eCard Reader for the GBA?

[Technosis]

I managed to pick up a few of these things sealed for the GBA. They seemed to have a very short support period. I remember you could buy packs of cards to swipe through the reader and they were typically Mario style games.

Did Nintendo support this device at all or did it have a shorter life than the Virtua Boy?

Tx
Technosis

[davepesc]

From wiki:

All NES titles released include:

* Balloon Fight
* Baseball
* Clu Clu Land
* Donkey Kong
* Donkey Kong Jr.
* Donkey Kong 3
* Excitebike
* Golf
* Ice Climber
* Pinball
* Mario Bros.
* Tennis
* Urban Champion


And some extra levels for a few gba games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_e-Reader

I don't remember this lasting very long. I don't think people wanted to go through all that trouble to play Ice Climber. And, as I understood it, you didn't get a complete game in card packs. You had to buy multiple packs in hopes of getting the card you want, like with baseball cards. This may be false, but the commonly-held perception (at least among those I knew) couldn't have helped.

[CapnCrunch53]

Yeah, I don't think they were very popular, for pretty obvious reasons. That said, I'd love to get my hands on one cheap if I could find one, just for the sake of having some of those oldschool NES games on the GBA.

Not sure how long they supported it, but I remember most of the GBA games I got new would have ads for it in them IIRC, so I think its something that was around for awhile, but just wasn't very successful.

[joshnickerson]

And, as I understood it, you didn't get a complete game in card packs. You had to buy multiple packs in hopes of getting the card you want, like with baseball cards. This may be false, but the commonly-held perception (at least among those I knew) couldn't have helped.

In the case of the NES games, you got all the cards you needed in the pack; they weren't separated out into random booster packs. Just before it died in the US, there were plans to release a Game & Watch series, which would consist of randomly selected cards in booster packs, though I kinda doubt games of that size would have required more than one card.

Mainly, it was a number of problems; since the e-Reader had no save memory, you had to swipe a bunch of cards each time you wanted to play a game, which could quickly become tedious; the e-Reader could be rather touchy and require you to swipe a card multiple times before it would read it; and in the case of games like Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (God, that's a long title), you had to have two GBAs, one with the Mario cart and the other with the e-Reader inserted, as well as a link cable, in order to scan in level and item data.

It was a great idea, and in the days before the rise of DLC, an ingenious way of downloading new content into games, but sadly it just wasn't executed too well. I believe it lasted quite a bit longer in Japan compared to the states... I'm pretty sure both Pokemon Colluseum as well as Pokemon Emerald accepted e-Reader cards to obtain new items and trainer battles.

[Emperor Megas]

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (God, that's a long title)I use to think so too, until they released Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner 2: Raido Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon Special Edition. :eek 2:

[T2KFreeker]

The e-reader stuff was cool. Plus, once you scan the game into the system, it is there until you scan a new game in. Hence, you scan Donkey Kong in and turn the system off, the next time you turn it on without scanning, Donkey Kong is still there. I never had trouble getting my e-reader to read my cards. Then again, my cards do look brand new. You just have to be patient and not slow, but don't whip them through like I see poepl do with Credit Cards on those readers.

[Sabz5150]

Yeah, I don't think they were very popular, for pretty obvious reasons. That said, I'd love to get my hands on one cheap if I could find one, just for the sake of having some of those oldschool NES games on the GBA.

Not sure how long they supported it, but I remember most of the GBA games I got new would have ads for it in them IIRC, so I think its something that was around for awhile, but just wasn't very successful.

That would be because the Gameboy Advance SP was released not too much after the e-Reader. The cartridge port was moved in relation to the link port making the e-Reader impossible to use on an SP. The lit screen sealed the deal on the SP, leaving the original GBA (and subsequently the e-Reader) in the sands of time.

[CapnCrunch53]

Didn't know that the game would stay in its memory. That makes it a bit cooler. I'd like to get my hands on one if I could find one.


That would be because the Gameboy Advance SP was released not too much after the e-Reader. The cartridge port was moved in relation to the link port making the e-Reader impossible to use on an SP. The lit screen sealed the deal on the SP, leaving the original GBA (and subsequently the e-Reader) in the sands of time.

Ah, that makes sense. I remember the SP's were awesome when they came out; I actually saved up and bought the NES Special Edition one!

