I made a tweak to Smaghetti, my Super Mario Advance 4 level editor. It is now much easier to convert Smaghetti levels into e-reader cards. With a level loaded in the editor, click the beaker in the lower right. In the modal that pops up, click "Download level as .bin".

The proof cards are interesting. They coated the entire card instead of just where the artwork is. This led to very glossy and very plastic cards. They've grown on me and I actually really like them. But only about half the cards scan due to the coating. So we're going to run another proof.

I randomly decided to try mgba's gdb integration on an e-reader game and ... it works? What sorcery is this? This is for a native arm game, and apparently the debug symbols do just line up out of the box and mgba/gdb/vscode think I'm debugging a normal gba game. So this is very cool :O

I'll have the proofs for the Pixel Pup cards tomorrow. This is going to be a long 24 hours :)

Good to see series one is still surprising people :)

The first hurdle to making a top down racer for the GBA e-reader is large, scrolling backgrounds for the tracks. The GBA can have backgrounds up to 128x128 tiles, each tile is 8x8 pixels, for a max of 1024x1024px.

Oh that's awesome. I didn't know that.

The NES has a resolution of 256x240px, and the GBA's is 240x160. So when playing NES games via the e-Reader, they had to remove lines and truncate the sides a bit. It's just murder on Pinball. Look at those flippers! Then look at everything else, virtually nothing was spared the wrath.

I'm dreaming of a top down racer for the e-reader. Scan in a track card to race it, and scan in upgrade cards to improve your ride 😍

Hi everybody. My name's Matt and I'm an addict. (I then got it for my phone and I have put more hours onto that than I care to admit) Wouldn't a Balatro e-reader game be awesome? Here's what that might look like: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhmx...

I'm currently in talks with the printer to get these bad boys made. I even squeezed in a little Easter egg for my Series One homies. #gamedev #indiedev #videogamesonpaper

Happy #PortfolioDay! I'm objet discret, the creator of Taiyaki Fabulous Museum of Fish (objetdiscret.itch.io/tai-fab-museum) and the forthcoming #TaiFab Test Kitchen. I'm passionate about #PixelArt (especially #1bit), #emotes and #emoji, #nonogram design, #homebrew, and #IndieDev. I love to collab!

This e-reader song has an intro that only plays once. When the song loops it doesn't play the intro again. So far this is the only song I've found that does this. This suggests the audio capabilities of the e-reader are slightly more sophisticated than I thought.

So awesome to have a Taiyaki Fabulous puzzle pack as part of Pixel Pup. This pack was made by @objetdiscret.itch.io and features well designed puzzles with awesome pixel art! This is a double puzzle pack totaling 36 puzzles across two cards.

I'll be at Ann Arbor Gamefest on March 22nd, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'll be demoing e-reader stuff, giving away free cards, and selling cards. If you're in the area, stop on by!

Pixel Pup is done! Just one last pass to make sure all the t's are dotted and the i's are crossed, then it will head to the printer. Unless something cataclysmic happens, the March release date seems all but certain.

I know I usually post pixel art here, but I drew Chad from #TaiFab recently. 😄 This is part of a #nonogram project I'm collaborating on with the awesome @retrodotcards.com ✨ Folks often ask what software I use. I drew this (and my pixel art) with getpaint.net #DigitalArt #illustration #squid

Pixel Pup ended up with 102 puzzles across five themes. It will all be on four cards, front and back (data strips on both sides of every card).

It's too bad I have to censor screenshots like this, because I'm super happy with how this game is finishing up and I want to share. It all ended up being so ... comfy. This is @objetdiscret.itch.io's puzzle btw, and their fish.

Having a little fun with the new API (better with sound)

@fexcollects.standingintheodds.com found a new ERAPI function, SetTextSpacing. This allows increasing the spacing between characters, lines, or both, of a run of text. Thanks Fex! ereader.miraheze.org/wiki/ERAPI-Z...

Here's a stream of the Pixel Pup beta being played. Thanks for helping test the game, @djtatsujin.bsky.social www.twitch.tv/videos/26365...

