I Bought Bootleg Nintendo Games from Temu

Turns out that Temu is selling a bunch of bootleg Nintendo games... so I bought a few of them.
Chapters:
00:00 - Sup
01:14 - Pokémon Pearl
03:51 - Pokémon Leaf Green
06:49 - Testing Pokémon Pearl
10:06 - Testing Pokémon Leaf Green
11:26 - Testing the 520-in-1 Cartridge
13:00 - Super Mario 64
20:39 - The Sup Console
28:05 - Outro
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Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.
#MichaelMJD #Nintendo #Bootleg

[@MichaelMJD]

So I’m seeing a few comments saying things like “these counterfeit copies are great because you don’t have to pay as much for them!” Just want to remind folks that most of the bootleg games I showed in this video are around the same price as used genuine copies on eBay. Selling fake, counterfeit or “reproduction” copies of video games without disclosing that they aren’t genuine and asking genuine prices is a straight up scam, and this video is meant to raise awareness to that.

[@fuzzyotterpaws4395]

Honestly I can't tell a difference. If I got a game, I'd have no idea it was fake. I'm also not exactly smart enough to even fully know what a "bootleg" is or how you make "fake" games, but just watching this it seems like it would get me by accident because I don't know any better!🤣

[@LinkLich]

Temu = support forced labour like a billionaire.

[@yeseniacastro4439]

I got a temu ad watching this.

[@johnlockman9090]

Yeah - if you just wanted to pirate it, buy one of those SD flashcarts and load whatever ROMs yourself. Surely you can fit a lot more than one game on a $15 microSD these days...

[@feliciaalmen8665]

​@@johnlockman9090not saying you should or that it's right but yeah you can definetly find a lot more for 15 dollars these days

[@dusterpl6093]

honestly bootlegs and reproduction cartridges are a great thing as long as they're not being advertised as the real deal. not everyone out there is a collector, some people just wanna play some games on their original hardware without spending tons of money on original games.

[@ElNacho596]

why do that when you can just emulate them on a 3ds

[@dusterpl6093]

@@ElNacho596 because playing old games how they were intended to be played is 1000 times more fun than emulating them on modern hardware. at least in my opinion, that is.

[@TF2Starlight]

@@dusterpl6093^

[@loubirdandgames4921]

Well it’s not really the original experience when it’s not the real cartridge

[@TF2Starlight]

@@loubirdandgames4921 I disagree, it’s literally the same game if you only care about the experience of playing it.

[@tristanturner2782]

I love the fakeout of "we're gonna pull out my original DS here... and use it to prop up my DS lite"

[@zhuguidai]

I literally LOLd

[@Aeduo]

Filming the original is probably a nightmare. :p

[@PhoenixPhan0]

I love it too... I nearly fell for it.

[@apollolux]

That's probably my favorite part of the video. XD

[@wanderingwobb6300]

It perfectly sums up the Nintendo DS experience. No one wants to use the fat since it had no backlight and the Lite had horrendous QA issues with the hinges constantly breaking.

[@NESDwayne]

I have no problem buying a bootleg so long as it works. I'd rather pay $20 for a copy than $200 for a 20 or 30 year old used original

[@ihatebenihanas8693]

But its real and not fake and vintage 🤓☝️ (If you resell Gameboy games you should actually bite the curb and look like mega glalie)

[@LoveLee_Dreamer]

That leaf green game is pretty impressive. It's actually worth the buy if you just want to play the game without paying the collector price.

[@applepeel1662]

You can literally download the game and play it for free on ur phone

[@ivy_47]

The main issue with it is that the DS pokémon games won't recognize it for transfer from gen 3 to gen 4.

[@ginosgarage8565]

@@applepeel1662I did that on my android, haven’t seen a way for iPhones yet

[@Sonnenmann8]

@@applepeel1662 so what

[@no-fd6mt]

​@@ivy_47lol dude if your emulating you can just use a save editor like pkhex to transfer it over or backup specific pokemon, and if you for some reason wanted to use that pokemon on official hardware, you could easily add it to a gen 4 game on a flashcart 😂

[@cameronlol7956]

i remember being in 2nd grade and my friend telling me about a "magic" ds cartridge with "every ds game on it" that her friend had and i didn't understand what roms were at the time so i made my mom take me to gamestop so i could ask some poor employee if they had it 😭

[@TheJjcczz]

Some kid had a tech savvy parent

[@DaLatinKnight]

​@@TheJjcczzblessing and a curse, depending on how you were as a kid

[@ernestomoreno4409]

@@TheJjcczzor the parent just bought the cart with the games already downloaded.

[@aydanbeavers5270]

In elementary school my friend’s aunt gave one of those to him and his sister, and he told me it was cause his aunt worked at Nintendo. When I learned what it was a couple years later he was appaled

[@xTwilightWolvesx]

@@TheJjcczzI had a tech savvy uncle that got me, my sister and my cousins an R4 card each. I played the shit out of Pokémon Diamond on it, not knowing what ROMs were 😂

[@vimh7171]

I used to buy knockoff DS carts from a flea market when I was a kid, good times.

[@fgclue]

Same, but instead I bought them for the PS2.

[@UltimatePerfection]

​​​@@fgclueI did buy bootleg famicom cartridges for my bootleg famicom that looked like original Playstation in early 2000s. Still iffed I lost it when moving, especially since it looks like nobody dumped the particular 9,999,999 in 1 cartridge it came with. If anyone comes across a 9,999,999 in 1 cartridge with no music, centered game list, background that seems to have a helicopter flying in it (static image though), with a game called GIANT MORIO 014 (yes, "morio") on the first page, which is basically a SMB1 hack with only change being that you can't die or get small after getting the mushroom, unless you fall down a pit, dump it because it's basically the one I am looking for. The menu looked kinda the "unchained melody" 9,999,999 in 1 cartridges, although likely an early version of the multicart software as it contained only a single static background (described above), no moving sprites and no music, likely to save on ROM space.