[joshnickerson]

The e-reader stuff was cool. Plus, once you scan the game into the system, it is there until you scan a new game in. Hence, you scan Donkey Kong in and turn the system off, the next time you turn it on without scanning, Donkey Kong is still there. I never had trouble getting my e-reader to read my cards. Then again, my cards do look brand new. You just have to be patient and not slow, but don't whip them through like I see poepl do with Credit Cards on those readers.

It's been a while since I last used mine, but yeah, you're right.


That would be because the Gameboy Advance SP was released not too much after the e-Reader. The cartridge port was moved in relation to the link port making the e-Reader impossible to use on an SP. The lit screen sealed the deal on the SP, leaving the original GBA (and subsequently the e-Reader) in the sands of time.

Actually, the e-Reader works just fine on the SP. The link port at the top of the e-Reader was just a pass through for the link cable when you wanted to link to another GBA or the Gamecube.

[BetaWolf47]

What are these "obvious reasons" that e-Reader stopped being supported? I'm confused. It was really popular in Japan up until GBA died.

Also, it's compatible with any device that has a GBA slot bar DS Phat. You just can't link using DS Lite.

I thought the idea was awesome... I personally wished they had seen it through to the end in the US.

[CapnCrunch53]

What are these "obvious reasons" that e-Reader stopped being supported? I'm confused. It was really popular in Japan up until GBA died.

Also, it's compatible with any device that has a GBA slot bar DS Phat. You just can't link using DS Lite.

I thought the idea was awesome... I personally wished they had seen it through to the end in the US.

Hmm, well if it did work on SP, and you could keep a game loaded in memory, I guess my reasons were invalid. I assume the main complaints would be that it could be kinda tedious, and the games were rather simple, but if I had the $ I would have bought it, so I guess I don't know. And I think it was around for awhile, so maybe it did better than I thought? Anyone know how much of a success Nintendo considered it to be here?

[BetaWolf47]

The main thing I liked about it was being able to scan Pokemon cards and get the Pokedex info and activate some of their card abilities on there. You could even play minigames if you scanned the right cards.

There weren't really any original games besides what was packed in. The thing is, games were only about the price of a VC NES title, and you actually got physical material. Unfortunately, the most complex games took 5 cards to activate, and that was Donkey Kong Jr. I think.

[Jorpho]

I thought Mario Party-e looked like a really good idea, but apparently it got terrible reviews.

[j_factor]

In the case of the NES games, you got all the cards you needed in the pack; they weren't separated out into random booster packs. Just before it died in the US, there were plans to release a Game & Watch series, which would consist of randomly selected cards in booster packs, though I kinda doubt games of that size would have required more than one card.

The e-Reader came packed with Manhole (a Game & Watch game) on one card. So yes. Except I never heard that the Game & Watch packs were going to be random booster pack selections, I thought they were going to be fixed sets.

I have an e-Reader and several games for it. The game selection is kind of lackluster. It just suffered from an overall lack of support.


What are these "obvious reasons" that e-Reader stopped being supported?

They were only charging 5 bucks a game. They killed it so they could come out with the "Classic NES Series" at 20 bucks a pop.

[Blitzwing256]

Don't forget the animal crossing cards, those were the most popular back when it was available.

also japan got a bunch more cards released for mario 3 then we got overhere.

[BetaWolf47]

They were only charging 5 bucks a game. They killed it so they could come out with the "Classic NES Series" at 20 bucks a pop.

Hah, I highly, highly doubt that. Any idea how much more carts cost to produce than cards? Not only that, but they knew very well that releasing games like Castlevania and Metroid on e-reader would take too many cards to be convenient for the consumer.

[Baloo]

I remember getting the e-Reader when it first came out for Christmas whatever year that was, and enjoying it. The little games are fun, I have baseball, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros.

The best part was when back in like 07 or 08 when K.B Toys was still around, the one near me had a ton of leftover Animal Crossing packs of cards that I bought for like .99 cents each, and they were probably the best part of the e-Reader, getting all those bonus items.

I still want to try out the SMB 3 ones, just to see what the bonus levels are like.

