Tips for avoiding DS bootlegs?

[noiseredux]

To my knowledge, I've never possessed a DS bootleg game. To my knowledge. Then again, most of my DS games were acquired new or through people I know and trust. But as I find myself now looking for some games that are sort of infamous for being bootlegged (hi, Pikachu!), I'm wondering if I should be concerned about bootlegs. Especially when going the route of ebay.

First off, should I even be that concerned? IE: Do saves generally work on DS bootlegs? That was the issue I ran into with GBA bootlegs back in the day - saves that would fail. But I mean... I'm not as concerned about the COLLECTING aspect of the game being legit as I am with the game working properly.

And as far as bootlegs go... are there telltale signs in pictures/descriptions that I should be wary of?

[Tanooki]

Yes there are signs of it, sadly they do exist even for the DS, but there are are stable than the older GB-GBA(until more recent years) stability. I know what you speak of where they batteries were hot garbage, or their hacked code is unstable and games just randomly scramble or get lost.

Later last few year GBA games they now use modern nicer boards like your common NES/SNES/N64 knockoffs that last, and they don't use batteries anymore by have re-writable chips that seem to be holding up so far. Now I think the DS stuff falls into that range, but you can see a fake for what they are. I have no idea why but the fakes I've seen never have that inked on dotmatrix printer type number/lettering code on the back of the game card legit releases do. The stickers, like with any bootleg crap aren't quite as sharp but they are close so it needs a good picture to see it, and like that you could get some very slightly off colorization of the gray plastic itself.

[Arenegeth]

If you want to have a very good chance of not getting a DS bootleg, simply buy CIB.

Bootlegs don't bother replicating all the warnings and other paper fluff that usually comes with DS games, just the manual, there's still a chance of someone replacing a genuine card copy with a bootleg one but is very unlikely.

For Pokemon games you can simply buy sealed for a guarantee, they are still available in reasonable prices if you look for them (and care to pay the premium).

But.. You said you don't necessarily care about collecting, so just get a bootleg for $5 from a Chinese seller and don't worry about it, DS bootlegs are pretty reliable as Tanooki said, you don't have to worry about losing your save. But if collecting isn't an issue why don't you just get an R4 instead?

But yeah, the sings for loose DS bootleg cards are more subtle than GBA games used to be, I wouldn't trust anything from eBay that wasn't CIB and/or is priced really low.

[noiseredux]

While I consider myself a 'gamer' over a 'collector,' I can't stand the thought of loose DS carts haha. So probably my best best is just buy the cheapest boxed copies I can find and don't over think it.

[Arenegeth]

Oh, I forgot a very important tip.

Bootlegs based on European versions of games have always been exceedingly rare.

Well I've never actually seen one myself all the way back to the Mega Drive, original Game Boy and Famicom bootleg days that were pretty popular where I used to live (in Europe, so you'd think they'd be more common here), I just assumed some of them existed somewhere, at some point.

If you buy a European copy of a DS game you pretty much set, shipping may drive the price up a bit (and it will take longer to arrive), but you may even benefit from the Euro (or British Pound) to the Dollar exchange.

And of course the DS is region free so that's not much of a concern.

[Reprise]

My wife has loads of DS bootlegs. She used to buy a ton of DS games before we got together and she isn't really clued up on that kind of thing, so needless to say, I discovered I'd guess at least 20% of the games she had bought online had been bootlegs. I think most of them were bought loose and all of them were fakes of North American versions of the games. So I think Arenegeth is on to something regarding EU fakes being rare.

[Tanooki]

I'm the same about DS or any memory card type game, in that I treat them like disc based games -- complete in box or you're dead to me. Cards are just way too easy to lose and reeks of just being a lazy wasteful ass throwing the box/papers out. Optical, same, but also they're so scratch happy i consider it protection and being second hand also more of an insurance policy of the likelihood of not being jacked up if someone cared that much.

[nightrnr]

I'm the same about DS or any memory card type game, in that I treat them like disc based games -- complete in box or you're dead to me. Cards are just way too easy to lose and reeks of just being a lazy wasteful ass throwing the box/papers out. Optical, same, but also they're so scratch happy i consider it protection and being second hand also more of an insurance policy of the likelihood of not being jacked up if someone cared that much.

I understand this all too well and often use that logic in my game hunting.
However, I will always have a part of my collection that is loose (for almost all systems);
I just always run into a few deals that I can't pass up. I have at least a couple dozen DS games cart only (another 100+ complete, to put in perspective).
I don't regret it though as there are some excellent games I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise, like Elite Beat Agents (best $1.50 I ever spent).

I keep a lot of loose DS games in 9-card holders... similar to how people put Game Boy carts in... but 2 to a sleeve, and folded in on themselves (in 3 and again in 3, so no cards falling out).

I think I have a pretty good eye for bootlegs in general. But still, curious to know what to watch out for.
I usually only really worry about the highly publicized/higher profile games, the ones you expect to be copied. Most everything else isn't worth the effort to make copies.
SNES games have been my only recent surprise, as almost anything could be a copy based on what I've seen on ebay.

[Tanooki]

Don't get me wrong I have a lot of loose games, but I drew the line at nothing smaller than a Gameboy/Color/Advance or PCE HuCard game in size. You get far better deals and when in general the games on these formats mostly aren't out of control like console games it makes it all the more nicer too.

Hell I have a Virtual Boy again as of this afternoon, temperamental so it'll need a fix but it came with 3 games, oddly 3 boxes and 0 manuals, and one game shouldn't even have a box but it's the display only one NOA made (Mario Tennis) which is pretty cool dumb luck on that. I buy any more of them, they'll be loose, as that system can get stupid due to the scarcity of it all, though a flashboy is what I ultimately will pony up for as you can more than double the library plus get the JP games translated to english too.