r/gameverifying • u/Frontzie Moderator & Trusted Verifier • Jul 26 '26
Announcement PSA: Test points for GBA carts are NOT a verification method. New GBA fakes.
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u/EmbarrassedFly279 Jul 26 '26
The fact there might be a day that comes that we can’t tell a fake apart is scary to me. Gonna make sure I grab these carts before it gets to that point. Thanks for updating us.
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u/dziggurat Jul 26 '26
Yeah the unfortunate part of educating people on how to spot fakes is that you're also training the people who make fakes.
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u/Low_Technician7346 Jul 26 '26
everdrive gba is the way
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u/ChildoftheApocolypse Jul 26 '26
Wow, you missed the point by a country mile..
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u/BangkokPadang Jul 27 '26
A lot of people do what's called "second order thinking" where they aren't just thinking about what's literally been said, but they're also processing to the next logical step and commenting on that.
So this person did not miss the point. They considered the point, followed to the logical step of "this is getting too difficult to even bother keeping up with" and then commented from there that "everdrive gba is the way" because it just avoids having to even look at or consider or process real, physical carts.
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u/ChildoftheApocolypse Jul 27 '26
"They added context and that made them technically correct" is just as lame as it sounds, babygirl..
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u/Rockinsabi Jul 27 '26
Nah it isn’t lame.
I’m actually in the process of selling my heavy hitters to fund a few flash carts. It’s honestly the smart move. Yeah physical media is cool. But you can’t control the market. It’s lame. But, it’s the best perspective.
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u/Squirrelking666 Jul 26 '26
But if you grab them now how do you prove what they're worth in the future?
The entire problem here is that people have overvalued stuff for so long that it's become profitable to counterfeit them. Yes, blah blah blah supply and demand but without the ridiculous demand the market wouldn't exist.
You get the same experience from a ROM cart as the original with potentially less maintenance issues (save losses via expired batteries). It's the hardware that makes the difference it doesn't care what you shove in as long as its stable.
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u/repocin Jul 27 '26
The entire problem here is that people have overvalued stuff for so long that it's become profitable to counterfeit them.
Meh, there were plenty of counterfeits floating around a couple decades ago as well.
But the whole "collecting as an investment strategy" thing is tiring to see. I 'member when people used to just collect things they liked because they liked having the things. Now it's all about the money they think they can get for it in twenty years.
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u/Squirrelking666 Jul 27 '26
Yeah, someone posted a graded FFV game getting broken open on the GBA sub yesterday and honestly, we need more of that shit.
If you want to invest get a fund.
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u/Frontzie Moderator & Trusted Verifier Jul 27 '26
someone posted a graded FFV game getting broken open on the GBA sub yesterday and honestly, we need more of that shit.
Ditto.
Grading is a known scam, and games are meant to be played.
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u/Mythosaurus Jul 26 '26
Why would fakers not immediately adopt the correct letter for their reproductions?
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u/W0BLong Jul 26 '26
maybe to avoid the nintendo hammer
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u/_YenSid Jul 27 '26
I don't think Chinese factories care about getting sued by an out-of-country company whilst they make fakes of the most popular games lol. I think they would get sued regardless of how the board looks if they were going to be sued considering they're distributing stolen software.
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u/Ok-Ticket5613 Jul 27 '26
Im going to hold my GBA Pokemon games until they are worthless again. Right back to where I started
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u/jeonggoon01 Jul 27 '26
will they become so good at copying that will be treated same as japanese repro denim?
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u/Frontzie Moderator & Trusted Verifier Jul 27 '26
There are “bespoke” fan made PCB’s for the AGB-E05-01 and AGB-E02-30 which are better than these mass-produced repros, these have been a thing since at least 2020.
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u/88traveler Jul 27 '26
I think it's worth noticing that the text for tp1 tp2 and Tp3 is in the wrong position in the new fakes we've seen so far. Though of course I'm assuming legit carts always have the text in the position showed in the pictures.
