e-Reader

A rendering of the e-Reader being used with an original Game Boy Advance.

The e-Reader (Japanese: カードeリーダー Card e Reader and カードeリーダー＋ Card e Reader +) is a Game Boy Advance peripheral that is used to scan special cards in order to unlock new features in existing games, and add new features to existing games that have e-Reader functionality, or to play various minigames on the e-Reader itself. It was developed by HAL Laboratory and Olympus. The North American and Australian e-Reader is based on the Japanese Card e Reader +, which is a further development of the original Card e Reader with Link functionality, allowing it to connect to a second Game Boy Advance or even to a GameCube. The e-Reader was never released to Europe, even though the Pokémon e-cards were.

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 (For using the Game-link cable and the GameCube Game Boy Advance cable)

Pokémon e-Cards

• The Pokémon Battle e card series.
• The Expedition Base Set TCG set.
• The Aquapolis TCG set.
• The Skyridge TCG set.
• The EX Ruby and Sapphire TCG set (Pokédex entries only)
• The EX Sandstorm TCG set (Pokédex entries only)
• The EX Dragon TCG set (Pokédex entries only)
• The EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua TCG set (Pokédex entries only, select cards only)
• Select Wizards Black Star Promos and Nintendo promotional TCG cards.
• Special cards containing extra features for the Smeargle Paint minigame in Pokémon Channel
• Special cards allowing a player to increase the likelihood of special events in the Japanese version of Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

Trivia

• The minigame Machop At Work was included with the purchase of an e-Reader in the US and Canada.
• According to Nintendo Power v.169, it would take roughly 62,500 e-Reader cards to equal the data on one GameCube disc.

Images

The original Japanese Card e Reader.

The Japanese Card e Reader +.

The North American e-Reader, based on the Japanese Card e Reader +.