Hey guys, I bought a copy of pokemon firered. I have given numberous reasons to the seller why it is not a real copy. They refuse to believe it saying how good they know how to spot fakes and they would have known ect.
Is there anything I can do? It was on a website, not ebay.
The cover is not foily. There is no rectangle on the upper left back. Plastic feels off. The white line next to esrb doesnt match where the real one would be.
Game works okay, just worried it will delete randomly, or I cant trade.
There's still some chance that the bootleg game will work like normal. It really depends on the quality. However, if there's enough indications of it being fake, I would not take the chances and I will return it.
http://bnclark.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/psa-spotting-the-new-breed-of-fake-pokemon-leafgreen-and-firered-cartridges/ The label should be shiny and have imprinted letters and numbers on it somewhere. And lots of fakes have sh1tty looking Nintendo logos. Heres a Leaf Green someone compared but its basically the same thing.
Another way to spot them which IMO is the easiest is grabbing a flashlight or going under a light in the room and looking under the cartridge. If you don't see the official Nintendo brand under there, then it is not a real copy. That brand is on every legit GBA cartridge and is proof that you have the real deal. It's a little hard to see so you have to look close. If you have glasses, wear them. I have had A LOT of experience with false GBA games back when Gamestop still sold them. People would make fake copies and sell them to GStop and make money off of them. It was goddamn evil.
EDIT: I forgot to mention this earlier, you do not need to take the cartridge apart in order to see this. It is still visible.
EDITEDIT: If it turns out to be fake, don't take their shit, lol. Return that shit and get your money back. I know how these GBA games can get pricey, especially the Pokemon games... Even the bootlegs.
@MegaMatt91: something I found so you may wanna look at the catridge from below http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LqDwoa3ABZw/UMaVCPtWFwI/AAAAAAAAAVk/vgE-CsgJSHY/s1600/IMG_0102.JPG
When you take it apart, you'll notice how easy it is to change the actual circuit and swipe it with another. It's kind of monstrous how easy it is, kind of sad too.
When you take it apart, you'll notice how easy it is to change the actual circuit and swipe it with another. It's kind of monstrous how easy it is, kind of sad too.
This is kinda off-topic, but I remember talking to this person years ago, and they admitted that when they were younger they used to rent SNES games they liked, take them apart and swap the cartridge inside for one from a game they didn't like, and then return it.
And funnily enough, from what I gathered this person came from a wealthy family, and was really just a spoiled brat.
This may be out of the blue but I went as far as making an account to get this answered so I hope you'll help. I have two copies of sapphire both of which seem to be legit (font, foil, Nintendo under cartridge, ability to migrate). But one of them has the number etchings to the right side of the front of the cartridge and the other doesn't... more importantly, when I opened them up I noticed the flash memory chip for one was larger than the other? Is that normal? Are there differences in the games produced later in the year maybe? I can post a pic but I'm not sure how to…
First off, as long as it can migrate to gen 4 games, it is legit.
There are a couple different possibilities for these differences in your games. It is possible they were produced in different factories or different production runs. They could also be from a later year, as you said.
As far as the flash chips being different sizes, I also noticed that with my FireRed and LeafGreen cartridges. My LeafGreen has a much smaller flash chip than my FireRed, but the circuit board of my LeafGreen has contact points where the chip would go if it was the longer kind. I know both games are legitimate as they were purchased through reputable sources (one Walmart, one BestBuy) so I think it just has to do with production runs. My LeafGreen also has a year in the copyright info on the board (interestingly, says 2001 which was 3 years before the game's release), whereas my FireRed does not. There are multiple other possibilities for the copyright info, as I have seen photos around the web of legitimate copies with variations there. I have attached pictures of all of my games, for reference.
Log in to comment