Retro games have been copied for about as long as people have played them. In the Atari days, gadgets like Vidco's Copy Cart and the Unimex SP280 duplicator copied 2600 games onto blank carts. Modern copies are called reproduction carts, and many are sold openly as repros to players who want a rare game on the shelf. The trouble starts a few sales later, when the same cart turns up in a lot listed as the original. Clone controllers have the same problem. Most of the tells show up in good photos, so this guide is about what to look at and what to ask for before you buy.
What a repro is
A reproduction cartridge, or repro, is a new circuit board carrying a copy of the game, usually in a new or reused shell with a printed label. Repros matter most for the games collectors chase, so be most careful with titles like EarthBound and Chrono Trigger, and with any cart that looks a little too clean for its age.
EarthBound is a special case. Nintendo built it to catch copies. On a pirated cart, the game resets and deletes your save right before the end of the story. A repro that trips that check will do the same, which is a bad way to find out.
Start with the label, then look past it
The label is the part copiers work hardest on, so a sharp photo of the front tells you less than you'd hope. Use it as a first filter. Pull up photos of a cart you know is genuine and compare them side by side. Look for blurry small print, a soft or pixelated logo, colors a shade off, a finish that doesn't match, and a label that sits crooked or doesn't fill its recess. A worn shell with a perfect label, or a perfect shell with a worn label, doesn't add up either.
Then compare the shell itself. Check its color and texture, how the two halves meet, and the moulded details on the back. If anything looks different from the known-genuine cart, ask for more photos.
Check the screws
Nintendo closed its carts with security screws that need a special bit. N64 carts, for example, take a 3.8mm gamebit, and the console itself takes a 4.5mm one. A cart with a Phillips screw, a missing screw or chewed-up screw heads has been opened. That alone doesn't make it fake, since collectors open carts to clean the contacts and swap save batteries. It does mean you should see inside before you pay.
Ask for a photo of the board
The board is where repros give themselves away, and a seller can photograph it in a few minutes. Nintendo's own NES boards carry a printed board code. NES-SNROM-03, for example, is one of the MMC1 boards built to hold a save battery. Next to it you'll see chips with printed part numbers.
A board with no maker's code is a reason to pass. So is a black blob of epoxy where you'd expect a chip with a printed part number. Those blobs are called glob tops, a cheap way to package a chip that turns up mostly in toys and low-end electronics. The same approach works for SNES and N64 carts. Ask for the board and compare it with photos of a known-genuine copy of the same game.
Counterfeit PS1 discs
PlayStation games have their own protection built into the disc. Every pressed PS1 disc carries a four-letter region code (SCEA for North America) hidden in the wobble of the disc's groove, and normal CD writers can't reproduce it. An unmodified console reads that code before it boots, so a burned copy won't start on a stock PS1.
Genuine PS1 discs are black on the data side. The console doesn't check the color, so a silver data side means you're looking at a burned copy, while a black one isn't proof of anything. Ask for a photo of the data side and a short video of the disc booting on a console the seller says is unmodded. If the seller mentions a modchip, the boot test tells you nothing about the disc. For a game like Final Fantasy VII, make sure the disc printing matches the case and manual you're paying for, too.
Clone and fake controllers
Third-party controllers have always been sold, and plenty were decent. The problem is a clone dressed up as first-party. Know what the real one has, then check for it.
- DualShock. Sony's original DualShock is model SCPH-1200, released in late 1997 and in North America the next year. The PS one version is SCPH-110. A genuine pad has an Analog button that lights a red indicator, and two rumble motors in the grips, a heavy one on the left and a lighter one on the right. Ask the seller to confirm both sticks, the light and the rumble, and test all of it on arrival.
- N64 controller. Nintendo's N64 controller is model NUS-005. Its stick reads position with a slotted wheel and a light sensor, much like an old ball mouse. Third-party pads often used cheaper potentiometers instead, and they feel different. Genuine sticks also wear loose with heavy use. Ask for a short video of the stick snapping back to center.
- NES and Genesis pads. Compare the logo, the label and the cable with photos of a known-genuine pad, and be wary of one that looks brand new in a lot of worn hardware.
Save batteries in carts
Many games that save on the cartridge do it in a small memory chip kept alive by a coin cell, usually a 3V CR2032. Nintendo's US release of The Legend of Zelda in 1987 was one of the first games with an internal save battery, and plenty of NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis carts followed. On the SNES, battery-backed RAM is how games like Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger keep your files.
That memory needs constant power. When the battery runs down far enough, the data goes with it. A dead battery shows up as a cart that won't keep a save, or a file that's gone the next time you switch it on. The game itself still plays, so a seller can test it and call it working in good faith.
Replacing the battery means opening the cart and soldering in a new one, and it wipes whatever save is on it. A listing titled "new battery" is a plus. Ask when it was done and for a photo of the board showing tidy solder joints, then save a game on arrival, power off, and check the file is still there.
Not every game that saves uses a battery. Sega put ferroelectric memory, which needs no battery, in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994. PS1 games save to a memory card instead of the disc, and each card holds 128 KB of flash memory. On the N64, some games save to a Controller Pak, and the original Paks rely on a battery too.
What to ask before you buy
- A clear photo of the label next to the back of the cart, screws included.
- A photo of the board for any rare or expensive-looking game.
- For PS1 games, a photo of the data side and a boot video on a stock console.
- For controllers, a video showing every button, the sticks and any rumble or light.
- For battery-save games, whether it holds a save, and when the battery was last changed.
A seller who answers quickly with photos is usually selling what they say. For box condition and what "complete" covers, read CIB vs loose. For testing the hardware, see how to check a used retro console, and if a listing mentions mods, modded consoles explained.