Game Boy Player Land (my blog)

[god]

Hello - I love the blog. I'm just beginning to explore the GBA and its giving me a heap to read and seek out. I read to guide on identifying bootlegs and alarm bells went off...

I have the Super Mario 3/Super Mario Advance 4 which must be a bootleg. It says 'Gameboy Player' on startup and warns me that the saved data is corrupted. However, it usually does save fine. No. on the front is 'AGB-AM4E-USA'. The first odd thing I noticed about the game is that it says 'LICFNSED BY NINTENDO" but its so small I thought it might just be a printing error. This bums me out, needless to say.

I then checked all my games. TMNT, which I bought from the same shop seems to be a bootleg too, no 'Nintendo' on the board, serial No. doesn't bring up anything in Google. (again, the game seems to work fine so far, saving works). Mario Kart Super Circuit has the same problem (just bought it today). So there's 3 definate bootlegs, and I only own about 12 games (2 of which I haven't checked), and I don't think pawn shops are gonna do a refund just because some smart-ass gamer tells them their game is a fake! 3 in twelve is a bad ratio, I had no idea it was so rampant. At least I'll be harder to fool from now on.

One other game, I'm having trouble working out if its legit. Silent Scope, serial AGB-AIPJ-JPN. The serial comes up using a Google search, but there's no Nintendo on the board and I can't see numbers embossed in the label like on the real ones. Shit, OK, just noticed it doesn't say Licensed by Nintendo on the label. I guess its a boot, never mind. I'll probably not get a chance to return it because of how far away the shop was. AARRGGHH, I should be playing my games, not analysing and rejecting them!!! So that makes 4 out of 12. Sucks.

So why do the boot-leggers bother using a fake serial? Wouldn't it be easier to just straight-up scan the original label? If they're pirating games, surely they dont have any qualms about stealing the artwork off the label?

Anyway, kudos to you for the hard work on the blog, keep it up (if you want, or don't, I'm not pressuring you).

[noiseredux]

So why do the boot-leggers bother using a fake serial? Wouldn't it be easier to just straight-up scan the original label? If they're pirating games, surely they dont have any qualms about stealing the artwork off the label?

haha I've wondered the same thing myself. It seems really odd that they'd just make up a number instead of using the one that's already there. I'm really not sure why it's like that. But yeah, bootlegs ARE very common on GBA. For whatever reason (probably ease/cost of reproduction) it seems like one of the most bootlegged systems.

[god]

Another thing I just realised. There are these plastic hinged cases that house the GBA games. They are different colours and semi-transperant. I have bought 3 games in these cases and each one has been a bootleg. I wonder if these bootlegs came in these cases originally? It could be an early warning sign when buying second hand.

[noiseredux]

^those were pretty common third party cart holders. Sure a lot of boots may have come in them, but I don't think a definite red flag.

[swiftzx]

Have you played No More Heroes 2? It improved just about everything from the first one.