Quoted from Coyote:So, I was just curious on thoughts - if someone like Alltek or Rottendog came out with a new MPU board, but it had some small changes to the connectors, would that turn you off?
If the design changes were sensible it wouldn't turn me off, but I do think it could potentially alienate some of their customer base. I'd wager a sizable number of people who buy repro's do so because they lack the skill to repair the original boards themselves, which means having to rebuild a connector would probably be a big turn off. I worked on a game just a few weeks ago where the owner replaced the original -35 MPU with an Alltek to address battery damage, but failed to realize the corrosion had spread into the J4 connector as well.
Another thing to consider is once you redo a game's connectors it instantly becomes incompatible with the original board. I really like what Ni-wumpf did on their newest system 80 boards so you can use either the original bifurcated connectors or a new IDE ribbon cable. Forward thinking, but still backwards compatible.