[Purkeynator]

I worked at EbGames when the E-reader came out and I can tell you there was almost zero interest in the thing. In fact I don't remember selling any in the time I worked there. People would see it on the peg and ask what it was. I would explain it to them and show them the demo unit and swipe the Air Hockey game card to show them what it could do. Most people would say "hmm, that's kinda neat" and then put it down and go buy some Playstation or Gameboy Advance games.

I personally thought it was cool and immediately bought one and all the card games over time. Eventually Gamestops all over clearanced out the games for around $1 to $2 per card set. I managed to get the starter set that came with the reader, all the NES games, Air Hockey, a complete set of Animal Crossing cards series 1, and the Mario Party set for around $5 on clearance at a K-mart. At the time I really believed they would support it and release more games but they never really did. Nintendo stopped supporting the thing well before a year. Probably 6 months if that even.

In fact here is proof the thing didn't sell well. You still buy a brand new E-reader on Nintendo's website for $40 here
http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=12251&currency=USD&catalogId=10001&tranId=0&lastAction=setCurr&storeId=10001&languageId=-1&categoryId=18487&ddkey=http:SetCurrencyPreference

[Jorpho]

I still want to try out the SMB 3 ones, just to see what the bonus levels are like.It really blows that they actually included features that can (technically) only be activated by e-reader cards. You can get an SMW-style cape feather, for example, or fill levels with SMB2-style vegetables.

New SMB3 level hacks are hardly difficult to come by, but I doubt anyone's going to be making hacks quite that extensive to NES SMB3 anytime soon.

[fahlim003]

They were only charging 5 bucks a game. They killed it so they could come out with the "Classic NES Series" at 20 bucks a pop.

I was only ever interested in the e-reader games thanks to Donkey Kong 3, which I quite enjoy. It's lame it never made into the Classic NES or Famicom Mini series. Hopefully one day I can find an e-reader on the cheap.

[j_factor]

Hah, I highly, highly doubt that. Any idea how much more carts cost to produce than cards?

Pretty sure it's less than $15. :) Also take note of the fact that they double-dipped on three games.


Not only that, but they knew very well that releasing games like Castlevania and Metroid on e-reader would take too many cards to be convenient for the consumer.

Those would require about 15 cards. Not that big of an obstacle, though. I mean "convenient" was never the point.

[BetaWolf47]

Those would require about 15 cards. Not that big of an obstacle, though. I mean "convenient" was never the point.

Not that big of an obstacle? That's 29-30 dot codes for one game, sir. Sorry for getting this deep into the subject, but are you saying you wouldn't mind playing a Famicom Disk System game that had 15 discs, and all 15 discs required both sides to be read? You have more patience than the average gamer, sir.

[buzz_n64]

Not that big of an obstacle? That's 29-30 dot codes for one game, sir. Sorry for getting this deep into the subject, but are you saying you wouldn't mind playing a Famicom Disk System game that had 15 discs, and all 15 discs required both sides to be read? You have more patience than the average gamer, sir.

I get impatient enough with my Commadore 64 Cassette Tape Drive, LOAD ALREADY!!!

[j_factor]

Not that big of an obstacle? That's 29-30 dot codes for one game, sir. Sorry for getting this deep into the subject, but are you saying you wouldn't mind playing a Famicom Disk System game that had 15 discs, and all 15 discs required both sides to be read? You have more patience than the average gamer, sir.

I'm saying that anyone who actually bought an e-Reader to play NES games (which is not a huge number of people) wouldn't mind. If you don't mind swiping 10 dot codes to play Donkey Kong, you probably won't mind swiping 30 dot codes to play Metroid. Saying that that was the reason they killed it was an exaggeration, of course, but the phrase "convenient for the consumer" is not something that applies to the e-Reader. [I've never used a Famicom Disk System, but I'd imagine reading a disk takes longer than swiping a card.]

From what I understand, the e-Reader's flash memory (that saves the game you scanned in so you don't have to re-scan it to play it again) is one megabit, and it plays NES games by having an NES emulator built in, so apparently larger games were being considered. Supposedly there are homebrew utilities to convert data into dot code that you can print out with a high quality printer and scan it in, but I'm not about to try it.

[calistarwind]

I really think it boiled down to the price of the cards. My god they were expensive. I tried to collect the Animal Crossing cards and it was if I remember correctly $7.99 a pack in most places. It was so expensive to get a full collection of the cards. Finally they just began to decline in price and they stopped selling them completely. I kept several sets of cards sealed because I found them in bargin bins after it died.

