Wata Still Grading Bootleg Games?! 

What do you think about Wata grading and bootleg games and there being an attempt to build a market for these types of illegal products? Ebay store link here: www.ebay.com/sch/anqua4892/m.html?item=185490729425&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2562

At the bottom of Wata's website, they claim to be "the industry leading video game authentication and grading company." At the top, their first tagline is "We. Grade. Everything." Only one of these statements is true.

If the games aren't officially released and therefore not officially sealed, how do they know what's inside the actual boxes? They may contain a pop tart for all anyone knows.

It really is genuinely astonishing how sketch this company actually is.

I think the takeaway is that WATA will grade anything if you give them money. Not surprised.

Next thing ya know they’ll be grading Pokémon Plant Em

The worst part of the whole thing is the fact that they print on the label "box reproduced by,...". WATA is blatantly acknowledging the fact they know these are illegal copies, but grading them anyways knowing that some poor moron is going to pay WAY too much for these not knowing any better. Which, in all honestly, is what they deserve. But that's besides the point.....

But do they have Pokemon Plant'em? And if not, you guys should make one and try to get it graded.

They refused me to grade a legit ps2 game, and they do this? It's a clown circus

If I remember correctly Star Fox 2 still requires a doner Super FX 2 board to work. Most likely gutting Stunt Race carts to make it.

How do I send this to Nintendo legal division? I'm sure they would have a field day with the copyright violations.

Amazing that these companies have been selling this stuff for years and Nintendo does nothing, but they go after fans. And WATA still scummy as ever.

WATA joke! Grading games that are found to be bootlegs should be investigated as fraud. I know it can be hard to pick up on some bootlegs vs originals and just because a company grades them doesn't mean that they are the bad guys but for their own integrity they should welcome investigations when it's found out someone has ripped people off; knowingly or unknowingly.

I wonder if Nintendo could take legal action against wata for this type of thing

How can someone release a limited release of something they don't own?

All of these bootleg Pokemon games makes me think that a Pokemon Maker game would actually work/make sense.

Fishy face games is Rose Colored Gamings side project after they stopped producing games.

Wait wait wait. So Nintendo will strangle random people for making the rom BUT THE PEOPLE SELLING THEM ARE FINE?

Liquid Crystal was the first pokemon rom hack I beat and I did it with a copy I ordered on Ebay since I didn't have a way to download and run the rom at the time so it'll always hold a special place for me but even so grading a physical rom hack regardless of quality is extremely dumb.

"In a few years these are going to be worth over a million dollars!"

This makes perfect sense when you consider that it's all about trying to find a bigger sucker than you to profit from. If you think it's about the games, the history, or the community I'm sorry that you can taken for a ride. It doesn't mean you're a bad person but it does mean you made a very bad investment.

It's only today I realized that Pat and Billy's way of vocalising is the same lol

Any chance of the wata grading also being bootleg?

i just ate a little punch bar and its just kicking in. then this comes on. you guys have been around good old guys.

So let them grade the bootlegs! I wanna see Nintendo sue the shit out of em!! 😂😂

Liquid crystal is a pretty good remake if you like the GBA style 🙂 (you can usually download these ROMs for free as they were intended) the paid versions are well, over the line.

"Sealed graded" games invites bootlegging in general. Most games are not in packaging that is particularly difficult to copy (outside of a hologram on some) and the sealing processes shouldn't be that hard to duplicate either. So get a midgrade copy of the game, throw it in the counterfeit box "Rare WATA graded sealed."

Limiting these illegal releases makes it easier for them to stay ahead of the authorities too . Quick run of games , sell quickly and lay low until the next one . If they continued to sell them they would end up getting copyright claims and shut down .

😼 As a kid I was always confused when I saw bootleg games for Gameboy advance at flee markets. I think most of the time I thought they were Japanese/Chinese versions . Not until I was a teen did I understand 😓 good thing I never bought any !

The Transformers fandom, has had a similar issue. With KO’s being marketed as “4th party” & asking hundreds for shit.

When a game is graded then it means you can low ball the seller as they are not smart.

WATA no longer grades rom hack games. They should have never done it but at the very least they stopped a while ago.

glad I could send this your way 💪

Wata: "Yes, this is quite the bootleg. Of a high level as well. 9.8"

"Scumbag seller of the fiscal year" for as often as this comes around...

I always question how those kiosks can get away with selling the bootleg plug and plays in the mall. Most of them are running the original Super Mario Bros right there. You think Nintendo would be slapping lawsuits left and right

Those graded games, are worth $20 each, that's for the actual material to make the cartridge and the box.

