The chip on the right of the fake game’s PCB is a 1-Mbit SRAM (M5M51008DFP-70H), where the cart stores its save data, and the thing on the left is a button cell battery that keeps the SRAM alive. This is where things get really interesting. Somewhat surprisingly, the fake uses the correct tri-wing screw (commonly used in Nintendo stuff). Not too much to see here, except that the fake has the wrong model number: AGB-004 is the model number for a charger, while AGB-002 is the standard GBA cartridge.

I have no idea why the bootlegger didn’t just try to copy the real label exactly. This is apparently the case for all real GBA games. You can’t really see it in this picture, but the real cart has a small two-digit number embossed on the label. The 10-letter code in the bottom right corner is different: AGB-BZ6E-USA is the correct code for the American version of FF6 Advance, but AGB-BKWE-USA is the code for a game called BookWorm. The fake is missing the “Official Nintendo Seal” and the company logos. (That’s 4, not 6 whoever made the label pasted in characters from the wrong game!) This failed to arouse my suspicion because I’ve never played FF4. The three figures on the fake game’s label are characters from Final Fantasy IV, or so I hear. (The fake is on the left and the real is on the right in all pictures. Now that I’ve bought another copy of FF6 that’s genuine (I’m pretty sure), the two cartridges provide an interesting comparison.

But at the time, the existence of counterfeit GBA games didn’t even occur to me, so I didn’t realize I had one until a few weeks ago. If I had read a guide like this one, it should have been totally obvious that what I got was a fake. Last year, I bought a Final Fantasy VI cartridge for the Game Boy Advance from an eBay seller in China.

Download final fantasy vi gba cartridge