Hello,
Recently I was going through my old GB/A collection from when I was younger, trying to discern which copies were bootlegs so I could replace them with real cartridges. I came across a few very obvious bootlegs that I got from trading with classmates at school and whatnot. I got my tri-wing screwdriver set out, cracked them open....and became absolutely confused as to what I was looking at.
First Bootleg
One of them looked like a completely normal PCB with a few modules (I didn't get a picture because it looked completely normal to me). The actual game on it is super weird though, it's some odd bootleg of a platforming game that has Pikachu in it? I took a recording, here it is:
I don't even know what the other characters are so I don't know what to google about it, frankly. I tried looking up "Pikachu GBA Bootleg" and a few other related queries but had no luck. If someone can identify it, that'd be great.
Second Bootleg
The second one was labelled as "Pokémon Lugia's Ocean Version" and I found some info online about how it was only sold physically and to this day there isn't an official .ips patch or anything.
No idea how any of my friends managed to get their hands on it, especially where I lived. That isn't what's bothering me, however. What's bothering me is that when I split it open, I found this:
For those who don't read Katakana, I'll translate:
ホクトノケン - Hokuto No Ken
キャラクラロム３ - Character ROM 3
So, basically, I said to myself, "That's funny, they named their bootleg chip or whatever after Fist of the North Star, ok" and kind of left it at that. I thought that "Hokuto No Ken" was the name of a line of burnable bootleg ROM chip. Kind of dumb of me to think that in retrospect...but whatever.
Third Bootleg
This one was a cartridge labelled "Pokémon Arcoiris" and had an image of Shadow Lugia on it. I looked online for a bit and found some guys who were discussing that they found it at a flea market years ago, but nothing really concrete as to its origin. In any case, I split it open and took a look.
マジカルハロウィンJC - Magical Halloween JC
サブS-ROM - Sabu [sub?] S-ROM
Wait a second...Magical Halloween? I've seen those pachinko machines in places in Shinjuku and Doutonbori...
What gives?
Then I realized that since both of these ROM chips were labelled with existing commercial properties, I started to think that maybe these were real GBA games that were then trashed and just overwritten. So I looked up how many of these games there were so I could match them, and get this:
There are no Hokuto No Ken/Fist of the North Star games for GBA.
There are no Magical Halloween games for the GBA.
So...what the heck are these chips, then? I have no idea what I'm looking at and I would love to know. They've been in my collection for over a decade at this point and I'd love to identify more about them.
In addition,
1. I'd like to make legit, distributable .IPS patches of these carts that I have, as well as some other bootlegs. But I have no way of dumping GBA carts at the moment. What's the cheapest way to cleanly dump GBA ROMS?
2. Does anyone know the "ground zero" for these cartridges?
3. Where the heck did these modules come from on the PCB?
Thanks.
Recently I was going through my old GB/A collection from when I was younger, trying to discern which copies were bootlegs so I could replace them with real cartridges. I came across a few very obvious bootlegs that I got from trading with classmates at school and whatnot. I got my tri-wing screwdriver set out, cracked them open....and became absolutely confused as to what I was looking at.
First Bootleg
One of them looked like a completely normal PCB with a few modules (I didn't get a picture because it looked completely normal to me). The actual game on it is super weird though, it's some odd bootleg of a platforming game that has Pikachu in it? I took a recording, here it is:
I don't even know what the other characters are so I don't know what to google about it, frankly. I tried looking up "Pikachu GBA Bootleg" and a few other related queries but had no luck. If someone can identify it, that'd be great.
Second Bootleg
The second one was labelled as "Pokémon Lugia's Ocean Version" and I found some info online about how it was only sold physically and to this day there isn't an official .ips patch or anything.
No idea how any of my friends managed to get their hands on it, especially where I lived. That isn't what's bothering me, however. What's bothering me is that when I split it open, I found this:
For those who don't read Katakana, I'll translate:
ホクトノケン - Hokuto No Ken
キャラクラロム３ - Character ROM 3
So, basically, I said to myself, "That's funny, they named their bootleg chip or whatever after Fist of the North Star, ok" and kind of left it at that. I thought that "Hokuto No Ken" was the name of a line of burnable bootleg ROM chip. Kind of dumb of me to think that in retrospect...but whatever.
Third Bootleg
This one was a cartridge labelled "Pokémon Arcoiris" and had an image of Shadow Lugia on it. I looked online for a bit and found some guys who were discussing that they found it at a flea market years ago, but nothing really concrete as to its origin. In any case, I split it open and took a look.
マジカルハロウィンJC - Magical Halloween JC
サブS-ROM - Sabu [sub?] S-ROM
Wait a second...Magical Halloween? I've seen those pachinko machines in places in Shinjuku and Doutonbori...
What gives?
Then I realized that since both of these ROM chips were labelled with existing commercial properties, I started to think that maybe these were real GBA games that were then trashed and just overwritten. So I looked up how many of these games there were so I could match them, and get this:
There are no Hokuto No Ken/Fist of the North Star games for GBA.
There are no Magical Halloween games for the GBA.
So...what the heck are these chips, then? I have no idea what I'm looking at and I would love to know. They've been in my collection for over a decade at this point and I'd love to identify more about them.
In addition,
1. I'd like to make legit, distributable .IPS patches of these carts that I have, as well as some other bootlegs. But I have no way of dumping GBA carts at the moment. What's the cheapest way to cleanly dump GBA ROMS?
2. Does anyone know the "ground zero" for these cartridges?
3. Where the heck did these modules come from on the PCB?
Thanks.
![20210322_090516[1].jpg](https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/252/252792-3009b3b6faca59ba75a0466118205f6b.jpg "20210322_090516[1].jpg")
