Curmudgeon Gamer
30 January 2006
#@%*! GBA counterfeiters (and spotting fakes)
Almost exactly a year ago I got a counterfeit Double Dragon Advance cartridge from an Amazon seller. This past week I ordered a different game, Racing Gears Advance, from a different Amazon seller and got another counterfeit! I'm furious! I save up the dough for a semi-rare game, shop around, and what I get is ripped off.
Nintendo showed me how to spot a fake at their handy anti-piracy site. The inside of my cartridge (which isn't Advance Wars, but something else entirely) looks like the right-half of this picture:
What an ugly hack job. A real Advance Wars should look like this:
Notice any tiny differences there? You can see more real-to-fake comparisons at this comparison page.
What made me suspicious enough to open the cartridge? Three things:
Nintendo showed me how to spot a fake at their handy anti-piracy site. The inside of my cartridge (which isn't Advance Wars, but something else entirely) looks like the right-half of this picture:
What an ugly hack job. A real Advance Wars should look like this:
Notice any tiny differences there? You can see more real-to-fake comparisons at this comparison page.What made me suspicious enough to open the cartridge? Three things:
- The cartridge was off by about a millimeter from the size of the other cartridges I own when inserted into the GBA.
- No "NINTENDO" on the contacts, as zakk suggested when I got scammed on Double Dragon. I think all the legit GBA games on Nintendo's anti-piracy site have that marking.
- The screw on the back of the case was badly ripped up.
Labels: nintendo
--jvm at 23:45
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