Mega Man X2 in a legitimate X3 sticker/shell. What would you do?

[Tanooki | 4,940]

If you saw the finds or VGS restore thread you'll know I got this frankenstein cart here as of this weekend.  I was able to talk to the actual owner on this despite finding it at a shop, and she and her family could not for the life of them remember why it was this way, but they had it a long long time.

The game was an old blockbuster rental cart from the de-funking I did to the cart removing all the filth and damage as much as I could before doing a best as I could with what was left restoration on it.

Now this presents an interesting set of questions and possibilities.

Given she was honest, no reason not to believe given what I saw...how the hell would X2 end up in an X3 cart?  I mean yeah, it was a rental, but usually the smart kids lit up a bic pen to make a ghetto one off security bit and stole the GOOD games and shoved the shitty Madden title in there to get a cheap gem, they didn't swap out one highly coveted franchise game with its sequel, and in reverse?!

And if you were in the position of having this, what would you do?
- Find a totally fubar'd X3 shell so bad it wrecked the value and put it into the X3 shell I cleaned up?
- Save the shell, then find a jacked up X2 game with a good shell/sticker and put this X2 board into it?
- Do neither, find a nice 1:1 clone/print quality sticker of X2 from someone and just slap it on there?
- Another option?

I mean I could just very well leave it alone, I'm done with the whole sell on ebay bs, so it's more of an OCD annoyance than anything.  I had been looking for the game and given what the other I got with it goes for ($30) I'm only $70 into it so that's a price not seen in what, 10 years?

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

Someone made a post on Nintendo Age maybe 8 years ago that they were cleaning both games before shipping them out to separate eBay buyers and one buyer made a claim that it was the wrong game. I can't remember the details but they swapped X2 and X3 in their shells and I can't remember if they sorted it out or if the person that got the better end of the deal took his game and didn't respond to messages.

That could be your game.

[phart010 | 1,708]

X2 and X3 both have larger than normal  pcb boards with custom Capcom  graphics chips. If someone was opening both games simultaneously to clean them, I could see them mixing up which pcb goes with which game

[Tanooki | 4,940]

@Code Monkey Now that would be a really interesting turn of events if that were the case.  Not sure why that didn't hit me, but as @phart010 pointed out, the game has the beefy board so only other games of that size use the unique differing back that holds those notches and leaves the space for the rest including the extended board.  FX games, SA1, SDD1, and C4 use it.  I guess it could have been a blockbuster rental, to next person and this person has an oops moment, doesn't realize it, and then it ended up in the last owners hands I got it from.  Whether it's that, or the strange circumstance of it being that NA member, whoever it was, that would be stunning if that was the case.

I need to figure out what to do with it, or if I just leave it be.

I suppose I could watch ebay and facebook like a hawk for a MMX2 shell with a dead game inside, and pop the board it and just shelve the MMX3 shell for more luck down the line.  I don't want to really sink much into it, so not going to buy a nearly full price ebay pick up to play swap games with shells.

[Nintendopower4ever | 88]

I was gonna say just throw the X2 in a generic FX shell like Stunt Race shell and trade or sell the X3 shell because it had a halfway intact and decent label for X3, but I saw what you did with that horrible touch-up job! lol
Why would you do that??? 

[Tanooki | 4,940]

9 hours ago, Nintendopower4ever said:

I was gonna say just throw the X2 in a generic FX shell like Stunt Race shell and trade or sell the X3 shell because it had a halfway intact and decent label for X3, but I saw what you did with that horrible touch-up job! lol
Why would you do that??? 

I didn't ask your opinion on that restoration touch up now did I?  Not sure why you're being a primadonna about a thrashed sticker, but it's pretty sad.

Your suggestion though at least could be done, the MMX3 sticker was jacked up, badly, otherwise I wouldn't have.  Not everyone is out seeing dollar signs in their eyes over a sticker, might be something you need to look inwardly on if that upsets you so much, about what your interests really are.  It's a solid touch up job, and I could have gone further as I did with a Ranger-X on Genesis that had paper missing too, might still yet, I can create a paper patch for that hole on the bottom with an hours work.

This post was about options where to go, not to derail and bitch n' whine about a sticker of all things.  Take it elsewhere.

[phart010 | 1,708]

22 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I didn't ask your opinion on that restoration touch up now did I?  Not sure why you're being a primadonna about a thrashed sticker, but it's pretty sad.

Your suggestion though at least could be done, the MMX3 sticker was jacked up, badly, otherwise I wouldn't have.  Not everyone is out seeing dollar signs in their eyes over a sticker, might be something you need to look inwardly on if that upsets you so much, about what your interests really are.  It's a solid touch up job, and I could have gone further as I did with a Ranger-X on Genesis that had paper missing too, might still yet, I can create a paper patch for that hole on the bottom with an hours work.