✨🌟 2025 #PixelArt Review 🌟✨ 🎮 Released #TaiFab Plus on Itch (objetdiscret.itch.io) and Playtiles (get.playtil.es/?coupon=OBJETDISCRET) 🖥️ Developed TaiFab Test Kitchen (coming 2026!) 🎨 Drew art for #MAGFest #Swadge 🧩 Created Pixel Pup puzzles with @retrodotcards.com 👾 Reached 500 #Pixel_Dailies

Fun with e-Readers on a lazy Sunday

Pixel Pup is changing: delaying the release until March, adding a new puzzle pack made by @objetdiscret.itch.io and more. Check out the details here: www.retrodotcards.com/pixel-pup/ch...

Hoo, you could drive a bus through that kerning. It's just a nice reminder with physical things, you only get one chance 🤞

Great video! Thanks for testing the game out, and glad you got it to scan 😬

She's about to play Doom on the e-reader.

I got the test run back. Great news, the cards scan very well! ❤️ Less great news, the printer is decommission the press that the Series One cards were printed on and these test cards were printed on their new press.

An idea I've had is releasing these e-reader games for modern mobile devices using QR codes. One e-reader data strip and one QR code hold almost exactly the same amount of data. I think it'd be fun to build and fun to use, physical cards just hit different. But I dunno...

Awesome. Just about all testers managed to get the game working, woohoo! And one did find a bug too, so all in all a pretty successful beta. And your cat looks like our Lucy ❤️

Pixel Pup's release is now up in the air due to an unexpected manufacturing issue. The printing press that was used to make the very scannable Series One cards was also used to create the PP beta cards. But the beta cards don't scan well.

Thanks everyone, I have filled all the beta tester slots now.

Pixel Pup's release is now up in the air due to an unexpected manufacturing issue. The printing press that was used to make the very scannable Series One cards was also used to create the PP beta cards. But the beta cards don't scan well.

I'm looking for people who want to help test Pixel Pup, an upcoming nonogram (aka picross) game for the GBA e-Reader. I have 10 sets of cards that I will send out to testers. If interested, please read the details here www.retrodotcards.com/pixel-pup/beta #gamedev #indiedev

Finally building a better intro/instructions screen for Dizzy Sheep Disaster: Ex! It used to be dense text. That text now lives on the e-reader cards! Demo next week? #gamedev #homebrew

9 Analogue Pocket Extenders are left in the shop. Probably my last batch for the year. ko-fi.com/s/285cf729a2

Hi everyone. My name is Matt, and ... I have an e-Reader problem. (I'm not even sure that's all of them, they tend to just appear around this house...)

I've been mulling over in the back of my head my next game, and I'm considering a top down racer. A racing game for the e-reader, have I truly gone insane?

The test is going well for people who managed to get working cards. I've received some good feedback that I've already incorporated into the game so the final release will be even better. Thanks Hunter and all the beta testers!

Woohoo, good to see some beta testers got their cards and got them working. Thanks for the compliments! Most beta testers are still waiting for their cards due to technical difficulties. I am hoping to hear more on a solution to that problem this week, stay tuned.

A new blog post that goes over how Pixel Pup's puzzle pack cards work. www.mattgreer.dev/blog/hacking...

Something tells me this eBay description was written by ai "The Nintendo GameBoy Advance GBA e-Reader (AGB-014) is an authentic and tested unit that allows you to read electronic books on your Nintendo Game Boy Advance console..."

www.retrodotcards.com has now been Pixel Pupped (yes, that's a verb)

DGR's latest video is on the Super Mario Advance 4 e-Reader levels. (Don't mind the click baity title...) www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0XQ...

The Solitaire card shipped with an error on it 🤦 It's a very subtle error. But if you like "spot the sniper", here's one for you. hint: it was a "royal" mistake

The first Pixel Pup release will have four themed puzzle packs. Here is the third one, DIY. These images make it look like there will be 4 puzzle pack cards, but in reality, there will most likely be 2 puzzle pack cards. I'm shooting for about 80 puzzles total.

Is your e-Reader label ... bubbly? It's probably just the plastic protective layer. I have found almost no e-Reader owner took theirs off.

Thanks for all the help everyone! We now have enough testers.