So I recently got a copy of Lagoon for the SNES that is in really, really bad condition. There are a couple of chips on the pins, the front label is missing and part of the top of the cart was melted at some point. Amazingly, it works fine.

What made me think a bit was that some of the pins have a soldered connection to something on the PCB. I don't have a bit to open this up though. From what I have gathered playing the normal ROM, it doesn't seem to have any differences. A couple of sound efffects were not completely there sometimes, but it could be just the fact the pins are damaged.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that this was a previous owner made the effort to fix the damage, though. I'm not expecting this to be a proto, but I'm just really curious.

It is really difficult for me to take a pic, unfortunately. I have a pretty blurry one.

Can somebody help me get some leads? Sorry for the lack of info, and thanks!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4948... is the pic. The soldered connections are right between my fingers.

The only real way to find out is get a security bit and open it up.

Yeah.

I was just curious if there would be any possible way to deduce this right now. Mainly I'm just curious if anybody else's copy of Lagoon had this.

Crack it open with a hammer! Do it!

^LOL, the case is beat up enough.

Am I correct in assuming that the soldered connections aren't supposed to be there normally though?

My Lagoon does not have it. I do have a reproduction cart that was made like that though.

Thanks 0xero0!

Is it still possible either that

1: somebody did a hackjob to save it

or

2: it's a review copy/proto

The two chips on the pin are on the PCB part of the pin (not on the gold pins themselves) and are the size of a small grain of rice.

It has a normal SNES back label, BTW.

Dude, spend the 3 bucks for a bit and open the thing up. There's no way to tell if it's a prototype with the information provided. One pic of the pcb will be more than enough to identify it one way or the other.

if you have 2 copies weigh them both and if the questionable one weighs more their is a greater chance that it is a proto but I'm with the Beagle you gotta spend a couple bucks and get a game bit let us know how it ends up for you

Sorry, didn't want to make it seem like I'm a miser. I'm still a kid and all, and I have to do some major convincing with my folks since the only way I can get these is online.

I've dealt with this guy on a few occasions http://cgi.ebay.com/Steel-3-8mm-S...

decent price and free shipping for 6 bucks

not sure where in California you are but if you got into contact with them maybe you could see about sending them a money order or cash in the mail because it is only 6 bucks and not something a little pricier. and they are based out of California

Thanks Ian! Unfortunately, I live on opposite sides of the state, so yeah.

So, basically anything with socketed chips is a proto, right?

if it has socketed chips theirs  a pretty good chance that its a Prototype but I can tell you right now that your game in question doesn't have socketed chips because the snes case would need to be cut out around the eprom because the socket that the eprom would fit into would make it impossible to close the case without modifications.

what your hoping for is a EPROM or EPROM's to be soldered to a Dev board that looks different then every other publicly release PCB.

if the board has an eprom soldered to it and also has some small wires running from the eprom to different holes on the board, and the board is a regular production released board then their is a higher probability that it is a Reproduction then it being a legit Prototype.

Alright, thanks Ian!

I'll update with any leads once I get the bit.

Get a ballpoint pen, take the guts out of it, and heat the end with a lighter. While it's still melted shove it down on one of the screws. It won't last forever, but you should be able to get the cart apart and back together with it.

Thanks Caleb for the tip!!

I'm just planning to hold out until I have the real thing. I'll update with pics of the PCB once I do get an actual bit.

I still say hammer time...