[@mikcnmvedmsfonoteka]

@@fgclue We had PS1 disks for about 5$ (2.5 Latvian lats), instead of NES we had Famicon with its various copies like - (Dandy, Zhilaton, Terminator, etc), cartridges were about 10$, PC games were cheap as well, although Sega, PS2, etc only original cartridges.

[@Dogy0909]

Same but with PS2 and GBA games. There would usually be a lot of legit ps2 sports games actually but the GBA carts were almost always bootlegs for some reason

[@carlosrodriguez-di3bs]

For me it was snes games. Even had X-Men vs street fighter. It was never officially released for Snes

[@aquaphoric4526]

Theres something funnily ironic about the fact when I clicked on this video it was prefaced with the temu ad of the lady getting angry about people calling their drones fake

[@EvilOtto580]

Not justifying TEMU, as I haven't used them. I used to work at a distribution center, and a lot of times, manufacturers would order the inventory to be destroyed, and require video evidence. Sometimes it was justified (recalls, or infested products) but other times it was just to prevent the discarded (but good) products from being given away or sold to people.

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

$30 for a true Pokémon Pearl? Local sellers want $100 at least in my country. Without a box, mind you.

[@KantiDono]

I think the '2002' at 5:40 is actually a genius move to make the board look more plausible. If someone were to look up the board casually, obviously it's not going to match any images of other boards online. But there's a seed of doubt that maybe it could have been a legitimate revision from a second print run in 2002.

[@RedVelvet_EdgeMuffin]

Good point

[@WhipLash42o]

Yeah but that will never matter in the grand scheme of things. People that buy bootleg copies that are ACTUALLY in the market for the real deal with either know what they're looking at when they open them, or will have someone appraise the item for them. This also means they'll never be able to sell the fake to a serious collector, a casual collector sure, but someone that knows what they're buying will never entertain that person again. So they'll still know they got scammed in the end. And for people that just want to play the game, they generally won't have any interest in opening the the physical copy to check the board.

[@Kiri68419]

Thing is though, the first release of FRLG were in 2004. While I don't know why 2001 is printed on there (hell, RSE have 2002 on their boards despite coming out before FRLG, and emerald not even coming out in 2002 itself), this means that there SHOULD NOT be a 2002 version of FRLG, as the earliest re-print should be marked as 2004 or 2005.

[@DrKoneko]

My mom bought one of those 200 in one consoles and it turned out to be a flashcard with a bunch of roms on it. Its actually amazing because I don't have a flashcard and its nice to have one.

[@DrKoneko]

@@squ1dd13 yeah it's really great because they're running legit R4 firmware so they'll be compatible with homebrew as well.

[@skycloud4802]

Hopefully without a timebomb though as those tend to me fraught with those problems.

[@DrKoneko]

@@skycloud4802 had mine for at least 6 months now and no issues so far!

[@harvinator4905]

Me too and it was only 15$

[@ThePeacePlant]

​@@DrKoneko Nice. So you figured out about R4 after your mom bought the device or before?

[@richardstamm2144]

Ah if only some of these in demand games had official reprints. I'd happily pay original prices to get those again

[@doughboywhine]

The demand is definitely there, but nintendo seems to hate going back to what worked

[@blueviper64]

Those “multiple games in 1” DS cartridges were like a treasure as a kid lol

[@akaYatte]

24:21 For the Japanese text right here: In case anyone wants to know, it says "HELP (TA-SU-KE-TE)". It's written like "たすけて" in the game, but it can also be written like "助けて". The didn't use the second one likely so kids can read it (たすけて is easier to read than 助けて for younger people or beginners)

[@nickkasander2316]

that’s terrifying! 😀

[@sulaymanzaraei8473]

WATASHI GA KITA

[@inktendo]

Ok, so afaik these DS cartridges are actually running the OS of either Supercard DSTwo or Acekard, two very famous Flashcards. And they are actually very very good flashcards, you got lucky there for the price. The Supercard DSTwo actually have some RAM built-in and you can play GBA games directly from it, most flashcards can't. The "Deep Labyrinth" banner on startup is what gave it away for me.

[@xKynOx]

You can now play GBA games on any DS flash card now days, gbarunner

[@r4collects]

KZbin deleted my reply, I can't name the express place apparently. It uses the Ace3DS+ Kernel, also you can get the flash card without an SD card for about $5 on express, I'm pretty sure the ones with the labels show Deep Labyrinth but the ones without labels normally show Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis, I have one without a label that shows Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis and I have two with labels that show Deep Labyrinth.

[@RisingRevengeance]

DS flashcarts were all over the place with clones of clones and whatnot. I never found one that didn't have issues. Best way to play ds games nowadays is just to softmod a dsi or 3ds.

[@fleefie]

Ayup, those cards are pretty rare and good for modders, though nowdays I mostly run on a TWM++ DSi for my DS cravings

[@mjdxp5688]

I got a clone R4 a few years ago and it's identical to the Pearl cartridge, just with a different default theme for the game selector and different pre-loaded ROMs. It was also masquerading as Deep Labyrinth. I'm guessing these are also R4 clones.

[@Zeroshiki]

The fake LeafGreen was immediately obvious to me, since it was my first Pokémon game. It's more translucent and the green color is way darker than the genuine copies. It looks more like an Emerald cartridge with LeafGreen slapped on the front.

[@SunoPics]

i appreciate the loader they're using on the copy of pearl. having a unique loader per game collection is a great idea

[@squorsh]

Something really interesting is that some DS games actually do have piracy checks that will trigger. An example is Spirit Tracks, which plays perfectly normally until you get on the train, at which point there won't be any controls and you'll be softlocked.

