MARCH 2003

March 2nd 2003:

Alright, it's FINALLY done: All the Pokémon-e Aquapolis cards have been added to the e-Card Catalog... with pictures!! All the Mario Party-e cards have also been added, and they are all pictured as well! Now wasn't that worth the wait? :-)
Woodstock20000 - on the IGN forum - has created a new web site called the Mario Party-e Zone (how very original... ;-P ) which is devoted to Nintendo's new card game. The site still needs work, but it looks nice. I added this site to the Links section.
The next Pokémon games on GBA (Ruby and Sapphire) will offer an e-Reader feature! Each game will come with a special e-Card, and players will need two GBAs (one equiped with the e-Reader and the other equiped with the Pokémon game) and a GBA-to-GBA Link Cable to use the cards. You can read all about it by following this link to a recent Pocket IGN article.
It seems the next series of Pokémon e-Cards, Pokémon-e Skyridge, will come a little earlier than I had thought: It is scheduled for release in early May 2003.
Still on the subject of Pokémon e-Cards, those who buy the DVD or VHS version of the Pokémon 4-Ever movie (due on March 18th) will get a special promotional Suicune e-Card! The news was announced on page 9 of the latest issue of Nintendo Power (volume 166).
The news items for Febuary 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.

March 9th 2003:

Well, it's been a pretty slow week, but after all the work I've done on this site over the last month, I'm certainly not complaining. Anyway, I added my hands-on report for the Mario-Party-e card game to Pixelboy's Diary.

March 15th 2003:

Version 0.8 of the checklist for Animal Crossing-e Series 3 has been added to the Checklists section. Hopefully, the "scan item" column of this list will be completed by next week. If you can help with the rarity ratings, please contact me.
Still on the subject of AC series 3, Nintendo's official e-Reader site has been updated with information about this new series, along with the usual PDF checklist. Go check it out!
A new entry has been added to Pixelboy Diary, which presents a brand new take on a classic boardgame... ;-)

March 22nd 2003:

Three new e-Cards have been added to the e-Card Catalog, namely the "Suicune (53)" promo card, and the two Pokémon Battle-e cards. Special thanks go to TheJerkle for scanning the Battle-e cards for me.
Thanks to Amani Thomas, nnumber6 and TheJerkle, the checklist for Animal Crossing-e Series 3 has been upgraded to version 1.0! All the "scan items" are now listed, but keep in mind that the rarity ratings are preliminary and may contain many inaccuracies. Contact me if you have any comments related to these rarity ratings.
Nintendo updated the official e-Reader site with information about the Pokémon Battle-e cards. According to the site, more Battle-e cards are coming soon!
Thanks to Mike Rafeld, I've been able to establish with absolute certainty that you always get the same items when you send the passwords printed on Animal Crossing-e Character cards to any character in the Animal Crossing game on Game Cube (except for the character on the card, who gives you an NES game). As a result, I added a new "Send Item" column to the checklists of Animal Crossing-e Series 1 & 2! You will find these updated checklists in the Checklists section.
Still on the subject of Animal Crossing, I've been asked several times how I determine the rarity ratings for the e-Cards of those series. I added a Q&A to the F.A.Q. section to provide a definitive answer.
In other news, Pokémon-e Skyridge will be the last series of Pokémon e-Cards distributed by Wizards of the Coast. Nintendo has created a new in-house division that will handle the next series of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. You can read more about it by following this link to a recent Pocket IGN article.
Last but certainly not least, I added a new entry to Pixelboy's Diary, which partially answers the question of third-party support for the e-Reader. A friendly warning: You might find this text a little depressing...

March 28th 2003:

All the cards of Animal Crossing-e Series 3 have been added to the e-Card Catalog. No pictures yet, but rest assured this is temporary. You will notice that the "send items" are marked as "undertermined" in the notes. Any help to complete these entries would be appreciated. :-)
I also updated the "send item" information for AC-e Series 1 and 2 in the catalog.
A new entry has also been added to Pixelboy's Diary. This one is all about the GBA-to-GBA Link Cable...
Last week, I reported that Nintendo has created a new in-house division for the development of the next Pokémon-e series of trading cards. Yesterday, I noticed that the japanese version of the latest Pokémon cards ("Pokémon ADV") do not have any e-Reader data strips! It's my theory that Nintendo's new e-Reader division will add data strips to the US version of these cards, and they will be designed specifically for use with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, just like the Gentleman Nils and Lady Astrid Battle-e cards packed with the games. Time will tell if I'm correct! ;-)
By the way, based on the checklist available on Nintendo's japanese web site, I made a quick estimate of what the fourth series of Animal Crossing-e cards should contain: 76 Character cards, 1 Sibbling card, 3 Town Tune cards, and up to 6 Game cards. There might also be some new Design cards, and of course, the special cards that will unlock the highly sought-after NES games, namely Mario Bros, Punch Out!!, and the Legend of Zelda (as reported in the April (#167) issue of Nintendo Power magazine)!
Another quick note: The NES Game Design Contest will end in about a month! No one has sent in any contest entries yet! Come on people, don't disappoint me!
I may be unable to reply to my e-mail between March 31st and April 3rd 2003, because I'll will be reinstalling Windows on my PC during this time. Hopefully, everything will go well.