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How to Tell SuperCard and SuperChis Apart?
Friends, SuperChis flash cartridges for GBA are now available on AliExpress
.And the best flash cartridge for Nintendo DS — DSPico
Cool eXtremeRate cases for GBA SP.
Friends, help me buy (if you have) various old stuff: Help me buy.
Lately there have been more and more cases where dishonest sellers try to pass off a SuperCard as a SuperChis.
For example, a user named DarkVoidOwner wrote on the GbaTemp forum that he bought a SuperChis and asked whether it really was one.
In reply, a user named Hunter said that it was definitely a SuperCard, not a SuperChis.
The situation is made even messier not only by outright attempts to deceive buyers, but also by sellers trying to hide details or disguise one cartridge as the other.
For example, here are two listings:
They really do look very similar. Both SuperChis and SuperCard can run the SuperFW firmware by DavidGF, but the second seller deliberately does not say which cartridge is actually being sold.
That is why I recommend buying SuperChis only from trusted stores. For example, the review “SuperChis Prime for Game Boy Advance” includes a link to a reliable seller.
But if you already have the cartridge in hand, or you want to buy one second-hand, how can you tell whether it is a SuperChis or a SuperCard?
Firmware
If you have a way to test the cartridge in a console, the easiest method is simply to boot it up, open the “Information” submenu — the small i icon at the very end — and see whether there is a line called Chis variant.
If that line is there, you have a SuperChis. If there is no such line, it is a SuperCard.
PCB
On the outside, SuperChis and SuperCard really do look very similar, and that is not surprising: ChisBread designed SuperChis specifically as an improved version of the SuperCard cartridge. But despite that similarity, there is one detail that stands out right away — the PCB color and the markings.
SuperChis has a black PCB, while SuperCard has a green one.
SuperChis has the word SuperChis printed right on the PCB. You can see it even without opening the cartridge.
As a rule, both cartridges have a transparent back shell. That means you can also spot the SuperChis marking from the rear.
Of course, markings can be added to a green PCB too if someone really wants to. What is much harder to fake is the JTAG pad layout used to rewrite the chip contents.
On SuperCard they are large and placed at the bottom, while on SuperChis they are small and placed at the top.
Epilogue
No matter how you look at it, if a seller really wants to mislead a buyer, there are plenty of ways to do it. They can avoid showing the PCB in close-up, hide important details in the photos, or install SuperFW and present the cartridge as if it were something else entirely.
But once the cartridge is in your hands, checking it and identifying the model becomes much easier. The firmware, PCB color, markings, and pad placement are usually enough to understand without much doubt what exactly you were sold.
That is why the best option is to buy SuperChis from trusted sellers from the start. It saves you from extra doubts, arguments, and unpleasant surprises. And if that is not possible, at least rely on photos and feedback. If you do not even have that, then the listing should at the very least state clearly that the item being sold is specifically a SuperChis.
