GBA E-Reader: Predict the future.

[DarkSoul]

Does anyone who might work retail know if these things are selling at all, realistically? I've got two unopened card packs (Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros), and I've been sitting staring at them thinking "This thing is just guarenteed to fail, no matter how cool it is".

[hamburgler]

It's gonna head downhill if nintendo doesn't start making better decisions for it.

[CrazyImpmon]

With the exception of Air Hockey card, all the eReader cards have been printed in large number and most are still in print. That and if you have high quality scanner and high quality printer, anyone can copy the eReader cards. The AC cards usually are good for one use per game. (ie you can't use the same card more than once on the same game)

There's still a slight possibility the cards may go in value in the long run if lots of people are careless with their cards and ruin them and Nintendo don't make any more. But I doubt it as collectable cards of '90s hardly went up in value.

[Achika]

The AC cards usually are good for one use per game. (ie you can't use the same card more than once on the same game)

Erm, what? I've scanned and mailed letters multiple times from the same card and it's worked everytime. Sure, it doesn't work in the same day....but I can scan "Bill's" card today and again tomorrow and get something... Sure, it's not going to be different, but neither is the result if you scan Excitebike 5 times.

[Charlie]

Well, it's a novel idea but it's hardly convient. Neat in theroy, not so neat in practice.

And I really, really don't like the way the cards are packaged... when I used to collect sports cards, I never just bought one pack at a time. I bought by the boxfull or not at all (of course, my uncle owned a card shop so I could get them wholesale). The weird packaging that cards come in these days where you can only buy them one pack at a time totally fucking sucks. I hope when the G&W series comes out, it's not like this.

What would have been a REALLY cool idea is if they had it so you couldn't buy all the cards needed for one NES game in the same pack, and instead you bought a pack of cards and got 10 random cards. It would make them fun to collect.

Speaking of which, the new set of NES games comes out on the 21st. Clu Clu Land, DK 3, and Golf. The quality of the games just keeps going downhill.

[Alex Kidd]

Not to sound like a video game idiot or someone who's been under a rock for a while, but...
What IS this e-reader you all keep talking about here?

Alex Kidd

[Captain Wrong]

Considering people buy stuff now with it's future value and "collectablilty" in mind, and considering Nintendo is releasing them in complete packs rather than "collect 'em all" style like Charlie said, I'd say they're not gonna be rare.

And I agree with Charlie too that it's a neat idea, but it's clunky as all hell in practice. I still wish they'd just release a damn NES Greatest Hits cart rather than pay for this oversized e-reader (how's that working with the SP anyway?!?) and these cards you gotta do multiple swipes just to play Donkey Kong or whatever.

[Charlie]

Come on now Captain Wrong, an NES Greatest Hits is coming out... even better, on Wario Ware Inc for the GBA, it will have the FIVE SECOND NINTENDO GAMES OF DOOM!!!! on it. That's right, the game will have NES games that you will play in five second intervals. Not five minutes, five seconds. Now that is a fucking greatest hits cart.

Here's what I really, reallly hate about E-Reader: All the NES games for it are already on Animal Crossing, with the exception of Erban Champion, which is one of the all time worst games anyway... seriously, what the fuck kind of sick joke was it to rerelease that piece of shit?

[Epicenter]

All me to quote my other post :)

My local stores always have them in stock, and I haven't seen a single person buy one. I tried out a store demo GBA with the reader, and I had to swipe a card about 15 times before I got it to load up .. a cheesy ice hockey game, that made pong look good by comparison. And from what I hear, some games require entire SETS of cards that must be read in, in sequence, to play. So, with 15 tries per card, and a 10-card set, you're looking at 150 swipes to play a game, plus breaks to go get pain-relievers for the splitting headache caused by the process. Brings back memories of 12-disk OS installations on my old Macintosh!

Think that's bad? Try accidentally bending a card, and the above process will look like nothing compared to the level of pain you will then experience..

.. in conclusion, GBA games are stored on ROM chips for a reason.

[Anonymous]

I'm not too concerned about the hostility towards the eReader itself, but I would like to point out that if you need to scan the cards more than once, you're just plain doing it wrong. The card needs to be kept straight the whole way through, and it's not magnetic, it's optical. You need to keep the card steady, and move it through at a readable speed, not swipe it like an ATM card.

[Charlie]

I've never had any problems swiping the cards... I just do it slowly and it reads it. These aren't credit cards... swipe to hard and the card is history.

[brandver3]

I personally love my E-reader. I like having all the AC games on beck and call so i can change games in the middle of english ad opposed to having to with till i get home (not to mention if i can get to the AC disc since amanda is an addict).

I can't wait for the G&W cards. I love all the AC cards. And having Ice Climbers (my favortie NES game next to Punchout!) and Excitebike whenever i feel the need is great.

And in case anyone hadn't tried it yet, you can take out the E-reader once you load the game.