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Which Pokemon Leaf Green is authentic? Top? Bottom? Neither? Both?


broncofantd793

Which Leaf Green is authentic?  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Leaf Green is authentic?

    • Top Cart
      0
    • Bottom Cart
      1
    • Neither
      0
    • Both
      8


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I was looking at my 2 copies of Leaf Green, and I noticed one label is more vibrant than the either. Both have some gloss and imprinted numbers, but the boards are different too! Imgur link for 10 pictures below.

https://imgur.com/a/UgKQ0ny

Is either of these authentic? I'm not 100% sure, and I would appreciate the help.

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I voted both legit.  I definitely see the differences, but these chips cover all the bases.  Correct stamps and laser etching, the four squares on the back, the foil labels and the 2-digit impressions.

I'm not saying one isn't a fake, but they look legit to me.  If it is a fact that one is a fake, though, my vote would be that it's the second one.  Still, it's a really, really darn good fake if it is.

Also, this reminds me that a loooooong time ago on NA, someone posted two famicom carts and asked which was real or fake, or if they were both fake.  It was a shooter (Gradius, maybe) and the game was to guess the fake.

I don't think we ever got an answer. @fcgamer Was that you?  If not, recall who it was?

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@RH Yeah that was me, did I end up leaving you guys hanging with the Gradius carts? If so, I'll repost pictures.

I'm not a GBA expert, but if one were indeed fake, I'd guess it would be the top one. The art seems cropped a bit (harder to add more art than it is to crop art) and similarly, the Nintendo name in the oval just looks fake to me, compared to the one with just their name. But I could be completely off on it.

Maybe @JVOSS would know?

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7 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

@RH Yeah that was me, did I end up leaving you guys hanging with the Gradius carts? If so, I'll repost pictures.

I'm not a GBA expert, but if one were indeed fake, I'd guess it would be the top one. The art seems cropped a bit (harder to add more art than it is to crop art) and similarly, the Nintendo name in the oval just looks fake to me, compared to the one with just their name. But I could be completely off on it.

Maybe @JVOSS would know?

You miiiiight have left us hanging.  Questions like that nag at me, haha.  I don't remember seeing an answer but I know I checked for a little while.  Not saying I didn't miss it, but I sure wanted to know.

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12 minutes ago, RH said:

You miiiiight have left us hanging.  Questions like that nag at me, haha.  I don't remember seeing an answer but I know I checked for a little while.  Not saying I didn't miss it, but I sure wanted to know.

I could have sworn I had answered it, but I'm not gonna swim around in the GoCollect pool with those sharks to confirm either way.

I'll try to repost the pictures tomorrow then 🙂

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21 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

I could have sworn I had answered it, but I'm not gonna swim around in the GoCollect pool with those sharks to confirm either way.

I'll try to repost the pictures tomorrow then 🙂

Well, there are a lot of newbs here.  Just do it again.  At the least, I also seem to recall that you considered making it a "series".  Why not start it up fresh here?  It's a good exercise for all of us to learn of the nuanced details with fake carts so, it's a game that's also a PSA. 😄

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I would consider myself a GBA Expert, and I can say with confidence that both carts are legit.

I have seen hundreds (thousands?) of fakes and I've never seen them try to re-create the imprinted numbers on the front of the cart label (although it probably has been done by someone somewhere) - Both carts are clearly marked with codes that are recognizable to me.  The "Nintendo" font is spot on on the back of the cartridge and on the board, and the boards have no tell-tale signs of counterfeiting (stickers with Chinese hanzi on them, black blobs, batteries)

All that being said, although I can tell you for sure they are legit, I couldn't tell you why they are different...(although my guesses would be either one was a "Player's Choice" cart, and the other wasn't, or just they were manufactured in two different places that were using slightly different boards - We know they were manufactured in different places because of the sticker imprints...)There are probably people here that have more knowledge about boards/game manufacturing that might be able to clear it up further.

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Thanks for the input so far everyone.  The top cart has more of a green to the seal of quality and it is definitely more worn in person.
 

3 hours ago, Naked Warrior said:

All that being said, although I can tell you for sure they are legit, I couldn't tell you why they are different...

