**updated with pics**How can you tell if a GBA game is pirated

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matyou

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I saw another topic here asking if GBAstore.com was a good place to order from. Someone replied saying they sell pirated carts. Before this topic was created my brother ordered a couple imports from them and they came no problem. I went to his place to check them out and everything looked real to me. The cart itself looked real and the game sticker was just as high quality as any other game. The Box and instructions also looked real. I could see nothing to suggest it was a pirated cart. I went ahead and ordered a couple games myself (mr driller a for 14.99 and Harvest moon friends of mineral town (US) for 17.99.)

So my question is, how can you tell a pirated GBA game. AFter seeing his games i'm not convinced they are pirated. The saying goes "real until proven pirated"
 
Quick note - There are pirates, and then there are imports. Certain imports have english language, etc... but are still cheaper BECAUSE they're imports (didn't sell well overseas, or were overproduced).

Pirates, in general, will NOT have an official nintendo seal on them.
 
Wow. Those are good prices, especially for the newer Castlevania games (15-20)... I'd be suspicious too. But then again, Overstock was selling Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for 15 bucks. As far as pirated carts go, I've never seen one, but I doubt a perfect pirated cart existed.. I don't think you can just get GBA cart casing (the plastic part) anywhere unless you actually were to dismantle one cart and put a flash rom into it. In other words, it would really just be a waste of time. So they're probably legit. Please let me know when you receive your games and post some pics if you can. I'd want to order the Castlevania games if it turns out to be a legit site.
 
Pirate games can look almost identicle. One of the give aways is that some of them say Nintondo or something on the cart or box. Go into the store knowing excactly what the games sticker and box already look like and check for suttle differences. Most pirate games use battery memory instead of the newer technology, so its always better to buy the real thing.
 
[quote name='sylentwulf']Quick note - There are pirates, and then there are imports. Certain imports have english language, etc... but are still cheaper BECAUSE they're imports (didn't sell well overseas, or were overproduced).

Pirates, in general, will NOT have an official nintendo seal on them.[/quote]

They're selling Japanese imports and US games as well.
 
- How to recognize a genuine GBA cartridge
Counterfeit pirate GBA carts are very common, particularly in parts of Asia (where genuine carts can be very hard to find) South America, eBay, and even American second hand stores. Luckily there is a surefire way to recognise a genuine cart. At the edge of the cartridge connectors the word "Nintendo", a copyright year, and a serial number is printed. This is never present on counterfeit carts, or flash cards for that matter. It can easily be spotted by holding the cartridge under a lamp and tilt it to look inside.

Found from Google search "gba pirate cart faq"
 
What I do find funny is that if you look at the US games you will see thay have Pokemon Leaf Green. Has an english version of this game been released yet. Pokemon Ruby also has a different name on their site as well(too lazy to check rigth now, lunchtime).
 
pirated gba carts dont fit right in the gba. Otherwise they work fine. i got a castlevania off of ebay for cheap and when it came the cart didnt fit the same into the gba like normal nintendo carts. it also had a darker color to the cartridge. The carts work fine, but it sucks to have a pirated game.
 
matyou, I have no idea. I've never owned nor played a GBA and I know very little about them. I just did a quick search and found that.
 
I can generally tell if my cart is a pirate. The first thing I look for is an eye patch. If it doesn't have that, a hook for a hand or a peg leg is another dead givaway. Hope this helps!
 
[quote name='unctennis122']pirated gba carts dont fit right in the gba. Otherwise they work fine. i got a castlevania off of ebay for cheap and when it came the cart didnt fit the same into the gba like normal nintendo carts. it also had a darker color to the cartridge. The carts work fine, but it sucks to have a pirated game.[/quote]

It may work fine, but often a pirated game has a crappy battery for the save feature so chances are you will lose your saved data for no reason.
 
Pirated GBA games fit kind of weird as said above and if you look at the Nintendo logo on the back you'll notice the circle around Nintendo is bigger than usual and teh Nintendo text will be bolder.
 
[quote name='unctennis122']pirated gba carts dont fit right in the gba. Otherwise they work fine. i got a castlevania off of ebay for cheap and when it came the cart didnt fit the same into the gba like normal nintendo carts. it also had a darker color to the cartridge. The carts work fine, but it sucks to have a pirated game.[/quote]

yea~ I bought from gbastore too and i was getting my games nice and fast :lol: actually i got my peral pink SP from them too~ pretty and shinny~ :oops:

do not buy from eBay, i tried 2 times and got cheated and ripped off, i will never buy there again~ :cry: the sellers are kinda fake, the reviews/comments for the seller is mostly fake too.. sth like 'A+++++++++++' what the hell~? so obviously fake. anyway, even tho the ebay prices are low, but i wouldn't bother again~ :?
 
