noiseredux vs.

Posted on Jun 15th 2010 at 05:30:03 PM by (noiseredux)
Posted under Game Boy Advance, GBA, Bootlegs

Since I've been keeping the Game Boy Player Land blog, I've gotten a fair share of messages sent to me with various Game Boy related questions and comments. I love this sort of thing. People might send me a heads up on a rare cart popping up on eBay at a good price, or let me know about a title I've never heard of that I might like. Other times I get questions about various accessories, or technical specs, or similar subjects related to the Game Boy line. However the other day I got a really interesting message that got me thinking that I should share some information here for everybody who may have similar questions.

Here's a quote:

...something I need your help with.

I was very excited to find this at Gamestop and not so excited when I got home. Final Fantasy VI Advance. It has a completely different label on it. I thought it looked weird, but I didn't know what it was supposed to look like. If you study the case hard enough you can notice very small differences. It looks like a professional reprint or whatever you want to call it. The chip inside looks different than I've seen before, but I'm no expert on GBA games. I've only opened a few. It does have Nintendo printed on the chip. Anyway I've included photos. Mainly curious to see if the chip is legit. I'll probably return it either way. Let me know what your input is on it. Thanks a ton!

I no longer have my GBA, so I'll have to wait until I get my Gamecube hooked up before I can test it.

Thanks for the help! Take care!

Best Regards,
Dale


Dale was also thoughtful enough to take some very good pictures of his Final Fantasy Advance VI cart for my inspection, which he was nice enough to give me permission to use in this post:

[img width=300 height=200]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab324/l0whit07/Stuff%20For%20Sale/FinalFantasy6label.jpg?t=1276379148[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab324/l0whit07/Stuff%20For%20Sale/finalfantasy6insides.jpg?t=1276379311[/img]

Now right away the label on the cartridge gave me cause for alarm. Every single copy of every installment of the Final Fantasy Advance series that I've ever happened upon has been the same plain-Jane black-text-on-white label. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is a bootleg cartridge. Of course there exists limited edition releases, promotional copies, imports, etc. I'm certainly not going to pretend that I've seen every GBA cart in existence.

But that brought me to my first real red flag. I've gotten many messages in the past where people have shown me a picture of a GBA cart label that has Japanese text on it and asked if I could figure out what game it might be. And that's always a breeze. You see every cart has an AGB number on it. The AGB number is like a game's specific catalog number which can very easily be Googled. It's as easy as that.

Example, when I type AGB-AKWE-USA-1 into Google, the first thing that pops up is Konami Krazy Racers. Similarly, when I typed in AGB-ALLE-USA and expected to get Lunar Legend for my example, instead I learned that my copy of Lunar Legend is a bootleg that had fooled me until now.

Which brings me to my next item to look for. Once I realized that the AGB number on my Lunar Legend cart brought up nothing, I flipped the cart over and looked at the chip board under a bright light. Sure enough, the little green board did not say Nintendo. Generally this is a quick and easy test. However, this isn't always the case. Check out that picture above that Dale took of his Final Fantasy VI chip board. You can see that it actually does say Nintendo. And right next to it is an AGB number, which by the way was how I figured out for sure that his cart was a bootleg. Googling AGB-E06-02 brought up a Yahoo! Answers thread about a copy of Pokemon Emerald bought off eBay that -- sure enough -- turned out to be a bootleg.

And what was the telltale sign for our Yahoo! Answers Pokemon Emerald victim? The damn game won't save! That's a very common problem with GBA bootlegs. And in my opinion, it's the biggest problem with them. There's many collectors out there who feel ripped off because they're not getting the official Nintendo-approved product. To be honest, that's not my issue. Sure I enjoy finding a complete-in-box game, but it's not necessary. I have many cart-only games as I'm generally pretty cheap and I'll take what I can get. But if a game won't save, that makes me furious. Especially if it won't save because it's a fake. I should point out that my (apparently bootleg) copy of Lunar Legend saves just fine. Perhaps some bootlegs are of higher quality than others? But who knows how long it'll keep its saves for.

If you're a collector and feel concerned that a game you're after on eBay or at the local flea market might be a bootleg here's a few tips and pointers to help you get better at spotting phony carts in the wild.

