Nintendo E-reader - Interesting Cards from the American Region

NES Games

We would like to start with the NES series. These are perhaps the most interesting cards in terms of technology. Just imagine that the code for an NES game was placed on 5 cards. It's just fantastic!

These games had 2 drawbacks:

1. There were no leaderboards (each time the game started as if it were the first time).

2. There was no network play (even in games that originally had network play).

In total, three series of NES games were released, totaling 13 games. The first series had 5 games, the second series also had 5 games, and the third series had only 3 games.

Each game was sold separately and packaged in a beautiful bag with 5 cards.

On September 16, 2002, the first series of NES games was released.

The first series included 5 games:

Balloon Fight-e

Donkey Kong Jr.-e

Excitebike-e

Pinball-e

Tennis-e

On November 12, 2002, the second series of NES games was released.

The second series also included 5 games:

Baseball-e

Donkey Kong-e

Ice Climber-e

Mario Bros.-e

Urban Champion-e

On April 21, 2003, the third series of NES games was released.

The third series included only 3 games:

Clu Clu Land-e

Donkey Kong 3-e

Golf-e

And since we're talking about NES games, it's worth mentioning another series of cards that was never released.

Game & Watch Games

As with NES games, Game & Watch cards were supposed to launch G&W games, but for some strange and unexplained reason, they were never released.

The starter kit for each E-reader included the only G&W game, Manhole.

Interestingly, at that time, Nintendo released product catalogs, and in the Nintendo Winter Catalog 2003, on page 13, there was an advertisement for the Nintendo E-reader, which included a page with G&W games. It promised more than 25 (!) G&W games and even published ready-made cards, but then something happened, and only one game remained.

Update. Perhaps the most interesting find was in Nintendo Power #174.

To launch any Game & Watch game, depending on its size, you needed from one to three cards. Nintendo decided to release packs containing 5 cards with random G&W games. By purchasing each pack, you would get two full games and some random G&W cards.

Unfortunately, these packs were never released, but the magazine article with all the planned G&W games remained. You can view this article on the website: Nintendo Power #174 article about E-reader.

Mario Party

It is extremely surprising, but by releasing this set, Nintendo returns to its roots. This is a board card game!

The game box contains a board, 64 cards, and game instructions.

You can see more details about the cards and the board in our article: «Photos of E-reader cards, Mario Party-e board game».

The board game includes 11 cards that can be used with the E-reader and, accordingly, 11 mini-games.

For example, the Waluigi and Super Waluigi cards:

If you load them into the E-reader, each player takes turns completing a task, and if the player who played the card wins, they fulfill the card's condition, but if they lose, nothing happens.

Pokemon TCG

The very possibility of seeing some card description or a small cartoon on the Game Boy Advance screen is cool, but not very interesting. Unless from a collector's point of view - it adds value to the card.

But not all cards were so "simple" and had no effect. Some cards had secret abilities! Just imagine playing a card game, and some cards have secret abilities that are only visible if you swipe the card through the E-reader. Of course, such cards were banned in tournaments, but it still expands the boundaries of the TCG!

There is a card with the Pokemon Miltank, and at the bottom, you see one description:

But if you read the code strip in the E-reader, magic happens:

Pokemon

We wouldn't have included E-reader cards with expansions for Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire in this list if it weren't for one extremely interesting card:

EON TICKET (infinite ticket)

This card unlocks a secret island in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire! By the way, you can read about it in our article: "How to get the EON Ticket and unlock the secret island on the original cartridge in Pokemon Sapphire/Ruby without hacks or cheats?"

The Rarest Card in the American Region

This card is wanted dead or alive; it's an alternate version of the "Kirby Contest" cards distributed at E3 2002. There are three versions of the "Kirby Contest" cards: they can either have "1st Prize," "2nd Prize," or "No Winner Message" when scanned.

The winning versions are extremely rare, but we are patient. It is said that only 10 were ever made, and if someone claims a prize with the card, the card will be torn in half and thrown away so that participants cannot claim the prize again.

Hopefully, one of them escaped. Our affiliates and their descendants will be waiting for this dump for the next couple of millennia.

At E3 2002, there was a "Kirby" lottery where, by swiping this card through the E-reader, you could find out if you won anything. And to this day, cards with any winning place are still being sought!

Epilogue

In general, many cool and interesting cards were released, among them ultra-rare ones, for example, the three cards below were not sold but sent to 530 stores in Japan:

And of course, we may or may not like the concept of this device, but the fact is that the E-reader made many games a little better and became a truly interesting and not ordinary device among all the cartridges and accessories for Nintendo consoles.

And only with a deep study of this device do you understand what was embedded in it and what its potential could have been.