Game Boy Advance e-Reader

The Game Boy Advance e-Reader is a console add-on for the Game Boy Advance. This add-on allows data to be input by scanning e-Reader cards. It could also be used to send data to a GameCube game by connecting the GameCube and the e-Reader/Game Boy Advance with a Game Boy Advance - GameCube Link Cable.

The e-Reader also had a standalone function, that lets it play and save minigames without connecting it to anything. However, this required you leave the e-Reader attached to the Game Boy Advance. The way the e-Reader actually worked was pretty simple. Nintendo prints the 'Dot Code' with a printer that could print very tiny, fine and distinct dots in a matrix. The dots were printed on the sides of e-Reader cards and represented binary data (a black dot meant a 1, and no dot meant a 0). The user would then swipe the card through the e-Reader and the Dot Code would be read. Larger programs were often split up into several different cards, each card having Dot Code printed on multiple sides, and required up to ten swipes to get the full program loaded. Though, most of the time, the cards that the programs were split up onto were packaged together.

The e-Reader had a wide variety of cards, grouped into series. Each series had several packs that you could buy.

Nintendo no longer prints e-cards.