I purchased a Dragon Fighter NES cartridge a few weeks ago and I thought it was an old clone. I just opened it up and it looks weird. Also the game itself looks like the Famicom version. I'll try to upload the case pics and board. I can't seem to find anything that looks similar on the internet so I thought what the heck I'll grab it and hope for the best. Any clues?
Just a pirate I would guess. Some of them used mask ROMs rather than EPROMs in the early days before switching pretty much exclusively to epoxy.
I like the cartridge design. It resembles some rejected prototype for the actual NES carts in North America.
Yes it sure is strange. It looks more prototype than clone. I did see a Famicom clone that used the same graphics. Not sure what to make of it.
Sorry to disappoint you but that PCB simply smells like a typical stuff from 90s Taiwan. It's just a pirate cart. Most probably it got Famicom version of the game on it.
Famicom physical games need an adapter. Just like when you want to use UK or Chinese plug with europlug or Schuko socket. It's the same case - shape/pinout adapter. Famicom ROM (software) can be used in a NES cart without any modifications. All you need is a proper mapper. Often you can simply solder Famicom game ROM chip to a NES cart with same game or game which uses same or fully compatible ROM chip and same mapper. And of course nothing prevents you from making your own PCB with mapper chip. Which is the case here.
It is a Famicom Game on the cartridge. I think it's cool because the US version is crazy expensive and the Famicom version is rather cheap at the moment. The ROM is definitly not the Famicom physical rom as I saw one on ebay and it look different. I could see someone making their own and this could be the case it's actually well done if it was. I was wondering how I could track down the ROMs on the board. The NC-1 and NC-2 Is can't find any reference to them? Manufacturer etc. When you say clone is that the term for a one off copy or am I getting the terminology in-correct? I can't seem to find any like this so I am a bit confused. I would think there would be a few of these out in the wild. I'm guessing when Nintendo came out with the US version it may have killed any sales of a mass produced clone.
