I'm making new games for the E-Reader

[city41]

Hey everyone, I'm pretty new around here. I've taken on a project of creating new E-Reader cards, so I thought I'd start a thread as a few people have shown some interest.

It all started with making Solitaire (thread in user submitted news on that here)



And from there I've been plugging away making even more games.



and a really challenging one that I'm having a blast making



The first series of card is detailed here: https://www.retrodotcards.com/series-one

If you want a Solitaire card to try on your GBA, you can get one here for free: https://www.retrodotcards.com/series-one/solitaire/order

 

[SylverReZ]

I think this thread deserves a positive comment, as nobody has spoken on here yet.

Love the progress that you're aiming for so far.

 

[Sicklyboy]

This is so cool! I feel like this is more love than the e-reader got when it was still being sold can't wait to see what else you have in store for this thing!

 

[LoggerMan]

Y'all have the most interesting hobbies on here.

 

[city41]

This is so cool! I feel like this is more love than the e-reader got when it was still being sold

Thanks! That's a nice compliment. I always felt Nintendo could have done more with it. I never imagined 20 years later I'd try to fill that gap myself, but here we are

 

[Deleted member 702243]

Thanks! That's a nice compliment. I always felt Nintendo could have done more with it. I never imagined 20 years later I'd try to fill that gap myself, but here we are

for sure, fill that gap on the ereader with a bunch of brand new cards

 

[city41]

E-Reader games can be made in three ways

Native GBA games. After the data is read from the card, the GBA runs them just like a cartridge. You get full access to the hardware and the best performance. The disadvantage is they tend to be larger and so end up needing more cards/swipes.

NES games. The E-Reader has a simple NES emulator for simple NES games.

z80 games. The E-Reader also has a z80 emulator. The z80 is an old 8-bit processor. The original Game Boy's processor was similar to a z80. The main advantage is these tend to be small, requiring fewer cards/swipes. But z80 games can really suffer in the performance department.

I am making Exo Attack as a z80 game. It's proving really challenging to keep the performance in check. But I think I can do it, and I think it will be pretty cool when it's done.

A little intro before playing



And the power up system is coming along nicely (more work to be done here)

 

[SylverReZ]

So interested into trying out your projects. I went ahead and ordered an e-Reader off eBay which should be coming next month.

Yes.. it's an imported model from Japan.

 

[Scarlet]

So interested into trying out your projects. I went ahead and ordered an e-Reader off eBay which should be coming next month.

Yes.. it's an imported model from Japan.

The Japanese models are so cheap. I ended up needing to get a US one and it's like triple the price for no good reason lol.

Super cool thread either way, looking forward to seeing what comes next!

 

[SylverReZ]

The Japanese models are so cheap. I ended up needing to get a US one and it's like triple the price for no good reason lol.

They're a lot more affordable to import over here since there are no taxes applied to Japan imports AFAIK.

 

[Scarlet]

They're a lot more affordable to import over here since there are no taxes applied to Japan imports AFAIK.

I got mine from a guy in the UK on eBay at least, so no taxes lol, just the annoyance of the US model being the rarer one I guess?

 

[kijetesantakalu042]

This is the most cool thing ever.

 

[SylverReZ]

I got mine from a guy in the UK on eBay at least, so no taxes lol, just the annoyance of the US model being the rarer one I guess?

US model has the same hardware as the Card e-Reader Plus released after the first revision debuted in Japan, this was the only one we've got in the West.

 

[Scarlet]

US model is the same as the Card e-Reader Plus, this was the only one we've got in the West.

Interesting. Googling told me that Japanese cards would only work on a Japanese reader, and US cards on a US one, with a region error popping up if there was a mismatch. Is that not the case?

 

[SylverReZ]

Interesting, Googling told me that Japanese cards would only work on a Japanese reader, and US cards on a US one, with a region error popping up if there was a mismatch. Is that not the case?

The e-Reader supports any GBA from any region since the console does not utilize region locking. The data stored on the cards, however, are region locked. So, for example, a Japanese card would work with the Card e-Reader+, and a US card would work with the e-Reader, but they're not inter-changeable with one another. Not sure if there might be a way to convert them, but since they have been reverse engineered for over a decade now, it shouldn't be too impossible.

If anybody wants to correct me on that, please do.

 

[kijetesantakalu042]

I didn't even know you could play games off of eReader.

 

[Scarlet]

The e-Reader supports any GBA from any region since the console does not utilize region locking. The data stored on the cards, however, are region locked. So, for example, a Japanese card would work with the Card e-Reader+, and a US card would work with the e-Reader, but they're not inter-changeable with one another. Not sure if there might be a way to convert them, but since they have been reverse engineered for over a decade now, it shouldn't be too impossible.

Yeah that's pretty much what I read, and is why I needed a US model lol. Sure I can go out of my way to print off custom cards, but it's not quite the authentic experience...

 

[JaNDeRPeiCH]

Cool project.

I dont mind someone do e-reader game for digimon tamers.

That anime with the e-reader in their age prime will sell a lot and print infinite money. Too much potential wasted.

Another wasted potential for the e-reader have the yugi-oh anime.Sure we have the gba games but.. nothing compares to have your shiny e-card an use it to play it in the e-reader accesory from nintendo

Kudos for someone making games in this 2024 for the e-reader.

 

[SylverReZ]

I didn't even know you could play games off of eReader.

Well, the capacity that these cards hold are very little. You cannot use this device as an alternative flashcard, but you can however run homebrew.

 

[kijetesantakalu042]

Well, the capacity that these cards hold are very little. You cannot use this device as an alternative flashcard, but you can however run homebrew.

I didn't know anything could run off of it. i thought it only worked for scanning in characters and stuff in games like animal crossing,