How are they even allowed to sell this with the Nintendo seal on the box art? Unless I’m seeing it wrong.

It literally says it on the label, the game was graded a year and a half ago. Extremely well done journalism here Pat, inspiring.

Fun fact: Fishy Face Games is Rose Colored Gaming. Look up the business registration. They use donors because they buy them in bulk from Japan. It's cheaper than buying new boards.

Starfox 2 is also available to play on the switch virtual SNES console

can't think of a person or entities more fitting for this segment

I think if there's some historical nature to a Rom-Hack is could be work getting it encapsulated, but I have no idea how you'd determine 'print runs' on something like that.

"80 bucks, Maye! Non-refundable! Those kids are grounded!!!"

How the hell do people drop money on rom hacks? Just friggin dump the rom on a flash cart like Ian said. I love rom hacks (especially some Pokémon ones) but I’d never pay more than $5 for a bootleg cart. Now me trying to get my Virtual Girl graded doesn’t seem like much of a joke anymore. They probably would have done it…

I’m just waiting for the inevitable “A plus-plus-PLUS”😂

This is so stupid. Who are the clowns perpetuating these kind of practices?

Knowing nintendo's tendency to be extreamly litigous over their IP im surprised they haven't served a cease and desist

When I was a kid and Pokémon cards were my life lol, we’re talkin 99-00. I was so into it at one point I came across some counterfeit cards and was intrigued at just the absurdity of them and proudly had them in my binder of cards as nothing more than an oddity. I never ever tried to pass them off as real, if I remember correctly they were so obviously counterfeit I don’t think I could have if I wanted to. But interesting none the less

I could understand wanting a physical version of Starfox 2 or something, but selling it etc is unfortunate. Bigger and more important is WATA imo. They are gonna grade that stuff because, similar to old bootlegs, they are speculating they will become collectible down the line also. I mean, similar bootlegs and things did from the 80s for sure, especially in computer gaming. But they also didnt grade it and mark the price up 10x immediately after lol, there was history and stuff.

Piracy and copyright infringement has been a pat of video games forever, but I am stunned how out in the open this is. Why doesn't Nintendo sue them?

Wata gives me an anchorman "Anything you type, Burgundy will read!" type vibe. Wata will slap a plastic box and number on anything that fly's through the door.

This is an important reminder to always carefully inspect your Pocket Monster before you put it on teh internets.

Grading things like this calls into question the authenticity of everything else they've sold more than it already had been. It's one thing to trust something in an authentic box, but it's another when some of the things they're selling are explicitly inauthentic! What even is the market here? Either they're hoping against hope that someone rich has massive nostalgia for some ROM hack of all things or they're trying to trick speculators that don't know any better because they're just in limited quantity! I can sign a single copy of Super Mario Bros. and try to sell it as one of a kind, but that doesn't make it any more valuable!

Nothing about this makes any sense lol not only is it bonkers to "authenticate" a bootleg but the grade is a 9.8 A++ and there's a hole in the seal

i can somewhat very slightly see a reason to do this for like, a homebrew game that was distributed in low numbers in repro carts from the 2000s, or something like that maybe, but not a pokémon rom hack made limited on purpose last year. that's completely ridiculous

Wata forgot to put the T before the w.

I can understand the appeal of having a physical version of a rom hack that you really like. I don’t even hate the pile of “donated” boards that probably came from worthless games, even though that’s a little eerie of a picture. What I do hate is the thought of grading a rom hack for the purpose of financial gain. Who on earth would be so attached to that rom hack that they’d spend 1,000 on a copy sitting in a case? Why not just buy some real Pokémon or Star Fox collectible for the same amount/way less? Hell even a bootleg shirt for $20 is a better way to show you’re a fan than wasting thousands on a rom hack

It would get very interesting if Nintendo came for WATA as they are profiting off this and that makes them an accessory to the bootlegging.

I sent WATA a SNES game. Then I opened it, and it had a different game board inside.

I can't stop laughing at this🤣🤣🤣

If Nintendo sees this online they would be a lawsuit coming from these people selling bootleg games and will have to pay millions of dollars of damages on the products.

Same thing happens with vintage t-shirts where guys will build a following on instagram based on their tee collection, then sell their audience outright bootleg tees, in particular Marvel tees. No parody, no mashups, no creativity. Maybe an obscure image but mostly just straight up Marvel artwork with their name at the bottom. It's absolute trash behaviour.

seen for vinyl grading on discogs as a buyer rating: buyer: "item was not VG+++ as stated...disappointed" seller replies :"i said VG+ +"

You guys are right and wata needs to be sueded by Nintendo for grading games which are fake and aren't up to the quality or standard and maybe they might change there stupid ways. I hope Frank's okay? Great show keep up the hard work

I thought liquid Crystal wasn’t even a complete hack! They’re selling a graded rom hack that wasn’t completed!?

this is why i trust cgc then them.

