Pirate Games for DS (and being scammed by em)

[Xilo The Odd]

yeah so i asked a friend to help me find a rare game for the DS, the full title is digimon world DS, so he finds some on e-bay, but waits cause they are "a bit" over priced. well those get sold and so he buys a cheap one. can you guess what i got? chinese pirate home brew. it worked for a bit, but it is slowly corroding over time, sound files are fading into corruption, and now certain moves are locking up the game. and it fit a lot tighter into the DS than others (thats what she said). so i got curious and opened it, and i discovered it had been opened before, a screw near the top of the card was loose, so i took the label off and fixed it, the label i realized, peeled off like a cheap sticker, and it had three screws in it, real games aren't screwed together. i smelled a fake right away, from then on i've made a list of everything that this is missing or a quality that is poor in some way.

*game data is corroding
*cartridge abnormal in dimensions and construction
*sticker is not normal
*booklet seems to be cheap photo copy
*bought from china
*ink code missing on back of card.
*booklet missing nintendo contact info on back

has anyone else gotten ripped off? got a pirate over the real deal? anything i can do about it besides disown my lazy PoS friend?

also for those who havn't seen it, Digimon world DS is by far my fav out of all the ones i've played this far. so don't let this pirate incident deter you from getting it over say, pokemon, cause pokemon is dead to me.
DEAD TO ME!  

[Nomega]

This is why I never buy games that are used or from the internet. confused

Sorry that happened, you should tell ebay on him.  

[Xilo The Odd]

we have, but now i'm hounding my friend tomorrow for this atrocity, i know how smart he is, but he was being lazy since it wasn't something for him, so he got sloppy and just got the cheapest thing he could, so me and a friend are pretty much gonna force him into a corner and see what happens, the result we plan to get out of him is to go out and buy one that is garranteed legit nintendo software.  

[Nomega]

~Xiloscent~

we have, but now i'm hounding my friend tomorrow for this atrocity, i know how smart he is, but he was being lazy since it wasn't something for him, so he got sloppy and just got the cheapest thing he could, so me and a friend are pretty much gonna force him into a corner and see what happens, the result we plan to get out of him is to go out and buy one that is garranteed legit nintendo software.

Lol, good idea.

Also, does it say Nintendo anywhere on the cartridge or in the game? If so you may also want to get Nintendo involved. Hey, they may even give you a legit one free. Who knows?  

[Xilo The Odd]

NintendOmega

~Xiloscent~

we have, but now i'm hounding my friend tomorrow for this atrocity, i know how smart he is, but he was being lazy since it wasn't something for him, so he got sloppy and just got the cheapest thing he could, so me and a friend are pretty much gonna force him into a corner and see what happens, the result we plan to get out of him is to go out and buy one that is garranteed legit nintendo software.

Lol, good idea.

Also, does it say Nintendo anywhere on the cartridge or in the game? If so you may also want to get Nintendo involved. Hey, they may even give you a legit one free. Who knows?

yeah thats not bad either, on the back it the standard nintendo emblem with the standard code, NTR-005 PAT.PEND.

but unlike other its doesn't have the inked code, and the front has screws through it, and the chip has to be different, look at any one of your DS games, even old ones, they will have whit lettering above the contact plates on the chip, they would all line up from game to game, the digimon one does not. and because of the chip inside, it fits tightly into regular DS or DS lite.  

[Polunareffu]

Yep, except not DS games. Four pokemon games I bought on Ebay. Ruby, fire red, leaf green and emerald.
Because I'd lost ruby and fire red I decided to buy new ones on Ebay cheaply, and also got the other two cheaper if I bought all four.
Got them, and they worked fine. I saved the game and stuff. The next day it said the save file was corrupt or something, and I was back to the beginning.

I was so angry. ]=  

[-Hel the Reaper-]

Treble Clefairy

Yep, except not DS games. Four pokemon games I bought on Ebay. Ruby, fire red, leaf green and emerald.
Because I'd lost ruby and fire red I decided to buy new ones on Ebay cheaply, and also got the other two cheaper if I bought all four.
Got them, and they worked fine. I saved the game and stuff. The next day it said the save file was corrupt or something, and I was back to the beginning.

I was so angry. ]=

You can tell if a GBA game is a bootleg if you look inside the cartidge from the bottom. There should be a little golden Nintendo logo in there.  

[Polunareffu]

-Hel the Reaper-

Treble Clefairy

Yep, except not DS games. Four pokemon games I bought on Ebay. Ruby, fire red, leaf green and emerald.
Because I'd lost ruby and fire red I decided to buy new ones on Ebay cheaply, and also got the other two cheaper if I bought all four.
Got them, and they worked fine. I saved the game and stuff. The next day it said the save file was corrupt or something, and I was back to the beginning.

I was so angry. ]=

You can tell if a GBA game is a bootleg if you look inside the cartidge from the bottom. There should be a little golden Nintendo logo in there.

Yeah but first assumption when you buy a game is that it's not a fake anyway. You just expect people to be selling you the real thing, so I didn't bother checking the cartridge.  

[Spindra]

Buying games of eBay = NOT A GOOD IDEA!! I've heard that something like 40% of DS games off eBay are fakes, and almost every game from Hong Kong is almost certainly pirated.
Tips for buying DS games from eBay:
1. NEVER buy from international sellers, most specifically from areas in China. There is an option in the eBay menu that lets you see North American sellers only.
2. If the price on the game is really low (such as half the retail price) and the shipping is free, be cautious.
3. Most people will tell you to look only at sellers with good feedback, but in truth, some of the 100% positives are bootleggers.
4. Buy only games that say they are "in original packaging", if possible.

The thing is, the seller can look completely legit, and still be a bootlegger. That's why it's so risky to buy off eBay.
I suggest you try Amazon.com, instead.
Sorry you got a bad deal, man. sad  

[CYBERPUNK PANDA]

That's why I stick to pawnshop hunting 3nodding  

[Xilo The Odd]

my friend was right to look on e-bay, few legitamit sites like amazon even had this game. Digimon World DS is that hard to find, but yeah, never buy high circulation games from E-bay go get it at a store. atleast that way if its bootleg they have to get a real one for you.  

[problematic briefcase]

xX_Kyro_Freed_Xx

That's why I stick to pawnshop hunting 3nodding

 

[The Rawk Hawk]

Harupiggy

xX_Kyro_Freed_Xx

That's why I stick to pawnshop hunting 3nodding

xd True... But funny.