After hearing on John's Vs. SMB video about Matt Osborn's high score save chip and that it was a simple ROM swap, I decided to purchase one of those chips and try to install it myself. I picked up Vs. SMB, my first arcade machine, last summer and hadn't touched the insides since I cleaned all the dust on the bezel and replaced the plexiglass. So, taking out the PCB was pretty scary since I'm not very experienced with hardware. I even had to take the ROM chip out the "wrong way" (i.e. using a flathead screwdriver like John does). That was the hardest part. At first it seemed like the chip wouldn't budge. But it eventually came out without losing any legs. In the end it was a success! I played a couple of quick games to try out the save feature and I'm quite satisfied with the result.
It may have been a relatively simple install but I feel like I've come a long way since freaking out about dust that mistook for mold...
Now it's time to get some high scores! I think I could get 2 million if I really tried. My best score (that I got before installing the chip) is 1.7 million.
