October 7th 2002
Dear Diary...
Well, it's finally finished. I spent almost a week working feverishly on this
darn web site, and now I can finally breathe a little easier. It's not over
though. I've still got 125 Pokémon e-Cards coming by snail mail within
the next few weeks, and I'll have to do catalog entries for each one of them.
It will take days just to scan them all, but it'll be worth it. At least,
I'll be able to try all those Pokémon mini-games with my e-Reader.
I wanted to do a nice animated sidebar using Flash, but I didn't have enough
time to do it, mainly because I've never used Flash before. A collegue of mine
at the office gave me a quick demonstration of his Flash development software,
and he made an animated button for me in about 30 minutes, but his
demonstration only proved to me that it would take me weeks to learn to
program my sidebar display using Flash, and I needed to get this site up and
running as soon as possible. So I went with good ol' HTML. Perhaps I'll get
around to doing the Flash version later. Or perhaps someone else could do
it for me...
So, anyway, do you like my site? I think it looks okay. As you can see from
the various icons and pictures, I'm not very good with colors. I never learned
how to do use paint programs like Paint Shop Pro to do those gorgeous pictures
you can find on many other web sites. But at least the content is there.
That's the important thing, for me at least. And hey, you'll notice there are
no publicity banners! That's good, isn't it? :-)
So what's with my sudden interest with Nintendo's e-Reader, you ask? It's not
exactly sudden. I've had my eye on this cool device ever since Nintendo
presented it at E3 2002. When it was finally released on September 16th 2002,
I wasn't sure if I was going to buy one, but after a couple of weeks, I gave
into temptation and I bought it, along with all the NES-e packs.
Strangely enough, what I like the most about the e-Reader is the stuff we
haven't even seen yet. The e-Card medium can be used in so many cool ways, it
offers so many possibilities... I can only hope Nintendo will allow this
device to achieve its full potential as a gaming platform.
I disagree with those who say the e-Reader should have been a distinct Link
Cable peripheral instead of a cartridge-type device. As it is, it's very
light and portable, and I like it that way. But why did they have to make
it black? Couldn't they make variations of it with colors that match
the GBA casing colors? Oh well... At least it doesn't require its own set
of batteries. That's a big plus in my book.
Some people are actually surprised to learn that the US model of the e-Reader
is actually more advanced than the japanese model. I think the north-american
gaming market is only a testing ground. If it sells well and generates enough
interest here, Nintendo will probably reintroduce the US model in Japan.
After all, I'm sure japanese gamers would want to connect their e-Readers with
their Game Cubes, and also to play NES games on their GBAs. Mark my words: The
US model of the e-Reader will not stay a US-only device for very long...
I've got quite a few ideas for possible e-Reader applications, and I'll be
discussing these ideas, in this section of my web site, over the next few
weeks. I will also discuss other issues related to the e-Reader.
Bye for now! ;-)