I purchased a bunch of games that the owner said did not work.  In the batch were three Sachen games (Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu, Pyramid 2, and Olympic I.Q.).  Everywhere I can see online, the Sachen games are supposed to be either blue or black cartridges, but these are gray. I tried to open them but the center screw under the label prevented me from doing so for Pyramid 2 and Olympic I.Q. 

Master Chu, however, I was able to gently pry the end of the cart open enough to remove the PCB without removing the screw under the back label.  Attached are photos of the cartridges, as well as the PCB for Master Chu.  The Master Chu PCB has eproms (unfortunately, not protected with a sticker, and I think bit rot is what's causing the game not to work properly.. Level 2 is glitchy as hell)  The other two, from what I can see by gently prying the shell open, have 60 to 72 pin converters in them.  I couldn't tell if they have eproms without opening them, and I don't really want to damage the back label.  

What do you guys think?  Photos are here:

https://imgur.com/a/DFdpX/...


edited to fix the photos link
 

OK, so a bit of an update. I ripped the rom using my Kazzo and it plays on fceux, but doesn't match the rom if I check it using GoodNES. I'm assuming this is because of bit rot, as Level 2 doesn't work right in the emulator either. Olympic IQ has a match in GoodNES, and I'm trying to rip Pyramid II but need to figure out which mapper to use to rip it. I'll update in a bit.

Nah, some of them are just gray.

I know of Magical Mathematics, and Lucky Bingo being grey off hand. Thanks for confirming three more for me  

I didn't really think much of the gray until I saw the eproms.. Did they frequently have eproms as well?

Yep! Sachen isn't exactly a "quality" company.

Yeah a lot had eproms, a lot used FC --> NES converters as well.

I've been opening all the Sachen games I pick up to get board pics. This is the first one I've come across with wires.

https://image.ibb.co/hH85fx/pcb2....

https://image.ibb.co/gzziYH/pcb3....

Not uncommon sight at all, I could do a whole article in itself if how things were corrected on these types of carts

Yeah, quality seems to be all over the place with these. I’m wondering if this was a Little Red Hood that was converted. If this really is so common, it makes me worried how easy it would be for someone to buy a common Sachen game and convert it to one of the more higher value carts. 
 

Don't worry, that's not going to happen.  Aside from Huge Insect, none of the games have a reputation for being overly valuable, there just isn't the demand for them, that's what happens when the population votes to include or exclude in a full set of games  
 

Gamevaluenow guy said he wasn’t opposed to including Sachen in his database. That might help the games get more exposure and increase their value (wishful thinking)
 

It still takes a demand though. I've been arguing for years about these games but until the general populus sees them as being worthy of inclusion to a full set, they will stay rare, yet undervalued.

I've seen like 10 Huge Insects on eBay in the last 9 months, most sold by a single seller.  It seems maybe either Huge Insects is a lot more common that people thought, or they are being reproduced.  The same seller also put up a Padillon Gais a few days ago, which sold pretty quickly.  

 

It makes sense that they would be sold from the same seller, since the same small handful of people had imported these games originally. To reproduce them, someone would also have to cannibalize another Sachen game, not going to happen with the NES versions, and just would be too easily noticed if faked.

To use the word common in a sentence with Huge Insect though is a bit rediculous, even with ten turning up or whatever, the game is still very rare in terms of production.

Why would they be hard to cannabilize/fake?  Most of the Sachen games I've opened have been EPROM and/or a Famicom board messily soldered on a convertor.  Some have wires hanging everywhere.  Labels are poor quality.  Not really sure how you could tell if it was done by Sachen or by some random dude last week.     

The trouble is too big, the profit margin too small, not going to happen. Would be easy to determine a fake as well