Real Bout AES Boot?

doaal

Mr. Big's Thug
Joined
May 7, 2018
Posts
209
I've found a JP AES Real Bout for a suspiciously good price. It also has the case which is in nice shape and the moulding on the inside looks good, but no manual. However it's the cart that has me suspicious. The main label wasn't applied very well--which I know can be the case for official carts--but there is also an insertion warning label. Every RB cart I've seen doesn't have this label.

RB is a cheap AES game so I don't get why it would be booted, but is this a dead giveaway? Unless this is from another print run where the warning label was added.

0613130117_60c5830d55464.jpg
 

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RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Posts
8,788
It doesn't look like a boot to me. Only way you'll really know for sure is if you pop it open.
 

Digmac

Leona's Therapist
Joined
Feb 10, 2016
Posts
1,966
I've also never seen a Real Bout cart with the insertion direction warning label, but it makes no logical sense to sac a later cart that would have that label to make a Real Bout bootleg. The game is cheap enough complete. I would simply find another copy if I were in your shoes.
 

doaal

Mr. Big's Thug
Joined
May 7, 2018
Posts
209
That's what I'll do then. Real Bout is cheap enough that as someone new to AES I can probably get it in a lot with other commons.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Posts
22,333
I have a copy of RB that also didn't come with a manual and it doesn't have that sticker either. However... someone could have put one on or maybe SNK did I dunno just fucking open it already!
 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,814
The main label looks real to me, just like my copy. Yes it's weird that it has a warning label, but there's two possible explanations.

a) It's a really late print run. RBFF was one of the last games to be released before SNK started adding warning labels.
b) someone added an aftermarket warning label later on.

I can't think of any situation where this game would be worth bootlegging or making an MVS conversion. If anything, RBFF has been cheap enough for so long to BE a sac cart.
 
Last edited:

awbacon

Kyokughen Trainee
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Posts
4,220
the most common answer to "did SNK do X" is "SNK did whacky shit constantly. There is no pattern to the shit they'd pull"
 

Mr. Karate II

Edo Express Delivery Guy
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Posts
340
If you want to remove all doubt do as you have already been told and gently open the cartridge. In this way, will know with absolute certainty what you were really sold.

Anyway, there might be a plausible explanation to your mystery: when 'Fatal Fury Special' was released in Japan, the game was an incredible success (some Japanese fans say that in that year 'Fatal Fury' even surpassed 'Stret Fighter II', which was simply a second update of a two years old game).

In any case, as evidence of the popularity of 'Fatal Fury Special', there is the incredible amount of merchandising that was produced during those years: we speak of caps, clothes, containers, CDs, comics, guides, cards, VHS, puppets and the following year (1994) was projected also a movie exclusively for the theaters, moreover, this game was converted for any platform existing at that time (in short, if SNK created of the sequels until the release of 'Mark of the Wolves' [1999], is because this 'FFS' had cashed in in a really amazing way).

R5P6xdX.jpg


For the next chapter the expectations of fans were therefore very high and SNK therefore produced 'Fatal Fury 3': the sprites of the characters and backdrops were redesigned raising the bar of quality and even the dubbing and music were of the steps forward, not to mention the story and dialogues, which made 'FF3' look like a visual novel, rather than a simple arcade game, however, the playability was not at all convincing compared to its predecessor and in some places it was also an overly complicated experience.

SNK had therefore created a beautiful game to see and hear, but had not been as concerned with creating a 'tool' which was even more fun than the previous incarnations, so 'Fatal Fury 3' in the end flopped.

But precisely how big was this flop?

A user named Gemant (which now no longer attends this forum), had told me that the specialized magazines of that time, they had recorded the amateur scores of 'Fatal Fury Special' for a period I think of 13 years uninterrupted (so, while people were celebrating the new Xbox 360 and Wii, many were still playing 'FFS'), while with 'Fatal Fury 3' this recording of data was interrupted only a few months after the release of the game and honestly I have no trouble believing it, because even now the 'world' tournaments are held of 'Fatal Fury Special', while the third chapter is a memory that only we NEOGEO fans keep.


That being said, after the release of 'Fatal Fury 3', to SNK had remained with a large amount of unsold cartridges and since this company has always been of the 'nothing is thrown away' opinion, they so used this unsold inventory to create 'Real Bout Fatal Fury', which they released not even nine months later.

So, the first edition of 'RB1' is a kind of official Frankestein, and that's why the game reuses the same and identical resources for the character sprites that already appeared in the previous chapter.

After its release, 'Real Bout Fatal Fury 1' was well received and was kept on the arcade market for more than a year, to then be converted on the home consoles of the time as well.

So here we are at the final stage, that will give a definitive answer to your question: I theorize that at this point SNK has consumed all the cartridges that had previously remained unsold, however, then the game started to sell well and therefore it was necessary reprint new AES copies, which differ from the previous ones, because like your version contain the yellow label for the health warning.

