The e-Reader (Japanese: カードｅリーダー, Hepburn: Card e-Reader) is an accessory for the Game Boy Advance that was developed by Nintendo, HAL Laboratory, Creatures Inc., and Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. It has been involved with the Pokémon franchise on several occasions during the earlier years of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan.
Description
The e-Reader was designed to scan e-Cards, which are recognizable from having special barcodes called Dot Codes. By scanning an e-Card, the player could unlock content for a Game Boy Advance game or even play a special minigame or watch a cinematic, depending on the contents of the e-Card. An e-Reader can only scan e-Cards from the same region, so scanning a North American e-Card into a Japanese e-Reader and vice versa displays a region error message.
History
The e-Reader was originally conceived as the Pokémon Card-e-Reader at E3 2001 and was originally intended to be particularly for the Pokémon Trading Card Game before it was decided that more Nintendo properties would make use of the accessory, such as Mario and Kirby. Even then, a majority of e-Cards for the e-Reader are from the Pokémon Trading Card Game, keeping at least some of the original concept intact.
The e-Reader first released in Japan in December 2001, accompanying the release of the Expedition Base Set. It was released next in the United States in September 2002. The peripheral also released in Australia in October 2003. The peripheral was not very successful in the United States, so it was discontinued in 2004. Meanwhile, e-Cards have been significantly more popular in Japan, where they did not discontinue until 2008, along with the Game Boy Advance itself. The e-Reader had never been released in Europe.
The e-Reader was demonstrated more clearly at E3 2002. Some attendees received a sample pack of e-Reader cards, among which included some cards for the Expedition Base Set expansion.