[@kakurenbo729]

Oh dear, so this is why I could never bypass that scene! About ten years ago or so I know I played a pirated version of Spirit Tracks on my DS lite with a R4 card, however after some years I wanted to play it again in a new R4 on my 3DS or DSi, and I could never figure out why it was always "broken" on the train scene. I've been thinking all these past years that something was wrong with every rom I downloaded

[@squorsh]

@@kakurenbo729 something that you can do for the 3ds if it's homebrewed is launch the game from the sd card with a real phantom hourglass cartridge, if you have one. It seems like the game only checks if the cartridge is a Zelda game, not if it's the specific one. If you don't have one, there's probably some other way to patch the rom but I wouldn't know how

[@AlexsGoogleAccount]

@@kakurenbo729 Nowadays most popular flash carts will automatically apply anti-piracy fixes to the game, but if they can't, there are anti-piracy cheat codes or you can find patches that you could apply through a patching tool.

[@Superluigi881]

Pokémon Gen 5's piracy check is nasty. No exp gain. Ever. You can play in theory but good luck getting anywhere.

[@AlexsGoogleAccount]

@@Superluigi881 I've played through each of the Unova games on my R4 Gold and never had any issues gaining EXP. A lot of flash carts apply anti-piracy fixes automatically. The Black 2 ROM I play was ripped directly from my physical Black 2 cartridge. I didn't apply a patch to it and I haven't used cheat codes to fix it; my cart does that for me. But those are options that people can attempt if their cart doesn't.

[@sheeplavender3261]

The thing with some of these counterfeit games is that the antipiracy can still trigger. For example the original game programmers have flag checks set in a specific part of the game that won't let you proceed if the game has been suspected to be tampered, and the player won't know until they reach that segment of the game. Sometimes games don't get past the start up screen or title screen.

[@zoruasnivy]

I found that running a HGSS rom on an r4 still reproduced glitches I would find on emulator on PC, so some games might just be too well protected to fully crack

[@Sanrasxz]

​​@@zoruasnivyProbably just an outdated kernel. Most flashcarts have anti-piracy patch routines in their loader system that will patch the ROM on boot to fix AP issues. What cart do you have exactly?

[@candylide]

When I was little, like below 10 years little, I played pirated games on my DS And in Pokemon Diamond, I got to a point (in a cave, I think) where a dude was blocking the exit and was like "I have no pokemon, you won't fight against a defenseless person like me, right?" And to this day I still don't know if that was normal gameplay or caused by it being pirated All I know is that little me was unable to progress anymore

[@FrenkTheJoy]

@@candylide I'm pretty sure that was normally in the game, it means you missed something you were supposed to do before you got to that area that the guy was blocking.

[@rue3ki]

​@@candylideI'm pretty sure that pokemon pearl would stop you from gaining any XP if your game wasn't legit. You mightve just missed a step you needed to get done before entering that cave :)

[@sgj7408]

The GameBoy Advance bootletgs can be identified if they have the 4 golden rectangles on the back too, its a much faster way of identifying them and it's much easier than unscrewing it, the bootlegs have all of the weird dots and traces all on the back of the PCB that are absent on a legit copy

[@Sonrio25]

This was my first video of yours and your humor is just hilarious. I immediately subscribed after you used the OG DS joke.

[@MichaelMJD]

Haha thanks so much!

[@theletters9623]

Ive apparently been in the pokemon/bootleg ds game community for a while because I saw the little dippies on the sides near the top of the "pearl" copy and I went "thats an r4! thats a bootleg!"

[@benfll]

Same

[@Home_Rowed]

11:06 That "The save file will be loaded." message from the Leaf Green cartridge is actually edited in to cover up a likely small save corruption message. It may be due to the bootleg's save chip being a different type and/or a smaller size so it might not have the space for the backup save that is normally hidden on a real Pokémon Gen 3 cartridge in case someone powers off while saving. Though, the bootleg would probably work fine for most things, but wouldn't work with Pokémon Colosseum, XD, Box, and likely not the Gen 4 Pal Park. Though, the Pokémon Pearl on the flashcard should work with Pokémon Battle Revolution and Pokémon Ranch.

[@nincollin]

Yeah I was waiting for that message to be displayed as official LF/FR cartridges never simply tell you they're going to load the save file. A FR bootleg I have, if I recall correctly, says................"The save file is ok"

[@zeemgeem]

Yep, this line of text is not in an official rom. The cheap reproduction version does not have the space for both the primary and backup save, the latter of which is likely looping back around due to lack of space and that means the primary save is cut off and thus corrupted. The message on a genuine cart when this happens says "The save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be loaded."

[@FrostedGeulleisia]

on RSE bootlegs another message that pops up is "The game can be played." - which is a modified "dry battery" message. For anyone who has one of these, and has actually played on it, I'd dump the ROM (if you have a DS and a flashcart, you can use a piece of homebrew to do that, though I forgot what it's called), the save file actually ends up being written to the end of the ROM. I've managed to recover a friend's 150+ hour Ruby file from a fake cart this way. I'd also try to flash something else to it via a tool like a gbxcart. You'll need to patch whatever ROM you want to use on it though.

[@eepykami]

@@FrostedGeulleisia i managed to dump a save from my bootleg pokemon emerald, and convert it into a format that i could use with an original rom and flash cartridge. eventually if I get my hands on a genuine pokemon emerald I should be able to copy the save from the flashcart to that. I remember it being a bit of a pain to do, maybe one day I can figure it out again and write up how I did it

[@Schnort]

I have one of those 250 in 1 carts that is surprisingly well made. It uses an SD card that they made accessible without opening the cart, so in theory I can add my own games. All the games seem to be real games, too. The only problem with them is that some are willing to save and others aren't. Not a big deal because it comes with save states, but in Leaf Green, I can't do anything that requires saving or the game will hang. I can save in Emerald, though.

