So on a whim I bought...

[ExedExes]

First-party Nintendo GBA games are frustratingly expensive.

Sadly, that is the case. Same with many GameCube titles as well. I don't even have an official first-party Nintendo title there yet.

[Nemoide]

I always thought the e-Reader was kind of cool, but I don't think I can justify having more THINGS TO PLAY GAMES ON in my collection unless it's a special case.

[BurningDoom]

The main reason to own one is to play the extra stages of Mario 3.

That's exactly why I want one. There are sooooo many ways to play those NES classics that are on cards. But new SMB 3 levels, hell yes! They don't exist in any other form, that I know of.

[WallCrusher]

I own a couple E-reader cards, for Animal Crossing and Pokémon RSE mainly, but I don't own an actual E-reader. Been meaning to pick one up eventually but I've got so much other stuff that I wanna get, so I keep holding it off.

[Dakinggamer87]

I got my e-Reader for free from my brother who gave it to me. Aside from Animal Crossing I hardly ever used it.

[shmuk]

I've always thought of getting one... How much did yours cost?

Mine was $10, used.

The games were like $3, new.

Haven't had a chance to play it yet because it's being shipped as we speak.

Looks like you can still get a new sealed e-Reader for around $30.

Damn, that sounds pretty good. I might consider getting one in the distant future.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Okay so I finally got this in the mail.

I was a bit surprised to see the cards. I was under the impression that they were similar to credit cards - with a magnetic strip. Instead they appear to be thick (cardstock-ish) paper with some sort of dot-matrix looking code.

So anyway - there's no way actual data is written on these cards, is there? I'm assuming that scanning the cards simply "unlocks" games from the e-Reader's memory.

Oh and it sucks how you have to destroy the packaging to get the cards out.

[alienjesus]

Okay so I finally got this in the mail.

I was a bit surprised to see the cards. I was under the impression that they were similar to credit cards - with a magnetic strip. Instead they appear to be thick (cardstock-ish) paper with some sort of dot-matrix looking code.

So anyway - there's no way actual data is written on these cards, is there? I'm assuming that scanning the cards simply "unlocks" games from the e-Reader's memory.

Oh and it sucks how you have to destroy the packaging to get the cards out.

The data is written on the cards. It's a very small amount of data, hence why it takes so many cards even for basic NES games.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Interesting. Yeah, each game has like 5 cards.

[Duane Dibbley]

I was a bit surprised to see the cards. I was under the impression that they were similar to credit cards - with a magnetic strip. Instead they appear to be thick (cardstock-ish) paper with some sort of dot-matrix looking code.

So anyway - there's no way actual data is written on these cards, is there? I'm assuming that scanning the cards simply "unlocks" games from the e-Reader's memory.

The data is written on the cards. It's a very small amount of data, hence why it takes so many cards even for basic NES games.

It's right on Wikipedia. I don't think a standard magnetic stripe card would have enough storage space for game data. I could be wrong though. In any case, the paper cards were no doubt much cheaper to produce.