What the heck is this? An oddity: large PCB Super Star Force?

[lobdale]

So I came across this weird thing the other day:




Basically, I just can't figure out the story here.  There's a lot of weirdness going on, I think.  It looks like a Family Basic cart, though I haven't seen any to my knowledge that have four screw holes on the back, and the warning text label is also different (no information about the battery or anything).  On the front the label is Super Star Force, and that is indeed the game that I get when I power it up, but underneath the SSF label you can see an older label.  If I tilt it to the light I can see the distinctive Hudson pattern on the right side, and the text for Bungaling Bay, but as you can see the corner is green and I've never seen a green Bungaling Bay before.



Inside, the circuit board itself is double the size of typical Famicom games, looks nothing like the known PCB for Super Star Force, and the four ROM chips appear to have been hand marked with some black marker (1, 2, 3, 4).  The PCB says "TONY-H," not sure what that means, but it looks kind of too clean to be a regular old pirate, and also has a professional-looking label. 



The circuit board also has holes in the exact spots to match the black cart's interior for a proper fit, and the edging on the battery door inside where presumably the battery caddy would be on a Family Basic cart is very neatly filed down.



I thought at first it might be a pirate, but it seems really atypical for a pirate to be so neatly built circuit-board wise, all the solders are clean and look machine-done, and there's other things that seem too "one-off" for it to be pirated, like the holes matching the case, and all the components being "name-brand" Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Sansui... plus it is just one game on it, Super Star Force, which is neither rare nor large.

I played this one going back and forth with an emulator on the Super Star Force ROM dump that's in a set I have, and it seems to be the same on first glance except the music on the cart version I have seems to have more "kick" to it.  I haven't played it far enough yet to notice anything different.

Basically there's just a bunch of mysteries to me here that I can't figure out.  Who would have made this, why is there a green Bungaling Bay label underneath, why is there a Bungaling Bay label under there at all, why does the circuit board match the case interior, WHO IS TONY-H!  I have scoured the Internet, cannot find anything about any of it.

Anyone have any ideas?

[manuel]

That's indeed very weird... 
Let's wait for our more knowledgeable guys.

Was it expensive?

[lobdale]

I paid around twenty bucks for it, figuring I was paying way more than it was worth but basically in it out of curiosity.  I kind of figured that it was just a plain old Super Star Force PCB in a Family Basic cart, but when I slid the battery door on the back off and saw chips up there I was certainly intrigued.

It's interesting, if nothing else!

[jpx72]

My humble opinion is that somebody took the case of Family basic and slammed a pirate board inside. He/she had to cut out the battery compartment to fit the PCB inside. Hmm... I love carts with backstory

[lobdale]

Where do you think they got the labels from?

[MasterDisk]

And the holes to hold the board looks like it was done by a machine.

Hudson made the Family basic. So it could have been an Hudson prototype for Bungaling Bay in a prototype case of Family Basic (because of the 4 screws).

But I have no idea how it ended with Super Star Force...

[jpx72]

Where do you think they got the labels from?

Labels can be printed, I can do very nice ones myself.
"TONY-H" looks suspiciously "piratey".
The holes are the same as the original Basic board has:
Post Merge: February 14, 2012, 03:34:42 am

I thought at first it might be a pirate, but it seems really atypical for a pirate to be so neatly built circuit-board wise, all the solders are clean and look machine-done

This is not true, I have many pirates that are machine soldered, so the solders are very proffesional looking.
Also, many older pirates (non glob-top) also use different branded chips.
The black-marker markings also add to the pirate feeling.

[lobdale]

The Hudson/Tecmo connection is interesting, with the Bungaling Bay label underneath... Hudson published Bungaling Bay and also did the port of Tecmo's Star Force to the Famicom.  It's possible that Hudson could have still been helping with development on Super Star Force, since Tecmo didn't become a licensee until later?

[jpx72]

As for the chips:
1 - 4 = mask roms containg 4x 32KB of data  = 128KB of Super Star Force (PRG only)
Toshiba chip = SRAM 8KB
The rest of the smal ones can be called "mapper" chips (nothing special, original has 7432 and 74161 - classic unrom - mapper 2)

Multiple mask roms are also typical pirate doing, because they are (were, probably) cheaper than one big rom - check this:
http://jpx72.detailne.sk/stuff_files/fc/carts_pirate_files/31in1/pcbfront.jpg

PS interestig idea about that company cooperation lobdale, I can't "see" into those things. You should keep this cart intact and preserved at least until there is proof that this isn't a prorotype or anything rare.

[lobdale]

I don't have any way to dump or compare the ROM itself from this board, but I'm actually expecting a real cart of Super Star Force in the mail (got one for a hundred yen as part of an auction a little while ago).  Once it comes in I'll swap between the two on the same setup and see if I can find anything different.

[petik1]

If I recall correctly, a double dragon 2 proto was found in an fds RAM adaptor, so it wouldn't be too surprising if this is indeed a prototype.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

But I have no idea how it ended with Super Star Force...

I was laughing at this...

[Parodius Duh]

theres hand written markings on those chips, could definitely be a prototype of some kind....

[jpx72]

Markings are often on pirates:
http://jpx72.detailne.sk/stuff_files/fc/carts_pirate_files/42in1_reset/42in1_front.jpg

[mrdomino]

The Bungeling Bay label was pretty common as a generic label on early pirates, I have no idea why. My guess would be that it's a pirate that for some reason required a larger PCB, so they put it in a cloned Family Basic case (there are SMB2j pirates in that same case AFAIK) and originally gave it a generic Bungeling Bay label but later stuck a proper Super Star Force one over the top of it.