Well, I've seen and heard about counterfeit GBA/DS carts, but I'd never actually come across one until today.
Something about this copy of Pokemon Sapphire GBA game (aside from the fact it didn't boot) was fishy. The cart's contacts looked odd, the label's layout was different than that of it's Pokemon Ruby counterpart, and the back of the circuit boards (as seen through the translucent cart) didn't look similar.
I went ahead and grabbed a size 5 torx screwdriver to remove the tri-wing screw that held the casings together. Sure enough, the circuit boards are dramatically different and Sapphire is missing the printed (C) Nintendo and serial number that all genuine Pokemon products have.
I especially like the poorly reconstructed "Licensed by Nintendo" logo on Sapphire.
How did you end up with the counterfeit product???
Trading profile suggests it was received from another user. Sucks to be them if they didn't know it was pirated (which is possible), but the moral is always be aware of what you're buying.
Yep. I received it yesterday from another Goozex user. I don't think they were trying to scam anyone. My guess is they bought it off the street in NYC and didn't know or care if it was counterfeit. Not a big deal, but it gave me something interesting to do for 30 minutes.
Counterfeit cartridges are rampant on eBay and Amazon. I've been scammed twice. Unfortunately, through those two venues, you can't get a refund unless you send the item back which usually ends up costing you more than the price of the item itself.
The easiest way to check if you've got a fake is to look through the bottom of the cart (with a flashlight if necessary) and make sure you can see Nintendo printed. This is much easier than unscrewing the cartridge as not everyone has the fancy bits necessary to open them.
Every time someone suggests the trading of older games, movies, books, CDs, or sandwiches, R2K kills a baby dinosaur.
I've been lucky, never recived a bootleg cart. The nice thing is most of them are completly obvious that they are bootlegs from the label like this one. That reminds me when I told a Gamestop manager that they had a Fake Super Mario Advance 4 in the case, and he just got pissed at me when I told him. lol.
Sucks to be the seller in this case, but if trading on goozex you really have to make sure that the games you are sending out work fine and are obviously legit copies of the game.
I'm a little confused here. Does a counterfeit game play any different than an official game?
How It Works + The FAQ x Help Guide = edumacation. Epic Fail.
for Senate!
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xtowelyx:I'm a little confused here. Does a counterfeit game play any different than an official game?
well it all depends...if it is a really good counterfeit it could possibly play just like the regular game, but many will either not work at all or have parts in the game that are very glitchy or have a part in the middle where the game will just stop working
xtowelyx: I'm a little confused here. Does a counterfeit game play any different than an official game?
As stated in the OP, this particular counterfeit wouldn't boot up.
The most typical difference is the internal battery. Whereas a genuine GBA game will save games for years, a counterfeit will lose it's saving ability much earlier, often within a few months. The big problem there is a user will check the game, see that it boots and plays, and then sends it off without checking on the ability to save.
On the fake Pokemon GBA games, I've been told that you can't transfer to Diamond/Pearl with them.