As long as the boards are legit, I will be happy.  The labels won't bother me as much since they wouldn't be obvious fakes. I think of how badly Ocarina of Time labels hold up over time, and I hope this is a similar situation.

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BOth and that (with fire red) are the easiest games for Pokemon to sniff out a rat.  None of the Chinese copycat makers get something right about them, I'm guessing laziness or just don't care, but the rear of the board.  See those 4 rectangles?  Pirates don't have them.  And well.. for some even dumber reason as it's easier, they don't stamp those number codes into the front sticker either.  Why I have no idea.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/10/2021 at 1:52 PM, Naked Warrior said:

I would consider myself a GBA Expert, and I can say with confidence that both carts are legit.

I have seen hundreds (thousands?) of fakes and I've never seen them try to re-create the imprinted numbers on the front of the cart label (although it probably has been done by someone somewhere) - Both carts are clearly marked with codes that are recognizable to me.  The "Nintendo" font is spot on on the back of the cartridge and on the board, and the boards have no tell-tale signs of counterfeiting (stickers with Chinese hanzi on them, black blobs, batteries)

All that being said, although I can tell you for sure they are legit, I couldn't tell you why they are different...(although my guesses would be either one was a "Player's Choice" cart, and the other wasn't, or just they were manufactured in two different places that were using slightly different boards - We know they were manufactured in different places because of the sticker imprints...)There are probably people here that have more knowledge about boards/game manufacturing that might be able to clear it up further.

The top cart is later than the bottom one; the 'A' on the end of the code indicates it has revised data (the 1.01 version with some small bugfixes). Fifth print boxes (Player's Choice) commonly had A carts. First through third print boxes usually had original carts. Fourth prints I'm not sure of yet.

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I"m going to ruin your fun here, well yours and the warrior.

Two days ago I went into the half price books up the street from me, in the case for $25/ea was Pokemon Ruby and FireRed.  I was blown away they didn't do their usual price hike so I had them open the case.

I thought truly they were real. Plastic color was legit, stickers looked legit... why?  matched online images of real (and I own a FIreRed too) and they even had STAMP CODES.

But, once I was able to get them in hand, I flipped them over, and well...they're frauds.  The rear set of shiny rectangles you get on the back left side were missing.  The boards didn't look right in other ways too, including via holes in the wrong place, and even a nice long run of them with a curl up into the green like a letter J don't exist on real, let alone go through the middle of the pins that are exposed to touch the GBA slot either.  That really SUCKED.

SO now watch out, Pokemon carts are getting fake sticker stamp codes that look right.

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1 hour ago, AdamW said:

The top cart is later than the bottom one; the 'A' on the end of the code indicates it has revised data (the 1.01 version with some small bugfixes). Fifth print boxes (Player's Choice) commonly had A carts. First through third print boxes usually had original carts. Fourth prints I'm not sure of yet.

See! I knew someone on here would know about these - Thanks!...Yeah @Tanooki, I figured there were probably some out there 😞 . Sorry to hear you had to experience it first hand...I'm out of the Pokemon GBA game for now (Well, I still have all my CIB copies...), but paying $200 for CIBs and $100 for an Emerald cart(???) - That isn't something I want any part of!

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1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

I"m going to ruin your fun here, well yours and the warrior.

Two days ago I went into the half price books up the street from me, in the case for $25/ea was Pokemon Ruby and FireRed.  I was blown away they didn't do their usual price hike so I had them open the case.

I thought truly they were real. Plastic color was legit, stickers looked legit... why?  matched online images of real (and I own a FIreRed too) and they even had STAMP CODES.

But, once I was able to get them in hand, I flipped them over, and well...they're frauds.  The rear set of shiny rectangles you get on the back left side were missing.  The boards didn't look right in other ways too, including via holes in the wrong place, and even a nice long run of them with a curl up into the green like a letter J don't exist on real, let alone go through the middle of the pins that are exposed to touch the GBA slot either.  That really SUCKED.

SO now watch out, Pokemon carts are getting fake sticker stamp codes that look right.

Just open up the cart if you're not sure. No one can fake a nintendo board. There is a chance that there will be a different game inside even with an authentic shell. That happened to me once with Chrono Trigger.

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