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Messages - Black Squirrel

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1
Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 14, 2014, 04:25:25 PM »
One possible lead I forgot to mention.

"T&T Technology Corp" is a name that keeps popping up, either engraved onto the back of cartridges or as some sort of sticker, and I've seen it once or twice on consoles too. Unfortunately I can't make much headway on it because the name "T&T" is super common across all sorts of industries, although I can't imagine it's still trading under that name today.

2
Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 12, 2014, 04:50:47 AM »
"Doraemon: Yume Dorobou to 7 Nin no Gozans"

I haven't seen any Mega Drive bootlegs or multi-carts or whatever ship with manuals, although there might be one or two for the Game Gear? South Korean stuff too, although the situation there is a lot more organised and self-contained.

The problem with manuals is that you usually have to write things in a language people might understand, but the games themselves are shipped all over the planet. Traditional Chinese or broken English doesn't really suffice if you're selling it in South America, where most speak Spanish (except Brazil, which is Portuguese).

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Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 10, 2014, 06:14:47 AM »
Azathoth
Sep 9 2014, 11:04:08 PM
Black Squirrel
Sep 9 2014, 02:46:15 PM
My understanding is that some of these cartridges came in parts, i.e. there was a factory in Taiwan or mainland China or wherever producing the boards (and maybe the artwork?), while the cartridge shells were produced locally. I'm guessing the costs skyrocket when you start shipping plastic around the world, although some people seem to have done that anyway.[/quote]Most carts in my experience are manufactured in the same area, the big electronics manufacturers have their own molds they use so they don't have to rely on outside sources.

If it helps you any, I have pictures of every pirate game I've owned, plus a ton I've just got pics of. A lot of them I uploaded to the Bootleg Games Wiki pictures section so feel free to browse there and grab all them and I can also send you those from my personal collection. I really support this endevor whole heartedly since it's a very niche subject that I find immensely interesting.

I also have stock lists with stock ID's that use the numbering method I mentioned before. I can provide you these along with corresponding pictures to some of them if that information would help you any.

Also, the vast majority of the multi-game carts produced after the mid-90's are designed for clone systems sold in their own areas so they do not work on normal MD/Gen units because they lack the TMSS check to get the cart to boot. Those made with the Tomsoft SDK are a complete crapshoot to get to work, but a lot of the multi-game carts without TMSS will boot in an older non-TMSS MD/Gen or will boot in a newer TMSS machine if piggybacked on a Game Genie since it will use the TMSS routine programmed in the GG to get it to work.[/quote]Can I persuade you to register an account on Sega Retro and post/upload this stuff yourself - I'd hate to take credit for what sounds like valuable work  ;)

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Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 09, 2014, 02:46:15 PM »
Awesome Panda
Sep 8 2014, 02:09:58 PM
I've uploaded pictures of all of the multicarts I have. Several of the pictures are upside down though for some odd reason.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2dtyvl5.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/jrsfp1.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/2edo7dh.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/24qvk20.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/5os5ft.jpg[/quote]Sweet. Do these carts have names - just makes it a little easier to sort.


My understanding is that some of these cartridges came in parts, i.e. there was a factory in Taiwan or mainland China or wherever producing the boards (and maybe the artwork?), while the cartridge shells were produced locally. I'm guessing the costs skyrocket when you start shipping plastic around the world, although some people seem to have done that anyway.

(This still happens with things like the Everdrive (i.e. the cartridge that lets you use SD cards). Everdrives are sold without shells - distributors have to sort that noise out... although in that case they have to do the art too. That's why there's a bazillion variants of those things.)

But yeah it's surprisingly common to see the same cartridges pop up all over the world. Though we might struggle to keep track of where the shells were produced (spoilers: this is the same for the legitimate stuff - Sega had plants all over the world), I think it's possible to document the ROMs and labels. Or at least have a decent stab at it - I'm fairly satisfied with the attempt at documenting consoles and those had much the same problems.

5
Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 06, 2014, 05:28:37 AM »
Awesome Panda
Sep 5 2014, 06:05:47 PM
Also, aren't you the guy who used to run TORP? I remember finding out about a fair few bootleg games from that site back around 2008. ;)[/quote]I am indeed - guess it had a bit of a legacy after all!

We are collecting scans and photos - a crappy photo is better than nothing at all, although we'll be wanting to replace it at the first available opportunity with a better one. It's the joy of wikis - things getting progressively better over time.

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Mega Drive/Genesis / A Quest
« on: September 05, 2014, 03:12:34 PM »
Ay up,

I come from the land of Sega Retro, and apparently I get a kick out of self-harming, as I've spent the last few weeks on a project widely considered impossible. I am, among other things, attempting to document every single Sega-related bootleg in existence.

Yes, really.


Here's the thing - many eons ago I spotted some preliminary attempts at cataloguing knock-off Famicom cartridges. Granted, there was some genuine merit to this, as most of the ROMs weren't dumped (and thus it would act as a way of tracking down specific cartridges), but interesting side effects included being able to discover which companies were responsible for development and production, and by extension, pinpoint where these cartridges actually came from. Turns out piles of plastic tat actually had a story attached to them, who knew.

We're trying to do the same for Sega consoles, although by that I mean "mostly the Mega Drive, sometimes a bit of Game Gear". Statistically you'd expect far fewer Mega Drive bootlegs than Famicom ones, and as Sega Retro focuses on documenting the Sega story across the world, it's unfair to ignore markets comprised of this unlicensed tat. You could have developed a childhood love of the Mega Drive without touching any licensed produce - turning a blind eye isn't a great option, hence this stupid task.

This is how far I've got - it's the biggest collection of Mega Drive bootlegs in existence! (and missing hundreds - it takes a while to crop up crappy photos) I'm also working on multi-carts and, when I can stomach it, tat from Russia (because that's recent!). However, I don't know a huge amount about these subjects, and there isn't much appetite for this sort of thing from my neck of the woods, hence why I've traveled here.

So, has anyone attempted something similar to this before, so I can build up a more competent picture of the situation? I've found a few patterns, but vast chunks of these things have no external clues at all. This is the only place on the internet I can think of were people might actually care.

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