E-Reader

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The correct title of this article is e-Reader. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

The e-Reader with card.

The e-Reader (カードeリーダー, Kādo e Rīdā^?, Card e-Reader) is a device made by Nintendo for its Game Boy Advance portable video game system. It has an LED scanner that reads "e-Reader Cards," paper cards with specially encoded data printed on them.

The e-Reader is neither a console nor an accessory, but an add-on device, like the Famicom Disk System or the Sega CD. The e-Reader is one of only three official Nintendo add-ons to be released in North America. The other two add-ons are the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's Super Game Boy and the Nintendo GameCube's Game Boy Player.

1 Game Boy Advance
2 Information
- 2.1 e-Reader Cards
- 2.2 Dot codes
3 Game List
4 Homebrew cards, card dumps, and printable versions
5 External links

[edit] Game Boy Advance

The e-Reader plugs into the cartridge slot of the Game Boy Advance like a regular game would. The end of the e-Reader sticks out from the Game Boy Advance unit to provide a slot to scan the e-Reader Cards.

The e-Reader is also compatible with the Game Boy Player, the Game Boy Advance SP and the DS Lite. When using the Game Boy Advance SP, the link cable is not used like the original Game Boy Advance; it can only be hooked up to the back of the system, not the e-Reader. The e-Reader is incompatible with the original Nintendo DS design. Due to system's case design, the device will not fit into the cartridge slot of the system. It should be noted that some hardware modders have managed to get their e-Reader working with the DS; even though it is not recommended for the average end-user to attempt this. Nevertheless, due to design changes between the original Nintendo DS and the Nintendo DS Lite, the e-Reader will fit and operate with the newer system design. However, games that require another GBA such as Super Mario Advance 4's e-reader function cannot be played.

In order to add items and scan levels in games such as Super Mario Advance 4, a player required two Game Boy Advance systems and a link cable. The gray end would go into the e-Reader GBA and the purple end into the GBA that had the game. After entering the needed point on the game, players would swipe the cards in and the data would be transferred to the game cartridge. This function will not work with the DS Lite because there is no link cable support.

[edit] Information

Two versions were released in Japan: the original (without a link cable port), which could read cards for use in games, etc., and another with a link cable port to connect with Nintendo GameCube games such as Animal Crossing and with other Game Boy Advance systems for games such as Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. Only the latter was released in North America.

The e-Reader was only released in Japan, North America, and Australia. It was announced for Europe but was later cancelled. Due to a lack of popularity, it was discontinued in North America in early 2004; however, it is still being produced in Japan, where it became more popular.

[edit] e-Reader Cards

In the U.S., e-Reader Card packs have been released that contain:

NES games
New levels and power-ups for Super Mario Advance 4
Items and designs for Animal Crossing
New trainers to battle in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
Mini-games, including an exclusive version of Mario Party.

There have been numerous other games released with e-Reader support in Japan.

[edit] Dot codes

Data is encoded on the cards using "dot codes," a specialized barcode technology licensed from Olympus Corporation. e-Reader Cards may have one or two sets of dot codes on them, either a long strip on the left side of the card, a long strip on both the left and right sides of the card, a short strip on the bottom of the card or a short strip on the bottom of the card with a long strip on the left side of the card. Smaller games may require scanning only one card (two sets of dot codes), while the larger NES games can require as many as five cards (ten sets of dot codes) in order to start the application.

The shorter dot codes were only used with the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Cards released in regular sets published by both Nintendo and Wizards of the Coast had dot codes on the bottom side of the card. When scanned, the e-reader displayed a Pokédex data entry for the Pokémon shown on the card. Many of the cards published by Wizards of the Coast included a left side dot code that would allow users to play mini-games, animations, and use secret attacks in the Trading Card Game or play with various songs and graphics.

[edit] Game List

[edit] Classic NES

Each game in this series comes in a pack of five cards, each of which must be scanned twice, on both sides. There are thirteen games in this series. Each of these games is a direct port of the classic NES game of the same title (minus the added -e).

[edit] Animal Crossing-e

The cards, when used with the game's post office, would provide items to players. Some were rare, while others were more common. Some unlocked "town tunes", which were played each time you talked to an animal, still others were "sibling" cards (series 2-4) with two related characters on the front, and yet more were tailor design cards, which unlocked new designs to be used around the village. Aside from the regular card packs, some regular series cards were distributed on a promotional basis through GameStop, EBGames, and Energizer batteries. These cards did not differ from the regular version of the cards contained within the packs sold at the retail level.

