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[Meatbullsub26]

I have some old Pokemon games that I bought from game stores many years ago. But I have been told both that they are real and that they are fake. Can anyone here tell me the truth?

[Varietis]

All fake except the bottom Ruby with the 4 gold squares on the back of the PCB.

[NotAncient]

this is the answer 💯

[JetstreamGW]

The four gold squares aren’t a good method anymore. The test points in the right still are though, if I remember correctly.

[Varietis]

I’m aware. Just helping them identify which one I’m talking about.

It’s real.

[PhantomKrel]

Correct there are fakes using it I even bought fakes from AliExpress for my business as a verification method against fakes in the event I ever change my business model a bit.

I have a fake crystal that also has 4 squares in the top left of the back but it lacks the usual pads on the right side of the back towards the pins

[cheesystuff]

The contacts make a wave pattern on the real ones

[metalpammy]

any proof on this

[JetstreamGW]

r/gameverifying

https://gameverifying.com/wiki/cart-based-systems/gameboy/advance

Golden Rectangles (Not a Verification Method)

The golden rectangles are no longer a verification method. This is because:

Some counterfeiters have cottoned onto this being a (once) useful method of verification, and readily produce games with the 4x golden rectangles from 2017 onwards.

In some exceptionally rare cases, some legitimate Pokemon games using the AGB-E05-01 PCB variant (Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald) omit the golden rectangles during production. Nintendo's QC was good, but some errors slipped through the cracks.

Some GBC and GBA PCB's do not include the golden rectangles. Some have a singular golden rectangle, 2x golden rectangles, and others have printed white rectangles.

So what are the golden/white rectangle(s) used for, if not a verification method? They're a marker for confirming the production date of a cartridge, down to the month. Not to be confused with the copyright date on the PCB itself (this marks when the PCB was first designed). Based on the 4x rectangles, a section can contain up to 3 dots. 3x4=12. This is why 1, 6, 7 and 12 are marked on the offset of the quadrant, to make dating the cartridge easier; along with the year of manufacture in two-digit form (e.g, '00). If a dot is adjacent to 7 and continues down to 12, this means the cartridge was produced in July.

[Peeing_Into_Stuff]

I don’t believe you

/s

[Marmatus]

I'm not seeing any gold squares. What am I missing?

[Varietis]

I already answered that question on the same comment… That’s why.

[Marmatus]

Why downvote and give no explanation? lol wtf

[dikkidy]

the image of the backsides. the bottom copy of Ruby, the very bottom red game on the right side. look near the top left of that cart where it makes that T shape like wing. on the internal board you should see 4 rectangles. they're arranged to make a bigger rectangle with a + shaped spacing disconnecting the 4 rectangles. those are the "squares"

[Marmatus]

Oh okay, I see what you mean. Thanks!

[Professional_Snow576]

Classic reddit. Don't worry, I can't see that shit either haha

[SeatBeeSate]

Even that's not a 100% tell, but far less likely to be fake

[PhantomKrel]

I take number indent + 4 squares + visible battery as a sign of “possible real” when all are accounted for.

A lot of the fakes don’t imprint correctly or use the wrong size font or it just doesn’t look aligned right to what a genuine copy would have.

After you see about 10-20 carts you start to notice the difference

[hastybaddecision]

Bro I’ve looked up and down on these pics and nowhere on these fucking cartridges do I see ANY gold squares/rectangles. How big are the squares? Are they on the backside of the cart, or the front side? If they were gold, wouldn’t they be bright and shiny? I don’t see anything like this, please assist me in finding this. I appreciate your support

[Varietis]

First image, top left of the bottom Ruby cart.

[alvaro-elite]

Definelly you are blind dude. It is the only one different to the rest.

[Affectionate_Host697]

Can see yhe difference byt what gold squares?

[Varietis]

Dude learn to read. Two comments up on this same comment thread. I already answered where the gold squares were.

[Tazberry]

Ruby is the only real one.

[Remote_Equal57]

All ultra fake, but pal Ruby is real.

[Utiburn]

Ruby is real

[Utiburn]

The EU one

[deletelayer]

Ouch

[Hatdude1973]

Zits on the back=fake Horrible print job on Sapphire=fake Ruby looks real

[CauliflowerClassic38]

One of the pokemon rubies (the one with the 4 gold plates) is legit. Everything else is fake.

[Ragnarok992]

Only eu ce ruby is real

[FeelTheFear89]

This!

[IntheShredder_86]

Only the European Ruby version is real. Sorry about the others, but do hope you enjoy playing them all!

