Gaming Identifying Fake GBA games- A Useful FAQ

[DarkDante]

definitely real .
other case that the owner wants it to be fake for whatever reason

Lol stop teasing hahahahahaha Well yes is Real. I wanted to be sure, you are the experts.

 

[bixouille]

hi guys,
(sorry if my english is not very good)
i buy a lot of gba games (EUR version) and i'm very used to spot the fake ones, but the last game i've bought give me a lot of trouble and i don't really understand. Maybe you can help me.
These are two european versions of Castlevania Circle of the Moon, one seems to be a first edition (one the left), the second a newer edition.

The first one doesn't bother me, it is legit for me, no font problem, we see the number on it, everything is clean

And inside, we can see the LEGIT battery (it's one of a few first games that had battery)

And the other one....

No number, logos are a little blurry, "game boy advance" on top is emerging a bit...

And inside, it looks legit

Could this be a second version of the game to get rid of the battery ? How come the cartridge is not the same ? And no number on it ?

I don't understand and have not found anything about it, someone has an idea ?

Thanks

 

[Shadow#1]

hi guys,
(sorry if my english is not very good)
i buy a lot of gba games (EUR version) and i'm very used to spot the fake ones, but the last game i've bought give me a lot of trouble and i don't really understand. Maybe you can help me.
These are two european versions of Castlevania Circle of the Moon, one seems to be a first edition (one the left), the second a newer edition.

The first one doesn't bother me, it is legit for me, no font problem, we see the number on it, everything is clean

And inside, we can see the LEGIT battery (it's one of a few first games that had battery)

And the other one....

No number, logos are a little blurry, "game boy advance" on top is emerging a bit...

And inside, it looks legit

Could this be a second version of the game to get rid of the battery ? How come the cartridge is not the same ? And no number on it ?

I don't understand and have not found anything about it, someone has an idea ?

Thanks

Second set is fake bootleg

 

[migles]

hi guys,
(sorry if my english is not very good)
i buy a lot of gba games (EUR version) and i'm very used to spot the fake ones, but the last game i've bought give me a lot of trouble and i don't really understand. Maybe you can help me.
These are two european versions of Castlevania Circle of the Moon, one seems to be a first edition (one the left), the second a newer edition.

The first one doesn't bother me, it is legit for me, no font problem, we see the number on it, everything is clean

And inside, we can see the LEGIT battery (it's one of a few first games that had battery)

And the other one....

No number, logos are a little blurry, "game boy advance" on top is emerging a bit...

And inside, it looks legit

Could this be a second version of the game to get rid of the battery ? How come the cartridge is not the same ? And no number on it ?

I don't understand and have not found anything about it, someone has an idea ?

Thanks

This last cartridge is totally fake, that black circle round thing is glue that bootlegs use

 

[bixouille]

Ok, thanks for your answers !

 

[Shadow#1]

Ok, thanks for your answers !

Just a FYI Nintendo will NEVER use a gloptop

 

[bixouille]

duly noted !

 

[DarkDante]

duly noted !

Check my photos too I had the same answer and the guys helped me.

 

[Shadow#1]

Why 2 different revisions?

I dumped both rom hash match both scram save 256k

 

[FAST6191]

Nintendo did move from SRAM to FeRAM (which is pretty similar when all is said and done, save for not needing power to hold data) fairy early in the GBA lifetime. It appears you have an example of both in the same game. See also the silk screening saying SRAM on one and FRAM on the other.

 

[dci260]

I recently purchased some GBA games in bundles on ebay, but there are two that I came across (from different sellers) that I am unsure as to whether are real or not. These two games, Mario Kart Super Circuit & Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, both seem to be legit to me from the front, with numbers indented into the right side of each label (though not visible in the photos). The back also looks good to me, except for the fact that they each have a silver screw, my other carts' screws are gold. However, upon opening them, I noticed that the printing towards the bottom (year, nintendo, serial) is different from my other carts. The Nintendo logo is different and the year is missing entirely, so I'm not really sure as to their authenticity. I would appreciate it if anyone could let me know as to whether these are legit or not.



It won't let me link the pictures, claiming spam or inappropriate content, so I'm going to try to edit them into this post...

EDIT: Well, I feel like an idiot. I cannot for the life of me add any image or link to this post without it being considered spam/inappropriate. Perhaps it is a limitation for new users?

