JANUARY 2003

January 4th 2003:

Well, the holidays are behind us, and I certainly hope you enjoyed them! I think 2003 will be a true test of survival for the e-Reader. Mario Party-e is just around the corner, and there's also a new set of Hamtaro e-Cards which is about to be released in Japan, so it seems Nintendo intends to continue supporting the device for the forseable future. I'm also confident we'll see some e-Card series from third-party publishers this year, although there's been no news to confirm it yet. In any case, I've got a few cool things planned for this web site, so stay tuned!
A new entry has been added to Pixelboy's Diary, which discusses non-game applications on e-Cards.
I've still got some extra Animal Crossing-e cards to sell. Click here to see the list.
The news items for December 2002 have been moved to the News Archive section.

January 12th 2003:

Whoa! I have lots of news bits for you today! First off, the e-Reader games section of EBgames.com reports that the second series of Animal Crossing-e cards will be released on January 20th 2003. There will be 71 cards in this series, 58 of which will be Character cards. The rest will be composed of Special cards, Sibling cards, Game cards, and some new Town Tune and Design cards. I updated the Future Releases section with this information.
EBgames.com also mentions that the release date for the Mario Party-e card game has been set for Febuary 17th 2003. The game will feature 64 cards, and will be for two to four players.
Unless you've been living in a cave this last week, you've probably heard of the Game Boy Advance SP, which will be released in North America on March 23rd 2003. I added a Q&A item to the F.A.Q. section about the compatibility of the e-Reader with the GBA SP.
I also updated the F.A.Q. section with some scans of the internal circuitry of the e-Reader, which were graciously supplied by Steve G. (thanks Steve!).
I'm not in the habit of reporting news related to the e-Reader in Japan, but what the heck: A new series of e-Cards has been released by Nintendo in Japan (or is about to be released... I can't read japanese), which is based on Domo-kun, a popular brown, box-shaped creature which is the mascot of a popular Japanese TV station. You can see what these cards look like by following this link. (Thanks to noah118 and PlasmaMan on the IGN forum for the info!)
During the week between Christmas 2002 and January 1st 2003, the official web site of Wizards of the Coast was updated with a section devoted to the new Pokémon-e Aquapolis series. However, since then, all references and links to the Aquapolis section have been removed, as if it never existed! Well, if you're curious, the section still exists on their site, and you can access it using this super secret link! I just hope the release of the Aquapolis series will not be delayed...

January 20th 2003:

Today is the official release day for Animal Crossing-e series 2! Nintendo's official e-Reader site now has information about this new series, including the usual PDF checklist (56 megs for a simple checklist? Are they nuts???). Also, I happen to need your help! I'd like to add the new AC cards to the e-Card Catalog, but I need to know more about the Special, Sibling, Game, Town Tune and Design cards. Any info you can give me would be appreciated!
According to a Nintendo press release, the third series of Animal Crossing-e cards will be released on March 10th. The Future Releases section has been updated with this info.
In the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine (Issue #153, page 41), we are told that we should "be on the lookout for a series of Kirby e-Cards in the near future." I haven't heard anything about a Kirby-e series, so I'll wait for confirmation before adding it to the Future Releases section, but it's good news if it's true!
A new entry has been added to Pixelboy's Diary. Go have a look! :-)
Small footnote: It seems the "super secret link" I provided on the last site update is not a secret anymore. You can now find a link to the Pokémon-e Aquapolis page in the main Pokémon section of the Wizards of the Coast website.

January 25th 2003:

All the Animal Crossing-e series 2 cards have been added to the e-Card Catalog! None of the new entries have pictures, but that will be fixed over the next few weeks. I also decided to wait a while before giving each new card a rarity rating, because I'm not done with the rarity analysis. I'd like to thank Beckerage, rtag65276 and all the other people on the IGN forum for helping me collect the data on these cards!
Speaking of AC series 2 e-cards, some EB Games in the US (and maybe other stores as well) are giving away free cards, namely Tom Nook (061), Boots (101) and Boy (1) (P01). There's a limit of three cards per customer apparently, and quantities are limited, so you may want to drop by your favorite gaming store to see if they are running this promotion. (Thanks to The Jerkle for the news).
Want to see what the japanese Hamtaro e-Cards look like? Click here. That's all I have to say about that. ;-)
I made some modifications to the listings in the e-Card Catalog. It looks a little better now, IMHO.
On Febuary 1st (one week from now), a brand new contest will begin right here on this web site: The NES Game Design Contest!! The first prize will be an e-Reader, and there will be second-place and third-place prizes as well! But I suggest that you wait before starting work on your NES game design, because I will be defining (and enforcing) a set of very strict rules for this contest. Be there next week!