DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
.... the sad news is, is that it won't even play. I've tried it in my DS, my GBA, my GBASP, my Dad's GBASP, hell, I even put it in my ARGBA to see if I could load it, but nothing happens. It acts like there's no GBA game inside.

Which sucks. I knew it looked odd, so I was hoping I'd get a sucky foreign remake of the game. Well, it doesn't even work.


The cartridge is a little weird. Even the employee noticed that even though it says FireRed on it, it looks like a Ruby game cartridge. But side-by-side with Ruby, it's not even the exact color of that.

Uh, here's the cartridges side by side. You can tell by my markings which of the two games are real, and which one is the fake.

Here's fake FireRed and real FiredRed side by side, but there's some glare on it.

Here's one without glare. It's interesting to note that the fake has Ruby's Nintendo seal.

Let's compare on the inside.... You can immediately tell something's different or even wrong on the fake one. There's a .. what looks like a cut out place at the top, and the connectors just don't seem right..

Another version of the picture above

Third version of the picture above. This is fake FR and real FR side by side, btw. It's interesting.... but a letdown because the fake doesn't start at all.


Tomorrow I'm taking it back to GameStop and getting my money back or swapping it out with a real FireRed, because at $30 it doesn't come cheap. (Seems high but the Pokemon games are still hot and are starting to get hard to find new)

And no, they didn't pick this game out for me, so don't rag on the employees or whatever. I picked it out myself, but didn't think it wouldn't work at all.
GameStop has been very, very good to me. I don't know why people complain about them so much.

It was sorta my own fault on this too, but hey, I wanted to see what it was like! And it was like.... Nothing. :(

It's a fake, arrrrrrr!!!!.......

Someone wanted to make about a $15 credit. No fair, especially since it doesn't play at all! :(


Anything anyone out there can tell me about this thing before I give it back?
Male
Michigan
Seen December 5th, 2019
Posted December 5th, 2019
2,004 posts
14.9 Years
I have never heard of such a thing happening, well, okay, maybe I have before, but I do not know anything about it.
I would not have bought it, as the sticker with the title on it is not reflective, and the cartridge is neither Ruby's nor FireRed's.
Just return it and hope for the best.
young money cash money

BakingBluePotatoe

The Red Death Alchemist

Age 28
Female
Catatonia
Seen March 28th, 2016
Posted February 12th, 2016
2,279 posts
15.8 Years
Return it and ask them for a refund... and tell them it's a fake that won't work and give them the evidence.

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Spinor

<i><font color="b1373f">The Lonely Physicist</font></i>

Age 27
Male
Seen February 13th, 2019
Posted October 4th, 2015
5,175 posts
17.3 Years
Why did you buy in the first place if you knew that it was way too different to be legal?

Oh well, if you are lucky, they should take it back and maybe sue the seller.
Age 30
Area 11
Seen March 4th, 2009
Posted February 18th, 2009
68 posts
14.4 Years
Wow, that's pretty fake.
I know, people keep on ranting on about GameStop, they're awesome people, if you hung out with them for about two years, and they call me by my name and i call em' by there names.
Damn, i miss Richard,Stupid Egyptian Pr*ck, why'd ya' have to leave GameStop!. :'(

DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
Why did you buy in the first place if you knew that it was way too different to be legal?

Oh well, if you are lucky, they should take it back and maybe sue the seller.
Maybe because I thought it would actually play and have some sort of bad Pokemon game emulation on it? It's rare to actually find this kind of stuff these days. Unfortunately for me it didn't work at all and chances are it's just an empty shell.


GameStop will take it back, because one of the employees that has been there ever since I started going there told me a couple months ago that if I ever got a used game that didn't work or that if I even beat the game I could return it within 7 days and get a full refund.

~RNC~

Mother Of All Pokemon!!

Female
Surfing With Blastoise!!
Seen March 20th, 2023
Posted December 5th, 2021
8,908 posts
16.4 Years
That really sucks that some one would sell a fake game to gamestop.
I myself have gotten pirated games but not form there, only off of ebay.
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Zero Avenged

Be greater.

