MAY 2003

May 1st 2003:

Just when I thought no one would participate, I received three last-minute entries for the NES Game Design Contest! Head on over to the latest entry in Pixelboy's Diary to see these contest entries, and to see who won which prize!
All the cards of NES-e Series 3 have been added to the e-Card Catalog, pictures included!
You can now find the Pokémon-e Skyridge checklist on the official web site of Wizards of the Coast. As a result, I added my own "beta version" of the checklist in the Checklists section (minus the holo cards, as usual).
I also added a small checklist for the NES-e series in the Checklists section.
The news items for April have been moved to the News Archive section.
Some good news for japanese gamers: Nintendo has officially announced that the US model of the e-Reader will be released in Japan on June 27th. Labelled as the "e-Reader +", it will be sold as a stand-alone product, and will also be bundled with an updated version of Animal Forest (the japanese version of Animal Crossing). You can read more about it by following this link to a recent Pocket IGN article, or this link to a recent SPOnG.com article.
If you're one of the lucky people who will be attending E3 in person this year in Los Angeles, can you please pick up some promo e-Cards for me, if any are given away at the show? I would very much appreciate it. :-)

May 4th 2003:

You will find an exclusive promotional Mario Party-e card packed with the latest issue of GamePro magazine. This special bonus card, that counts as two "Coin" cards, is not found in the basic deck of 64 cards. Be warned however that this card does not have any data strip compatible with the e-Reader.

May 17th 2003:

Well, E3 has come and gone, and I'd say it was one of the best ever! On the e-Reader front, there were a few news items worthy of notice:
- Super Mario Advance 4, which is the long-awaited GBA port of Super Mario Bros 3, contains secret levels and features that will be unlocked by special e-Cards, pretty much like it's done with the Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire GBA games. (Click here to access the Pocket IGN article on the subject).
- The Game & Watch series of e-Cards were finally announced (click here for a recent Pocket IGN article), although no release date or price were given. Well, at least we know there will be over 25 games in the series, including such classics as Vermin, Octopus and Fire. :-)
- As expected, there were some promotional e-Cards given away on the show floor. This year, it was the "Eon Ticket" promotional e-Card, which is designed to be used with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. I'll add it to the e-Card Catalog as soon as I get my grubby hands on one.
I added the SMA4 and Game & Watch series to the Future Releases section.
I added a preliminary checklist for the Animal Crossing-e Series 4 cards to the Checklists section. If you can help fill in the gaps, please contact me ASAP. So far, there doesn't seem to be any e-Card that unlocks Zelda, Punch Out!! or Super Mario Bros in this fourth series, which may mean that Nintendo will release universal codes to access those games in Animal Crossing (but please don't quote me on that, it's just a supposition).
I also added a couple of Pokémon-related links to the Links section. There's not much to see on those sites yet, but that's bound to change real soon.

May 24th 2003:

I've got lots of stuff for you today, my loyal visitors! First of all, the promotional "Eon Ticket" E3 e-Card has been added to the e-Card Catalog. Special thanks go to Aztec and Chakoo for sending me an exemplary of the card! :-)
All the cards of Pokémon-e Skyridge have also been added to the e-Card Catalog. The card scans will be added shortly.
The final version of the checklist for Pokémon-e Skyridge has been added to the Checklists section.
A new entry has been added to Pixelboy's Diary, and this one wasn't actually written by me! Intrigued? Go read it now!
Nintendo's official e-Reader site now sports a brand new look, and it also offers information about Animal Crossing-e Series 4, including a PDF checklist which is strangely incomplete. You will also find checklists for the Pokémon-e Expedition, Pokémon-e Aquapolis, and NES-e series.
The June issue of Nintendo Power magazine (volume 169, page 96) gives us the official release date for Pokémon-e TGC EX - Ruby & Sapphire: June 18th 2003. The Future Releases section has been updated with this little piece of news.
You can see some pictures of the next series of Pokémon-e cards at the Pokémon Labs web site (and you can also see these same pictures in the June issue of Nintendo Power). Notice that these cards will only have short data strips on their bottom edge, which means these cards will not carry any mini-games or special e-Reader applications, such as those in the three previous series. Regretful, but somewhat expected...
During the past week, I've been uploading new versions of the Animal Crossing-e Series 4 checklist in the Checklists section on an almost daily basis. As I'm writting this, I'm only missing a few items in the "send item" column, so if you have any data to submit, feel free to contact me. Also, keep in mind that there may be many inaccuracies among the rarity ratings.

May 27th 2003:

Those of you who didn't get the chance to get an "Eon Ticket" e-Card at E3 will get a second chance this coming week-end: On May 31st and June 1st, you will be able to get a free "Eon Ticket" e-Card at the Pokémon Center in New York City. Click here for the official announcement.