I'm thinking of buying some NES/FC and SNES/SFC games (some JP, some US, some EU). Since I'm not really familiar with these (I used to have a SNES with a couple of games when I was a kid, but that's long gone), I thought I'd ask for help regarding how to identify real vs fake games. I'll be buying these through eBay (unless someone has other online stores to recommend that ship internationally) and I don't want to pay the price of an original for a bootleg. Depending on the game, availability and price, I may buy just the cartridge, or the complete game (cartridge, manual, box, etc); though I highly doubt I'll get any sealed game. In case it helps, here's the list of games I'd like to purchase (I'm not familiar with availability and/or price, so try not to laugh); except FF, all others are SFC/SNES: -All final fantasy games (JP and US) -Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension -Dungeon Master -Far East of Eden -Kirby Super Star -Mario Paint -Mega Man X2 -Mega Man X3 -Pilotwings -Rock 'n Roll Racing -Star Fox -Star Ocean -Super Mario All Stars with Super Mario World -Super Mario Kart -Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars -Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island -Top Gear 3000 TL;DR I'm looking for tips on how to easily spot fake FC/NES/SFC/SNES games. Mainly for tips regarding the cartridges, but pricing (ie. X game won't go for less than USD ###) and boxing information (ie. All games have this watermark in the box; if it's not there, it's fake) is also welcome.
it's pretty easy. not that many fakes except for rare games. knock offs sure but they're obvious as hell too
Authentic sealed games (if that's indeed what you collect) are specially sealed, and have an identifying seam. Check out this guide for more details: http://reviews.ebay.com/How-to-Spot-Resealed-NES-Games?ugid=10000000001556334 I'm not too into sealed games, but if you are, be wary as reseal jobs are quite comm0on on eBay
You probably won't run into bootlegs of any of those games. It is *possible* you might run into a Final Fantasy I, II, or III bootleg. But I wouldn't think that would be terribly likely. The easiest way to tell would be to examine closely the label for quality and alignment. It is also *possible* you might run into a Rock n' Roll Racing bootleg but unlikely. The other games listed I highly doubt because they are either rare or use special microchips that prevent bootlegging or atleast make it quite unlikely. For example to make a bootleg Mega Man X2 or X3 you first need a Mega Man X2 or X3 cartridge. Though it is possible someone could do such a thing it's just unlikely and thankfully we haven't seen such trends. If all else fails you can ask them to open the cartridge (if they have the screw bit) and take photos of the PCB. In the NeoGeo MVS market this is very often done, taking pictures of the disassembled cartridge to show that it is not a bootleg cartridge.
Famicom and NES pirates are usually easy to spot because they were never really designed to deceive. typically older pirates will reproduce the original label fairly closely but the company name and/or copyright info will be removed, and newer ones just use artwork stolen from a much newer game. if in doubt just google image search for a shot of the original cartridge, with Famicom even if a pirate cart has the exact same label theres about a 99% chance it will be in a different colour cart or type of shell. and they're rarely boxed - if they are it'll probably be a generic box with a bunch of random artwork on it. SFC/SNES carts on the other hand often look pretty identical to the real thing until you have it in your hand - misaligned labels are one easily noticeable giveaway, but aside from that it's hard to tell from a low-res eBay pic. Once you actually have it and compare it with a real cart it's pretty obvious though, the fake will have lower print quality, cheaper plastic, missing details etc.
Also: Labels can be incorrectly Printed and stretched with incorrect AR. I've got a copy of DBZ Super Butoden 3 that's on a us SNES cart. Label at glance looks like a normal SNES label, but box art is stretched and there is no top label. And some other stuff.
