How to distinguish an original Game Boy Advance cartridge from a fake one?

Label

Before you start buying, you will have to do a little research and understand what the label looked like on the original. To start, you can visit the following sites:

www.mobygames.com

gamesdb.launchbox-app.com

After studying all the presented photos, you can understand that the cover looked something like this:

Next, we go to the Wikipedia article - "List_GBA_games" with a list of games released for Game Boy Advance and see in which regions the game was released.

The game was released in three regions: NA, PAL, JP.

Actually, strictly speaking, PAL is not a region, but a television system format, but in this context, under PAL, the European version of the game is understood.

If this site does not have the necessary information or there is, say, only the European version, then you need to use 4 platforms for searching:

1. eBay

2. Google images

3. Bing images

4. Yahoo images

That is, eBay and three search engines. Essentially, we need to find all the photos of the cartridges and compare them with each other. For example, if we found games on eBay, then start looking at other listings with photos of the game and look for differences in the label. In the end, you will have some number of labels (or not).

In general, you can find many options there, but you will be able to draw conclusions about which one is original.

So, we have three pictures, our initial one and two pictures that we found in databases or in search engines:

We immediately understand that there are many differences, but we still do not understand which label is original.

Mandatory Label Elements

We should start with the presence of mandatory label elements, and for this, let's look at two other cartridges, here are three mandatory elements:

By the way, the Final Fantasy cartridge is a fake.

The Nintendo quality seal, I cannot say with 100% certainty for all versions of cartridges, after all, there are very many of them, but in European versions of games, the Nintendo quality seal is round:

And in American versions of games, it is oval:

Pay attention, everything should be visible on it, all symbols should be readable, there should not be something like this:

The Nintendo license, it can be of two types, if the game was released by Nintendo, then there will be just the inscription Nintendo:

If the game was released by a third-party developer, then there will be the inscription Licensed BY Nintendo:

This inscription should also be clear and, most importantly, it should be without errors, not like here, licensedN:

Product code:

This is the most interesting part, this product code is different for all games (and their regional versions) and there is no single database for it. But here pirates can help us. You need to download the ROM image of the game, taking into account the regional version, and use the GBATA application to look at the game header:

As we can see, the game header is AGB-B2ME-USA.

So there is already a reason to think

Okay, after we have studied the mandatory label attributes, we return to my version of the cartridge and start studying:

Let's look at two photos taken from the same distance:

We see that the print quality is suffering, but overall it is acceptable (as for a photo on the internet), that is it is not a fact that you will have the opportunity to zoom in so much on the photo.

Let's move on, the Nintendo license:

It just doesn't exist. That's it, here we could stop and not go further, everything is clear with our cartridge – it's a fake, but of course we will consider everything to the end.

Product code.

We remember that the product code is B2ME, and here we see BB3E.

Now it is clear that this is a fake.

What else should be on the label?

If the photo quality is good, then on the label you can see an embossed code:

Also, there should be official, from a legal point of view, signs, for the American version, the age restriction:

On the European version, the CE mark – indicating that the product complies with European standards:

We are done with the label and now we move on to the cartridge case.

Front of the Case

On top of the cartridge, there is an inscription GAME BOY ADVANCE.

It should look exactly like this:

As if the outer part of the inscription is pressed into the cartridge itself.

And it should not look like this:

Or even like this:

Let's return to our cartridge again:

Extremely high-quality inscription for a fake.

In addition, the triangle at the bottom of the case should be elongated:

Back of the Case

The back of the case should look like this:

Pay attention to the inscription and the embossed circle under it.

The inscription should be complete, not cut off, and in the end, the inscription should be (pay attention to the circle under the inscription and its quality):

Let's look at our cartridge again:

All inscriptions are in place, the hole is generally similar.

Inside the Cartridge

Let's look at our cartridge (right) and its counterpart – the original cartridge (left).

If you can get to the inside, then you should pay attention to four things:

1. In front of the contacts, on the original cartridge, there is a Nintendo logo and the inscription AGB…

2. On the chip (original, right chip, the topmost inscription) the product code “B2ME” is written!

3. On the original cartridge, there cannot be these black spots (fake, right in the center).

4. The original does not have a battery.

Very few original cartridges have a battery inside:

• Baseball Advance
• Boktai 1, 2 and 3 (JP)
• Bomberman Tournament
• Breath of Fire
• Breath of Fire II
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
• Dragonball Z Collectible Card Game
• Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak
• Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
• Krazy Racers
• Lego Bionicle
• Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
• MegaMan Battle Network
• MegaMan Zero
• Metroid Fusion
• Metroid Zero Mission
• Monster Rancher Advance
• Monster Rancher Advance 2
• Pokemon Emerald (the battery is used for the clock, not saving)
• Pokemon Ruby (the battery is used for the clock, not saving)
• Pokemon Sapphire (the battery is used for the clock, not saving)
• Super Dodgeball Advance
• Warioland 4

Epilogue

Summing up, I can say that this fake is made at a very high level. The quality of the case is worthy, all inscriptions and holes are almost identical, which is rare for pirate cartridges. The logo is beautiful, although it does not match the original, it is made at an excellent level, buying without the internet from hands, you can get confused. And if it were not for the absence of the Nintendo license and the embossed code, then this would be the perfect fake, which could not be identified as a fake without disassembling the case.