Ebay is flooded with pirated GBA carts, and they don't care. One day perhaps it will come back to bite them in the ass. Anyway, for those of you who profess not to care about getting a pirated cart, remember that destroys most resale value it would retain. No collector will want a pirated cart. No player in their right mind would want a pirated cart with a cheap battery that will crap out in a few months, either.
 
yea ive actually seen on of those nintondo castlevania carts....looks like it works fine but doesnt fit in gbasp as other games do.
 
ya man, i got 'nintondo' carts from ebay, and obviously those are pirates with no questions~ so i don't suggest anyone buy from there even the prices are low in ebay
 
you guys still want me to post pics when I get the games? If so can you insert them into a post or do they need to be hosted on the web. If hosting is needed would someone do that for me if I email the pics. Or if there is some free pic hosting site, I will do it myself. Thanks.
 
I can host them. Take a pic of the actual board at the bottom. See if it says Nintendo on it.
pokesaphboard.jpg
 
i got a few pirated games off of ebay i got 2 new games that just came out for 25 for the both they came from hong kong they usally dont have any of the normal labels on the like gba carts usally do they have nothing about develpoer and pusblier and usally dont have licensed by nintendo. and the label looks like it was printed out of a printer.
 
Supernothing, I will take the best pics I can...the pic you show in your post looks like they took the cartridge apart, which i cannot do because I don't have the tool to unscrew the funny shaped screw. PM your email address and I will email them next week. Says it takes 7 to 12 days to ship and I ordered on Saturday, so I'll be lucky if I get them before the weekend. I did receive notification that they shipped on Sunday.
 
I think it varies with the game save battery issue. My copy of FFTA is clearly pirated, and I really didn't care. Got it for 15 bucks when it was selling for 35 everywhere else. When I was all done with it, completing the 300+ missions you could do, I had over a hundred hours of gameplay logged. The game save feature/battery never once crapped out on me, and still doesn't to this day.

But I would still caution people :D My experience is probably better than most.
 
I've had the hardest time finding a copy of Castlevania: HoD at my local EBs. All their used copies are pirated! The clerks look at me like I'm insane when I ask to look at the cartridge, but what the hell. I want the real deal!

I've recently concluded a transaction for one on ebay with an American seller. He swears that it's legit, but I guess we'll have to see.
 
Yea i got a few games from ebay, the guy said he lived in the usa, and the games came from china. The cart only games didn't look to bad, i gave them to my little cousin's they can't tell if the game is fake or not. But it was still a waste spending $10 on fake carts that probably cost them like $2 to make.
 
[quote name='tribulations']I think it varies with the game save battery issue. My copy of FFTA is clearly pirated, and I really didn't care. Got it for 15 bucks when it was selling for 35 everywhere else. When I was all done with it, completing the 300+ missions you could do, I had over a hundred hours of gameplay logged. The game save feature/battery never once crapped out on me, and still doesn't to this day.

But I would still caution people :D My experience is probably better than most.[/quote]

for the 5 games i got from ebay previously, they don't really have any problems except they are kinda loose when you insert to the SP console (not sure for GBA cus I don't have one)..but the the caritages are marked as 'nintondo' not 'nintendo' on the back.
 
[quote name='toocool17']Yea i got a few games from ebay, the guy said he lived in the usa, and the games came from china. The cart only games didn't look to bad, i gave them to my little cousin's they can't tell if the game is fake or not. But it was still a waste spending $10 on fake carts that probably cost them like $2 to make.[/quote]

ebay is flooded with pirate copies and it is kinda pointless to bother as long as you don't buy there :wink:
 
Okay I took a few pictures of my own games to see if it'll help you, I wish they were better but they;re the best I could do. For one thing The Mr. Driller looks okay to me but the Harvest Moon feels weird because of the text on the back of the box (a couple of misplaced spacings) and the Japanese screen shot. But any way:

-On the right edge of the lable on both japanese and American carts there should be a number pressed into it. Bootlegs tend to forego these.

GTA advance (22, Japanese)
gba01.jpg

Megaman & Bass (13)
gba02.jpg


-Here's another: the carts made by bootleggers arn't as sharp as real GBA carts because they have to make molds to copy the carts (not like there's some place they can buy the official shells!) This is why some bootlegs dont fit right.