[@Connor_Tyler]

I have that SUP system! My brother got it for me for Christmas years ago, before TEMU was even a thing. It's the most insanely bootleggy thing I've ever seen, and I love it. You can use the famicom controller because it comes with an attachment to connect it to your TV (as long as it has red and yellow AV ports) and play it like that. Mine has 400 games, but I'm sure there are other versions.

[@ZipplyZane]

My sister got me something for Christmas that looks exactly like that, except without the SUP branding. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd gotten a 3DS that I use for retro gaming. (It can even do many N64 games now! And Virtual Boy, though i've not tried that yet.)

[@JJDorval]

Love videos teaching about things like this. I wanted to point out that old Nintendo cartridges and such also have revision and manufacture location “stamps” or “Letters and Number” on the back of the carts back labels. These for some reason are not found as much on bootlegs but are found on cartridges dating back to the Nes days. I do have a video explaining this on my channel. I don’t see much on that subject but I always look for revisions when hunting and looking at old carts. Games like Castlevania had game breaking glitches and rereleasing a cartridge meat a new “revision” Letter. A is the second release after the original print. B is third and so on. Many major titles got revisions. The more you know and some people collect those. Cheers and Happy Gaming!

[@pileofboxes]

The micro-sd card on the back absolutely floored me.

[@boxtrowicomic4291]

Looks perfect to play rom durectly on the device

[@44.caliberbrainsurgery63]

Bootleg or not, having a flashcart ain't a bad deal. Game collectors are out of their minds and it'll only get worse despite these games being out there in the millions.

[@adamsfusion]

They're not changing the names or bluring the images to avoid copyright/trademark infringement. They're doing it to avoid bot detection from Nintendo and their agents.

[@MichaelMJD]

That's still copyright/trademark infringement though.

[@katsudon2048]

China

[@Ryyi23]

​@@MichaelMJDcorrect, but they don't care about copyright laws at all. They are just doing what they can to successfully list the product and get a few sales.

[@Josh_the_jester]

It's only a matter of time before temu gets hit with the dreaded cease and desist, as pretty soon temu may get bold enough to start pirating switch games, they already made bootleg switch controls so what's stopping them when they're getting away with piracy

[@MichaelMJD]

@Ryyi23 I’m fully aware. I was just pointing out that trying to circumvent automated checks like that is still trying to get around copyrights/trademarks like I said in the video.

[@JaymieSword]

Honestly, replica cartridges is great news for game preservation. The problem is you never know which ones work as opposed to being scams.

[@hihibecky]

yeah but with genuine games that are readily available for the same price on ebay then the replicas are scammy

[@Cedalus]

Also repro pokemon cartridges aren't able to trade or transfer pokemon to other games

[@Strashky]

​@@Cedalusmost should be able to. only really old flashcards werent able to do this

[@SunsetBear]

@@hihibeckyi can’t get leaf green for 4 bucks anywhere else

[@xxxg-01hgundamheavyarms50]

​@@SunsetBearWhy not just use an emulator if it's a money thing?

[@Sasuhinagirl1]

This was a very informative and amusing video! The joke about the original DS being used to prop up the DS lite made me laugh, as well as the legend of ocarina of time

[@nebex96]

Michael MJD and Temu… seems like a interesting combination… I’m now awaiting a 2.5$ Windows 2.5 pc 😂

[@Gunslinging_Photographer]

The episode starts as follows. "Hey guys, Michael MJD here, I think I bought the most problematic, virus-infested laptop ever! The 3 dollar 'dill longetitude' from temu. It boots to 'windops 7' and appears to be smoking..."

[@SmackedByJack]

@@Gunslinging_Photographeri read that in the scott the woz voice

[@erroroliver]

@@SmackedByJack i started doing that too once i saw your comment

[@splater1]

@@erroroliverI did that too😂

[@Ironman-jd3do]

long time fan. glad your expanding your video library. stay epic my Windows XP master

[@hibikuokudan]

One of the nice things about rhe flashcarts is that with a microSD card reader and a good source, you can add all the games you want!

[@secretgirlnow]

And with pokemon games, you can use a randomizer and even play some romhacks!

[@Zeruda_Masuta]

My Mom was fooled by this because she wanted to give me pokèmon Diamond as an Birthday gift

[@shoeliver]

oof, that sucks.

[@RoseQuartz692]

How was the game?

[@Poyrik]

22 hours ago?

[@lukedavis436]

How's this comment from 22 hours ago? The videos only been up for a few minutes.

[@NatetheNintendofan]

I got a real one for $50 thx mom at the store a mom-and-pop game store

[@WolfmanDude]

Most "chips" have a four digit date-code on them. The fist two letters are usually the year they are produced. The code 2103 would mean "the third week of 2021".

[@ghostpuppolter3207]

This is a good way to tell for sure, I've never personally seen a fake GBA game that's replicated this however I have heard it's been replicated so these guys may eventually be able to put the on the GBA games as well. It's not completely foolproof is all I'm saying, another easy way to tell is looking at the traces and test pads, the ones on the counterfeit look completely different from the original. Also the fact the plastic is so clear on these ones is another giveaway, an authentic leaf green copy is more opaque and will actually be somewhat hard to even see traces, test pads, and even the date code squares but these counterfeits you can see completely through.

[@smoothbraindetainer]

Same dating scheme as tires lol

[@JennKittyCat]

I pulled out my copy of Leaf Green to compare to the bootleg and there were some more differences I noticed. For one the patters behind the text on the label is different. There are way more swirling lines on the official cartridge and the darker green around those lines is thicker. Also, the color of the official nintendo seal is light green on the official one, not gold. The plastic on the official is not nearly as easy to see inside of on the back. Also the words "Leaf Green Version" are slightly bigger on the bootleg.

