Fake Nintendo Games Are Out There! How To Protect Yourself
You are on the everlasting search for the rarest of rare games to complete you collection. While searching online, your eyes glace over that one missing piece, Mega man x3. Priced at an unbelievable amount, you think, “maybe they’re not aware of its rarity… So you bid, you win! Days later the package comes, you plop the game into your system and its NHL 94! My God are you pissed.
We get games, all kinds of games find their way into Matts Game Exchange, even we had a fake Mega Man x3 walk through our automated doors. We knew was fake, but decided to give the person $1 for it just to show you fellow collectors how to take extra precaution to spot fake Nintendo games.
Fake Megaman x3 cartridge for the SNES.
Tools Needed
One tool, That is it! You should have is an 3.8mm Gamebit. This screwdriver can open NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 & Game Boy games.
First glance
These are some precautions you can take to play it safe at first glance
- Sometimes, Fake Cartridges are missing the Nintendo Engraves on the back of the item, one say something completely different, such as Game instead of Nintendo Gameboy.
Fake because it does not have the Engraved “Nintendo Gameboy” at the top
- Labels should be glossy and clear. There should be an Nintendo Seal, In US it’s an oval and in Europe it’s a circle. Logos that are unclear or fuzzy looking are no good. Replications sometimes have slightly different fonts than originals.
Real games tend to have a more glossier/define finish as compared to the fake counterparts and not colors that are over exaggerated.
- Some Games are completely straight forward with you and say reproduction!
- if the game seems to be in too good condition for a 20+ year old game, always take precautions.
Through look at Fake Nes Games
Best Defense for NES is to simply google the games circuit board, open up the suspected game and compare. http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/ is a great source to compare all PCB information
- There are no wires on NES Boards
- Nintendo uses all copper pins
How a real NES game circuit board should look.
Fake Nes game, the Nes citcuit boards do not have wires.
SNES Games
Batteries were installed on all the board because of the length of some RPGS and general games,
- SNES batteries are bonded directly to the printed circuit board where a fake obviously looks like an attachment on fake Nintendo games.
- If you have black blobs on the circuit, it is a clear fake.
SNES Central Has boards for all snes titles for you to check out and compare to see if they are in fact, authentic titles.
Fake Snes Board. Notice the black blob & also the battery looks manually attached
Gameboy Games
Pokemon games are the most commonly replicated games of all. They are easy & still have an high demand. some very easy methods to determine the authenticity of one of these Fake Nintendo games.
- on the label there will be a few tiny letters and numbers embossed onto a real label. Angle the label to the light to see these.
- Fake labels are usually off-center from the cartridge and/or have overly rounded corners.
- The back of fake cartridges are sometimes held together with a Philips screw instead of the Nintendo Y screw.
- Shouldn’t have glob on inside
Top Two Counterfeit Bottom One Authentic
Top Two Counterfeit Bottom One Authentic
Top Two Counterfeit Bottom One Authentic
Top Two Counterfeit Bottom One Authentic
N64 Games
N64 games don’t receive the same treatment as the prior systems because the cartridge is much more sophisticated than it’s priors. The n64 game ROM size is much bigger and were equipped with an Checking Integrated Circuit, lockout ship. This prevented unlicensed game cartridges from running and gave Nintendo complete control over the software. Even this doesn’t always stop people from being tricked, as the case with the Blue Clay Fighter Sculptor’s Cut.