Castlevania: HoD (19 it's on his cheek)
gba03.jpg

bootleg multigame cart (no number!)
gba04.jpg

If you look closely the words "GameBoy Advance" look kinda mushy and not as sharp and the edges of the shell arnt as well defined with the grainy texture.

Hope this helps some!
 
I bought what turned out to be a pirate Metroid Fusion a while back from Ebay. I got cart only for a very low price and I didn't realize it was bootleg at first. After I did realize a few weeks later when I saw the real cart at EB the seller didn't answer. I gave negative f/b but it wasn't worth pursuing further.

The cartridge fit fine....but as far as what everyone is saying about the battery and the quality in general...it's 100% true. I didn't play the game for a month or two and when I booted it back up one day my saves were gone. Then I tried saving a new game and realized the battery was shot. Had to junk it and got a complete copy used at EB (a rare find nowadays.) If you get stuck with one by accident then there might not be much you can do, but by all means NEVER buy a pirate copy of any game on purpose....nevermind the legal/moral aspects...what you're buying is cheap crap...
 
I think there are two versions of Mr. Driller A, the Japanese version and an Asian version. I found this site that has pics of legit Japanese carts, heres Mr Driller A's page...

http://www.j-db.org/jdb.php?page=game_info&code=ad5j

ad5j.jpg


Thats supposedly a legit copy of the game. I myself have a legit copy of Kururin Paradise, so if anyone has ordered that from gbastore, please post a pic.

Notice how the legit one is more spread on, there is no white text and the namco logo is moved. I don't know what to believe anymore~!



EDIT- BTW, I just looked at my bros girlfriends copy of Harvest Moon FOMT, it looks way different then the one posted. I'll tell you now that the legit one has a blue cloudy background. I'll take a pic of it when I get some time.
 
wow, you guys are pretty into these details thingy~ :roll: i bought around 15 gba games from them too, and they all look good and fine for me :wink: i am not gonna waste time on taking pics and get the hosted and posted~ anyway, the pics showing there are pretty nice and I think they are fine just as the ones I got :wink: and yea jshorr, what you get from eBay will all be pirate copies, as i said previously, don't ever try to buy gba games on ebay, unless you want to get pirate games :lol:
 
First I want to thank Supernothing for hosting these pics for me. You rock dude. Does anyone notice anything about the back of the US version of the harvest moon box??? (look at the screenshots).
 
Now that you mention it, the pics have an odd logo.

On the real front of the box Serious Fun is in black font, the Natsume logo doesn't cover the chick as much either. Here is a legit pic of it from amazon.com, cept it lacks the normal shading by the GBA thing...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000A03CT.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

On the real box there are only 2 pics, one of a girl saying Thank you !, the other has the boy behind a cow with a heart.

The real back also says AGB P A4NE instead of AGB P A3HE and the SKU is different.

The real box also doesn't have the art of the boy fishing. Instead it is just a bunch of text saying....

Its time to go back to the farm!
As a child you spent a memorable summer on a farm in the country....

it goes on and ends at create your own pastoral adventure!

Then it says that you can use your GCN/GBA link cable to connect to A Wonderful Life as well as play minigames and grow vegetables.

This box doesn't even have the publishers information, which is on the back. It should have the following...

1818 GILBRETH RD. SUITE 229
BURLINGAME, CA 94010

Harvest Moon, Natsume and Serious Fun are registered trademarks of Natsume Inc. C 2003
Natsume Inc. C 2003 Victor Interactive Software.
All Rights Reserved.

Then it has the LICENSED BY NINTENDO stuff.

Here is a pic of what I believe is the European version of the game...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=48454&item=8113091112&rd=1


Hope this helps proves that your game is pirated.
[/img]
 
[quote name='Gosha']Now that you mention it, the pics have an odd logo.


This box doesn't even have the publishers information, which is on the back. It should have the following...

1818 GILBRETH RD. SUITE 229
BURLINGAME, CA 94010

Harvest Moon, Natsume and Serious Fun are registered trademarks of Natsume Inc. C 2003
Natsume Inc. C 2003 Victor Interactive Software.
All Rights Reserved.

Then it has the LICENSED BY NINTENDO stuff.