[UnpluggedClone]

google 4 gaga

[dreamcaster]

I got one of these when they were being cleared out for abouto $30AUD. It's the biggest waste of time. I mean, it's a cool idea and a novelty but I never used it in any realistic setting. For a start, the e-Reader itself is just enormous and removes the portable aspect of the GBA. Secondly, the constant swiping of cards was just a huge pain - sure they were cheap, but this process was so long and tedious I never bothered.

I think I have used mine once or twice and it's since been relegated to a storage box in the bowels of a closet. In hindsight, I probably should have left the thing sealed and forgotten about it for 10-20 years and then put it on eBay for massive profitz lolz.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I got everything US released except a full Animal Crossing set, plus some extras. I haven't dinked with them much in the last few years, but with SM3 and Animal Crossing the thing got heavy use. Since I have a few readers I use one as a NES unit solely, because it will save the last game. Think it's still got Excitebike on it. Played that a lot. :D

[Cornelius]

I just wanted to point out to the multiple people that said they'd like to have one of these that they are only 12.50 shipped on amazon, similar on ebay. So just buy one already!

[atarikurt]

I was always surprised that the E-reader Pokemon cards never took off. It seemed like a homerun mixing Pokemon on the Gameboy with the cards.

[Rob2600]

I was always surprised that the E-reader Pokemon cards never took off. It seemed like a homerun mixing Pokemon on the Gameboy with the cards.

Good point, but the e-Reader was released four years after Pokemon in the U.S. By then, the Pokemon card craze had died down a bit.


Not that big of an obstacle? That's 29-30 dot codes for one game, sir. Sorry for getting this deep into the subject, but are you saying you wouldn't mind playing a Famicom Disk System game that had 15 discs, and all 15 discs required both sides to be read? You have more patience than the average gamer, sir.

Some people have a lot of free time on their hands, I guess.


They were only charging 5 bucks a game. They killed it so they could come out with the "Classic NES Series" at 20 bucks a pop.

I assume the cards were more profitable and cost-effective. How much does it cost to print and cut sheets of cards vs. manufacturing cartridges?

[SAV2880]

The only ones I remember being semi-affordable to begin with were the level packs for Super Mario Bros. 3, those were $4.99 a pack, right?

[BetaWolf47]

I got everything US released except a full Animal Crossing set, plus some extras. I haven't dinked with them much in the last few years, but with SM3 and Animal Crossing the thing got heavy use. Since I have a few readers I use one as a NES unit solely, because it will save the last game. Think it's still got Excitebike on it. Played that a lot. :D
You've get every Pokemon TCG e-Reader card? How can you get all those but not a full Animal Crossing set?

[Jorpho]

No one seems to have mentioned yet that the dot code format was cracked a few years ago, and you can print your own cards with a sufficiently high-quality printer. I guess it never really got much of a dev scene.

[Rob2600]

No one seems to have mentioned yet that the dot code format was cracked a few years ago, and you can print your own cards with a sufficiently high-quality printer. I guess it never really got much of a dev scene.

Someone did mention it several posts back:


Supposedly there are homebrew utilities to convert data into dot code that you can print out with a high quality printer and scan it in

[Therealqtip]

I had one, mostly for animal crossing. but the you had to buy a game through trading cards. so you had to swipe like 7 cards just to play baloon fight

[Gameboy415]

The Super Mario Bros. 3 e-cards were pretty awesome, IMO.
Although there were only two small sets released in the US, there were a LOT more cards released in Japan, including several new STAGES!

My friend and I got a nearly full set a few years ago when I was still living in Japan by buying some sealed boxes of (random) e-card packs on Yahoo Auctions.

More info on the Mario cards here:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Advance_4_e-Cards

I also have some Japanese F-Zero e-cards and Mega Man Zero 3 e-cards, but I'm not sure how they are used in conjunction with their respective games.

[Icarus Moonsight]

You've get every Pokemon TCG e-Reader card? How can you get all those but not a full Animal Crossing set?

