The big problem with answering this question is that TG has changed ownership, and nobody knows what the new rules are going to be when they return.
When TG went offline the hardware rules were these:
- Original power supply
- Original 2-board PCB marked "TKG-4", which includes ROM chips with factory stickers
- No kits or extra hardware in the Z80 slot
- Original TKG-23-50 joystick, or exact reproduction, with four-way restrictor
- No wires other than the power cord entering the cabinet
- A back door that can be locked or screwed shut
Unless I'm forgetting something, that's it.
My hope is that none of this will be in place with the "new" TG and that submissions will simply allow the gameplay to speak for itself. That will likely not be the case, unfortunately.
To answer your main question, yes, the Braze kit CAN be removed. It's not difficult but it's a little nerve-wracking, and it definitely puts your PCB and Z80 CPU at risk. I put mine in and I'm not planning to take it out. I bought the machine to get a TG ranking, but I've sorta fallen in love with the machine itself, and at this point I care a lot more about the well-being of my hardware than whether or not I ever get ranked by TG (more on that later).
Aside from that, nothing about a prospective machine can't be remedied. Probably the most expensive problem would be stickerless ROMs, since the only way to fix that would be buy (or trade) your PCB for one with correctly-stickered ROMs. The rule is absurd as the ROMs can be modified with zero physical evidence, but it's the rule.
Power supplies and original/repro joysticks can be found easily online.
I'd worry more about the monitor! You do NOT want to deal with a flaky or non-functional Sanyo 20EZ. Replacing or repairing one of those is a whole world unto itself, and will cost a lot if you need to get a new one shipped to you.
It may also be a good idea to ask yourself whether being ranked at TG even matters anymore.
Check out Hank's
official unofficial list of kill-screeners/personal bests and compare it to
the TG leaderboards. Lots of names and scores missing, including a few million-point players.
The "true" top 50 of all known DK scores is now so far away from the reality that I'm personally starting to not care anymore whether I'm ranked at TG at all. TG's DK scoreboard is becoming increasingly irrelevant (partly *because* of all the rules, which do nothing but needlessly deter submissions).
I feel like we the players have pretty much taken over the score-tracking. We can do this better as a community of highly-involved experts that specialize in this one game than TG can as a generalized scorekeeping entity, and we're a hell of a lot easier to "submit" to.
Also, to be blunt, we're the only ones who really care about each other's scores anyway! Outsiders are really only interested in who holds the world record at the moment, not who is in 20th place.
Of course, it's up to you how much a TG ranking matters. The list up there is what you're going to need, at least for the previous ownership!
