SH3 question - ESP II

[brentsg]

I recently picked up an Espgaluda II kit, E-0068 on the PCB.

I was blowing off a bit of dust from the PCB when I noticed brown flux residue all around U23 and U24, which are the sound ROMs as I understand it.

Does this mean the early ESP II PCBs were actually some other game which was reprogrammed by Cave/AMI and had the sound chips swapped out?

[rtw]

Does this mean the early ESP II PCBs were actually some other game which was reprogrammed by Cave/AMI and had the sound chips swapped out?

Yes

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

It also means they are extremely lazy because it takes about 1-2 minutes to clean it off (at least to the point where you wouldn't notice any still on there) with alcohol and q-tips and leaving it on can lead to possible corrosion. Not to mention it looks and smells foul.