User blog:Element02/Fake Pokemon Games

So today I am going to talk about something that is not uncommon but not a lot of people really talk about it. Is your Pokemon game a Legit copy? Or have you been scammed and given something that is just a really good Fake?

With the popularity of online buying getting higher and higher, it is no surprise that you will run into some Shady products. I mean, refer back to my odd Gold Version Blog from the start of my time here (Grey cartridge with off-colors and a weird picture. Played as a Japanese Version with really bad translations and slight changes to the environment)---obviously a fake. My dumbass only bought it because I thought it was a hack and it was really interesting.

But either way...Fake Pokemon games are most often the ones bought online as the original games cost too much to acquire for sale, and a lot of them do not save anymore which makes their value go down. So, people will oftentims bootleg these games from a ROM or something similar, stick the game into a cartridge, and sell it as the real deal. I myself recently bought a Ruby & Sapphire version which looked to be the real deal. It had the Holographic labels, the Nintendo logo on the inside, it had everything. While I was weirded out by the fact that an English game was shipping from Hong-Kong, I figured that maybe there was an American there living  there as part of schooling or something, so I did not question the location as much. Like I said: the cartridges were exact, everything in the game seemed perfect (the storyline, the layout, nothing is out of the ordinary) EXCEPT for a few things:

When the game goes to the loading screen, a message pops up that reads: The saved data will be loaded. The save data has been properly loaded. The loaded game can now be played. I don't know about you...but I do not remember this being in ANY of the original GBA games when loading up a saved game. ANOTHER issue I ran into was when I was playing my Sapphire Version (the previously thing I had noticed on Ruby Version)---I had just gotten my Treeko and decided to save the game to make sure that it actually DID save my file. Well, I started the save and then the screen flipped out on me. Suddenly it showed Birch's pack with the 3 Pokeballs in it, it said that the game could not save a game-play time that was under 1-minute THEN it proceeded to check something it said was 'backup storage'.

I waited for about 5 minutes for the little loading clock to stop spinning before it came up with a message that said that the Internal Battery had run dry, the game could not be saved but could still be played. I was bummed, but decided to keep playing when a NEW message came up that said that the save file was corrupted and that the game could not be played so I would be returned to the title screen. All of this made no sense. If the internal battery is dry then my save file cannot be corrupt---I nver even saved so there was nothing to corrupt in the first place!!!

Still, curiosity was getting the better of me so I decided to play another NEW GAME and see what happened. I got my Treeko, went all the way to Odale Town, beat May, raised my Treeko to lv.10 and THEN I decided to try and save again. It saved my game without a hitch...and that was where I noticed that the game saves instantly unlike other Pokemon games that make you wait a good 30-45 seconds.

After saving the game, I turned off my SP and turned it back on to see if the game file would still be there...once I made it to the loading screen and pressed START, the same message appeared as it does in Ruby, I was able to play my saved file without any issues.

While I like the fact that the game saves quicker and the memory might last longer on these fake cartridges, that does not change the fact that I would have liked something that was 100% legit. It bothers me because when it comes to Fake Games, you cannot transfer Pokemon from these versions oftentimes because, not only will the partnering game not recognize the fake as a potential Trade partner, but after the connecting attempt fails, the Fake Games usually delete their saved files...so, if you have put a lot of hard work into these games, you will only cry in the end lol.

So yeah...the games were cheap so I'm not going to bitch AND they are complee replicas of the real games and flawless other than the things mentioned. So I still get to wellow in nostalgia while playing, but it does have me bummed that I will never be able to complete my DEX through these games as I had originally wanted. Either way, for those of you that DO by from eBay often and especially buy Pokemon games, I have left a few video links which will tell you how to spot reals from fakes so you can then take appropriate action.

Happy Gaming!