Challege Accepted: Pokemon Master - Part Zero

It has taken longer for me to get to a point where I could justify doing an update than I originally hoped.  I wouldn't say that I'm behind schedule per se, but I haven't done as much as I would have liked, since declaring the challenge, for several reasons that I will detail below.  So read on after the jump for the first progress report on my quest to become a Pokemon Master!

First off, I should explain that I did not even start the challenge until two weeks ago:  I explained in the introduction post that I was going to start with a new, clean copy of Pokemon Black and use that as the cartridge that would eventually have the 100% pokedex - but even getting this game proved much harder than I could have anticipated.

I figured, with the Black and White games having come out nearly a year ago, I would have no trouble finding somewhere that sold copies at a marginally reduced price - and I was right!  I bought a new and sealed copy from eBay for around £15 I seem to remember.

I came across the auction while it was nearing its end, maybe 10 minutes before it closed, and put a bid down.  The 10 minutes passed without incident, and I wasn't sniped at the end, so I figured it was a pretty successful eBay experience - I was very, very wrong.

I suppose I should have been alerted by the fact that the description said that the game would only work on DS and DS Lite consoles, but I figured the seller was just ill-informed about handheld gaming, as all original DS games should work on all of the DS family consoles including DSi and 3DS.  The description did not say whether the game was PAL or NTSC either, but being shipped from within the U.K. I assumed that the game would be PAL (I later found out that these picture formats do not even affect handheld games, but I'll get back to that).

The game arrived midweek, a few days later, and it was then that I started getting very suspicious about the origins of this copy of the game.  In hindsight I wish I had taken pictures, because some of the details of the cartridge, box sleeve and 'Instruction Booklet' just screamed "Bootleg Copy!".  Even looking at and feeling the shrink-wrap I could tell something was wrong (it was too brittle and 'plasticy').

The thing that completely took the wind out of my sails was that the cartridge's serial number ended with 'USA' rather than the 'EUR' I was expecting.  But this wasn't going to be the end of the world so long as I could play on it and trade between games; so I checked the cart for the Infrared bar on the top but it wasn't there.

I really wanted this to be the real thing so, at first, I just wrote off all these little oddities as being because the game was apparently from America - I'd never seen a non-U.K. version of a game before, "maybe they do things differently over there" I kept telling myself.

I eventually put the game in my 3DS, hoping to put all my fears to rest...but the console wouldn't recognise the cartridge.  "Ok" I told myself "I suppose it is NTSC, so maybe it will only work on DSs and DS Lites".  So I then put the game in my DS Lite and, after much spluttering and screen-flashing, the game worked!  I was content for the moment and decided to just play through the opening hour or so to be able to check whether I could trade to/from the game.

Ebay - Rife with piracy?

I have played the opening of Pokemon Black and White more than a dozen times now, so I have got it down to a fine art, and can get to the point where you can trade in about an hour (my quickest time is 45 minutes).  I mention this because I will not get the hour of my life back that I wasted playing through this bootleg copy of the game!  Needless to say, it would not trade via any means available on the games!

Now that I knew it was a false copy of the game, all the tiny (and not so tiny) things wrong with the whole package made this fact all the more glaringly obvious:

• The box artwork stuck out over the top of the sleeve
• The official Nintendo markings and seals were wrong
• The trademark date said 2010 even though the game was released in 2011
• The screen-shots on the back of the box were really out of focus
• The inside of the sleeve was completely blank
• The box only came with one(!) booklet inside, instead of the mandatory half dozen that come with DS games (Instructions, Club Nintendo points, Wi-Fi details, safety booklet etc.)
• The 'Instruction Booklet' that did come was more a story about the game, had terrible grammar and spelling mistakes and, most insultingly obvious of all, all the pictures used in the booklet had an IGN watermark on them!

I feel slightly embarrassed now because, with hindsight, it's so obvious that the game was a fake, even without putting it in any console.

I mailed the eBay seller telling him I was not happy with the game - I did not want to offend him so I said I wasn't happy that it wasn't a PAL version of the game, and only implying that I suspected it was a pirate copy.  He pleaded ignorance to any wrong-doing (obviously), but offered a refund if I returned the game - this all went swimmingly, though I did lose out on about 50p because of shipping costs...

Yeh, it was that obvious

My next attempt at buying a legit copy took me to Play.com or, more specifically, a Play.com seller.  The listing had very little info on it but stated it was PAL and that it would not come with a box or instructions - for some reason I took the lack of anything but the cartridge as a sign that the game would be real, thinking the game had been used but the box and booklets had been misplaced.

Just to make sure I messaged the seller, telling him I had had a bad experience buying the game, asking whether he could confirm that the game would play on 3DS consoles and informing him that I would return the game if it arrived and I was not able to so - two hours later I received and email saying my purchase had been refunded with no word from the seller; I think that says it all...

I eventually bit the bullet and bought a Pokemon Black from Amazon - actual Amazon, not one of their sellers - for only a little bit less than I bought White when it came out nearly a year ago... But I have it now and I am a little bit wiser, which is always nice.

I had no idea I would get this much out of my experiences merely buying the game, so I think I will end here and post an actual update to my challenge later in the week.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you take something away from my detailing of what happened to me.