Bootleg Pokemon Sapphire

1- A giveaway for the Pokemon bootlegs is the cartridge color. Pokemon has shipped in specific colors for the different games.

2- When buying on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, be very wary of the price, very cheap = bootleg.

3- Once you get the game if there is a red sticker in Chinese covering the screw keeping the cartridge together = bootleg.

4- If the cartidge doesnt fit perfectly or you have to force it to go in = bootleg.

5- If the outer packaging for the game comes flatpacked or if you feel the colors are too bright or off = bootleg.

6- If the manual has obvious typos and doesnt look like a normal manual = bootleg.

To be honest with you, never buy cartridge based games online and when buying from a shop, keep the things above in mind. As far as the differences, the data on the bootleg cartridge might be corrupted, so the game hangs after a while or doesnt boot up at all. The battery in the game is of cheap quality and may run out of juice much sooner than the original cartridge.

I have been bitten by each of those things I mentioned and know that eBay and Amazon provide very little protection if at all when this happens.

I bought it in person, at a second-hand sports place, that also buys and sells used video games.

The cartridge itself looks exacly like a normal Sapphire game, minus the label.

It's half-way bluish translucent

has the nintendo thing by the pins

has the "Made in Japan Pat. Pend." thing on the back

I opened it up today, and compared it to my Leaf Green game, which I bought new at wal-mart. They're almost the same, but my sapphire has a battery in it. So, it's definately a fake.

Unless a seller explicitely says "This is an official pokemon game" I would never buy any GB, GBA or DS pokemon games online. Ebay and Amazon are saturated with bootlegs from Hong Kong, Malasia and mostly countries from non-Japaense countries.