FEBUARY 2003

Febuary 1st 2003:

I'm sorry to report that because of circumstances beyond my control, I am forced to push back the start of the NES Game Design Contest to Febuary 8th 2003. Don't worry though, because the contest deadline will be April 30th, so you'll still have plenty of time to participate. :-)
I added the scans of 15 Animal Crossing-e Series 2 cards to the e-Card Catalog, and I defined a rarity rating for each card of that series (thanks to Michael Harrington (a.k.a. mdude on the IGN forums) for collecting some valuable rarity stats for me). Some ratings may be inaccurate, so if you disagree with some of them, let me know.
The Febuary 2003 issue of Nintendo Power devoted two full pages to Mario Party-e. It turns out that only 11 of the 64 cards will have e-Reader mini-games. There are several screenshots shown, and they also present the cool-looking play mat (which is not actually required to play the game). (NOTE TO BRADLEY E. MAYES: Your reply address doesn't work, but thanks for the Mario Party-e info. Next time, please state your sources, okay?)
The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine (issue 164 - page 50d) reports: "A third group of Nintendo Entertainment System classics is in the works for release on cards for the GBA e-Reader, as is a dedicated series of Game & Watch cards. The G&W cards will have one game per card (à la Manhole, which comes packed with the Reader). Look for both this spring." Personnally, considering this was printed on EGM's gossip page, I can't help being a little sceptical. I wouldn't expect G&W e-Cards to be released before next summer, at the earliest. How do I know this? Just a hunch... :-)
For those of you who might be interested, Nintendo fixed the checklist for Animal Crossing-e Series 2 on the official e-Reader web site. The PDF file was reduced from 56 megabytes to a more reasonable 1.58 megabytes. It sure took them long enough...
By the way, if you're wondering why the Pokémon-e Aquapolis e-Cards haven't been added to the e-Card Catalog yet, I just haven't had enough free time lately to do it. Rest assured I'll get around to it soon.
The news items for January 2003 have been moved to the News Archive section.
I still have some Animal Crossing-e cards to sell. Click here to see the list.

Febuary 8th 2003:

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! Today marks the beginning of the NES Game Design Contest: Enter the contest with your design specs for a small NES game, and you could win an e-Reader, or other prizes! Clicking on the "CONTEST" icon in the sidebar will lead you to the sub-page with all the rules and information you need to participate. Please be sure you understand all the rules, guidelines and details of the contest before entering, because if you don't, you may make certain mistakes that may disqualify your contest entry. Good luck to all participants! :-)
I added a new entry to Pixelboy's Diary, which relates to the contest presented above.
In addition to the seven new Animal Crossing-e Series 2 card scans which I added to the e-Card Catalog, I also made an important modification to the rarity ratings of those cards: All the e-Cards that were marked as "rare" are now marked as "uncommon". You'll find the explaination for this adjustment in the F.A.Q. section. I also added a couple of other new Q&A items, by the way.
I dropped by the PokéGym Forum section of Wizards of the Coast's official web site a few days ago, and I stumbled on this piece of news posted by one of the staff members: A new series of Pokémon e-Cards is scheduled for release next summer! Titled "Pokémon-e Skyridge", this new series will feature 182 cards. Since it appears to be official information, I added it to the Future Releases section.

Febuary 15th 2003:

I added the scans of most of the Animal Crossing-e series 2 cards to the e-Card Catalog. I'm only missing a few now, and I should get them soon, hopefully.
I was planning on adding all the cards of the Pokémon-e Aquapolis series to the catalog today, but I'm still missing the crucial data strip information. I've decided to wait a while longer instead of adding incomplete entries to the catalog. My apologies to those who are waiting for those cards to be added to the catalog, but if you want to blame someone, blame the Canadian Postal Service... :-(
A new Checklists section has been added to the site. As the label implies, it offers checklists for all the main e-Card series, in the form of plain text files you can download for your own use. You can access this new section from the sidebar.
Also, let's not forget the NES Game Design Contest! Check the Latest Contest News sub-section for some minor updates.

Febuary 23rd 2003:

Okay, I've got some good news, and some bad news: The good news is that I now have all the Pokémon-e Aquapolis e-Cards in my posession. The bad news is that I've barely begun to add them to the e-Card Catalog: I'm currently caught up in a rush at the office, so I don't have much free time to work on this web site. They will be added to the catalog next week, but until then, you can find a complete list of all the cards in the Checklists section. I also uploaded a new version of the Pokémon-e Expedition checklist, because I had forgotten to add the serial numbers in version 1.0 of that list.
I have also added the last remaining scans of Animal Crossing-e Series 2 to the catalog, so at least that part of the catalog is complete. :-)
Just in case you haven't noticed yet, Nintendo's official e-Reader site has been updated with information on the new Mario Party-e card game. I don't have the card game myself yet, but I should be able to buy it sometime this week. I'll add a "hands-on" report for this intriguing card game to Pixelboy's Diary as soon as I've had a chance to try it with some of my friends.
e-Reader owners are not the only ones waiting for e-Cards from third-party publishers: Some developers are also waiting for a chance to make them! Visit Shantae's official web site if you don't believe me! ;-)
Steve (hairston4 on the IGN forums) contacted Nintendo about what's coming next for the e-Reader. He got a reply from a Stephen Scott, a Nintendo representative who indicated that the fourth series of Animal Crossing-e cards will be released on May 5th 2003, and also that at least three new NES games (Clu Clu Land-e, Donkey Kong 3-e and Golf-e) will be released on April 21st 2003. I added this information to the Future Releases section.