Has anyone seen a pirate N64 game?

[clicsmodernos]

I have seen a bunch of people online argue that pirate Nintendo 64 carts do not exist, or if they do, they were created in very small quantities during the first steps of the console, and I have even seen a list of the supposedly existant pirate carts and it's very small (maybe 8 games?) and I must say that they're both wrong. I own Mortal Kombat Mythologies and it's fake, and I've also seen in person a fake ISS 64. Here in Venezuela at least, you would see a lot of pirate N64 cartridges, so, have any of you guys seen any other pirates?

Pics, for proof:
http://i59.tinypic.com/rlfach.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/24ysdj7.jpg

http://i57.tinypic.com/2wqg1lw.jpg

Also, have you ever heard of a pirate game getting stuck in the N64 slot? I recall it happening to me...

[Buyatari]

I've never seen one IRL but have seen a few pictures online. Conkers is a strange one. I recall mass qty of these things being blown out for $10. I wonder if this is a more recent bootleg. At the time there were few n64 bootlegs because it was expensive to make them so you would only hear about titles like mario etc.

[clicsmodernos]

I've never seen one IRL but have seen a few pictures online. Conkers is a strange one. I recall mass qty of these things being blown out for $10. I wonder if this is a more recent bootleg. At the time there were few n64 bootlegs because it was expensive to make them so you would only hear about titles like mario etc.

The Conker one isn't fake, in case you were thinking it was (it just happened to be there when I took the picture)

And I sadly can't give out any dates regarding the MK game, I remember I bought it in a retro store, used. In that same store I saw the ISS fake, around 8 years later...

[Guntz]

I'd love to see a board pic, would be cool to see how a bootleg N64 game handles the ROM storage.

[Tanooki]

I've never heard of that MK game being faked, like to see the board inside for proof. I know a few more basic games were figured out like Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 though and have seen images of them.

[clicsmodernos]

I'd love to see a board pic, would be cool to see how a bootleg N64 game handles the ROM storage.

It's actually impossible to do, I think, because as you can see in the pictures, it has no screws... I could smash it open, but I like it as a sort of random collectible. Do you guys figure any other way I could open it up?

[Cornelius]

Not impossible at all. That's the standard bit that Nintendo used for many things such as the Super Nintentdo, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, and N64 cartridges. If you search, you should be able to find that bit for less than $10 shipped to your door.

[FUZZY PICKLES!!!]

.............

[Gameguy]

Not impossible at all. That's the standard bit that Nintendo used for many things such as the Super Nintentdo, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, and N64 cartridges. If you search, you should be able to find that bit for less than $10 shipped to your door.

Get a 3.8mm Nintendo security bit (don't get the cheap one with bad quality, you're going to want the silver which has sort of a magnetic touch or better yet, the gold 3.8mm security bit from VGM). Unless you're really tight on a budget, just about anyone should be able to justify getting this.
He's saying there's no screws on the cart to open it, it's just molded plastic that looks like the screws. A lot of bootlegs just have the carts clip together to stay closed, they're difficult to open without breaking the plastic clips. I've seen bootleg NES or SNES games with fake molded screws like that.

[celerystalker]

I like the K-A rating on the Mortal Kombat label.

[clicsmodernos]

Not impossible at all. That's the standard bit that Nintendo used for many things such as the Super Nintentdo, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, and N64 cartridges. If you search, you should be able to find that bit for less than $10 shipped to your door.

Except there are no screws...It's just part of the plastic mold.

[BetaWolf47]

I like the K-A rating on the Mortal Kombat label.

Good catch... that's how you know it's fake. The legit copy has a noticeably different boxart.
http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Nintendo_N64/Cart/big/Mortal_Kombat_Mythologies-_Sub-Zero_-_1997_-_Midway_Games.jpg

[Tanooki]

The fake screw setup usually isn't glued, at least the previous generation stuff including the legit Famicom games. They're tabbed clips, and if you can get a thin blade in there you can figure out where they are and work at popping it open with a little pressure.

[Jorpho]

The old Assemblergames site used to have pics of some pirate carts; the boards used "glob top" chips, making them a dead giveaway. It was suggested that the cost of producing the ROM chips was too expensive to make it a suitably profitable venture.

Looks like NESworld still has some info as well:
http://www.nesworld.com/n64piracy.php

[clicsmodernos]

The fake screw setup usually isn't glued, at least the previous generation stuff including the legit Famicom games. They're tabbed clips, and if you can get a thin blade in there you can figure out where they are and work at popping it open with a little pressure.

I'll actually try that out.

[Tanooki]

Sounds good, just be very careful like I said. I've had to do it on a few dirty old Famicom games before and I've had mixed results where in a select few cases the plastic was so old the tip of the clip broke off. The up side though, super glued the tip back on and reassembled it after drying long enough with that side first and it snapped back in place. :)

[Guntz]

Having dealt with a lot of Famicom and Neo Geo carts in the past, they almost never come apart without a fight. A vice grip tool is pretty much required, but only works best when you know which side of the shell the clips are mounted onto. With the clips squeezed, it's far easier to pop them open. This doesn't help much with brittle plastic though.

