I have owned three copies of this game (US "Grind Stormer" version). First copy: didn't boot at all. Second copy: didn't boot at all. Third copy: locked up at either the end of the first level or the middle of the second level. Now it won't boot at past the TMSS screen. Contacts were, of course, cleaned. Multiple consoles tested. Do I just have horrible luck? Has anyone else had similar results with this or any other title? What the hell?
That sounds really weird to me. I never had a Genesis (or MD, respectively) game that wouldn't boot what-so-ever. Cleaning the contacts and re-inserting the cart always helped, even though some of my carts really are picky bitches. It took me long to get Strider Hiryu (md) to work only to find out that it's a bit boring compared to the arcade version that I've been playing on MAME and PS1. Well... Just buy the Japanese V-V. It has a nicer cover as well
I'm thinking maybe the Toaplan spirits are angry at me for some reason. All I want to do is play through the damn thing!
I had the same issue with the only copy of the game I ever owned. I got it from a used game store and it appeared to be in solid condition, yet it would never boot up. It was the only game I ever got from there that had this issue.
AFAIK, the roms should be identical between the eng and Jap versions as well, right? Auto-switching? I get the same results regardless of which setting my language switch is on. My third copy is pretty much mint. When I first bought it, I was headed to my brother's place and tried to play it and got nothing. Then it worked mostly at home for that short while.
I owned the Japanese version and never had a problem. Booting the game as V-V or Grind Strom always worked. Maybe the US made carts are badly put together? Yakumo
You could always open the cartridge to check and see if the contacts really are clean and also check the PCB's traces to make sure that not have been damaged. I bought a Ninja Gaiden 3 cartridge once where somehow several traces at the point where the shell closes in after the exposed cartridge edge were worn/cut. I'm not really sure what happened but it was repairable. Although the best thing to do really would be to find a shitty game that uses the same PCB and desolder the ROMs and switch boards and put the working board back into the case of the game.
Oh, all my copies have been "reconditioned" (even when I didn't need to) and inspected fully. I may try the rom swap, though. I have yet to reflow my last copy just for kicks. I may do that shortly.
