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e-Reader
The e-Reader (Japanese: カードｅリーダー Card e Reader) is a peripheral for the Game Boy Advance that is used to scan special cards in order to unlock new features in existing games, add new features to games that have e-Reader functionality, or to play minigames on the e-Reader itself.
Developed jointly by HAL Laboratory and Olympus, the original Japanese Card e Reader lacked the link cable functionality when it was released in December of 2001. A re-release, the Card e Reader+, added a link cable port, allowing it to connect to a second Game Boy Advance or a Nintendo GameCube using the same link cables that the Game Boy Advance system alone would use. This version of the e-Reader was the one that was later released in the west as the e-Reader in September of 2002.
Though it was popular in Japan, with e-Cards released until the end of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan, the e-Reader proved to be unpopular in North America, leading to its discontinuation in 2004. Additionally, the Nintendo DS, while compatible with Game Boy Advance games, was not designed to work with the e-Reader. It works on a Nintendo DS Lite and works on an original Nintendo DS if the player were to open up the e-Reader and remove the Game Boy Advance Link Cable extension wires. The device was never released in Europe and e-Reader functionality was absent in the European, and Australian versions of the respective games, though e-Cards were released in Europe as well.
Technical specifications
- "Dot Code Technology" (Optical scanning technology)
- 8 Megabit flash memory.
- 64 Megabyte mask ROM.
- The long strip on each e-Card holds 2.2 kilobytes of data.
- The short strip holds 1.4 kilobytes of data.
- Passthrough game link port.
Trivia
- According to Nintendo Power v.169, it would take roughly 62,500 e-Reader cards to equal the data on one GameCube disc.
- However, this is a gross understatement when checked mathematically. Assuming the figure listed in the tech specs of this article (2.2KB per strip) and the standard two-strips-per-card format, it would take approximately 350,320 e-Reader cards.
- Several complete Nintendo Entertainment System games were also made available on special packs of cards. It took a total of ten dot codes (two per card) to store the data of an NES game.
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