Ingenious Developer Fits Entire Solitaire Game on One Nintendo GBA e-Reader Card

In a fascinating blend of nostalgia and innovation, indie developer Matt Greer has achieved an incredible feat by cramming an entire game of Solitaire onto a single custom Nintendo e-Reader card. Showcased both in his blog and a YouTube video, this impressive accomplishment fits into two “dotstrips” containing a total of 4.3 kilobytes of data.

For those who might not recall, the Nintendo e-Reader was a gadget that made its debut for the Game Boy Advance in Japan in December 2001 and later in the U.S. in September 2002. It allowed users to scan cards to load full games or add-ons for existing GBA titles—quite a novelty at the time, boasting an 8MB storage capacity. While some classic NES games needed as many as 10 cards, with a potential to use up to 12, certain extras, like bonus levels for Super Mario Advance 4, required just one.

Greer’s blog offers a treasure trove of insights into the making of this Solitaire game, which thrives under the constraints of the Game Boy Advance’s technical limitations. Homebrew games for the GBA already occupy a niche space, but creating one on a single e-Reader card takes it to an entirely different level.

According to Greer’s post, the e-Reader can handle loading NES games, raw binaries, and even Zilog Z80 binaries. The Z80 assembly’s small footprint was a significant advantage for Greer. Moreover, developers using the e-Reader can leverage an API that simplifies many routine tasks, saving precious space by avoiding redundant code in the card’s dotstrips.

Greer points out some challenges—such as the inaccurate Z80 emulator within the e-Reader that operates with a limited set of opcodes and registers. Despite these hurdles, he managed to produce a full-fledged Solitaire game, complete with customizable music, using just two dotstrips and meeting the tight constraint of 4,384 bytes. It’s truly remarkable what has been crafted by a home developer, considering how short-lived the e-Reader cards were and how this quirky piece of gaming history has largely faded into obscurity.

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