The WATA guys need to be behind bars. Send Tommy to the same cell and throw away the key!

Do you have a list of the conferences you plan on attending somewhere?

So where is Nintendo's legal team coming to sue the people who make carts of stolen rom hacks (because these are ones that have been available to download for over 10 years in some cases)?

Remember when this bootleg game crap was at the dollar stores in China town for a cpl bucks back in the 90s? What a time we live in lol

Cgc also grades counterfeit comics - good examples are cerebus #1 and teenage mutant ninja turtles #1

I'm pretty sure that was graded a year or so ago and Wata has since stopped grading things like this. The seller is dumb for thinking that they'll get anywhere close to the prices they're asking for and no one is dumb enough to buy that. Wata probably shouldn't have graded it in the first place but whoever submitted it paid for it to be done, so Wata had no reason to deny it either, but they've since stopped taking things like this too.

I buy bootleg games because I refuse to spend the amount of money some of these sellers on Ebay and local stores are charging. I am a gamer, not a collector even though I own probably over a 1,000 games. Every game I own I purchase with the intent of wanting to play it. I just recently purchased a modded Super Smash Bros on N64 for $25 and purchased Snowboard Kids 1 & 2 for $20/each that are not original Nintendo games.

Switch games for $3.5k😂

No reputable grading service should touch these. No surprise it's WATA.

I admit, I wouldn't mind an actual physical StarFox 2 for the SNES. But really...

Wata Gets a 9. ++ Grade for being a complete Racket Grading Company

Reputable coin graders send back counterfeit or unverifiable coins back in plastic bags (aka bodybags). There is hell to pay if they authenticate a fake coin. WATA lacks the integrity to be taken seriously if they grade repros and bootlegs. There's literally no standard they adhere to.

I collect ROM hacks well physical versions of them. It's fun they are relatively cheap Why would somebody want to buy a graded version of it? You can literally buy them still in a box

They need donors for the fx2 chips

Where is Nintendo's cease and desist when we actually need it?

I wish people would just stop sending their games to WATA. Research a company before sending your stuff to them for a fancy case that it gets put it that magically makes it worth thousands of dollars. Please be smarter about this.

Value is subjective 🎶

To figure out when these pos fake games were "authenticated" is by looking st the back left corner above that weird qr code there should be a date when the game was graded.

The physical pokemon rom hack scene is confusing to me just for the fact that Nintendo has yet to severely clamp down on it. 20 bucks off etsy okay sure if I really like a romhack thats reasonable for a hard copy. But 80 bucks and to grade it for profits....that no bueno.

Wonder if this guy is selling a sealed graded copy of Pokémon PLANTUM 🤔

One way to tell if a game if genuine is by the UPC-A Barcode. The GBC Pokemon games completely lack it. The Star Fox 2 code is fake. The other games have real codes, but are still overpriced.

You kidding me! What a shame for wata

If WATA put inside the case where this is a "Repro, romhack, or unlicensed game" on the inside of the case, then I got no problem with them doing so. Would have been hilarious too, paying to get it graded and getting it back like that.

This is gross. As a side note, though, LiquidCrystal is an excellent Rom Hack, and the creator put a lot of effort into it. It deserves more than some aliexpress quality.

Thanks pawn stars, for contributing to this degeneracy. Not

wata need to a visit from Nintendo lawyers

My god, this is truly the bottom of the barrel of all this "sealed"/"graded" shit.

Guess i should sell rom hacks as real games..... i mean having a conscience its hard but man i could use 300000% profits

Does Ian have a RU-vid channel? Is that how you spell Ian? MB if not

This is awesome!

Wtf is Nintendo at? Come on nintendo wake up instead of giving people strikes on their videos about your games. Here’s an easy one for you.

Wow that’s a pretty garbage move the whole way around, and does a huge disservice to collectors. Rom hacks are fun, fan translations are amazing (especially all the great sega saturn ones imho) but to sell someone else’s work, then grade that on top is a low rent move

And what's sad is someone actually dropped the 2500 on the fake pokemon green. Sucker born every minute also a thousand for two games less than a year old NEWS FLASH you can swing into Best Buy or Gamestop and pick up Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sealed fresh off the shelf.