#POKEMON SOUL SILVER GBA CARTRIDGE POKEMON FULL#
With thanks to this website: which has full pictures of legitimate cartridges, and a guide to spotting fakes.įirstly, the stickers on the front. Everything looks exactly as it should in a real cartridge, and I can't believe a faker would go to so much effort to make a fake copy - if these are fakes, they're the best I've ever seen! Someone asked me for the video so here it isįor me, there is every sign that both of these are legitimate cartridges. So did I managed to grab an original or should I get my money back? I also replaced the battery cells on both games even though one of the cells was working. What is also of note is that when I plugged Emerald in the first two times, I got a "corrupted" message, but now every time I load the game there seems to be no issue after blowing the cartridge. The only time I have see this choice is either on low quality PCB's or in industrial settings where the PCB is a prototype. What is of further note is that the silicon is "white" which is a very unusual choice.
What is concerning to me is how both cartridges are marked as 2002? This does not make sense to me as Emerald was released in 2004. There are also a lot of exposed traces which suggests that they are real because fakes are not going to have to do testing and repair, and exposed traces are an annoyance to do. The traces and solder joints show premium quality as they are very rounded. The physical cartridges feel pretty original, which is also normal for fakes, as the plastic casings are not as difficult to copy. However, the flash chips are not the same, as there is a resistor lacking on the left and the label on Ruby doesn't match what was pictured on the website that was mentioned on the previous question. Ruby also doesn't have the original battery cell which does not matter to me. The Ruby cartridge had the battery flipped upside down. Looking at the front of the cartridges, there are several things to notice. Normally I'd think this would be a bad sign but in this case it tells me it is old and well used. It seems the previous owner never opened it as plastic and corroded debris came out when I opened the cartridge. On the backside there are some signs of wear and tear, and it is also worth mentioning that the Nintendo Y screws are worn on the outside. I have attached images of the cartridges below. Although the Ruby label looks very original, it lacks the "Rated E for Everyone".
They have arrived but there are some suspicious things. I previously bought a fake Pokemon Emerald cartridge, so this time I decided to look for a more expensive option as I wanted to have an original one, so I decided to open my wallet and bought Ruby and Emerald for 90€.