This post was about options where to go, not to derail and bitch n' whine about a sticker of all things.  Take it elsewhere.

Sell it to me, I’ll play it with my outdoor snes setup  

[Tanooki | 4,940]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Sell it to me, I’ll play it with my outdoor snes setup  

That would be another choice.  I kind of don't want to put up $150 for the game, so I took it as a buy for a board and original shell, the sticker was trashed and without value since it was messed up bad and to the wrong game.

[phart010 | 1,708]

3 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

That would be another choice.  I kind of don't want to put up $150 for the game, so I took it as a buy for a board and original shell, the sticker was trashed and without value since it was messed up bad and to the wrong game.

best bet may be to split them up. Someone out there with a trashed MMX3 cart is looking for a new shell (even if it’s not perfect)..

and someone else out there with a fried MMX2 is looking for a replacement pcb to place in their clean label/shell. 

 

 

[Nintendopower4ever | 88]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

I didn't ask your opinion on that restoration touch up now did I?  Not sure why you're being a primadonna about a thrashed sticker, but it's pretty sad.

Your suggestion though at least could be done, the MMX3 sticker was jacked up, badly, otherwise I wouldn't have.  Not everyone is out seeing dollar signs in their eyes over a sticker, might be something you need to look inwardly on if that upsets you so much, about what your interests really are.  It's a solid touch up job, and I could have gone further as I did with a Ranger-X on Genesis that had paper missing too, might still yet, I can create a paper patch for that hole on the bottom with an hours work.

This post was about options where to go, not to derail and bitch n' whine about a sticker of all things.  Take it elsewhere.

lol I'm not upset and it wasn't about money? You damaged something authentic that you can't undo. There used to be a guy who ruined every game he resold on ebay like that and I just used to laugh at his bad touchup jobs too

It goes for anything that has stayed original and authentic after all this time. Why not just leave it as found?
I would have told you the same thing if you polished a coin or taped pages back in a book and I always think of this

[a3quit4s | 4,108]

If money wasn’t an issue I’d keep it as is as a conversation piece and just buy another copy of x2 and x3. 

If you want to get the use out of it like you said, find a clean $5 SNES game, turn it into an X2 with a repro label and find a wrecked ass x3 for your decent x3 housing. I’ve gotten a couple labels on this persons Etsy shop, always come out nice. 
 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1229659256/cartridge-game-replacement-labels?click_key=cc6475a0f76a44e704dbb437f177b7632e80e9bc%3A1229659256&click_sum=34926fe5&ref=shop_home_active_2&crt=1&variation0=2670192275&variation1=2670192267

[JamesRobot | 5,808]

Slap a X2 repro label on it and call it a day.  

[Tanooki | 4,940]

2 hours ago, phart010 said:

best bet may be to split them up. Someone out there with a trashed MMX3 cart is looking for a new shell (even if it’s not perfect)..

and someone else out there with a fried MMX2 is looking for a replacement pcb to place in their clean label/shell. 

 

 

Yeah that may be the case, but I really don't want to eat the cost for an original going $120-150 range, it's still legit, just hiding under a ninja cloak basically.

1 hour ago, Nintendopower4ever said:

lol I'm not upset and it wasn't about money? You damaged something authentic that you can't undo. There used to be a guy who ruined every game he resold on ebay like that and I just used to laugh at his bad touchup jobs too

It goes for anything that has stayed original and authentic after all this time. Why not just leave it as found?
I would have told you the same thing if you polished a coin or taped pages back in a book and I always think of this

Dude, again, stop, this isn't about your personal issues and venting, I was looking for suggestions where to go with it, not on artistic license.  And pulling out monkey faced jeebus like there's even a sliver of similarity there is just bait and looking for people to come to your side/rescue in here.  The other is thousand+ years old one of one some fool mangled who was paid to do a basic cleaning style job.  This is a video game of no real intrinsic or historical value in the slightest produced in mass for mass consumption, not a holy relic, though by your behavior somehow it does seem a bit holy for you in some shadow way which is a bit disturbing.  Why leave it, because it was ruined, it was jacked up bad, barely intact over a decent chunk of it hanging on.  The options really were to leave it to fall apart with the moldy mess around it, pull the board, and dip the whole plastic shell in dawn soap after a good alcohol disinfection and let it soak until everything just fell away, or do carefully clean it up, seal the damaged edges, and fill in the blanks.  I went in saving what I could and making the best of a bad situation.  That is it.

52 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

If money wasn’t an issue I’d keep it as is as a conversation piece and just buy another copy of x2 and x3. 