[edit] Pokémon Battle-e

[edit] Pokémon Colosseum

In Pokémon Colosseum, there is a Colosseum at the back of Phenac City. There are 2 large doors, which in the English version lead to the same arena. In the Japanese version the right door goes to the arena, while the left door leads to a special E-reader area where players can scan in extra cards to battle additional trainers & capture 3 more Shadow Pokémon

[edit] Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3-e

Main article: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

There are 36 cards, divided into two series: 18 for Series 1 and 18 for Series 2. In each package of 18 cards there are five demo cards, five level cards, eight power-up cards, and a promotional card without data strips which only contains an advertisement for the Pokémon Battle-e cards.

Two promotional cards came packed in with every US copy of the game sold. Five additional cards were released for a very short time and were packed in with the game and sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores in the US. These five cards have become very hard to find, as the e-Reader had been discontinued in North America not long after the release of the game. There is a series 3 and 4 but only in japan becuse of the discontinuation.

[edit] Pokémon Trading Card Game

- Three cards from this set (Machop, Machoke, and Machamp) were included with the US release of the e-Reader.

[edit] Rockman.EXE & Rockman Zero 3 Cards

The Japanese Rockman games for GBA (known as Mega Man outside of Japan) used Card Reader e+ cards to customize their game with the e-Reader + (available in Japan only). The cards caused various effects as, such as Base HP, Abilities, Buster Changes, Charge Shot Modifications, B+ Back Abilities. There are even Item Cards which can give out sets of Battle Chips, Sub Chips, BugFrags, Zenny, and even Navi Customizer Programs (Only introduced in Rockman EXE6 Modification Card Part 1 & Rockman EXE6 Modification Card Part 2. They could also cause negative effects ('Bugs') to happen, causing such effects as the causing Rockman to lose health and move the wrong way, or causing the player to be unable to control it. As for the Rockman Zero 3 Cards, they'll change the Resistance Base and add new an overhaul of new things to it as well as Weapon Upgrades and Bullet Appearances to make an actual Buster Shot look like a real bullet that an actual Gun fires.

These cards cannot be used on the English version of the games. The only way to use them through the English versions is through various cheating devices, such as Pro Action Replay and GameShark.

[edit] Other

E3 2002 Promo Pack: A very rare promotional pack given away at the 2002 E3 conference, this pack contained a variant Manhole e-card, two Pokémon trading card game cards and a Kirby card that, when scanned, would tell you if you have won a prize. The Kirby card is considered to be the rarest e-Reader card produced.
Mario Party-e: A complete card game with 64 cards using the e-Reader for minigames.
- Mario Party-e Promo Card: While not an e-Reader Card (the card contains no dot codes), a promotional "Two Coin Card" was packed with GamePro magazine and can be fully used with the Mario Party-e game.
Air Hockey-e: A promotional card given away at various retailers when the e-Reader was initially released. In this game you play a real game of fast paced air hockey. An AU-exclusive version of this card was packed in with the e-Reader when sold in Australia.
Manhole-e: A port of the original Game & Watch game. Included with the e-Reader. Close the manholes as pedestrians pass by. A complete Game & Watch card series was planned for release, but never made it to stores.
FOXBOX Kirby Slide Puzzle: A slide puzzle game included in an issue of Nintendo Power and Tips & Tricks Magazine.
EON Ticket: A promotional card given away at e3, at Toys R Us during the EON Ticket Summer Tour in 2003 and in an issue of Nintendo Power. Used to get Latias or Latios on Pokémon Ruby or Pokémon Sapphire.
Pokémon Channel: Three US exclusive cards and three AU variant cards were released with the Nintendo GameCube Game Pokémon Channel. The USA version holds a "6-Pattern" card, a Pikachu card and a Kyogre card, whereas the AU version has a Jirachi card, instead of the Kyogre card.

[edit] Homebrew cards, card dumps, and printable versions

A person named Firefly (Tim Schuerewegen) was successful in cracking the 'dot code' code and was able to turn some homebrew programs into cards, playable on the e-reader device.

A homebrew NES game by Snobro, BombSweeper (a Bomberman clone), was made into an executable file as well as numerous tech demos (hello world, Mario sprite, etc.).

Using a special program, one is able to take the data used to compile a card stripe and print it onto a piece of paper that can then be scanned and interpreted by the e-Reader.

A byproduct of this effort was that a method of 'dumping' the data encased in the codes of cards was discovered. This led to a modified version of the e-Reader rom being created that can accept these 'dumps' and interpret them for use in an emulator.