a super turbo PCB in 10 or 20 years. I think not.
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There are a lot of 45+ collectors out there and they tend to be the ones with quite a bit more money to put into their collections to get what they want. So the YouTube "collectors" are being a bit hopeful I think....

Younger collectors are also more likely to buy LCD modified cabs or other non original stuff because it's easier to deal with than working on original hardware that may be less reliable.

If you want a really good example of exactly this, look at classic cars, and yes, video games are following pretty much the same trend.

The first wave of people are 25-40 buying the games they played as a kid (most of us here are in that bracket I think) so this is pushing the prices of those games up

But the 45+ crowd are the ones buying fully restored (or restoring) the early classic games and spending a LOT to do it. The future of our hobby is only going to get more expensive.
 
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