MAMEWorld Forums - News - Re: Guru update

Thanks for the kind words from Gregf and Arcadedude,

I have been looking for that PCB for many years. It is possibly the rarest of the Donkey Kong series game made.

AFAIK Falcon made the Donkey Kong part I and II and Kong Jr under license from Nintendo for markets outside Japan and the USA.

KLOV says that Falcon Kong Jr is owned by 0 collectors. That probably explains why it has taken so long to come up for sale.

I could only find Falcon Part II out here in Australia when I was looking for either the part I or the Kong Jr PCB's that were unMAMEd.

I have looked for the PCB on eBay in the UK, USA and Australia for donkey yonks (Many years) to add to the project. I was surprised when I saw it listed as a buy it now for US$75 and no-one had bought it.

I negotiated with the seller for a day to get it sent to Australia before buying it.

The seller even dropped the price to $50 to help me with the extra shipping charges. (Thank you Fruitplate1).

In any case the PCB is ridiculously rare. I know that others were looking for Kong Jr and have even posted wanted to buy requests on the net.

I got lucky to buy it and put it in MAME and it shows that persistence almost always pays off.

There are however many rare hacks and bootlegs that haven't been added to MAME because there is not enough money from donations to purchase them, and there is more effort spent purchasing and preserving originals.

I personally would like to see us complete the old Guru's Most Wanted list and get every arcade PCB ever made emulated in MAME, including the early stuff without roms.

Recently Smitdogg's Dumping Union has run into drama's by having too many donations coming through their Paypal account, and now people who wish to donate have to do so by money order. (What about Bitcoins Smitdogg? Or is that the new silver?).

The Guru who was buying PCB's from Japan with donations sent to him has not been purchasing anything from Japan since donations to his account dried up.

The other really important thing that requires money is the de-capping done by Dr Decapitator in his lab. (to fix protected non-working games in MAME).

I know that times are tough and a lot of people are doing it hard. To those that love MAME and can afford to donate to the project, please do so so that we can buy more games, de-cap, and emulate them.

Cheers,

Tingoes.