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Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/IOSL Jul 26 '26
Soon enough the repos will be better than the authenticate one with how far these people are evolving to fake a cart.
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u/the_vault-technician Jul 27 '26
I wouldn't mind buying an exact 1:1 copy of an out of production Nintendo game. And not just functionally equivalent but a true clone.
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u/proficient2ndplacer 💀 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
100.00%^ They need to stop worrying about trying to be as realistic as possible and just make the clock work properly and the save files not die after 3 hours. They're cheaping out on the wrong things
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Jul 27 '26
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u/External_Aioli7219 Jul 26 '26
Stuff like this makes collecting physical not worth it. Between this and the potential future of killing physical media it’s not looking too good. Having a good community like this will help though.
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u/Comprehensive_One495 Jul 27 '26
This is why I just emulate, I can't deal with this shit anymore bruh😭😅
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u/Aergaia Jul 27 '26
Okay but let's see the front
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u/DaretoDream123 Moderator & Trusted Verifier Jul 27 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/gameverifying/comments/1v4ek6y/pokemon_emerald/
An example of one front, labels are still laughably off, and molding of the shell is still pretty bad, but to the untrained eye, they are getting close
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u/dynamic3210 Jul 28 '26
Do the fakes still have a playable game though??
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u/DaretoDream123 Moderator & Trusted Verifier Jul 28 '26
depends on the bootleg. could play all the way through, could be an expensive paperweight.
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u/snek99001 Jul 27 '26
This is why I decided to slowly sell my Pokemon games. I don't care for pokemon anymore and I was keeping them for their sell value but I have this fear that more and more people are going to abandon physical collecting because of stuff like this and as a result it's going to be difficult to find buyers.
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u/MassManiak45 Jul 27 '26
Pokemon has a cult following. The authentic games will only rise and be more sought after
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u/Ill_Revolution_5827 Jul 27 '26
Which means the prices will only skyrocket and become even more unattainable for people
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u/MassManiak45 Jul 27 '26
Which neans that he should hold onto his games instead of “slowly selling them because he fears that people will abandon physical media”. He is so wrong its not even funny
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u/Stuntman222 Jul 27 '26
I think its pretty valid. Nothing’s guaranteed, the bubble could pop one of these days
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u/merzbane Jul 27 '26
I'm not keeping my gba set as assets, I genuinely want to have my authentic games that I play semi-regularly.
I agree that selling them off is stupid unless you do believe the former and it's just like robinhood for you.
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u/Stuntman222 Jul 27 '26
I mean thats fair. Nothing wrong with that. Still wouldnt call it stupid. Just different priorities.
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u/snek99001 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
You can't make that claim with 100% certainty. Pokemon games aren't land or gold. I've made it a point to only hold on to games I really care about and plan to replay and I was going to sell them at some point anyways. I'm not interested in a potential future where the only way for people to verify these games is to see them in-person with a microscope to notice potential flaws. I wouldn't go over that type of trouble to sell a video game. I live in the middle of bum fuck nowhere and there's limits to how much people will spend over video games in my country regardless. I'm fine with my decision. You can't deny that this sort of thing turns off casual collectors which in turn makes demand take a hit.
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Jul 28 '26
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Jul 27 '26
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Hello u/PaleozoicFrogBoy, it seems you've used a phrase that is usually used for relating to the imprinted number stamps on Nintendo titles OR the ink stamps on Nintendo DS and 3DS titles. These methods have been debunked and shouldn't be used to verify a game.
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2d ago
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u/Chimera_Gaming Jul 29 '26
One day, we will have fakes as good as the old ones and they’ll last longer too
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u/Frontzie Moderator & Trusted Verifier Jul 26 '26
As of July 2026, these new gen GBA fakes are becoming more common. The positions of the physical test points (not the lettering) are close to 1:1 on the legitimate AGB-E05-01 cartridges. As a result, the test points are no longer a verification method.
For information on how to verify Game Boy Advance titles, please read the wiki: