Sorry for bringing back such an old topic, but I got my hands on one of those Sonic pirate carts. The verdict: AN ABSOLUTE PILE OF SHIT!!! Not at all what I was expecting: I was expecting the cartridge to contain the Japanese ROM. Instead, it has the US ROM that's been hacked to remove any and all traces of the Sega logo(and very poorly) and has the life counter set to 40 instead of 3. While it does make the game easier, it's total bullshit.
I will make note that my Sonic pirate cart doesn't look like the one MN12BIRD found. For one, the plastic on the back of the cartridge has an empty space where the Sega logo is on the cartridge he found(and that space is shaped like a square, not an oval), the label quality is MUCH worse, and the board has a perfectly circular gloptop at the center of the board.
Pictures available upon request, if someone's curious.
