E-Card Readers Discontinued!

[Djx]

Went to Canada on holidays and decided to finally pick up an E-card reader but Nintendo have decided to stop making/selling them. Probably since the NES E-card games are being released in GBA cart format. Does anyone own a E-card reader? Where can I get one now? Are they even worth owning?

[Flockheart]

I remember a month or so ago when a mate of mine (Freeman on the forum) got his e-card reader through the post. He took it out of the package pulled out his Gameboy and then realised it didn't fit the SP!

To be honest from what I've seen they're not really worth owning, just seemed to be a cash generating scheme for Nintendo and they don't offer any real gameplay prospects or enhancements. Most of the Nes games will be available on Cart soon or can be downloaded from Animal Crossing anyway without the hassle of scanning loads of cards in.

[Alex W.]

The E-Card reader does fit the SP, you just don't have to use the link-up passthrough as the link connector on the SP is free. The pass-through plug fits below the SELECT/START buttons.

Go on, try plugging it in.

[Burai]

I remember a month or so ago when a mate of mine (Freeman on the forum) got his e-card reader through the post. He took it out of the package pulled out his Gameboy and then realised it didn't fit the SP!

Dude, your mate is retarded.

My SP/e-Reader combo:

The only difference is that the link port pass-through isn't used any more - you just plug link cables and GC-GBA cables directly into the port on the SP.

There were plenty of benefits to the e-Reader. e-Reader NES games were $2.50. NES cart games will be $20. It's annoying having to scan the cards, but the cheapness was worth it. There were some nice unlockables in Mario courtesy of the e-Cards, such as levels from other Mario Bros games, extra powers, time attack levels. The Animal Crossing stuff was nice too.

Also, some dude has cracked the code and you can now create and print your own e-Reader apps. http://users.skynet.be/firefly/gba/e-reader/index.htm

It was a nice idea, but Nintendo didn't really push it right.

[DJ Sack]

Thats the problem with nintendo, they do have these great ideas but never really push them, take a look at the pokemon mini.

[Sgt Chaos]

It was a nice idea, but Nintendo didn't really push it right.

Unfortunately that seems to be how Nintendo has been operating for a long time now, if it doesn´t pull its finger out it is going to vanish into obscurity.

[Burai]

I wouldn't go that melodramatic, but it does hurt the chances of making less mainstream ideas a success. Their theme was "strap Pokemon to it, and it'll just sell", but Pokemon's star is fading, even in Japan.

With the Pokemon Mini, they had the ulimate party console, but they blew it. With the e-Card reader they had a nice game expansion/budget retro device and they blew it.

Ultimately, their failures won't hurt Nintendo as a company, but they were both potentially great sources of income.

[Sgt Chaos]

Dont get me wrong, I am a HUGE ninty fan, just finding that they are increasingly getting left behind by other companies because of their lacking in the marketing department

[Burai]

But if they threw the same money after promotion that the other 2 did, it wouldn't be worth it. The market is fully in the Space Marines sector and no amount of money is going to swing it back in the cute plumber direction. Only another shift in gaming demographic and tastes would do that.

[pretentious_helvetica]

Went to Canada on holidays and decided to finally pick up an E-card reader but Nintendo have decided to stop making/selling them. Probably since the NES E-card games are being released in GBA cart format. Does anyone own a E-card reader? Where can I get one now? Are they even worth owning?

I ordered my E-Reader from http://www.dvdcrave.com/ - glad I did now. I did ponder over it, but would of ruined my obsessive enjoyment with Animal Crossing.