 

[FAST6191]

Going to need to see pictures. We have had cases cannibalised in the past (if a cart got broken, actually from the factory, if one edition is silly rare but the code is identical or something). Both those games are from very different times (mario kart was near release and 2001 where Kingdom Hearts was 2004/2005) so it is unlikely to both be just too early or late in the day and got a respin because of it. Does either have a battery? Mario Kart should not and Kingdom Hearts might but probably not.

I am not sure of the complete anti spam measures but probably is that. Can you try breaking the links such that we can fix them (the classic being hxxp://somesite.url ), or if they are uploaded to a common hosting platform then the unique part of the url and telling us what it is (random imgur link from my history http://imgur.com/a/qIdkj you would say go to imgur and a/qIdkj ).

 

[migles]

EDIT: Well, I feel like an idiot. I cannot for the life of me add any image or link to this post without it being considered spam/inappropriate. Perhaps it is a limitation for new users?

very likely.... usually there is plenty of spambots that try to be here, so rules had been reinforced...
you can't attach pictures? weird..
but post to imgur and just say "imgur slash XXXXXX"
post the last part of the link... we can figure it out

 

[dci260]

Okay, thank you both for the advice in bypassing the links. I did post this to reddit after my colossal fail in regards to linking photos, and someone told me that they happen to be legit, but a second opinion couldn't hurt...

Here's the links

Mario Kart Super Circuit
Front:
imgur /5SQbJq1
Back:
imgur /IDYF6MF
Inside:
imgur /egogjL4

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Front:
imgur /foI7MI4
Back:
imgur /7mDEyra
Inside:
imgur /gPx3Mjx

 

[migles]

Okay, thank you both for the advice in bypassing the links. I did post this to reddit after my colossal fail in regards to linking photos, and someone told me that they happen to be legit, but a second opinion couldn't hurt...

Here's the links

Mario Kart Super Circuit
Front:
imgur /5SQbJq1
Back:
imgur /IDYF6MF
Inside:
imgur /egogjL4

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Front:
imgur /foI7MI4
Back:
imgur /7mDEyra
Inside:
imgur /gPx3Mjx

both PCBs are the real deal.

 

[dci260]

both PCBs are the real deal.

Good to know, thank you. Do you happen to know why the printing at the bottom of the chip was different from my other carts?

Example -> imgur /vcY0BZs

 

[migles]

Good to know, thank you. Do you happen to know why the printing at the bottom of the chip was different from my other carts?

Example -> imgur /vcY0BZs

i noticed so much differences and some that "look bad" that i stopped caring for thoose... (the printing that is visible in the slot)
as long as it doesn't say nontiendo, or someting like that (bad spelled) don't think much about it
sometimes they are in gold\yellow, sometimes in white, i even seen different fonts...

the place you need to look is the PCB itself...
you see thoose gold squares? that's a great good way to tell if it's the real deal or fake.. so far didn't see a bootleg with thoose...
also, it has MX and SST chips which nintendo common used them... (there might be one or other brand as well, but i can't remember)
the board looks nice

 

[dci260]

i noticed so much differences and some that "look bad" that i stopped caring for thoose...
as long as it doesn't say nontiendo, or someting like that (bad spelled) don't think much about it
sometimes they are in gold\yellow, sometimes in white, i even seen different fonts...

the place you need to look is the PCB itself...
you see thoose gold squares? that's a great good way to tell if it's the real deal or fake.. so far didn't see a bootleg with thoose...
also, it has MX and SST chips which nintendo common used them... (there might be one or other brand as well, but i can't remember)
the board looks nice

I'll have to keep that all in mind, especially the gold squares. Anyway, thank you for all the help.

 

[migles]

I'll have to keep that all in mind, especially the gold squares. Anyway, thank you for all the help.

the gold squares protip is the easiest way for people who don't know what they are looking at lol...
heres examples of fake ones
https://www.dkoldies.com/product_images/uploaded_images/fake-gba-chip.jpg
https://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/n-pktq5q/ymgqt/product_images/uploaded_images/fake-gba-chip.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tz6BJxB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/g0kBSCE.jpg

 

[TimeMaster]

I recently ordered this Japanese Fire Red online from EBay, it works fine and I’ve been using it for a few days but a few things I noticed, the screw holding it together looks really new and the cartridge looks almost just taken out of the box. It has Nintendo on the motherboard but just wanted to post pics to see what you people think, thanks