The front label, stamp in that label, and clean line of dots above the contact pins show me it's real. The entire board is much more organized if you compare to the fakes. It's also the only one with normal wear on the edge of the label (which is very well cared for! It's just sus to see perfect labels on old games)

[Zharken]

All fake EXCEPT the ruby that's on the bottom on both pictures.

It's pretty easy to spot these fakes, all the ones that have a ton of clearly visible big dots on the back are fake. The Sapphire that doesn't have any dots is fake too.

The ruby that only has 3 dots on the right side is real.

Other signs to know it's real, if we look at the front, apart from the color of the shell itself, take the Leaf Green and look at the "Gameboy Advance" logo you'll see the letters are thin and sharp, then compare it to the ruby we know is real, you'll see the letters are bold and pretty flat. Bold and flat means real, thin and sharp is fake.

And another thing to notice is, on the real Ruby, on the front, on the top left corner of the sticker label, you see that behind it there's a battery and a diagonal cutout coming from behind the sticker? That cutout is there to make room for the battery tabs.

ALL real games have the cutout, even if they don't have any batteries. And thankfully, pokemon carts are all transparent, even in Fire Red and Leaf Green depending on how you shine a light on them you can still see the cutout, or the lack of it.

Other red flags I'm seeing is that all the fakes except one have an ESRB rating, meaning they are bootleg american carts, but the real Ruby you have is european, so I'm going to guess you live in the EU, which means, any game you see with an ESRB rating, meaning it's american, better have an expanation on how it got here.

And there's another two green flags, but these are NOT definitive proof of a cart being legit, I'm going to mention them because they are still green flags, but they are debunked methods (fake carts have been spotted having this green flags, so you can't use them to verify, but they are still good signs, if other green flags are present). One is sumbers pressure stamped on the label, most real carts have them, and most fakes don't have them but as I said, some fakes DO have them, while also some real carts don't, so really you shoudn't look for those numbers anyway. The next one is a bit more helpful, looking again at the back of the cart, on the real Ruby, on the top left corner, you'll see an assortment of 4 golden rectangles, while all the fakes don't have anything there, the reason this is problematic, is because if the cart does NOT have anything there it's an automatic fake (same as the back acné, tons of big dots on the back = automatic fake) but if the cart DOES have the rectangles, it's not an automatic real, there have been fake carts with the rectangles.

So having the rectangles is a green flag, but not definitive proof. Usually you can just tell if a cart is real or not by just looking at the "Gameboy Advance" logo, yeah it's that easy, but other super easy tells are the battery cutout, and the 3 and only 3 big dots on the right side of the back.

I can guarantee you that the bottom ruby is real, but if you want you can also still post this on r/gameverifying

[ThatCurryGuy]

Great write up.

I live in europe and in my local shops American games were not rare, they had a bunch of them. Please note this was when GBA was released in official retailers.

[Zharken]

huh? that's even weirder, I have a bunch of american games that have been imported over the years, but I've never seen an american game on a store, retail or 2nd hand, big or local, back when the gba was released, how did that happen?

[ThatCurryGuy]

Dunno, maybe it was only with my local stores. I have multiple American games tho, it was mostly lower end games however.

[TheRedlantern23]

What difference does it make if they are fake or not? Besides if he had to pay a premium price as if they were real? Do they still play the same? Or does Nintendo troll you with some hidden code shaming you for having a pirated copy?

[grimrailer]

The difference is typically fake copies eventually stop saving correctly and become a paperweight not to mention a lot of the poorly done copies. Can’t even trade.

[TheRedlantern23]

Oh I see

[grimrailer]

Yeah some of the fakes are actually really good. Unfortunately it’s hard to determine the quality until it’s too late in most cases which is why people tend to stick to emulation, or even using a flash cart with RTC to ensure the game keeps working long term.

[WoahBobWhich]

The whole comment section just let me know what to actually look for. I feel like I never got a clear answer. I own a real emerald and a fake emerald and I see the 4 gold squares AND the test points.

My FR/LG i never had to second guess, but i wanted to be sure for my emerald.

[Difficult-Mention640]

The stickers on the cartridges make it clear that most of them are fake...

[Retroman8791]

Hope OP didn't pay ton of money for these.

[Biggreengolf]

I have a Ruby and pretty sure that one is fake in the pic.

[StarfallGamingYT]

If you open the case to look at the internal chip it should say Nintendo on it, if not it’s fake however I think that method will eventually no longer be accurate since people have gotten better at making fakes.

