NierAutomata | 23 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 Hi, So yesterday I noticed this listing on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shantae-Game-Boy-Color-GBC-With-Box-And-Manual-8Bit-Games-NEW/133267804724?hash=item1f07615234:g:v8gAAOSw9shd73YY At first glance it looked like the normal chinese bootleg, with nice box and manual with some wrong coloring and contrast (the usual) but then you notice the cartridge itself... and it's not a normal cheap-o pcb as usual. Then I asked a few people on gameboy groups about it and they were aware of this type of bootleg. One person in one of those groups was kind enough to send me a picture of the pcb, said person had bought from a seller and had to return it as soon as noticed it was not an original cart (can't imagine if they paid like 500€ for this). So I added the picture here along with another one with a real shantae I found on google, so anyone can see the differences. You can see the markings on the chips are different along with the pcb having some slight differences like the different coloring of the holes below. So basically Chinese bootleggers are stepping up the game. I can see people getting scammed by this, especially if they have a real box and manual, but I can see all those second hand retro stores getting scammed too, especially if their workers are not trained for this (would they ever be, considering it's very similar to the real one?), but then let's say they buy these and the market is flooded with this, pretty sure I will see people swearing they have the real deal when actually they don't. If these exist, then I think it's safe to assume that there are probably already other console bootlegs like this one out there, like snes/super famicom games - hagane, magical pop'n, earthbound, mega drive ones like alien soldier, crusader of centy, musha, etc, I mean, what's basically stopping these people from making near clones of games that are 300$+ cart only? And we know those people who love these bootlegs, 200$ bootleg to sell for 500$, bet they're rubbing their hands seeing stuff like this and dreaming about all the scams. Has anyone seen something similar like this out there already? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austin532 | 467 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 The chips are a dead give away. It's true most people will think it's real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nesmaster | 402 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 (edited) But isn't that a real Oracle of Ages in the top photo? What's the scam exactly according to that guy? Did he receive a broken Ages cart with a fake Shantae label? Edited January 19, 2020 by Nesmaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NierAutomata | 23 Posted January 19, 2020 Author Share Posted January 19, 2020 Apparently one dude bought one of these from someone, cart only, and people from the group warned him about his cart being fake, and the guy just wouldn't take it as fake and sent that picture to the people in the group. Now that you mention it, it does look like zelda's pcb. Maybe they sent me the wrong picture? I'll check tomorrow The ebay listing does shows it's similar to a real one and the colors of the label seem a bit wrong, so I assume it has to be just like that in the listing picture, and in the end, fake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nesmaster | 402 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 To me it looks like an intentionally damaged trace so the game wouldn't boot at all. If it did it would be Ages. Should see if he has a label shot for fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NierAutomata | 23 Posted January 19, 2020 Author Share Posted January 19, 2020 Will do. If you look into the ebay user, he has other listings including super famicom games like Rendering ranger, yokai buster ruka, undercover cops, etc... maybe asking for pcb pictures on those listings will help to see if they are indeed close to the real pcbs or just normal bootleg crap as usual? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NierAutomata | 23 Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 Sorry for double post, but the person I talked to doesn't have any other photos of the game, HOWEVER, I searched on aliexpress, I found probably the same seller selling the same Shantae. He does not have other photos of that Shantae copy, but he does have other games like Super Mario Land 2 DX (the color mod) and a repro of GBC's Magical chase, and he added pictures only of the carts: Although the label doesn't allow to see it all, I think we can all see we are before a new type of Chinese repros out there (which are expensive at 30$ ), but most are made clearly for one objective only, to make people buy these just to sell as they were legit since the boards look like real ones. Shantae repro 100% looks like these, I'd bet. They also have normal Gameboy games like US megaman V, Chinese ninja spirit, trip world, etc, so you guys better watch out what you are buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lincoln | 230 Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Which pcb are you saying is bootleg? I'm not seeing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NierAutomata | 23 Posted January 20, 2020 Author Share Posted January 20, 2020 12 minutes ago, Lincoln said: Which pcb are you saying is bootleg? I'm not seeing it. Yeah It was a talk I had with someone from a gameboy collector group and someone got scammed with one of these new gbc fake carts. They sent me apparently a zelda pcb picture, and can't find the original pictures from the guy who got scammed, but she says they looked very much like the zelda one (which is why they sent me that one). I'm still waiting to see if they'll send me the shantae fake pcb photos, or at least talk to the guy so he can show me, for comparision purposes. They probably look like these ones on top, all from aliexpress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oops | 85 Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 (edited) Doesn’t seem like anything to be too worried about outside of the normal test your games and open them especially if spending hundred to thousands of dollars. Legit looking fakes have been discussed since I started collecting in 2010. I will add that people selling fakes are constantly scheming new ways to try and fool people, so these threads are great reminders to not get complacent on checking over your games! Edited January 22, 2020 by oops 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makar | 1,946 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Bottom one is the legit copy, top one is the fake. Super easy to spot. Look at the cover on the real copy. On the left is says CGB-B3AE-USA The black chip on the right says CGB-B3AE-0. Ignore the 0. If the rest doesn't match, it's a fake. The fake one has CGB-AZ8E-0 on that chip on the right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makar | 1,946 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 On 1/20/2020 at 5:35 PM, Lincoln said: Which pcb are you saying is bootleg? I'm not seeing it. The top one. See my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nesmaster | 402 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 3 hours ago, Makar said: Bottom one is the legit copy, top one is the fake. Super easy to spot. Look at the cover on the real copy. On the left is says CGB-B3AE-USA The black chip on the right says CGB-B3AE-0. Ignore the 0. If the rest doesn't match, it's a fake. The fake one has CGB-AZ8E-0 on that chip on the right. So did you read the rest of the posts in here or? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makar | 1,946 Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 5 hours ago, Nesmaster said: So did you read the rest of the posts in here or? I did after I made my post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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