Wow, they're expensive! I'd only really want this one game- I'm pretty against piracy unless I've already got the games or it's an incomplete version/proto, so I'll make do without a physical copy and play 2 Beta on emulator! EDIT: Hey guys, I've been doing a little bit of hunting, and I've come across this dodgy looking thing: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-456773877-jogo-fita-sonic-2-mega-drive-genesis-_JM The sticker is too small, is Japanese in Brazil(?) and the case has no screws. If people are looking for pirate Betas, what sort of chance is it that the pirate will or won't be the final copy? Am I jumping the gun here?
Hmm, Portuguese... yeah, it's probably in Brazil. (It also says it's from Paraná, which is in Brazil, so I was correct anyway.) Even so, 17 Brazilian Reals totals to ?$8, ?5 Pounds or ?6 Euros, so it's not expensive at all. I certainly won't be buying it, but I guess it'd be worth it for someone here to check it out. I mean, 8 bucks is 8 bucks.
That's just your run of the mill pirate there. MercadoLibre is filled with tons of Sonic pirates. Being a pirate doesn't mean there's a chance it's the Simon Wai cart though. I wouldn't waste the time.
This one is in my country, Uruguay... http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-406115195-sonic-2-tectoy-sega-genesis-megadrive-_JM That's $350 URY which is about 17 USD, I guess I should get one or two :P Also, some other interesting carts found here: http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-406210653-sonic-2-the-edgehog-sega-genesis-megadrive-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-406279023-sonic-knuckles-sega-genesis-megadrive-_JM (I have this cart actually :v http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-406330008-sonic-the-hedgehog-gran-titulo-sega-mega-drive-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-405926099-sonic-3d-blast-genesis-sega-mega-drive-con-cajita-_JM (And this one too :v http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-405995508-sonic-3d-blast-juego-sega-genesis-megadrive-_JM http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-406741953-super-nintendo-solo-juego-sonic-4-_JM (I played this one actually, on a real cart I mean.) I also have a Sonic Jam 6 MD cart somewhere, but I'm lazy to try to find it :v: gotta love pirate stuff :D
So what's good about getting Pirate Versions of the Sonic 2 Beta? Playable Hidden Palace Zone for Super Sonic?
Just received the reply on my e-mail: so my SW beta is actually Andre Dirk's copy which he sold long ago Also check out Cyan's site: http://www.emulationzone.org/projects/cyan/mainp.htm, it has lots of interesting stuff on it. This, and after reading your story Mercadolivre is a no-go for me. Speedstar, get an Everdrive if you can. It's well worth it, as you would be able to play other proto's too, not just the S2 beta. I went to a hardware store today to see if they still had those old parallel cables but nope, so I bought the transfer cable from Tototek (yay free shipping). Guess it will arrive in a week or two, so please bare with me untill then :v:
Ah, so it IS the cart owned by the user who had the unoriginal name of "Tails" waaay back in the day! Congratulations on your purchase, pre-teen me is totally jealous across time! =P
I'm a bit confused as to what this is. Is this the Wia beta in cart form, or an undiscovered beta we didn't have documented before?
It's the Wai beta in cart form. Would be neat if it were an undocumented proto, but it's still a neat item to have.
Pretty sure it is Guess that makes me the 3rd owner. Uploaded the scans of the box-artwork: Sonic 2 Pirate cover artwork #1 Sonic 2 Beta Pirate cover artwork #2 I've just began making a new article about these on the wiki. I'll try to cover as much as possible. Edit: http://info.sonicretro.org/User:Egel/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2_(Beta_Pirates) this is the article thusfar. Any suggestions?
Alright, added the final bits to the article, thanks to MathUser for the update. If anything is missing feel free to add it. I'm expecting the dumping cable the coming week, will add both ROMs to the article as finishing touch.
I'm not sure if the cart that you say is a "Sonic 3 pirate" owned by "Tails" is the same cart as I'm referring to. Not sure who's owned my S3 EPROM outside of Phugolz, but it's definitely not a pirate. I consider "Dyer" carts to be in-between - they are authentic Sega boards, but the data was not written in the normal course of a game's development. Pirate carts usually use mask ROMs or gloptops and are usually made on the cheap as opposed to official boards.
Nice writeups you got there. I wasn't expecting my MercadoLibre rant to get on there haha. BTW, Variation 5 is the same pirate cart I mentioned earlier that someone in Brazil showed me they had the Simon Wai beta on. The guy said it used to show up in rental shops all the time, though I forget if it was before or after the final came out. I'm assuming after only because I don't know how likely the JP final box artwork that the label uses was distributed anywhere before release.
Neither of the two "theories" postulated by that page on the pirates is correct. We know exactly how that prototype came about; the issue is trying to figure out how to publicly disclose that.
Not the EPROM, but a generic pirate, as featured on Sonic Cult (maybe that page is extremely outdated?) ScarredSun, like everyone else I'd love to know what exactly went behind it, although I understand if it involves anything like (fill in something here...) I guess it would be best to keep those two theories instead. My parallel cable arrived today, and I just dumped all the roms of each cart shown in that group photo, just for the sake of completion etc. I have a problem though, when trying to test them in Gens and Fusion, they don't seem to boot which may or may not have something to do with the checksum (all capital D's, e.g. DDDDDDDDDDD). I followed the instructions carefully and even tried to fix the checksum using a program I found on the web. Not sure how to make them work. I can up the .BIN's if anyone wants to look at it of course
What is the content of the rest of the ROMs? That checksum is suspicious, and I'd bet the rest of the ROMs are fucked too. What was your exact procedure to dump the carts?