If you want to get the use out of it like you said, find a clean $5 SNES game, turn it into an X2 with a repro label and find a wrecked ass x3 for your decent x3 housing. I’ve gotten a couple labels on this persons Etsy shop, always come out nice. 
 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1229659256/cartridge-game-replacement-labels?click_key=cc6475a0f76a44e704dbb437f177b7632e80e9bc%3A1229659256&click_sum=34926fe5&ref=shop_home_active_2&crt=1&variation0=2670192275&variation1=2670192267

Perhaps, yeah. I don't really want a conversation piece to have a 1:1 conversation over with myself in time.   Use is it, SNES is what I largely use now to play when I'm in the mood, so it'll get played.  With shipping these days, and it having a unique back, $10 shipped or bought local is about bottom and that's to get another shell and do as you said, repop label.  Cheapest way out really, then find a thrashed X3 cart and stuff the game in this touched up one I have now.  That probably is the path of least resistance financially speaking.  I wouldn't even be engaging in this if prices weren't such crap, even if they are retracting well now, because I used to have all the MM titles on SNES and I'd like them back, just not to the tune of like what $700~ for MMX2 X3 and 7.

[Nintendopower4ever | 88]

16 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Yeah that may be the case, but I really don't want to eat the cost for an original going $120-150 range, it's still legit, just hiding under a ninja cloak basically.

Dude, again, stop, this isn't about your personal issues and venting, I was looking for suggestions where to go with it, not on artistic license.  And pulling out monkey faced jeebus like there's even a sliver of similarity there is just bait and looking for people to come to your side/rescue in here.  The other is thousand+ years old one of one some fool mangled who was paid to do a basic cleaning style job.  This is a video game of no real intrinsic or historical value in the slightest produced in mass for mass consumption, not a holy relic, though by your behavior somehow it does seem a bit holy for you in some shadow way which is a bit disturbing.  Why leave it, because it was ruined, it was jacked up bad, barely intact over a decent chunk of it hanging on.  The options really were to leave it to fall apart with the moldy mess around it, pull the board, and dip the whole plastic shell in dawn soap after a good alcohol disinfection and let it soak until everything just fell away, or do carefully clean it up, seal the damaged edges, and fill in the blanks.  I went in saving what I could and making the best of a bad situation.  That is it.

Perhaps, yeah. I don't really want a conversation piece to have a 1:1 conversation over with myself in time.   Use is it, SNES is what I largely use now to play when I'm in the mood, so it'll get played.  With shipping these days, and it having a unique back, $10 shipped or bought local is about bottom and that's to get another shell and do as you said, repop label.  Cheapest way out really, then find a thrashed X3 cart and stuff the game in this touched up one I have now.  That probably is the path of least resistance financially speaking.  I wouldn't even be engaging in this if prices weren't such crap, even if they are retracting well now, because I used to have all the MM titles on SNES and I'd like them back, just not to the tune of like what $700~ for MMX2 X3 and 7.

You're the one posting walls of text full of personal attacks raging against some invisible enemy just like the the old days lol I don't care what you do. Just don't pretend like you did something noble when it was fine as is.

Might as well have just scraped off the X3 label and printed up a new X2 label for it and called it good?

[a3quit4s | 4,108]

2 hours ago, Nintendopower4ever said:

You're the one posting walls of text full of personal attacks raging against some invisible enemy just like the the old days lol I don't care what you do. Just don't pretend like you did something noble when it was fine as is.

Might as well have just scraped off the X3 label and printed up a new X2 label for it and called it good?

I got an aero fighters with a shit label, I prefer to keep the label as is and just replace the front shell with a repro label. I never plan on selling my games but it is cool to have the original label even if it’s crap. I wish I had done this with my Sculptors Cut on N64, I completely scrapped off the original shit label (you could barely make out what it was) and replaced with a repro. 

[Tanooki | 4,940]

@Nintendopower4ever Not sure what traumas you're whining about there,  But right now you're being a bitter controlling man child who had to lash out over a sticker.  A sticker.  And you have some mental issue equating that in any way to a ruined one on one masterwork piece of art of Jesus from ages ago.  I didn't do that, I didn't make you derail the topic, let alone try and go that far to make some sad point.  I could have scraped it off, probably would have made a collectard happy somewhere in the wilds, but given I paid for it, it's my choice.  At this rate I'd rather get an utterly wrecked MMX3 cart that has a working board and stuff it in there and call it a day and find a MMX2 shell and pop the board in that if it could be scraped up.  I'd rather the sticker be there, than have it bare.

I never pretended to do anything noble, again, you're projecting.  It was *not* fine as it is, it was dirty, stained, filmy/crusted, moldy and just wrecked.  There was no way that was staying as is, now at least it'll not degrade further or have some invisible spore or other garbage on it to spread to other stuff here.

