Super Momotaro Dentetsu III (pirate cart)

This is a pirated copy of Super Momotaro Dentetsu III, which is notable for being a relatively well done. Thanks to Yolt1 for sending in the pictures of the pirate. By: Evan G Last updated: July 29, 2022

This is a pirated copy of Super Momotaro Dentetsu III (スーパー桃太郎電鉄III). From first glance, it doesn't even look fake, as it appears that the pirates used high quality scans of the labels on the cart, and used proper SFC-style shells. However, if you look at the PCB, it is clearly a fake. The board is obviously different from a legit board, and the labels on the chips are smudged. One could ask why someone would go to such efforts to make a high quality pirated copy of a relatively common game like Super Momotaro Dentetsu III, and for that, I have no clue. I have included some pictures of a legit version of the game that I scanned myself for comparison.

Front of a legit cart.

Front of the pirate cart. Absolutely nothing sticks out that would cause you to believe the pirate is fake.

Back of the pirate cart. Again, nothing really sticks out that would make you think this is fake, with the possible exception of the botched attempt to put the manufacturing location number stamp in the top right.

Things become obvious when you compare the pirate PCB with a legit one. The PCB has the same serial code of SHVC-1J3M-11, but it is clearly not an official board and the layout is different. It is missing the MAD-1 chip, the CIC chip and ROM chip have smudged labels, and the battery is different from pretty much every other SNES/SFC game. The board has a lot of resistors and capacitors, which you don't find on legit SNES boards.

Front of a legit PCB.

Front of the pirate PCB

Back of the pirate PCB