Oddball GBC Variant? Bootleg? What is this?

[the_wizard_666]

*EDITED TO ADD A PHOTO *  So as I've been going through my collection, I discovered an odd item in my collection.  I have in my possession a copy of the GBC release of Battleship, with a seemingly legit box and manual, but a cart that looks, well, wrong.  It's a grey cartridge labeled "Game" instead of "Game Boy," which is normally an automatic bootleg cartridge, except that, well, it's a Majesco release, and I know they're not exactly known for their high quality wares.  The label looks a bit off, but better than a typical bootleg, which has me wondering if it's a bootleg that got put in a legit box, or if it's a case of Majesco cheaping out on a later print run.  I booted it up on both a Super Game Boy and a GBA SP, and it played the way it should have - stripped down for the Super Game Boy (as it is detected as an OG Game Boy by GBC carts) and plays the full enhanced graphics on the SP.  Opened the cart and it's just a chip with two black blobs, one on each side of the screw hole...not sure what a GBC board should look like but I'm not sure that's quite right.  But again, Majesco.  I'll post photos when I get to my PC, but I'm not sure if this is a variant or a bootleg in legit packaging.  I've been doing this a long time, and I've never stumbled on anything like this...bootlegs are typically in packaging that is obviously wrong, if there's any packaging at all.  Anyone have any ideas?

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[MetalFRO]

Any time you see a cartridge that says "GAME" at the top, instead of Game Boy, it's a bootleg, or at least a reshell. Being a GBC game in a gray shell is also suspect. The black blobs on the board are also a major red flag, and are typically signs of a bootleg. I'd say this is undoubtedly a bootleg copy, given all that. It also looks taller than it should be, which is an odd choice, given the relatively small size of the boards. Oh, and most GB games have a relatively square PCB. The shell is also missing the little nub toward the top/middle that helps hold the PCB in place.

[the_wizard_666]

The cart was definitely the red flag that said "bootleg," but being in a legit box and being Majesco kinda made me wonder.  And although I found evidence of legit boards with black blobs, they were all squared, not rounded like that, so yeah, I'm leaning bootleg too.  Just not sure why or how it ended up in a legit box with a legit manual.  Or why anyone would bother faking this game in the first place

Also, the height is just the angle...that and it was taken on a cell phone.  The cart is (mostly) the right size, although it fits a bit more snug than a normal cart.  As a side note though, the cart was actually held together better than a regular Game Boy cart.  There's a plastic tab in each corner that locks the cart together...took me a while to figure out where to pry it apart!  Oh, and it used a Phillips screw instead of a security bit.

Wonder if anyone ever bought one of these back in the day that can confirm if this actually came in a legit box or if this was pieced together somehow.  Would be interesting to hear from someone, although the odds are extremely slim that such a person would stumble on this.

[MetalFRO]

Probably a Chinese bootleg, not unlike a lot of what you see on AliExpress. I have a couple similar bootleg carts in my collection. I have a multicart that is an interesting piece, and then a Game Boy Color Spider-Man game in a gray cart, with a glossy label that is basically a printout of the front of the box, but with the rounded corners on the label. It's a fun one that I snagged at a game shop a few years back.

[the_wizard_666]

Well, the plus side is that I only have to track down a legit cart instead of a CIB

[MetalFRO]

That helps, yes!