Just got back from Funcoland. My poor wallet...

[Cheebs]

5$ for 5 cards. In the cast of NES games, all 5 cards combine to make one game. In the case of random packs, you get 5 different things on 5 different cards.

[Frogacuda]

I want it!

I had been ignoring it because I though it was mostly going to be a pokemon accessory. I need me some Donkey Kong Jr action on the GBA.

[lithium]

Originally posted by Chibi Nappa
There are strips of dots printed along the top and bottom edges of the cards. Really tiny dots. You have to strain to see them individually. Those dots apparently mean something to the reader. It's actuall game data.

All you need is a system capable of conveying either a 1 or a 0. Either a section of the card is punched out or it's not. Same exact concept for CDs, harddrives, every form of digital storage.

How much is the e-reader?

Damn...e-reader or animal crossing or castlevania or food or... this sucks,

[Cheebs]

The reader was about $40. Yeah, I know all you need is a system of 1's and zeros, it's just weird to see all of the 1s and zeros of an NES game in it's entirity printed out in front of you on tiny cards.

[Grenouille]

The e-reader is awesome. I got all 5 of the currently released NES games at good ol' walmart yesterday. Dk jr, excitebike, pinball, tennis, and balloon fight. It also came with a sample pack of 5 cards including pokemon, animal crossing and a game in watch game. I noticed the blockiness of pinball, but it plays just like NES version, and from what I could tell of the other games, they seem to be perfect emulations. I can't wait for them to release the next batch of NES games since I couldn't care less about pokemon, but this put me in classic gaming heaven at work last night.

The only probablem I had with it was that scanning 9 or 10 dot codes got a bit tedious every time i wanted to play a different game. It's a bit picky on how you scan, and if you go to fast, it gives you an error. But you can save one game to memory, so as long as you only want to play one game for a length of time, you only have to scan it once, too bad it can't save all 5 games, but still well worth the $40. $5 a game, you can't be that.

[bbobb]

Grenouille... I just want to pop in here real quick and let you know that your avatar rocks.

[Dolemite]

Nice! Thanks for the info, Chibi!

[Despair]

I wanted to get GunGrave, but GameSpot was selling it for $55, Damn, overcharging bastards.

Since I'm not totally sure about this game, I will rent it instead, or look for it on Ebay.

[SearchManX]

Can you choose what NES game you want when you buy the 5 pack cards? So for the NES packs, $5 = 1 game not 5 games right? But for the random packs, $5 = 5 different games/cards?

I'm gonna be poor this weekend... I'll have to hold off on playing Animal Crossing... I'm just getting Castlevania since it's on sale this week...

[lithium]

Yeah, I don't like the 10 swipes per NES idea either. If they had used a magnetic strip they probably could get one game per card. But then that screws up their selling structure. Do they then just sell packs with one card in them? Pack of 5 for $25? Pack of 5 with one NES game and 4 random non-NES cards for $10? Not to mention magnetic strips would have been expensive and wasteful for the other stuff.

What about future, bigger games? Like SMB3 or something like that? 20 card swipes? 30? That'll probably mean nothing too substantial will ever be released for the e-reader.

Hopefully there's a boatload of games locked away in Animal Crossing, and they can release card "keys". But then they run the risk of a gameshark hacking in and getting everything prematurely.