Age 29
Male
Colorado
Seen January 8th, 2020
Posted September 16th, 2013
237 posts
15 Years
I have heard of games that are like made for japan that were misprinted in english an distributed out here and they never work on our GBA DS ect because we lack the translator chip or something like that.....this might be one of those games.......
Credits to GodofPH

MetalMario

Age 36
They/them
Canada
Seen July 1st, 2022
Posted October 31st, 2021
1,871 posts
18.2 Years
I saw a bootleg Emerald version at the nearby EB. I'm on a good enough level with these guys, so I told them about it. The only thing the cashier told me was that as long as it worked and someone bought it, they didn't care. :sleeping:

It didn't even have a green casing. It looked like a regular, grey GBA game with a plain, non-metallic label.
Owner/developer of Poké Classic Network
github | osu!
latest shiny: Giratina (19-Apr-2021)

DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
Wow when I took it to GameStop, I knew they wouldn't say anything about it. I didn't expect someone to buy it and that someone be a fellow PC member and that member post a thread on it.
So this is your game??? O_o;;

What did you do to it maaan? Bad hacking gone wrong or something??

lol wow this is weird and awkward, I dunno what to say


or are you just pulling my leg or putting it in context of what someone WOULD say? :P

DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
It should work. What are you trying to play it on? SP?
Yeah I put it in my SP and my DS. It doesn't load, like if a GBA game wasn't in the slot. I can put another game in and compare and it's almost like it's stuck and the connectors aren't lining up or something

edit:

Oh my gosh.

You're never gonna believe this! (Except TheAbsol)

I tried blowing on it a little, popped it in, and got a scrambled Nintendo symbol. Popped it in again, it recognizes it, and it works.

It just says that the save file has been deleted.

Wow. I guess it wasn't a fake after all.
Age 15
Seen August 6th, 2010
Posted February 27th, 2010
822 posts
18.8 Years
Yeah I put it in my SP and my DS. It doesn't load, like if a GBA game wasn't in the slot. I can put another game in and compare and it's almost like it's stuck and the connectors aren't lining up or something
If you have a normal GBA try it on that.
is a moderator.

DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
If you have a normal GBA try it on that.
I tried it in my GBASP a few times doing what I mentioned in the edit, and it works!!

It's a shame that the "Save file was deleted..."... and I'd still like to know why this game cartridge is in this condition. :P


It works though, so, uh, there goes my claim to GameStop but I don't have to return it now I guess..... My Mom was wanting to go back to the mall though. =P
Age 15
Seen August 6th, 2010
Posted February 27th, 2010
822 posts
18.8 Years
I tried it in my GBASP a few times doing what I mentioned in the edit, and it works!!

It's a shame that the "Save file was deleted..."... and I'd still like to know why this game cartridge is in this condition. :P


It works though, so, uh, there goes my claim to GameStop but I don't have to return it now I guess..... My Mom was wanting to go back to the mall though. =P
How'd you get it to work?
is a moderator.

Haza

☆A Life of Pokémon and Beyoncé ☆

Age 31
Male
Seen September 30th, 2021
Posted March 18th, 2021
6,720 posts
14.8 Years
If you have a normal GBA try it on that.
Wow, is it really urs, u live in South Carolina?

Δloyisious Divo |Haza D'Ξvil
The poison that is always fatal... yet the stinger won't stop stinging
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DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
How'd you get it to work?
lol the old NES method. I blew on it a little, put it into my GBA SP, and the first time I did it after that I got a scrambled NINTENDO symbol underneath the "GAMEBOY" logo, where before all the times I tried there wasn't one. So I pulled it out, put it back in and then it worked.

Since then I've got my Pokemon, saved, took the game out multiple times and tried it and it works...

But there IS something different about this game:

It keeps telling me "The save file is ok." when I go from the title screen to the Continue screen.

In the same fashion as it told me "The save file has been deleted...", only this time "The save file is ok".

And it keeps saying that.

That's gonna get old after a while and I have owned TWO different FireReds not counting this one and one LeafGreen and I've never received this message over and over...


I'm still puzzled with this..

edit:

Took it out of my GBA SP and then put it into my regular GBA...

It doesn't give me "The save file is ok." or "The save file has been deleted..."

It just starts a new game.

Maybe I think I know what's going on here.

There's something wrong with the save battery, isn't there? Did you try to fix it or something?

