Oval Seal Castlevania 5-screw

[DK | 260]

On 8/22/2021 at 8:28 PM, ThePhleo said:

Does anyone even bother looking for a Oval Seal Castlevania 5-screw with no back label?

I do!

It took a year and a half of looking but I finally was able to get one off of Ebay this week.

Oval seal 5 screw Castlevania should not exist, since they had already transitioned to 3 screw carts during the black circle seal print run.

Does this prove that these Konami/Ultra 5 screw oddballs with no back label are repair carts? I don't think there is any scenario where this came from the factory like this.

You can see in the closeups that there has been a repair to the board.

Is this the first one of these found? ThePhleo's quote there is the only mention I could find of it via a Google search. 

Does anyone have a board pic of a 3 screw oval seal board? I'm curious to see if the repaired chip is different.

 

 

 

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

Checking

edit: nope ugly black circle seal

Edited March 10, 2023 by a3quit4s

[guitarzombie | 924]

Very interesting.  Also clean that brasso off with some rubbing alcohol haha.

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

5 hours ago, DK said:

I do!

It took a year and a half of looking but I finally was able to get one off of Ebay this week.

Oval seal 5 screw Castlevania should not exist, since they had already transitioned to 3 screw carts during the black circle seal print run.

Does this prove that these Konami/Ultra 5 screw oddballs with no back label are repair carts? I don't think there is any scenario where this came from the factory like this.

You can see in the closeups that there has been a repair to the board.

Is this the first one of these found? ThePhleo's quote there is the only mention I could find of it via a Google search. 

Does anyone have a board pic of a 3 screw oval seal board? I'm curious to see if the repaired chip is different.

 

 

 

 

Wow I thought this might be the case.

So, I'll have to update my list to include the "Pre-Transition" games as possibly 5-Screw oddities (despite them having "legitimate" 5-screw variants)

So, the repair theory is starting to add up thanks to this. But what still makes no sense is, where the heck is the documentation that you can submit a game to Konami for repairs!? The warranty cards maybe?

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

6 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

 

Wow I thought this might be the case.

So, I'll have to update my list to include the "Pre-Transition" games as possibly 5-Screw oddities (despite them having "legitimate" 5-screw variants)

So, the repair theory is starting to add up thanks to this. But what still makes no sense is, where the heck is the documentation that you can submit a game to Konami for repairs!? The warranty cards maybe?

For reference this super C manual has konamis limited warranty which does say they repair games at their “Factory Service Center” - how you start the process for this isn’t listed but my guess would be there was a phone number to call and try and troubleshoot and if nothing worked they gave you the address to mail it to and some repair Id/RMA to put on the box. Perhaps there was also some integration with Nintendo authorized repair centers. I’m still scratching my head about why they would repair the board and replace the shell and not send back your original shell

edit: Castlevanias manual has the same warranty https://www.manua.ls/nintendo/castlevania-nes/manual?p=2

Edited March 10, 2023 by a3quit4s