Oh, no. Pokemon doesn't even register to me. I've never cared for it. Especially the card game... Actually, I had completely forgotten that they had made Pokemon eReader cards. Still no desire to have them. I think that I might be also lacking the SM3 special promo cards as well, if IRC that they existed. Outside of Pokemon (of which, I don't care) and the Animal Crossing set (see below), I tracked down all that I'm aware of that was sold here. Got Air Hockey and Man Hole most recently.

The Animal Crossing sets (series 1 and 2 in particular, mostly 1) were always difficult to track down. I bought pretty much every pack I have found for sale. Still about 1/2 left to go, if not a bit +/-.

[caitsith2]

Not that big of an obstacle? That's 29-30 dot codes for one game, sir. Sorry for getting this deep into the subject, but are you saying you wouldn't mind playing a Famicom Disk System game that had 15 discs, and all 15 discs required both sides to be read? You have more patience than the average gamer, sir.

In regards to this, the maximum spec for nes games on the e-Reader, was Mapper 0 (ines spec), with a max of 16K PRG rom, followed by 8K CHR rom. This meant you could not do games like zelda or metroid.

Also, even if that limitation was not in place, there was another limitation. The maximum number of dotcode strips that a program could scan on the main e-reader program loader, was 12 strips. The compression method to store the programs, had to be able to pack whatever program into those 12 long strips, maximum.

---

In regards to what saved on the e-reader flash memory and what did not, There was a single flag bit in the dot-code strips that determined whether the e-reader had permission to save the program to its flash memory, from the designer of that program. ALL of the nes dotcodes had that permission flag set, and none of the other minigames ever had it set.

---

Finally, in regards of printing the dotcodes, a high end printer, and photo paper for the best results, although, in the past, on an HP deskjet 5550, well over 5 years old, on plain paper, I did have success.

[BetaWolf47]

In regards to this, the maximum spec for nes games on the e-Reader, was Mapper 0 (ines spec), with a max of 16K PRG rom, followed by 8K CHR rom. This meant you could not do games like zelda or metroid.

Also, even if that limitation was not in place, there was another limitation. The maximum number of dotcode strips that a program could scan on the main e-reader program loader, was 12 strips. The compression method to store the programs, had to be able to pack whatever program into those 12 long strips, maximum.
In regards to this as well, and perhaps even more tedious, it'd still be possible to split the game in parts. Since Metroid is segmented by area (Brinstar depths and the like), it could have different sets of cards for that. Not practical, but still possible. So yeah :P

Wait a minute. Where did you climb out of, and how do you know so much?!

[Rob2600]

it'd still be possible to split the game in parts. Since Metroid is segmented by area (Brinstar depths and the like), it could have different sets of cards for that. Not practical, but still possible.

Read this again:


the maximum spec for nes games on the e-Reader, was Mapper 0 (ines spec), with a max of 16K PRG rom, followed by 8K CHR rom. This meant you could not do games like zelda or metroid.

[Melf]

The Animal Crossing sets (series 1 and 2 in particular, mostly 1) were always difficult to track down. I bought pretty much every pack I have found for sale. Still about 1/2 left to go, if not a bit +/-.

I think I have the entire 1 and 2 series. Series 1 is complete, and I think series 2 is missing only a few cards. They're just sitting there, doing nothing. Trade?

[caitsith2]

In regards to this as well, and perhaps even more tedious, it'd still be possible to split the game in parts. Since Metroid is segmented by area (Brinstar depths and the like), it could have different sets of cards for that. Not practical, but still possible. So yeah :P

Wait a minute. Where did you climb out of, and how do you know so much?!

Yeah, a metroid game could be possible, in sections, just not as an nes game. While it is true that the main application itself can span a maximum of 12 cards, it is possible for that application to load additional data, through the e-reader api, with additional cards.

Yeah, where did I pop out of, just google my username, and push "i'm feeling lucky". Yeah, I had some direct involvement and reverse engineering in the e-reader scene a few years back.

[UnpluggedClone]

anyone have a site to get the e-reader printable cards?

[caitsith2]

anyone have a site to get the e-reader printable cards?

here (http://caitsith2.com/ereader/saves.htm) and here (http://caitsith2.com/ereader/sma4.htm). You will also need this print (http://caitsith2.com/ereader/tools/nedc_print.rar) utility as well.

I am fully back in action, as far as being able to print the cards go.