MetalMario

Age 36
They/them
Canada
Seen July 1st, 2022
Posted October 31st, 2021
1,871 posts
18.2 Years
lol the old NES method. I blew on it a little, put it into my GBA SP, and the first time I did it after that I got a scrambled NINTENDO symbol underneath the "GAMEBOY" logo, where before all the times I tried there wasn't one. So I pulled it out, put it back in and then it worked.

Since then I've got my Pokemon, saved, took the game out multiple times and tried it and it works...

But there IS something different about this game:

It keeps telling me "The save file is ok." when I go from the title screen to the Continue screen.

In the same fashion as it told me "The save file has been deleted...", only this time "The save file is ok".

And it keeps saying that.

That's gonna get old after a while and I have owned TWO different FireReds not counting this one and one LeafGreen and I've never received this message over and over...


I'm still puzzled with this..

edit:

Took it out of my GBA SP and then put it into my regular GBA...

It doesn't give me "The save file is ok." or "The save file has been deleted..."

It just starts a new game.

Maybe I think I know what's going on here.

There's something wrong with the save battery, isn't there? Did you try to fix it or something?
It's probably a modified version of the "1M Circuit Board is not installed" message you usually get from a bootleg or a misconfigured emulator. The bootlegger probably changed the message to that as a really cheap and obvious coverup for their nefarious deed.

Basically, this message is the game reporting that the wrong save memory is installed. Instead of the proper 128KB flash memory, your bootleg only has 64KB.

Try turning off the system mid-save. Instead of loading the previous data, your save will be erased. It will probably also erase itself after you beat the Elite Four, if I remember correctly.
Owner/developer of Poké Classic Network
github | osu!
latest shiny: Giratina (19-Apr-2021)

DDD'SSCEPTILE

GekkouKitsune : Shiny Master

Age 32
Male
North Carolina
Seen August 18th, 2020
Posted August 18th, 2020
628 posts
16.9 Years
Nope! It's not mine and I've never lived in Southern California.

There's not a smiley in the world to depict the way I feel about you right now.

P.S. They said Carolina, not California.

But maybe you've never lived there anyway.


It's probably a modified version of the "1M Circuit Board is not installed" message you usually get from a bootleg or a misconfigured emulator. The bootlegger probably changed the message to that as a really cheap and obvious coverup for their nefarious deed.

Basically, this message is the game reporting that the wrong save memory is installed. Instead of the proper 128KB flash memory, your bootleg only has 64KB.

Try turning off the system mid-save. Instead of loading the previous data, your save will be erased. It will probably also erase itself after you beat the Elite Four, if I remember correctly.
Thank you. I would expect this to be the explanation of my problem and the problem with the game, because something just doesn't feel right when I play it. Not to mention the fact it can't really keep ahold of the save.

Definitely going back to GameStop tomorrow, so TheAbsol if you want it back you can go get it buddy.

Tac One

OWN new Emld, Sapp and FR & LG

Age 42
Pontiac, MI
Seen May 8th, 2011
Posted May 2nd, 2011
71 posts
15 Years
I recently Aquired Brand New working copies of Fire Red, Leaf Green, Emerald and Sapphire. And know where I can get at least one more of each except Fire Red.
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Kit-Tsukasa

Shiny Mew and Espeon Lover

Seen March 28th, 2012
Posted June 3rd, 2009
71 posts
15.9 Years
lol I have a pirated fire red from China before it even came out in the US (possibly even Japan)....It works, but I haven't played it in forever...problem is it deletes the whole game data if you put the wifi adapter or whatever on it (I've never tried with colosseum/XD) but you can trade with legit r/s/e/fl/lg games. I won't even try pal parking to avoid deletion on my diamond pearl games.

Other differences is the island parts are clearly not completed properly (battle tower is 4 floors and that's it...you don't even get a prize)...dialogues are completely cut short and don't make sense 80% of the time....Some pokemon are ridiculously high (like the scientist who steals the sapphire plate from you fights you both times instead of once....first time he has a lv. 100 mewtwo that kicks your ass and second time he just sucks.) Names are only allowed to be 5 characters long (same for pokemon names e.g. Charmander = CHARM) Move names are weird.

Anyways, I could rant, but that's a pirated game for you XD