Hardware Bootleg Concerns

CommanderCool · Aug 15, 2020

Alright, I'm a little concerned with the copy of Yggdra Union I just purchased:

I got it from Ebay. The packaging was completely sealed, and the instruction booklet was in pristine condition. When I ripped the ROM myself to my computer, it ended out having an MD5 tag which is completely different to the ones which I have found in databases online (for as few as I could find). However, I've found zero signs of tampering or bootleg red flags on the cartridge. Could I possibly have a defective cart of the game? Or is this a normality?

Thanks!

Sterophonick · Aug 15, 2020

What does the PCB look like?
Could you send a picture?

mrgone · Aug 15, 2020

in rare cases there are v01 (secondary) versions of roms with small patches

godreborn · Aug 15, 2020

I have something like this with Poi on the switch. it says USA on the cartridge, but a second metadata is loaded for it on the home menu. it also will not allow me to get coins for it saying the region is different from the account region. I called up nintendo, and they couldn't explain it either. they still gave me the coins, but it's really strange.

CommanderCool · Aug 15, 2020

Sterophonick said:
What does the PCB look like?
Could you send a picture?

I don't have the tools here to be able to unscrew the cart and show you the PCB. I'll have to look into that when I can.

FAST6191 · Aug 15, 2020

CommanderCool said:
I don't have the tools here to be able to unscrew the cart and show you the PCB. I'll have to look into that when I can.

While full PCB shots will be an almost instant giveaway even a shot into the contacts you can see can help us tell -- many repros will not make the correct size pins, use the correct font/PCB overlay and the like, get the angle right and we might even see into the cart itself (others playing along it is a non RTC EEPROM saving game).

Similarly is there a punched in number on the label (usually somewhere on the right, might take twisting it under a light source to see)? While trivial to replicate I don't think we have seen any fakes do that yet. Not to mention the label itself might not be made the best.

CommanderCool · Aug 20, 2020

FAST6191 said:
While full PCB shots will be an almost instant giveaway even a shot into the contacts you can see can help us tell -- many repros will not make the correct size pins, use the correct font/PCB overlay and the like, get the angle right and we might even see into the cart itself (others playing along it is a non RTC EEPROM saving game).

Similarly is there a punched in number on the label (usually somewhere on the right, might take twisting it under a light source to see)? While trivial to replicate I don't think we have seen any fakes do that yet. Not to mention the label itself might not be made the best.

Everything looks authentic. I did a comparison of the byte values and there's one byte which is off, which I can only assume is due to cart deterioration or something akin to that.

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