3rd Gen Today I bought a pirated/fake version of FireRed at GameStop.

[DDD'SSCEPTILE]

.... 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?

 

[Stronkadonk]

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.

 

[BakingBluePotatoe]

Return it and ask them for a refund... and tell them it's a fake that won't work and give them the evidence.

 

[Spinor]

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.

 

[Shining Platinum]

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]

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.

 

[RNC727]

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.

 

[Zero Avenged]

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.......

 

[Ninja Tree]

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.

 

[Maple Meganium]

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.

 

[DDD'SSCEPTILE]

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

 

[Ninja Tree]

It should work. What are you trying to play it on? SP?

 

[DDD'SSCEPTILE]

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.

 

[Zero Avenged]

From the pictures of the game someone did some custom work on their GBA and did some work on the cartridge to make it work....or the other thing I put....

 

[Ninja Tree]

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.

 

[DDD'SSCEPTILE]

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

 

[Ninja Tree]

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?

 

[Haza]

If you have a normal GBA try it on that.

Wow, is it really urs, u live in South Carolina?

 

[DDD'SSCEPTILE]

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?

 

[Ninja Tree]

Wow, is it really urs, u live in South Carolina?

Nope! It's not mine and I've never lived in Southern California.