[@PricefieldPunk]

Bootlegs are pretty nice tbh considering how impossible/expensive it is to get the real retro games

[@_paczki]

Facts, KZbinrs scared of Nintendo.

[@IvelPara]

It's because they can possibly be sued if they say anything that can remotely promote Fakes.

[@killerpimp01]

The worst thing about that "SUP" counsel, is that they didn't even bother to Tampo the "SUP" on the counsel or controller, they just sprayed it on with a stencil.

[@UltimatePerfection]

Man, that SUP surely got a RISE out of you.

[@fietsindeschie]

counsel

[@YOG3NSHA]

Wtf is a counsel?

[@TemmiePlays]

​@@YOG3NSHAan autocorrected " console "

[@YOG3NSHA]

@@TemmiePlays I know, just being cheeky :p

[@MartyTuro]

$5 for repro LeafGreen didnt look so bad honestly

[@scarlet7960]

yeah, a lot of them cant trade but the game itself is the same rom as a 70$ authentic leaf green

[@ActualCatfish]

Yeah, but if you're going to be playing a ROM rip, why not just play it on a pc emulator for free?

[@brandonnazelrodt2819]

​@@ActualCatfishbc motility...dug

[@StarlyCactus]

​@@ActualCatfishto play on original hardware

[@charleslucas911]

​@actualcatfish6490 being able to play on the original console is great and usually makes the games played "feel" better . I used to have a r4 Card as a kid (similar to the 520 game in 1 cartridge" and it was probably the reason I still love gaming, let me play all the games I always wanted to play instead of shitty movie tie in games my parents bought me

[@lamMeTV]

I wonder if the price increase on retro stuff correlates with the drop in quality of AAA games

[@nundulan]

Interesting thought. CRT TV prices to play those old consoles are also insanely inflated rn.

[@matthewzepess5721]

Philip’s head screw on a Nintendo cartridge might be a even bigger giveaway. Nintendo loves gamebit.

[@TheXppp1]

14:50 I always wonder why bootleggers don't just print labels with the many scans available of the genuine labels and instead make their own

[@rfmerrill]

you can't "just" print a label from a scan and have it come out looking the same. A really high quality photocopier or scanner + printer combo might be able to pull it off, but it would be really expensive--probably more expensive than printing the original label was. Matching all of the colors perfectly and having it come out just as sharp with the same finish etc is just not easy to do. But the really bad mistakes on some of these, like putting TM instead of (R)--or in the case of one of my SNES carts, "Yoshi's Sland"--I really have no explanation for other than just lack of attention to detail maybe combined with not being able to read Latin script very well.

[@TheXppp1]

But high quality scans already exist and are in easily accessible internet databases

[@Slyfa187]

My guess is customs wouldn‘t approve if they looked like exact copies.

[@marlon.8051]

probably just cheaper to print bad ones

[@funnyman8034]

​@@TheXppp1high quality scans aren't accessible and require printers, u cant just pull something off the internet and expect it to be automatically good quality. And if Nintendo finds a bootleg with exact trademarks then they can possibly sue them

[@GameStormerGX]

I can't tell if it was editing on your part, but the amount of time it took to save your game in Pokemon Pearl was much shorter than it normally would be on a real cartridge. Neat.

[@SirReptitious]

Or perhaps it could be because modern micro SD cards, while slow compared to SSDs, are quite fast for storing small bursts of data like game saves and pictures. ;-)

[@GameStormerGX]

@SirReptitious Could be. Playing these games via emulation does not provide faster saving though. I just find it super weird.

[@SirReptitious]

@@GameStormerGX I was talking about hardware performance; it has nothing to do with any emulation effect. Most micro SD cards sold now are class 10 which are way faster than the ancient NAND that was used in systems like the Playstation 1 memory cards, and I assume old Nintendo devices(I have never owned a Nintendo system but they must have been using the same level of tech the other companies were using at the time). Sorry if I was unclear or confused you as that was not my intent.

[@VarietyGamerChannel]

Yes these cheap modern flash cards used for bootlegging are far superior in speed to genuine DS carts in terms of speed. @@SirReptitious

[@montrovy]

@@SirReptitious that's interesting - I have platinum on a flash cart (the DSOne, not one that claims to be a specific game / games like the ones he got ) and it seems to save at around the same speed as the legitimate japanese diamond I own

[@NidotheKing]

I remember bootleg pokemon games used to have trouble with multiplayer. To anyone wondering, almost all modern reproductions are perfectly capable of trading and battling with authentic copies.

[@thecatherd]

Funnily enough, the image used on the Pokémon Pearl ROM selection menu was not from Diamond or Pearl. It actually looked more like the UI style of Black and White, but I've never seen that screen specifically from it. I dunno why they seemingly put together a fake screenshot when it would've been perfectly easy to put a real one in.

[@maganhassan2627]

I'm sure it's from black & white

[@Darkrut]

I got out my old leaf green cartridge and there are a bunch of issues with the label on the front, but without something to compare to they would be tricky to spot. The biggest issue is the spiral in the background. Edit: Also the blurring and name changes in the listings is probably to beat automated checks and isn't there to prevent actual moderation from finding them. They just need the listings to be up long enough for a few people to order from them before they get taken down.

[@NotLexian]

also i believe that the pins on the back should have a few more then the fake has thats how i tell my fakes anyways most of them i seen have too many and in rare cases too little like this one

[@ArcadianLegend]

The cartridge shell itself is also off. Firstly like all legit GBA games there should be a diagonal rectangle poking out from the top right of the label, Fakes pretty much always get the etching for the GBA and Nintendo logos wrong in some way, and probably the most damning thing is that legit LeafGreen carts are more opaque with a brighter green colour. This fake appears to be repurposing a Pokemon Emerald shell.