[/img][/quote]

excuse me~ you think the whole planet Earth's GBA games are produced with the address above~? which is showing on the particular one that you owned and bought in US~? :lol: holy stupid~ don't mess this up, the game is originally in Japanese, it just got translated and produced in English. by the way, the word Nintendo 任天堂 is in Japanese too, you kids should probably messed up in your minds thinking it is a US company now. by those printings on boxes (which will vary from different manufacturers over the world) and you are claimining them as copies, then you know what, ALL english translated japanese games in north america are ALL copies~ so as all the other games on other consoles~ anyway~ maybe now you should go count how many hairs, shall there be any, around your penis now~ as you are so bored :lol:
 
I actually buy and sell on Ebay all the time, and this was my only problem with piracy. I know what to look for now: I never buy anything from a sell outside the US, Canada (sometimes UK or other W. European Country.) Avoid Hong Kong and Malaysia most of all! By now I can easily tell the difference between an original and a pirate auction. Just check the feedback, if it's a pirate seller there will be mixed in with positive feedbacks some people with neg feedbacks complaining about the bootleg's.


[quote name='CarmenJubei']wow, you guys are pretty into these details thingy~ :roll: i bought around 15 gba games from them too, and they all look good and fine for me :wink: i am not gonna waste time on taking pics and get the hosted and posted~ anyway, the pics showing there are pretty nice and I think they are fine just as the ones I got :wink: and yea jshorr, what you get from eBay will all be pirate copies, as i said previously, don't ever try to buy gba games on ebay, unless you want to get pirate games :lol:[/quote]
 
CarmenJubei, the thing is, that is supposed to be the US version of the game. The US version was only published by the people I listed earlier. I don't know why your getting so mad about us trying to prove that these are bootlegs.

I think we all know that legit games are all copies, this is the way media works for everything.

I'm just trying to help matyou and others who order this stuff because it is a waste of money. By paying these bootleggers, you aren't supporting the developement teams plus many bootlegs don't work as well. I wouldn't want to pay money for something bootlegged.

Its just like Hong Kong silver PS2 games in China, they are rampant. This is a whole other issue though.
 
[quote name='jshorr']I actually buy and sell on Ebay all the time, and this was my only problem with piracy. I know what to look for now: I never buy anything from a sell outside the US, Canada (sometimes UK or other W. European Country.) Avoid Hong Kong and Malaysia most of all! By now I can easily tell the difference between an original and a pirate auction. Just check the feedback, if it's a pirate seller there will be mixed in with positive feedbacks some people with neg feedbacks complaining about the bootleg's.


[quote name='CarmenJubei']wow, you guys are pretty into these details thingy~ :roll: i bought around 15 gba games from them too, and they all look good and fine for me :wink: i am not gonna waste time on taking pics and get the hosted and posted~ anyway, the pics showing there are pretty nice and I think they are fine just as the ones I got :wink: and yea jshorr, what you get from eBay will all be pirate copies, as i said previously, don't ever try to buy gba games on ebay, unless you want to get pirate games :lol:[/quote][/quote]

hum, not really, as some of my friends told me that some US sellers in eBay are actually getting their GBA games from China directly, with very low cost, and selling them on eBay as a US seller. I think what you said about considering location is not really a solution of not getting pirate copies from eBay. The price, however, will tell you the difference. For a game like GBA Shrek 2, they are selling it with a start bid of $8.99 or sth like that!! there are US and Canada sellers for that as well, and so obvious that they are bootlegs. They just somehow got their games from China and resell them on the web as if they were from US :wink:
 
[quote name='CarmenJubei'][quote name='jshorr']I actually buy and sell on Ebay all the time, and this was my only problem with piracy. I know what to look for now: I never buy anything from a sell outside the US, Canada (sometimes UK or other W. European Country.) Avoid Hong Kong and Malaysia most of all! By now I can easily tell the difference between an original and a pirate auction. Just check the feedback, if it's a pirate seller there will be mixed in with positive feedbacks some people with neg feedbacks complaining about the bootleg's.


[quote name='CarmenJubei']wow, you guys are pretty into these details thingy~ :roll: i bought around 15 gba games from them too, and they all look good and fine for me :wink: i am not gonna waste time on taking pics and get the hosted and posted~ anyway, the pics showing there are pretty nice and I think they are fine just as the ones I got :wink: and yea jshorr, what you get from eBay will all be pirate copies, as i said previously, don't ever try to buy gba games on ebay, unless you want to get pirate games :lol:[/quote][/quote]

hum, not really, as some of my friends told me that some US sellers in eBay are actually getting their GBA games from China directly, with very low cost, and selling them on eBay as a US seller. I think what you said about considering location is not really a solution of not getting pirate copies from eBay. The price, however, will tell you the difference. For a game like GBA Shrek 2, they are selling it with a start bid of $8.99 or sth like that!! there are US and Canada sellers for that as well, and so obvious that they are bootlegs. They just somehow got their games from China and resell them on the web as if they were from US :wink:[/quote]

exactly what i was thinking...i was thinking since some ppl only buy from U.S. ebayers...some us ebayers may buy from the bootleggers and sell them to other ppl who think that the Us ebayers are sellin legit copies :x
 
[quote name='swetooth9'][quote name='CarmenJubei'][quote name='jshorr']I actually buy and sell on Ebay all the time, and this was my only problem with piracy. I know what to look for now: I never buy anything from a sell outside the US, Canada (sometimes UK or other W. European Country.) Avoid Hong Kong and Malaysia most of all! By now I can easily tell the difference between an original and a pirate auction. Just check the feedback, if it's a pirate seller there will be mixed in with positive feedbacks some people with neg feedbacks complaining about the bootleg's.


[quote name='CarmenJubei']wow, you guys are pretty into these details thingy~ :roll: i bought around 15 gba games from them too, and they all look good and fine for me :wink: i am not gonna waste time on taking pics and get the hosted and posted~ anyway, the pics showing there are pretty nice and I think they are fine just as the ones I got :wink: and yea jshorr, what you get from eBay will all be pirate copies, as i said previously, don't ever try to buy gba games on ebay, unless you want to get pirate games :lol:[/quote][/quote]

hum, not really, as some of my friends told me that some US sellers in eBay are actually getting their GBA games from China directly, with very low cost, and selling them on eBay as a US seller. I think what you said about considering location is not really a solution of not getting pirate copies from eBay. The price, however, will tell you the difference. For a game like GBA Shrek 2, they are selling it with a start bid of $8.99 or sth like that!! there are US and Canada sellers for that as well, and so obvious that they are bootlegs. They just somehow got their games from China and resell them on the web as if they were from US :wink:[/quote]

exactly what i was thinking...i was thinking since some ppl only buy from U.S. ebayers...some us ebayers may buy from the bootleggers and sell them to other ppl who think that the Us ebayers are sellin legit copies :x[/quote]

very true and indeed, it is true. as my friends are telling me that cus they did get pirate copies from the US eBay sellers. again just as what I have suggested, never buy from eBay for GBA games, unless you want cheap prices for bootlegs. I never heard anyone, or from my own experiences from buying at eBay, that they ever got any legit copies up there. eBay is flooded with pirate copies, no matter what regions are the sellers reside
 
well...ppl MAY be able to get legit copies if the seller provides a pic (which is a pic of a LEGIT copy of course ;)) and specifies that the pic is of the actual product...
 
[quote name='swetooth9']well...ppl MAY be able to get legit copies if the seller provides a pic (which is a pic of a LEGIT copy of course ;)) and specifies that the pic is of the actual product...[/quote]

I think it is not worth to take such risks~ and who knows that will actually be the pic of the actual product~? if anyone ever got a legit copy from eBay at a bootleg price, please let us know~ :wink:
 
Come on people, nobody notices anything strange about the screenshots on the back of the harvest moon box? I made the picture big so you could see them. If no one notices I will divulge my findings a little later.
 
I purchased Friends of Mineral Town at EBGames.com in February. The front of the boxes look identical, however, the backs are quite different. The Engrish description, different UPCs and ESRB, as well as the incorrect "GBA Link Cable" instead of the "Nintendo Gamecube Compatible" logo in the upper right leave me a little suspicious.

Here's the back of my box (I assume this one is legit):

harvest_moon_box_back.jpg


Here's the one you posted:

matyou2.jpg
 
as i said, different manufacturers will probably have different prinitings at the back for different info~ I am sure you will find it different again when comparing a europe copy with a singapore copy and so forth~ nice works kids, maybe it is the time for you to figure out why color red is called red, and why the universe actually exist now, lol
 
I got a few pirtated carts from ebay I will never do that again as It took me 6 weeks to get my item. and they work half the time sometime I have to smack them in my hand for them to work getting a Gba pirate game off of ebay is like playing dice most of the time you have about 50% shot of getting your game I would just fork over the 30 bucks for a new game beat it and then sell it or trade it in.
 
OK, OK what I noticed is that the screenshots on the back of my harvest moon box have japanese text. Guess there are not eagly eyes out there.
 
[quote name='matyou']Come on people, nobody notices anything strange about the screenshots on the back of the harvest moon box? I made the picture big so you could see them. If no one notices I will divulge my findings a little later.[/quote]

Alpha2 already commented on this immediately after your pics were posted.

"For one thing The Mr. Driller looks okay to me but the Harvest Moon feels weird because of the text on the back of the box (a couple of misplaced spacings) and the Japanese screen shot."
 
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