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figa writes "Tim Schuerewegen announced that the Reed Solomon error correction used by the Nintendo Game Boy Advance e-Reader has been figured out. This was the last remaining obstacle to creating custom dot-code printouts for use with the GBA e-Reader (more info), which scans special Nintendo trading cards to load in mini-games on your Game Boy Advance. This should be a boon to homebrew GBA developers who want to print their own games - Schuerewegen has examples and documentation on his site, and has released a dot-code version of the homebrew BombSweeper game by SnowBro."

Thanks to Game Informer for their hands-on impressions of Super Mario Advance 4 for GameBoy Advance, as the 20th October U.S. release nears for this handheld remake of Super Mario Bros 3, which GI suggest is "...probably the best platformer of the 8-bit generation, and also the best-selling video game in the United States of all time, across any platform." The game features e-Reader compatibility, "...where you can add new levels, power-ups, and level demonstrations by scanning in e-Cards", but unfortunately, "you will need two GBA devices" to use the e-Reader capabilities properly. IGN has an enthusiastic review of the game, mentioning Nintendo "will reportedly even create [e-Reader] cards featuring levels from the original Super Mario Bros. game", and elsewhere in the Mario franchise, French site GameKult has many new screenshots from the GameCube title Mario Party 5, due out Stateside on the 11th November.

Thanks to C+VG for their report revealing that Nintendo's e-Reader device for GBA will not be released in Europe. This official confirmation from Nintendo comes after "e-Reader was [originally] confirmed for Europe back in May", and adds to the pain of European gamers still waiting for the multi-language PAL version of Animal Crossing for the GameCube, despite the fact the PAL Australian release is now announced for October, and Aussies still get the e-Reader. Why does Nintendo continue to give consumers a raw deal in Europe?