[Tanooki]

Agreed. I don't have a vice, I bare handed it. :D My hand hurt after doing a couple of them between one hand to squeeze and another to get a flat razor under to pry it open.

[Cornelius]

He's saying there's no screws on the cart to open it, it's just molded plastic that looks like the screws. A lot of bootlegs just have the carts clip together to stay closed, they're difficult to open without breaking the plastic clips. I've seen bootleg NES or SNES games with fake molded screws like that.


Except there are no screws...It's just part of the plastic mold.

Whoops, totally missed that! Thanks for pointing it out.

[clicsmodernos]

Agreed. I don't have a vice, I bare handed it. :D My hand hurt after doing a couple of them between one hand to squeeze and another to get a flat razor under to pry it open.

Well, I just encountered the first issue...It seems in Venezuela you can't find razors! I'll keep looking for the next few days and let you guys know if I make any progress!

[Tanooki]

You don't need one, just something sturdy and very flat you can wedge in there is all. They're probably taking razors off the market there because they don't want the population armed and dangerous. :)

[clicsmodernos]

You don't need one, just something sturdy and very flat you can wedge in there is all. They're probably taking razors off the market there because they don't want the population armed and dangerous. :)

Ok, so I finally managed to pop it open! My hands (and my right thumb) are going through the consequences, but it's all worth it!

http://i57.tinypic.com/1109ag8.jpg

http://i62.tinypic.com/a255x3.jpg

[Tanooki]

Well now that is an interesting fake. I am not 100% certain, but I think it's safe to say Nintendo quit using glop top blobs like that on the SNES. Some Star Fox games were like that.

[xelement5x]

Wow, that is interesting. No metal shielding on it either like normally appears on N64 games.

[Tanooki]

Pirates don't care about shielding, just money and that's an expense. :)

[clicsmodernos]

Well now that is an interesting fake. I am not 100% certain, but I think it's safe to say Nintendo quit using glop top blobs like that on the SNES. Some Star Fox games were like that.

Yep, as far as I know the first run of Star Fox on SNES had those weird blobs. I wonder why they even bothered to spend money making this fake, considering it's not a very well known (or enjoyable, for that matter) game...

[Tanooki]

If I remember it's a somewhat interesting entry because it's NOT a fighter but a brawler/platformer. It looked decent, and I know it didn't rate really high but not god awfully either. I think it probably took a bit of a hit alone just because it wasn't the MK fighter people wanted. Perhaps where it was made there was a better following.

[Gameguy]

Pirates tended to make fakes off any game they could, maybe it was an easy game to copy and manufacture custom boards and chips for. A few of the fake N64 games seem to be of Midway games for some reason.

I've actually heard of people having fake N64 games that didn't contain any chips and didn't work, they were just made to look like real games while ripping people off.

[JSoup]

There was a story a handful of years ago about a guy who found a fault in a particular N64 cartridge that caused some sort of feedback loop when booting up that would short out the system. He figured out how it worked, bugged a few cheap games to have the flaw, spread them around local flea markets and then made it known that he could fix the broken systems on the cheap. Supposedly made a killing.

[Jorpho]

There was a story a handful of years ago about a guy who found a fault in a particular N64 cartridge that caused some sort of feedback loop when booting up that would short out the system. He figured out how it worked, bugged a few cheap games to have the flaw, spread them around local flea markets and then made it known that he could fix the broken systems on the cheap. Supposedly made a killing.You're not thinking of http://www.actsofgord.com/Wrath/chapter03.php , are you?

[JSoup]

You're not thinking of http://www.actsofgord.com/Wrath/chapter03.php , are you?

Almost. After reading that, I got curious as to if anyone else had explored this and did some Googling. Found the story I mentioned on a livejournal page that belonged to a former mom and pop game store owner. And, like many of the neat things I find, I guess I didn't have the forethought to bookmark it.

[Tanooki]

Wow that's despicable. If that person ever got caught they'd be in serious trouble for destruction of property with intend to defraud and the fraud to those who fell into it and paid for the fix.

[clicsmodernos]

Pirates tended to make fakes off any game they could, maybe it was an easy game to copy and manufacture custom boards and chips for. A few of the fake N64 games seem to be of Midway games for some reason.

I've actually heard of people having fake N64 games that didn't contain any chips and didn't work, they were just made to look like real games while ripping people off.

That's what I sort of guessed from the situation, some pirates were pretty desperate back then hehe. I also wanted to show this to everyone because I saw somewhere (can't remember where) that there were only a handful of pirate N64 games, and they were certain that those were the only ones, whereas I have for sure seen way more than the ones they mentioned here in Venezuela. It seems you guys here are aware of the fact that the pirate N64 games were more widespread than originally thought.

And regarding the guy who bugged the games to damage systems, you suck.

[Tanooki]

You're right, there are more, but some pigheaded types at certain sites will argue that it was like 2 or 3 specific games and that's it. It's easier to be right about that and stick your fingers in your ears and make sound than take in the facts. I recall a really lame argument going years over how many Sachen games actually exist for the NES and the site despite the evidence proven by a member with said games just still isn't good enough. Some people don't want to hear the truth because suddenly their so called complete set or whatever illogical garbage gets shattered.