As shown in the picture, in the area labeled "PC4" (a tiny space, about 1.5mm long) there appears to be something missing. This is sitting next to a ROM chip, and looking at the other ROM chips in the cart, every ROM chip has a component here labeled "PC[something]", and they all look like capacitors - for example, you can see PC3 next to the other ROM chip in the picture. Also, looking at scans of the board, it turns out there indeed should be a component in PC4; I don't quite understand how this one came out. So, my idea is that the ROM chip next to PC4 must be what stores the intro.
Here's a picture of just the chip:
The lack of a capacitor in PC4 must cause the intro to crash. That makes sense, considering the rest of the cart appears intact, and accordingly the rest of the game runs fine. What I'm a little confused about is how and why is this component missing in the first place? Like I said, when I first got the game the intro would run normally. Is it possible that the cap was already loose, and at some point it just fell out or something? Sounds a little far-fetched. I guess it's also possible that the lack of a capacitor damaged the chip gradually over time, and that's why it no longer works properly. What do you think of the idea that this chip, labeled "239-P1 9753 D", is responsible for the intro, and this is why the intro isn't working? It seems plausible to me, but I'd like to get your input. The thought occurred to me that it might be possible to figure out what's on the chip by messing around with it in an emulator.
Another question: does anyone know exactly what kind of capacitor should be in PC4? I'm guessing it's the same as all the others.
I know someone who might be willing to repair the cart for me; I can't do it myself. I can solder, but I doubt I'd be able to solder something that small. In the event that my friend isn't able to repair it, I may be looking for someone else to do it.
I had another unrelated question about this game. When I bought the game years ago (in 2006) the seller told me that the boards are original but the label is fake. So, I always assumed that the label was fake. However, I was reading about fake labels, and one thing I read is that for games with holo labels, the way you can tell if it's fake or not is that only real labels have a ribbon-like holo pattern (kind of like DNA) and fake labels have some other kind of pattern. Well, looking at the label, it is indeed a ribbon pattern. Take a look:
It's hard to take photos that clearly show the holographic part, but you can kind of see it. Do you think this label is original? It seems possible that newer fake labels might be able to replicate the ribbon pattern, but I've had this cart for a long time. It seems unlikely that people back in 2006 would have been able to fake that. The seller might've been mistaken in thinking it was fake. What do you think?