First, a few pictures taken from Nintendo's own website on Anti-Piracy, found at http://ap.nintendo.com/de...hotos/gameboy_advance.jsp:

Real:
[img width=425 height=125]http://imgur.com/n4OMl.jpg[/img]

Fake:
[img width=425 height=128]http://imgur.com/uTmj6.jpg[/img]

Real:
[img width=425 height=126]http://imgur.com/9OZXd.jpg[/img]

Fake:
[img width=425 height=126]http://imgur.com/ho8va.jpg[/img]

Notice the poor quality of the labels, especially in the case of Super Mario World. This is similar to the weird "fiery" version of Dale's Final Fantasy Advance VI above. But of course, this -- like all of the signs -- are not always present. Such as the case with my Lunar Legend. The label on that cart was very convincing.

Another helpful guide is found on eBay itself, since so many bootlegs carts seem to get distributed there, either knowingly or unknowingly. The full text can be found at http://reviews.ebay.com/B...0QQugidZ10000000000991496 and much like the Nintendo guide, it offers up similar pictures to compare.

[img width=200 height=149]http://imgur.com/bwdN3.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=149]http://imgur.com/qVYuD.jpg[/img]

[img width=200 height=148]http://imgur.com/WmzEY.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=149]http://imgur.com/aGztF.jpg[/img]

Perhaps you noticed that both the Nintendo guide and the eBay guide both used Golden Sun as an example? That brings us to another valid point. Generally, the more popular the game, the more likely it is that it would get bootlegged. That is to say that there are far more Zelda bootlegs floating around out there than there are Urban Yeti fakes. So keep that in mind when you're out hunting for the classics.

Using the info that I've posted here, as well as the linked articles you should get a lot better at spotting fakes. But you'll also figure out that it's not always quick and easy to notice them. Many boot-jobs are rather well done, and can fool you until you really take the time to inspect it. Case-in-point, my Lunar Legend bootleg that revealed itself to me while writing this very post.

Oh, and if you're wondering how our friend Dale made out with his Final Fantasy VI bootleg that he unwittingly purchased, he sent me this update message just as I was finishing up this post:

Well I took the FFVI game back. I took it to a GS I've never been to before. I went there cause I had to pick up MGS: Twin Snakes. Anyway the people there were really cool about it. They were like "that is definitely a bootleg". They said it was a shame since it was such a good game. I was happy they didn't hassle me about it though.

Also... I think this copy is a little better than the other one.


[img width=640 height=480]http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab324/l0whit07/Stuff%20For%20Sale/FFVI.jpg?t=1276565154[/img]


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Comments
 
Good read, going to have to start paying closer attention when purchasing GBA games now... and look through my small collection when I get home.
 
Great write-up.

Last time I visited the flea market I saw some GBA bootlegs myself. They had some of the Pokémon games, as well as Donkey Kong Land/Country (not sure of the title). I found them easy to spot because the labels were of poor quality, and the Donkey Kong one was stretched similar to the SMB2 example in your article.
 
Excellent write up.

More bootlegs here for various Nintendo systems:
http://reviews.ebay.com.au/FAKE-Nintendo-Games-Comprehensive-Guide-with-Photo-apos-s_W0QQugidZ10000000003498747

I found this while trying to find a image of my bootleg PKMN Ruby version.
It is actually nearly identical to the bootleg ruby in there. The difference is mine has japanese text and the cart is a slightly lighter color.

 
I got a bootleg copy of Double Dragon Advance. It looked pretty legit until the screen before the title said something about a big glass of orange juice.
 
@Silent Scythe: WTF? Weird.
 
Huh. It also looks like the counterfeit carts use batteries to maintain the saves, while legitimate carts use Flash RAM for the saves.
 
Excelent article - because I leave in Romania (so close to Turkey, and a entry point in the UE for chinese emigrants) I find bootlegs in the wild all the time, there are some stores here that sells bootleg games for original game prices with a little discount if you buy more that one.

When I start collecting video games (in 2005) I usualy looked for cheaper games, and then I've tryed to spot the bootlegs for GBA and GBC witch where available on the market, until now I never saw a bootleg GBA card  that have Nintendo logo un the PCB, but seems that everything is posible, of course if you have a train eye you can spot the bad graphic on the cart, and the bad cut (especialy on the corners of the sticker - too round - ) and of course the bad print on the sticker, the normal screw in the back (usualy masked by a waranty sticker) - some times that the cart is too thick or too big to enter in the GBA slot without a little struggle -

I just hate this pirated carts that let you down (loose the save) when you are at the end of the game - and I hope that guides like this will become more and more used by users worldwide - to stop this kind of piracy (better play a ROM in a flashcard that play this shitty cards)



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