![\"2811_vigilante3\"](\"https:\/\/blog.system11.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2811_vigilante3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nVigilante – I looked at the MAME driver and decided it was a mess.\u00a0 Several sets in there but using the bootleg as a parent for some reason, I decided to put it right and fill in some gaps like some versions using mask ROMs instead of EPROMS.\u00a0 This one is US revision B.<\/p>\n
Vigilante – and this one is US revision….. Nothing.\u00a0 That means this is actually the very first revision, there is an A rev which is actually a world board.\u00a0 I found someone with one but he has no particular desire to help make MAME more complete.\u00a0 Not sure I really want to own 5 of these.\u00a0 Currently known versions are original, World A, US B, World C, Japan D, World E and US G.\u00a0 So, we’re still missing F whatever that is.\u00a0 I’m selling both of these US boards and a World E one now if anyone wants one.<\/p>\n Super Duck – who says miracles can’t happen?\u00a0 This totally unknown Comad game was pointed out to me on ebay so of course I needed to have it.\u00a0 There is literally NOTHING about it on the internet aside from a blog post from Haze where he has emulation working.\u00a0 You’ll be able to play it in future MAME releases.\u00a0 It’s a sort of platform hopping collection game, and from playing it some more this afternoon it’s actually better than I first thought.\u00a0 It was all very boring and predictable until a small sprite dragon thing jumped out of the water and killed me.\u00a0 Fun fact – ‘Hell Out’ logo was found in the graphics ROMs.\u00a0 The intro story talks about hell and Satan a lot too, and not at all about ducks so it seems likely this is actually the same game.\u00a0 Whether the original named one ever actually came out, impossible to say.\u00a0 It’s just as likely that it never got released and Comad just slapped a new name and player sprite on to throw a game out.<\/p>\n Real Break – already had a World version but MAME didn’t contain any revisions with the split sprite bank, and it turned out to be a new code revision too.\u00a0 This PCB is actually quite interesting, hopefully you can see from the photo but Dynax\/Nakanihon went really crazy with the security measure of scraping away part codes.\u00a0 You often see this on custom or unusual parts on games, but on this they’ve done nearly everything.\u00a0 Even the crystal oscillator.\u00a0 Even the amp.\u00a0 I’ve never seen something like this before.\u00a0 Great game too, decided to keep this one and sell my old one.<\/p>\n Playgirls 2 – a bootleg, runs sort of choppily, bought purely to dump for MAME.\u00a0 It’s Galaga with girls, sort of.\u00a0 Not such a bad game really but originals are far more common than bootlegs and they’re cheap too so I don’t see why this even exists.<\/p>\n Marvel Land – Namco System 2 hardware is really cool.\u00a0 It’s very powerful, can take ROM kits which is always nice if you have a PCB failure, and the sound section just like System 1 before it, is second to none.\u00a0 The games though are a bit hit & miss, rough period for Namco.\u00a0 Marvel Land is an example, it’s so nearly a great game, but ends up just being a serviceable one with some nice features the underused hardware is capable of.<\/p>\n Marchen Maze – on the other hand, System 1 was a strong period for Namco, and this is their classic isometric platform shooter.\u00a0 Apparently this might exist as ‘Alice in Wonderland’, the rumour persists but I’ve yet to see any compelling evidence that it ever did.\u00a0 Perhaps only on a flyer or location test, since I’ve not seen it outside of Japan either.\u00a0 Very nice clean board.<\/p>\n Gunlock – got this relatively cheap due to faulty player 2 fire button.\u00a0 Should have been an easy fix, right?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Heart sank when I saw someone had already tried, and that they’d decided to reflow the customs for no particular reason.\u00a0 That quad custom top right is the I\/O controller, and it was fried.\u00a0 Luckily I was able to salvage one from a Taito Cup Finals but it’s a pretty awful job removing those and refitting by hand.\u00a0 Came out quite well, looks tidier than the photo suggests.<\/p>\n Cyvern – my continued on\/off relationship with this game.\u00a0 It’s a legitimate US cartridge but since I didn’t have a US motherboard it’s running on a region hacked Japanese one.\u00a0 Note – it had a horrible sticky label which left lots of residue on after I finally got it peeled off.\u00a0 DO NOT use alcohol to clean the glue up if you try this at home, it started to break down the black paint hence the ‘washy’ area along the lower edge.\u00a0 Who uses soluble paint?\u00a0 Why Kaneko, why?<\/p>\n Cute Fighters – another one coming to your MAME soon!\u00a0 This is Semicoms followup to SD Fighters, it has more characters and better backgrounds, but the audio sucks.\u00a0 Previously only known to exist from a magazine scan but the protection has already been broken and it’s running in development builds now.\u00a0 Getting it emulated also confirmed that the weird colours were in fact a PCB fault,\u00a0 both colour RAM had failed, fixed now.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n