Have I possibly found the most boring pirate to have ever been produced? Well unless a foreign pirating firm has gotten the overwhelming urge to suddenly start pressing some bootleg Pong carts, I'd say yes.
I found this stupid thing sometime in July of 2000. The weird thing about it is that I didn't find it at a flea market or on eBay, I found it at my local FuncoLand. I almost didn't get this thing. That day that I went to FuncoLand turned out to be great: I had already snagged a top-loader, Castle of Deceit, and Quattro Adventure. I was ready to make my purchase and walk out the door when I saw this odd-shaped cart on the bottom shelf with no top label. Being relatively new to the scene at that time (Found a complete Deluxe Set on eBay in January 2000 for 90 bucks which got me back into NES), I was saying over and over in my mind: prototype... prototype... But when the guy behind the counter pulled it out, it was this and he told me it wasn't allowed to be sold because the title wasn't in the flyer. I then asked if he would give it to me because I didn't want to see it get thrown away. He agreed and I walked out with it.
As far as the origins of this cart goes, I have narrowed it down to two possibilities: Japan and the Philippines. I say Japan because it is teeming with pirates over there and because the label is the same size as a Famicom label.
</B><BR>
AMI 8831MAA<BR>
TY-02B64<BR>
9591-092<BR>
PHILIPPINES<P>
<B>(right chip)</B><BR>
AMI 8832MAA<BR>
TY-02A64<BR>
9591-102<BR>
PHILIPPINES<P>
<IMG SRC=)
The back label appears to be water-glued on over the remnants of another label that was peeled off. This label is weird because there is only three pictures on the back, no text. The first picture is a hand trying to pry open the cart with a screwdriver with a little "X" under it. The second is of a hand slamming the cart on the ground with another X. The last picture is of a faucet running on the cart with another X. Thanks guys, I'll take my Galaxian out of the dishwasher now :P
Cart construction on this is pretty cheap-ass. There isn't even any screws holding it together, only five little tabs that snap into place. If you hold the cart upright and squeeze the sides with your fingertips, you can get it apart very easily to get at the circuit board. It seems that this may have been broken once because 5 of the pins on the right chip have been sottered.
The game is the same as the Galaxian that you would go play at the arcade, minus the "copyright Namco" thing on the title screen. It even sounds the same. Pretty boring if you ask me, but hey, it was free. I never mind free games even if it's Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. It's fun to put one of those down in the middle of the road and look for the pieces the next morning. Try it.