

Some flash carts have better compatibility than others: ultra-cheap versions like the Supercard tend to have the worst compatibility, expensive stuff like the EverDrive models have the best compatibility, and the various EZ Flash carts fall somewhere in between. (Some games can play directly from the SD card others are flashed to a bit of internal memory on the flash cart’s motherboard to more faithfully replicate a regular game cartridge). Multi-game flash carts typically allow you to insert an SD or microSD card into a cartridge, which then boots a basic operating system and lets you choose the game you want to play.
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Other players prefer a big folder full of ROMs on a single cart, so they can play many games on real hardware instead of in an emulator.

The excellent late-run Game Boy Color action-platformer Shantae is one prominent example. Sometimes, these bootleg cartridges can also be a way to play official releases that are too rare and expensive for most people to stomach.

The best reason to buy a bootleg cartridge is to play stuff that you can’t otherwise play on genuine hardware-that includes fan translations like Mother 3 or Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart high-quality fan projects like Super Mario Land 2 DX game “restorations” that tweak the color and sound of SNES-to-GBA ports to be more faithful to the originals or weird ROM hacks like any one of the dozens of overhauled Pokémon games available on eBay.
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Bootlegged software can also exhibit other odd behaviors, like briefly freezing while saving.įurther Reading A Christmas gift from Game Boy ROM hackers: Super Mario Land 2 in color Bootlegs all stick out just a tiny bit from the back of a Game Boy Advance, where genuine cartridges sit flush. Once you have the cartridge in hand, it’s much easier to tell a bootleg from a genuine cartridge. That way, even if you do end up with a fake cart, you can get your money back on the grounds that the seller misrepresented the merchandise. Finally, look for listings with “genuine” in the title and avoid listings with “bootleg” or “reproduction” in the title. Otherwise, be wary of any game that costs less than $10, and look for wear on the cartridge’s label-often a sign that you’re bidding on an actual 15-year-old game and not a faithful replica. Sometimes, as with the Pokémon titles, the labels are just a little off (genuine Pokémon games have holographic labels and bootlegs don’t). Game Boy Advance bootlegs are a little harder to spot using just the pictures you get from eBay listings. Where genuine cartridges say “Nintendo Game Boy” or “Game Boy Color” across the top, bootlegs just say “GAME” in all caps. If having genuine software to go with your refreshed hardware is important to you, the good news is that you can find just about every used game you could think of on eBay the bad news is that eBay is also awash with bootlegs, and you’ll need to take more time (and spend more money) to avoid them.Īvoiding bootlegs of Game Boy and Game Boy Color games is really easy, since none of the bootleggers have gone to the trouble of faithfully replicating their plastic cartridge shells.