[@Ryyi23]

I'm fairly certain that the title changes and image blurring they do on the listings is to avoid image recognition and text matching software detecting what they're selling automatically.

[@AmaterasuOkami_]

You get a like and a comment because of the nds gag at 6:44, exactly my humor :)

[@BruceKarrde]

It's sad that there is another online store selling junk. We're trying to reduce the amount of garbage we produce and yet these factories are prefectly fine using valuable resources. There are Straight-to-Video movies, stores like Wish, Alibaba, Temu should be labelled Straight-to-Junkyard.

[@moriyamakyon1067]

After saying that remember that every country has it's local brands that use same factory , same molds, and same everything for their products with different colors and lables so you would have 10s of products for choose

[@illuminous7937]

Honestly i am not opposed to this, always appreciate being able to have a physical copy of a game you loved from your childhood that doesn't cost $300

[@sena4k4]

the sad thing is it's likely cheaper to do it yourself then buy it from someone posing it as an official copy and getting lied to

[@AgentB7]

Indeed, ROM flash cards cost next to nothing nowadays.

[@parzival2114]

La inteligencia te persigue... pero tú eres más rápido

[@philardo]

​@@parzival2114 whats wrong with you?

[@entryofemotion12]

Those 520 in 1 carts have a super big use Imo. You can pull the stuff off of it, and put whatever you want on it. SUPER useful if you just wanna single player blow through some of the games for yourself. It's cheaper than buying an R4 card or Acekard or any of those other big name brands. Bought one, replaced the games and then bought a 2nd cause it's WAY cheaper and seems to work just as good.

[@ihavenoideas5844]

Isn't modding a DSi or 3DS free though (assuming you have one and not a DS/DS Lite)

[@entryofemotion12]

@@ihavenoideas5844 So you're right and it is, but putting NDS games on the console is significantly more difficult than getting one of those carts with the SD card in it. Which is all I use mine for. There ARE easier methods for putting GBA/older console games directly on the home screen, just NDS seems to be more difficult in my experience.

[@carlosroberto6085]

yeah for the dsi you can mode the sd card and use it to put whatever games you want no longer need to have an r4 card I do it on my dsi lite@@ihavenoideas5844

[@user-un8yv8rx1p]

What websites did you use

[@entryofemotion12]

@@user-un8yv8rx1p When I bought it I did it via ebay. But as Wish and Temu both seem to be selling them as well, it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to find.

[@SirHampterXI]

Idk why but I keep rewatching this video cuz it’s just satisfying to see

[@xLadyRaine]

this is actaully a good video to help people determine fakes. There are SO many fake Pokémon games out there. It’s gotten to the point that they ended up is games shops

[@Burn2themall]

Tbh the 520 in one cartridges are a great way to play alot of these games with their original controls especially if youre someone who doesnt have the money or time to search for an original copy with the original hardware

[@Strashky]

buy an r4, they are ripping you off

[@ThePiemasteification]

@@Strashky It' costs almost as much, and then you need to find and load in the ROMS and boot loader, and then they aren't compatible...

[@Strashky]

@@ThePiemasteification at least you will have a quality micro sd card to save your progress on and you have a cleaner interface not littered with 95% shovelware you will never touch. also finding roms these days is as easy as googling reddit behind whatever you are looking for. big chance you will find the megathread with every game your heart would ever desire in 1 giant easy to use database

[@Joshthetwitchguy]

@@Strashky aka vimms lair (cough cough)

[@illuminoti8525]

@@Joshthetwitchguy Im literally downloading something from vimms right now.

[@KanokYT]

The SUP handheld you bought is literally the PVP that Rerez did a review on a few years ago. When I heard you reading off the manual, it instantly reminded me of that handheld, which the PVP looked like a VERY knockoff PSP. So, they are still making that but putting it into a new shell. Figures. Great video, by the way!

[@luigiymario2xd]

A fellow Rerez fan, let's gooo!!!

[@FransLebin]

"I'm gonna bring out my original Nintendo DS..... to prop up my DS Lite's top screen" I laughed heartily at that. Mine are the exact same

[@mrtotalawesomness7830]

Him saying "let let me get my DS to prop up my DS lite screen" was hilarious to me lol

[@ShyShyTAS]

I like that both your DS's have the hinge case broken at the exact spot that it usually breaks at.

[@snbeast9545]

The reason why the DS card had that Deep Labyrinth banner is because it actually is using [parts of] that game's ROM. Starting with the DSi, DS-compatible systems verify that the game is using a genuine ROM by checking SHA1 HMACs in the header over the executables and banner, plus checking a signature over the header. (For pre-DSi games, these systems have a whitelist of hashes.) The other contents of the card, however, are not checked. So, some flashcards and other unofficial software (like Action Replay) use a full ROM and load their firmware with a savegame exploit, while others load their firmware with a file exploit.

[@redfogwhitefrost2583]

"The most boring thing in this video" Meanwhile I'm over here about to hunt that cart down because I wouldn't mind a whole collection of DS games in one.

[@xinfinityx448]

A temu add played while I was watching this...

[@marniemoon1740]

A few weeks ago I saw on Walmart they were selling Spirit Tracks for a relatively low price, and that hooked me so I bought it It came a few days ago, and I started laughing my ass off when it just turned out to be another one of those “208 in 1” things 😭 why are legit DS games so expensive?!

[@kiillabytez]

Why? Proprietary hardware. That's why. Don't believe me? Ask an Apple user how much their peripherals cost and compare it to a PC's peripheral.

[@NoLieIm51]

Me too 😂 i got dragon quest monsters joker 2. I’m happy I got it cause I always wanted one. Ended up buying a legit copy of DQMJ2 so I’m not mad

[@NoName-ji9mb]

Sounds like ya got a scam return. Walmart used to have a no questions asked return policy not anymore of course.

