In response to this "i've read his auctions and talk to him via emailo a number of times. He even sent me photos of it side by side with an original. It would be REALLY cool if it were a "second run". But its not. Its a bootleg, and a bootleg that is fetching anywhere from $50-$75!!!! Bootlegs historically don't get much more than $10 no matter what they are. So even as a bootleg it is probably quite profitable for whoever produced these. The printed pieces are obviously taken from a scan and not original plates [the line screen pattern is a dead giveaway]. That alone makes it obvious. Why wouldn't hudson just reprint it with the original plates...it would be much cheaper for them to do that rather than make a "copy" for a second run. Its silly to hope these are legit, I'm sorry."
Hudson would not have kept the original plates around 3-4 years later,only the glass masters,or the collected data on hard disk.Most game companies do not,as the print info for covers,booklets and what not can be transfered in data now,scanned at high res,and backed up for later use for archival purpose or whatever.Whats worse,is most of the time they keep the game data on hard disc,not a glass master,or knickle stamper.This can be problematic too,case in point,Magic Knight Rayearth for Sega Saturn.The original data had been currupted and Wroking Designs had to rebuild the game basically because of this.They had no finalized working reference copy to use because of this,because of the choice storage method,which sucks.