This creating new games using an base and of the resources already existing, for SNK it was not a novelty, because this company did the exact same thing when 'Savage Reign' didn't sell: and that's why 'Kizuna Encounter' it's such a rare game, because unlike 'RB1', the subsequent demands for 'Kizuna' must have been really non-existent, for not even get produce their own internal copy for the NEOGEO CD.

Anyway, I repeat that this is just a my personal theory, because just like HMG said, the reality could be much simpler than that.

The main label looks real to me, just like my copy. Yes it's weird that it has a warning label, but there's two possible explanations.

a) It's a really late print run. RBFF was one of the last games to be released before SNK started adding warning labels.
b) someone added an aftermarket warning label later on.

I can't think of any situation where this game would be worth bootlegging or making an MVS conversion. If anything, RBFF has been cheap enough for so long to BE a sac cart.
 
Last edited:

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,924
If you want to remove all doubt do as you have already been told and gently open the cartridge. In this way, will know with absolute certainty what you were really sold.

Anyway, there might be a plausible explanation to your mystery: when 'Fatal Fury Special' was released in Japan, the game was an incredible success (some Japanese fans say that in that year 'Fatal Fury' even surpassed 'Stret Fighter II', which was simply a second update of a two years old game).

In any case, as evidence of the popularity of 'Fatal Fury Special', there is the incredible amount of merchandising that was produced in those years: we speak of caps, clothes, containers, CDs, comics, guides, cards, VHS, puppets and the following year (1994) was projected also a movie exclusively for theaters, moreover, this game was converted for any platform existing at that time.

For the next chapter the expectations of fans were therefore very high and SNK therefore produced 'Fatal Fury 3': the sprites of the characters and backdrops were redesigned raising the bar of quality and even the dubbing and music were of the steps forward, not to mention the story and dialogues, which made 'FF3' look like a visual novel, rather than a simple arcade game, however, the playability was not at all convincing compared to its predecessor and in some places it was also an overly complicated experience.

SNK had therefore created a beautiful game to see and hear, but had not been as concerned with creating a 'tool' which was even more fun than the previous incarnations, so 'Fatal Fury 3' in the end flopped.

But precisely how big was this flop?

A user named Gemant (which now no longer attends this forum), had told me that the specialized magazines of that time, they had recorded the amateur scores of 'Fatal Fury Special' for a period I think of 13 years uninterrupted (so, while people were celebrating the new Xbox 360 and Wii, many were still playing 'FFS'), while with 'Fatal Fury 3' this recording of data was interrupted only a few months after the release of the game and honestly I have no trouble believing it, because even now the 'world' tournaments are held of 'Fatal Fury Special', while the third chapter is a memory that only we NEOGEO fans keep.


That being said, after the release of 'Fatal Fury 3', to SNK had remained with a large amount of unsold cartridges and since this company has always been of the 'you don't throw anything away' opinion, they used this unsold inventory to create 'Real Bout Fatal Fury', which they released not even nine months later.

So, the first edition of 'RB1' is a kind of official Frankestein, and that's why the game reuses the same and identical resources for the character sprites that already appeared in the previous chapter.

After its release, 'Real Bout Fatal Fury 1' was well received and was kept on the arcade market for more than a year, to then be converted on the home consoles of the time as well.

So here we are at the final stage, that will give a definitive answer to your question: I think at this point SNK has then consumed all the cartridges that had previously remained unsold, however, the game started to sell well and therefore it was necessary reprint new AES copies, which differ from the previous ones, because like your version contain the yellow label for the health warning.

This creating new games using an base and of the resources already existing, for SNK it was not a novelty, because this company did the exact same thing when 'Savage Reign' didn't sell: and that's why 'Kizuna Encounter' is such a rare game, because unlike 'RB1', the subsequent demands for 'Kizuna' must have been really non-existent, for not even get produce their own internal copy for the NEOGEO CD.
tldr version:
Some FF3 carts were converted to RBFF (not sure if this applies to AES or just MVS). Here's the article for reference:
 

Late

Reichsf?rer-Finnland,
20 Year Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2001
Posts
8,348
SNK was also pretty random when it came to stuff like this, I had both SS3 and AOF3 with and without the gold sticker(s) for example,
 

Fritz

Annex Florida Coalition, Goodwill Ambassador,
15 Year Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Posts
3,434
Buy a cheap loupe and check the insert, it is outset printed or printed digitally? If the insert is real the cart is going to be real. No need to bother opening the cart.
 

smokey

massive ding dong
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Posts
1,764
Why would any body make a bootleg of this game ? It is super common.
 

Mr.Bojangles

War Room Troll
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Posts
902
Just pony up the money for an actual Japanese copy. Its not an expensive cart, so i have a hard time understanding why a scammer would waste resources making a boot out of this version of this release. If anything, they'd be losing money.
 

Tarma

Old Man
20 Year Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2001
Posts
7,137
The only reason Kizuna was not ported to NGCD is that there isn't enough DRAM for the console to deal with the on-the-fly tag team mechanic.
 
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