[@janivauhkonen]

I have to say that the original N64 game circuit board looks really beautiful with golden letters. WOW

[@korrinism]

just so everybody knows, the reason you dont want repro carts is because the flash storage the rom is stored on is extremely cheap and if you end up leaving the cartridge alone unplayed long enough the game will die and youre essentially left with a blank game cartridge amd youd have to reflash it to get the game back

[@mrglostix]

6:45 I LOVE IT 😂😂

[@mageius]

A positive note if the flashcards is actually letting you play off of official Hardware not using emulation, then technically it's useful if you want to try playing some randomizers or other things like that. The price of a good flashcards it's actually amusing.

[@gamersread2405]

I love how Temu’s ads are all about them getting angry at people calling their stuff fake Edit: MA! I’M FAMOUS!

[@vanessa_vaneniar_clare]

Y e s. Exactly why I don't download it or mess with it. As my dad says "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

[@EmikaSandra]

All of the ads I'm seeing are clearly voiced by AI. That's what stopped me from buying anything in the app or on the site.

[@missingno81]

They get non asians to call their stuff legit. But if you honestly think it’s not a chinese company like alibaba then you think taco bell is authentic spanish cuisine.

[@banditoincognito8950]

@@missingno81 Aliexpress and Temu are actually fine, just don't go buying anything above $30, or you'll regret it. It's really just for accessories, little figures, shit like hats and pins you know?

[@Sailor-Khione]

Wait, really? I haven't been getting those ads, just ads about how great their products are. Tired of seeing it

[@AnalogOcean]

Watching a bootleg video game review while getting temu ads is hilarious

[@matty808pyro8]

Hearing you say "funniest" is the most funny thing ive heard today

[@Zahuranecs]

Honestly, I got one for SoulSilver since the game can't be properly emulated (I could never get the patch to work) and I bought it for $10 knowing it was a flashcart, but hey, I can actually collect those pokemon from the original game without selling a kidney because HGSS themselves are still really expensive to this day.

[@kitsunekid16]

What issue are you having with soul silver because i never had an issue emulating it. That's probably my most emulated game honestly

[@alexmauney9705]

@@kitsunekid16I’m not 100% sure if it’s an anti-piracy check but the screen cuts to black sometimes on loading the map. It’s pretty prevalent on both HG and SS for hacks. It could also be a bad rom dump I guess.

[@Caesim9]

​@@kitsunekid16 Interestingly, I had problems with Platinum but HG/SS worked for me. One issue with non original HG/SS games is that they don't have an IR chip and can't use the Pokewalker for example

[@readybear64]

This shall be a saga

[@maxfi878]

Of course I got an ad for Temu on this video.

[@xenohunter9482]

how nice that i had a ad from temu when clicking on this video

[@ilkeryoldas]

That Super Mario 14 ROM hack is of Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3, which is a pretty good game originally but has an even better English hack called Ren Adventures with an awesome soundtrack, best way to play it imo.

[@pileofhazelnuts]

I actually own the bootleg rom drive you had for pearl (although mine is a multi-in-one I got for Christmas lol). It actually tricks the ds intol believing the game is a normal game, even allowing you to trade between that and an official game. Its really interesting.

[@lmao2302]

Did you beat the game? Where there unsual shit inside of the game.

[@pileofhazelnuts]

@@lmao2302 yeah I beat platinum, game runs completely normally right up to the end. It actually has 2 wrong roms (B2W2 are both actually rom hacks) and I want to try trading with those. I doubt it'd work but it'd be very funny.

[@AlexsGoogleAccount]

@@pileofhazelnuts I used an R4 card and I've been able to trade between ROMs and genuine cartridges. With ROM Hacks, the more similar they are to the original, the more likely that trading and battling will work. Essentially, when the games connect, some information that is shared is the trainer data and the party. If there's anything in that data that is unexpected (such as Pokemon with unused index numbers, moves that don't exist, items that don't exist, progress checks that are missing, or data not organized in the way that's expected) then you'll see issues with trading. If you make any changes to the battle system (new typing, physical/special split, or applying bugfixes) then you would expect to have issues if battling. But ROM Hacks that are primarily quality of life fixes, that stick to the original Pokedex and items, even if they make large story and geographical changes, should be fully capable of trading/battling/other communications (and compatible with tools such as save editors)

[@lmao2302]

So built in cheats probably like half the price and it works perfectly fine. This shit a steal.

[@pileofhazelnuts]

@@lmao2302 yeah lmao, I used the built in cheats to help me transfer a legit shiny shaymin from Platinum (since I needed a second copy of black/white to do it)

[@LoneSpirit]

A lot of the time with the bootleg games is not that they don't run properly, they run pretty identical to the original - the biggest issue I used to face in the day was the saving function not working or the saves corrupting often.

[@fairy__light]

Same here. I lost my saved data of Pokémon White 2 years ago and I almost cried because I had to start again, lol.

[@johnjuandemarco]

Didn’t know I could buy bootlegs on Temu. Thanks man

[@efficiencygaming3494]

I wasn't paying attention and I heard "Hell Kitty Birthday Adventure" and nearly choked to death on my chips. Thank you for that experience 😂 There was a Rerez video where he reviewed a bootleg PSP with that exact same instruction manual. "Hours of game-playinging fun" 🤣

[@TheSuperiorLite]

i knew i was not the only one having deja vu

[@JaimeLynBarbarian]

I was so stoked for the Hello Kitty bootleg 😭

[@XxPZ110xX]

The wish version of wish itself it's terrible

[@vapour_wav]

When i started watching this video, a Temu ad popped up 😮

[@JamesTDG]

11:44 mine uses Atlantis Squarepantis. Also fun fact, there is a combo you can set up to exit to the cartridge home menu. L+R+A+B+Down is your best bet.