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

I cleaned a Super Mario World and Mega Man 7 cart a while back and accidentally switched the boards. I didn't realize until months later when I went to sell MM7 and booted it up and the damn 'Nintendo' logo came up with the coin sound fx. I knew immediately what had happened. 

The worst part about it is I made a big lot deal months before with a reseller and, I swear once everything was settled, I just threw an extra copy of SMW and a few other junk games as I was trying to get rid of stuff. That copy of SMW was the one with the MM7 board in it. On top of that, it was pretty much the only time I had ever fully opened a few games just to clean them. Lesson learned. 

I messaged the guy once I realized, and he said that he was super confused when he was testing out his games before selling. He had sold it shortly after though... so now I have a junk MM7 shell (torn label) with a SMW board in it. I've kept it around but will eventually likely just sell the shell at some point. 

 

If I were you, I'd sell the MMX3 shell then buy a really cheap game that MMX2 will fit in, rip the label off, and sell that separately. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Andy_Bogomil

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

oops... quoted myself instead of edit. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Andy_Bogomil

[Tanooki | 4,940]

@Andy_Bogomil Yeah I probably could sell the MMX3 shell, for any one who would have a hissy over what was done to it, there would be another that wouldn't care or appreciate it being less of an eyesore and still being original, even if patched up vs a copycat sticker.  Odds are I'll just keep it as I don't want to drop $120+ on X2, but if I ever bump into someone with a decent shell and a dead cart, I'll put up a fight for the shell to match it up once more.  X3 wasn't even that great, no way I'm dropping $250+ on that one.

[phart010 | 1,708]

20 hours ago, Tanooki said:

@Andy_Bogomil Yeah I probably could sell the MMX3 shell, for any one who would have a hissy over what was done to it, there would be another that wouldn't care or appreciate it being less of an eyesore and still being original, even if patched up vs a copycat sticker.  Odds are I'll just keep it as I don't want to drop $120+ on X2, but if I ever bump into someone with a decent shell and a dead cart, I'll put up a fight for the shell to match it up once more.  X3 wasn't even that great, no way I'm dropping $250+ on that one.

Im all about preserving, but the X3 shell was already beat up beyond crap, so I don’t blame you for repairing  it. Im sure there’s someone out there with a torn X3 label missing part of the artwork and that would view your label as a condition upgrade, even taking into consideration the repair 

Edited September 2, 2022 by phart010

[Tanooki | 4,940]

15 minutes ago, phart010 said:

Im all about preserving, but the X3 shell was already beat up beyond crap, so I don’t blame you for repairing  it. Im sure there’s someone out there with a torn X3 label missing part of the artwork and that would view your label as a condition upgrade, even taking into consideration the repair 

That's basically my feeling.  I was interested in what was inside, the outside was secondary since it's a mismatch, a moldy, water(mildewy) damaged mess with rips, rubs, and chunks out of it.  So it was either tear it off, or hardcore clean and seal what I could while making it more presentable.  That was the least of the evils, and to me rather do that than get a repop sticker of MMX2 and shred the thing.  It is whether it's hated by a minority or not very much an upgrade and sealed up the fuzzy flaking failing edges of those rips too to save it from progressive degrading.

At this rate if I ever find it, a cheap broke copy of MMX2 I can use the shell for, I'm all in.  If I find a loose MMX3 board or a fubar cart with the nice game inside and the price isn't pure evil I'd pop it in what I have.  Mind you, unless dumb dumb luck, long term goal.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

I would buy a see-through blue shell for the X2 and a custom label and call it a day. Then, set a eBay notification for X3 carts listed for repair only and see if you can get lucky at an auction or best offer on one that might have a common, fixable issue. Sometimes people list really trashed carts as for parts too so you could get lucky and get a working board that way too.

Either way, I'd hang onto both. 

[phart010 | 1,708]

On 9/1/2022 at 9:34 PM, RegularGuyGamer said:

I would buy a see-through blue shell for the X2 and a custom label and call it a day. Then, set a eBay notification for X3 carts listed for repair only and see if you can get lucky at an auction or best offer on one that might have a common, fixable issue. Sometimes people list really trashed carts as for parts too so you could get lucky and get a working board that way too.

Either way, I'd hang onto both. 

He could always snag one of those cray cray jumbo snes cart shells with a giant label for the X2 pcb

 

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

3 hours ago, phart010 said:

He could always snag one of those cray cray jumbo snes cart shells with a giant label for the X2 pcb

 

That cart is cursed. 

[Tanooki | 4,940]

I never understood the desirability of those things.