I have seen some English language replacement ROMs available for certain Cave games. Has anyone used these ROMs before? If so, for what games and did it impact the game quality?
As an grizzled old-school arcade gamer veteran from the early 1980s, I've played numerous arcade games during the Golden Age of the arcades era (shmups included). As for your question regarding the English roms for the classic Cave PCB titles, your answer & more info is presented below:
The English roms that you see are for the old-school Cave PCB titles like: Donpachi, Dodonpachi, ESP.Ra.De. & Dangun Feveron (aka Fever SOS). The gameplay & game mechanics are same as with the original JPN region version if you're wondering about the International version variants of the Cave PCB titles of DP, DDP, ESPrade & Feveron.
It's common knowledge to expect to pay a bit more for a JPN region classic Cave PCB than it is to pay for an International variant Cave PCB if you're an otaku arcade PCB hobbyist collecting the original JPN region PCBs. It's a given.
Eventually, Cave stopped releasing such International versions of it's arcade PCBs as they saw no need to do so.
The American arcade subsidy known as Atlus USA did officially distribute the Donpachi Jamma conversion PCB kits (complete with full-sized backlit marquee as well) stateside back in 1995-1996 but did not distribute the 1997 sequel of DDP (Dodonpachi) conversion kits (despite Cave releasing an International version of DDP with all-English text for the ending stories that take place between the 1st & 2nd loops). Atlus could've easily done so but did not. So the first DP arcade shmup was quite familiar to American arcade gamers back in 1995. I know this to be true as a local arcade of mine had gotten in a DP conversion kit & up & running on a Dynamo upright cab priced at four nickels (or 20 cents) per credit back in '95.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Last edited by PC Engine Fan X! on Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.