[@MaggieAMoscaZoadora]

Moral of the story: Never buy anything from Temu

[@vandrvekn7382]

More like: Be careful what you buy. I picked up an Anbernic handheld from there at a bargain price, and it works perfectly. Buyer beware is good advice for any site, and goes triple for any Chinese site.

[@RealDuendeNoFake]

I mean, if someone wants reproduction carts for cheap, this is the way to go

[@wombatpandaa9774]

Also don't even browse on it, its trackers are about as bad as TikTok's

[@skycloud4802]

Shop like a billion-no.

[@Half-Homo-Homosapien]

I'd happily buy that leafgreen bootleg for five dollars this wouldn't be bad if they just disclosed that they are a bootleg copy

[@twi11y_]

The irony of just getting a Temu advertisement on this video lol wow

[@keestar8740]

The most heartbreaking part about the Pokemon gba bootlegs is you can’t save them after a certain point your data just gets yeeted 😆

[@Goji86]

On my bootleg copy of SoulSliver, I had a bunch of event shiny pokemon from toys r us and GameStop distributions. Unfortunately, the save file became corrupted and I lost everything so ever since then I never bought another one lol

[@BanetteNumberOneFan]

I remember playing leaf green on my high-school laptop and just never ever closed the tab and one day just gone lost my entire tea after I spent hours at the game counter

[@carterlee12]

First thing I noticed about the pearl cartridge was the divots/dents on the side of the game

[@Kuikkamies]

These have been around for a good while now. Surprisingly, most Chinese sellers are rather open that they're selling repros.

[@user-fc2xk3uv8y]

the pokemon pearl rom file being titled polemon peral cracked me up for some reason

[@Graavyyy]

my local antique store has an entire booth of those “sup” consoles

[@TechnologyNToys]

Now the real questions are do they recognize each other through Pal Park?

[@axelsgf]

I remember borrowing the 200 in 1 games back then from a friend, they 100% worked and i was amazed that it’s possible to put so many games in one for the DS, I think its truly amazing but definitely wrong.

[@diediedice]

Those saved my ass when I was a kid xD. We did still buy original ds and wii games, but some you just weren't able to obtain. The one downside to those 200 in 1 cartridges is that they just stop working after some time :(

[@johnnyknadler1157]

How? Nintendo isn’t producing DS or 3DS games anymore they don’t even support them they don’t make money out of them. If anything it’s a good thing because scalpers suck and you can get expensive games (specifically Pokémon) for cheap.

[@poeskey]

Those are a great cheap way to get a DS flash cart if you wanted one, since those are just generic DS flash carts but with different labels on them. I also did the same with the 3ds I bought. Got it from japan with a 64gb sd card. I wound up modding it and installed the US firmware on it.

[@Muetzi]

Ah yes, my favorite DS game. Pokemon “Peral”

[@AfterBurnerTeirusu]

Just look for the factory pressed imprint while checking gba cartridges. Bootlegs will never go that far. It should be on the right side of the label. Near the center.

[@CommanderWiggins]

I will note, there have been cases where some fakers will stamp their cartridges to try and fool people. You don't see it on these listings from China though, they're usually from people making fakes on a smaller scale, or who are reselling them.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I wouldn't be suprised if these flash carts have a time bomb in them. very common thing for r4 carts to have a time bomb built in which makes them die after a while.

[@seandc6629]

Yeah, for some reason that's very common with cheap flash carts. Most of the time, the timebomb can be bypassed through custom firmware files though, there's tutorials on youtube on how to do this.

[@SvetCookie]

The *clone* R4 "timebombs" are code in the cartridge's kernel that tell them not to work past a certain date in order to keep selling new ones each year. The original R4 did not have this. This only works for systems with an RTC, like the DS. It can be bypassed by setting the date in your system before the trigger point set in the kernel, or by replacing the kernel with one like Wood R4. Non-SD card flash cartridges (unlike the ones in the video, that use flash memory but not in a way you can easily load yourself like SD card ones) are unlikely to have anything similar because they don't have a kernel to load the games, it presents itself to the system as if it was the original cartridge instead.

[@velocity37]

No timebomb in the x-in-1 cards. They're Ace3DS+ clones. You can find threads about them on the flashcarts subreddit. They've been around for a fair while. Not the worst card to pick up compared to the countless DSTTi clones, but you can just pick up the Ace3DS X if you're in need of a 3DS compatible DS flashcart.

[@pcnazillpg5065]

@@velocity37 don't know why but your comment is shadow banned (have to sort by new to read)

[@waluigi8105]

these cards are ace3ds+, they have no timebomb

[@NickyClassicBackArchives]

I did not know Micheal was such a gamer.

[@sonic5147]

If I had to guess, the reason that everything is blurry or shrunken, but only on the sides that have recognizable IP, is to avoid web scraping powered takedowns. If there is an automated process scanning sites like Temu or Wish for fake carts, the listing could stay online for a little while longer if the automation can't immediately match the image to one it has. Probably the same reason the names are odd also.

[@yjk_ch]

It's entirely possible that listings were taken down not by TEMU, but by seller themselves to make buyers harder to take action since the listing is gone. And most buyers probably won't even remember the name of the seller.

[@Y0Y0Evan]

My mom got me that exact fake Mario 64 cartridge one Christmas. I was so salty about it that I eventually just imported a Japanese copy a few months later lol

[@louistournas120]

When did she buy you Mario 64?

[@fowlerfreak7420]

It's the same game who cares

[@SmallMan-je1hy]

I got a Temu ad below this video

[@christycullen2355]

The irony of a KZbin video about Temu having a Temu advert in it 😂