A Guide: Are Your GBA Games Bootleg?

Before you start bidding for a GBA game on Ebay, consider this information. GBA bootlegging is becoming a notorious problem on Ebay, so I compiled a small presentation on how to spot the bootlegs:

The most obvious identifier is the wrong label on the game. If you get a GBA game on ebay, make sure that the correct labels are on there. Here, the Fusion and CastleVania labels are incorrect.

Secondly, many bootlegs have the wrong color plastic made for their carts. You can see that the CastleVania cartridge color is slightly darker than the legitimate Zelda cart.

Third, legit GBA carts actually have a small number imprinted on the label. This is usually only visible by reflecting some light off the label and looking closely at it. Bootleg GBA carts don't often have these imprinted labels.

Here are two photos of the Gameboy Advance logo at the top on the front of GBA carts. You can see that the bootlegged cart has a noticeably different style to it - smaller font, and it has a very obvious circle around the text. It is usually imprinted deeper than the legit logos, too.

Here are two photos of the 'grips' at the top of GBA carts. As you can see, legitimate GBA carts' grips smoothly dissappear into the plastic. The bootleg carts' grips almost always end abruptly in a sharp corner, as shown.

Probably the second most obvious way to tell if a GBA cart is bootlegged is by looking at the back side of it. Bootleg carts will not have the Pat.Pend or Made in Japan text imprinted, and the model number will be in the wrong font. Furthermore, the Nintendo logo is also slightly wrong, and in some cases (as shown) misspelled. Lastly, the bootlegs have a deeper indentation of this information on back.

Lastly, most GBA bootlegs come from Sellers in Hong Kong, China, and otherwise come with no manual or box. So if you find a good deal on a game, and it comes without a manual or box and the Seller is from China - check for these above listed signs for bootlegs.

Ebay GBA bootlegs may have any combination of the above boot-leg identifiers. Most, however, are only identifiable by the 'sharp' versus 'smooth' thumb tab, and the back side of the cart.


So consider these warning signs before bidding on what appears to be a good deal on Ebay. Trust me, you do not want to wind up with one of these things - saved files last in their memory for about a week before they corrupt and vanish. This is such a vast problem that it's starting to infiltrate used sections at game stores - I've seen bootlegged Metroids in the used section at GameStops - no doubt traded in by someone fed up with their saved files being corrupted every 6 or 7 days. So, be wary of the games that USA sellers might post, as well. Better safe than sorry.


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Ziggymon wrote:​

Bought a copy of Pokemon Emerald over the weekend and found out that it is indeed a pirate. Luckly i managed to get a refund from the shop i purchased it from (UK), but i was completely stumped to the quality of this pirated copy. After reading a topic on here about 6 months ago about eBay and non legal GBA games i thought i was pretty aware of what to look out for in terms of 'nintondo' on back of cart, bad colour artwork on front, laminated box etc. (Had seen these types of copied games before in stores).

now let me tell you what features this game had when comparing it to an actual Pokemon Emerald game (imported from a specialist):

Box art was exact to the original artwork sans the connectivity logo at the bottom conrner, this included the holofoil style background and colour scheme, the box was also not poor lamination but the same as those used on actual nintendo GBA boxes.
The box was sealed using similar plastic to those used on actual GBA games.

The cartridge was exactly the same as the original, with Nintendo logo on back and patent code same. The only difference i noticed on this was that it was slightly more difficult to fit the cartridge into the GBA slot on a Nintendo DS (fitted fine on a Nintendo SP though).

The only aspect that pointed to me that the version i purchased at the weekend wasn't a legal copy was the instructions and the lack or promotional leaflets inside. The instructions didn't have Pokemon written on the cover and had only about 6 pages with a badly written explaination into playing the game. The layout and artwork was the same as the original.

So I'd seriously advise anyone buying or importing GBA games, to check them carefully and take these things into account now to stop you getting fooled like i did. Others may not be so lucky to get a refund.
I managed to contact the shop owner who after pointing out the differences to the original copy was shocked as he is a local but respected wholesaler of videogames to have been fooled aswell.
I'm going to ask the owner if i can take some photos later in the week if he still has the copy.

Just a Heads up to you guys.

Note: if this is in anyway against the rules (i know that pirated games are touchy waters) then please lock this.​

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One of the old ways to tell whether a cart is a bootleg or not is to look inside right above where the metallic contacts are to see if there is a white printing of @2001 Nintendo and some numbers. Like this picture here:

If it is there, most likely it's legit, if not, you probably got gypped. Not sure how this method is a sure proof nowadays. I would call Nintendo again like someone said to see if another rep say the same thing. That rep could've been just trying to brush you off the phone because he/she doesn't want to handle such a case, or maybe they get soooo many calls nowadays regarding the same thing that they are aware of the situation but wants to get you off the phone and be happy knowing you 'might' have a legit cart.

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