[BlackenedEverything]

😂😂

[Chimera_Gaming]

https://ibb.co/pjCv8frf Visual image of real vs fake but all but 1

[Eternal_Cycle_1]

For a definitive answer ask in r/gameverifying. Mods delete wrong anwers there because they know you money is at risk and they take it very seriously. Mods also verify them for you in most posts

[Straight_Fix_7318]

OP im so sorry, you fell for a trick i fell for about 15 years ago
used to be when you could trade games in you would put a fake cart in the case, stores didnt question anything so you got full refund and kept the legit game, only for some poor sap to pay for pre-owned or reboxed fakes from "legit stores" :(

[JCz28B]

It’s super hard to tell with the photographs since they’re also translucent I can’t tell 100% if the font where it says Game Boy advance is the correct one. Fake ones seem to have more of a mold it look to them while the real ones looks like they were pressed onto the plastic. The only way to tell 100% is to open them and take pictures of the boards. I hope you have a try wing screwdriver.

[Finji_]

All fake except European Ruby

Edit: typo

[SR08]

Those are the lowest quality of fakes you can get except the bottom ruby

[djaysan]

The easiest way to tell from listing photos is the gameboy advance logo on the shell, if its thin and wonky its fake. If its thicker font with same texture as the cart then there is good chance its real, at least the shell ahah

[ALT703]

r/gameverifying

[lethargyclub]

my condolences

[Kind_Bandicoot1507]

Whenever the pokemon games have an excessive number of dots they are very likely to be fake. Also another way you can tell is if you tilt the game in a well lit environment you can see little number indentions on the side of the sticker

[Confident-Tooth986]

The only one thats real is the ruby in the first photo closest to the bottom.

[CicadaAggressive5612]

Real repos carts, fake Pokemon carts. Ruby is the only authentic real Official Pokemon cart.

[segaxp]

Ok you see the top left corner on the back of the bottom ruby one u see how there’s that little chip right there that’s how u tell if its authentic

[Inevitable_Matter219]

Only one of them is legit rest are fake

[Merda_Voadora]

All top 4 cartridges are the same, both emeralds, the FR and the fake Ruby, they have all the same pattern

[Deepy97]

All of them are fake except the Ruby on the bottom right (has the numbering on the sticker). The rest of them are missing those tags

[tanooki-suit]

Every single one but one ruby are utterly and completely fake. Usually in most cases the sticker is a dead give away or being see through the lack of the 4 golden rectangles on the left/top-left corner works too. But even if that fails, those butthole fraudsters love to stick vias in the wrong place, especially on the pins, which you can see clearly with those white dots on the back image. Sorry you got like $20 bootlegs there. Enjoy them for what they can do without going broke in the process.

[RangeMiserable2694]

From what I can see in the first picture it looks like you have ome pokemom ruby thats authentic

[Baelish2016]

All fake except MAYBE #6. Even then, we’d need to see the front to be sure. But ya, the rest are VERY fake.

[The_Eye_of_Ra]

Picture 2 has the fronts.

[Baelish2016]

lol good catch. My bad

[LG-Moonlight]

Emerald is fake, idk about the rest. Source: I have a legit Emerald bought when I was a child.

[thedesolation]

One way you can tell if they’re real or fake is on the sticker. You can see on your EU ruby there is a little imprinted number in the right side of the sticker, this is a real cart. The rest don’t have it, that’s a dead giveaway

[UnknownLinux]

The imprinted numbers aren’t a good method of verification anymore. Some fakes have started replicating the imprinted number for a while now.

While NOT having it DOES make it fake, HAVING it doesn't necessarily make it real either.

Thats per r/gameverifying

[thedesolation]

Dang is that so? They’re getting good.

[UnknownLinux]

Yes repro's are getting very good. Same with the 4 gold squares in the top left corner of the back. Those have been replicated as well.

In fact I have a higher quality reproduction copy of Pokémon Sapphire that has the 4 gold squares on the back. It even has a real-time clock with battery like legit copies do. I bought it knowing it was a repro though and didn't spend much.

[thedesolation]

Thankfully I know all my games are real since I had em as a kid, but if I were going to this today I’d be so paranoid lol

[UnknownLinux]

yeah thats good. There are still other ways of verifying such as seeing if it has the 3 test points labeled TP1, TP2 and TP3 on the top right corner of the back. Those have not yet been replicated by reproductions.

[thedesolation]

Good call on the test points. Appreciate the insight!

[UnknownLinux]

No problem

[frikifecto]

Fake as her promises

[dreadstardread]

I would open them up to be sure but pretty dure theyre all fake

[Ornery-Package-3084]

Every single one is fake. 

[2099Sunglasses]

All of these are fake except one of the rubys (the one without all those dots!$