Swipe Right: The Nintendo E-Reader Story - WorthPoint (2025)

Nintendo has a high-scoring reputation with retro video game fans and collectors. The Japanese company is also well known for experimenting with unusual hardware for its gaming systems. Nintendo’s Wii console was almost universally praised in the late-2000s. It was an innovative combination of physical activities and virtual games.

But not everything the company has released has been such a winner. There was an earlier, less-successful attempt to integrate Nintendo’s digital delights with real-world play. It was short-lived, often forgotten, and is now a niche collectible. That’s the Nintendo e-Reader.

WHAT IT WAS AND HOW IT WORKED

The e-Reader was an accessory for the Gameboy Advance handheld and Gamecube home consoles in the early-2000s. It was a simple, black plastic T-shaped device. The e-Reader plugged into the Gameboy Advance’s cartridge slot in place of a regular game and ran off the system’s batteries. It had a thin groove with an LED scanner that let gamers swipe trading cards through it like a credit card. Its only other part was a built-in link cable that allowed players to connect the device to a Gamecube.

Nintendo e-Reader cards look like ordinary trading cards except for a strip of black dot code for the device to read. The length of the dot code strip indicated how much data was on the card. Cards with a short code strip often played just a short animation or sound effect. In contrast, longer-code cards, or those with more than one strip, held unlockable characters or special events. Some e-Reader cards even had classic Nintendo games.

POKEMON TRADING CARDS AND TIE-INS

The e-Reader’s card technology seemed perfect for Nintendo’s already popular Pokemon franchise. The company had recently acquired the rights to the Pokemon Trading Card Game in North America. It redesigned the series to go all-in on synergy with the e-Reader. Seven Pokemon TCG sets prominently featuring two strips of dot code came out between 2003 and 2004. Codes ›n Pokemon cards from this period yield in-game encyclopedia entries, mini-games, and more.

Oddly, the rarest Pokemon e-Reader card wasn’t part of the official trading card game. The Eon Ticket was a special insert in Nintendo Power Magazine and a giveaway at certain toy stores in 2003. The ticket’s code contained a chance to catch the mythical monsters Latios and Latias in Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire.

ANIMAL CROSSING CARDS

The small-town simulation game Animal Crossing, introduced in 2002, also paired well with the e-Reader. The main draw of this series is the various animals that move in and out of the player’s village. Nintendo made four sets of e-Reader trading cards for the Animal Crossing GameCube games in Japan and North America. It’s noteworthy that the first Animal Crossing games were exclusive to the Gamecube. Still, the game relied on the player having access to a Gameboy Advance to use the e-Reader.

There were Animal Crossing e-Reader cards for all original 218 villagers. Players could scan these to “invite” specific animal characters to move to their town. Collecting cards, in theory, bypassed the random nature of the game. Of course, the element of chance wasn’t gone completely; it simply shifted out of the game and into sleeves of mystery e-Reader cards.

A SWIPE AND A MISS

Games that didn’t already have a trading card element struggled to find a way to incorporate the new tech. The hardware itself also left something to be desired. The e-Reader was bulky and almost as big as the original Gameboy Advance. This eyesore only got worse in 2003, when the updated Gameboy Advance SP came out with a slimmer, folding design. The e-Reader still worked with the SP but fit awkwardly in the bottom of the console. This lack of forethought from Nintendo didn’t bode well for the e-Reader’s future.

The e-Reader did modestly well in Japan, selling from 2001 until 2008. It was compatible with many more (sadly, region-locked) games. In contrast, it failed to take off in the United States and elsewhere. Pokemon drove sales at first, but it wasn’t enough for many parents to justify buying yet another toy.

This sentiment was doubly true for Animal Crossing’s cards. Players who wanted to use them needed a GameCube, a copy of the game, a Gameboy Advance, an e-Reader, and the cards. This load-out was understandably too rich for just one game. Nintendo discontinued the e-Reader in the US in early 2004, just a year and a half after its debut, citing low interest and lower sales.

SCANNING THE THRIFT STORE

Nintendo e-Reader devices are relatively easy to find in secondhand stores and online marketplaces. Many still work, thanks to their sturdy, no-frills build. Collecting e-Reader cards, however, is a trickier business. Trading cards are delicate. With this in mind, most serious collectors keep their prized possessions in cases and rarely touch them. However, e-Reader cards were meant to be handled (and swiped) by excited kids. Combined with their brief printing run, this limits the pool of cards available today in mint, or even good, condition.

The most desirable e-Reader cards to collectors today were also scarce by design. For example, some cards (like the Kirby above) were only available to attendees of the E3 gaming convention in 2002. Beyond chasing promo cards, some collectors seek to scan and document all remaining e-Reader cards, common and rare, before they disappear entirely.

Despite the e-Reader’s short life, some fans argue it was ahead of its time. Its data-packed cards pioneered the concept of DLC (downloadable content.) Modern Pokemon cards come with a link to download a virtual pack for online play. Animal Crossing’s recent games adopted Nintendo’s amiibo technology for their cards, which look just like the e-Reader cards that came before. Some say time and technology are cyclical, and with that logic, certain collectibles are too. While the e-Reader was a flop at release, it does have an unexpectedly large fan base still looking to swipe one up today.

Rory Tessmer is an eBayer and freelancer from southeastern Wisconsin with over a decade of specialty retail and resale experience under their belt. Rory has had the pleasure of seeing (and sometimes even playing with) hundreds of unusual collectibles over the years, from tesla coils to military mule-branding kits. In their spare time, they enjoy cooking, gaming, and noodling around with their synthesizer.

WorthPoint—Discover. Value. Preserve.

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