I've talked a bit about Neo Geo to my family, and a really cool relative bought me a copy of Puzzle Bobble since they remembered I mentioned that game, since that was the game I remembered playing on an MVS in a small amusement park. He specifically looked for original cartridges, because yes I did also tell him about the fact bootlegs exist, and before buying it he asked the seller if it was original, which he assured him it was. I've looked at the ad, and yes, that is what it says. But the label, and the boards, raise my suspicions a bit, and I almost have the feeling he got duped into buying a bootleg.
The label, next to being kind of jacked up, lacks a serial number, Taito logo, Taito copyright date, and 'Made in Japan' writing. The MVS logo itself looks real, but the 'Multi Video System' looks to be in a different font. The font used for the game title looks a little bolder than the MVS Scan one, to me at least.
Click here for a high-res picture of the label.
After having seen that, I opened the case up. And again, it made me suspicious.
Board 1 has no windowed EPROMs, but has two weird ROM chips marked PV-4 and PG-3. The ROMs are also in a different layout than what I've seen on the MVS Scan ones.
Click here for a pic of board 1.
Board 2 however has two windowed EPROM chips instead of the usual one found in legit PB/BAM cartridges. And it has two ROM chips marked PC-1 and PC-2, in between the usual Toshiba mask ROMs.
Click here for a pic of board 2.
Something is icky about this. Is this a legit cart, or has the seller mistaken it for one?
EDIT: I just looked at the ad again, and the pictures are supposedly the exact same cart we should have received, but it's not. That one does have the original label (or at least a very good reproduction compared to this one), and has a few more windowed EPROMs on the boards, but none of these weird PC/PG/PV ROMs. It keeps getting worse, don't it?