In 2001 Nintendo released the e-Reader for its Game Boy Advance: it was a device that plugged into the cartridge slot and allowed users to read special cards that allowed you to play retro games and unlock special items for some games. While the ability to play older games on a device is nothing new, there are much better ways of doing it than having people buy packs of cards and then slowly scan each corresponding card into a reader. Yet the silliest thing about the e-Reader was that in order to unlock items for games you needed two Game Boy Advances. Because the device plugged into the cartridge slot you needed another Game Boy to plug your game into and then had to link the two portables with a special cable. It proved to be unpopular amongst consumers and was discontinued in North America, while the European launch was cancelled pretty much as soon as it launched.
