E3 2001 Raichu, Dratini, Psyduck and more!

[dromanyte]

This article is basically a sequel of Unreleased e-Reader cards?

First of all, I’d like to thank @nick15 (Webmaster of Pokémon Aaah!) for the information.
Total credits for him

This is not just a story … It’s the e-Story …

E3 2001 was an event held in Los Angeles from 17th May to 19th May 2001. In this event, the
e-Reader was presented for the first time in West under the name of “Pokémon Card-e Reader”. Along this peripheral, English e-Cards were shown to public for the first time.
Up to now, there has been register that the cards that were part of this event were only Pichu & Dratini.

These were the only images of these cards that existed (up to now)

• Left: Pichu (E3 2001)
• Right: Dratini (E3 2001)

However, Nick15 found more photos in one of his archival CDs.
The e-Cards feature a “SAMPLE” text in red colour in the right part of the artwork.
According to Nick15, images were downloaded on June 26, 2001

Pokémon Aaah! The Tweeting Account (@AaahPokemon) on X

E3 2001 Raichu

The first thing that caught my attention was the Raichu.
This is the first time more cards from E3 2001 that were not Pichu & Dratini appears.

This Raichu features artwork by Ken Sugimori (Watercolor) and a background most likely from Sozaijiten.

• Base Set Raichu (Shadowless 1st Edition)
• Pokémon Web Raichu (1st Edition)
• E3 2001 Raichu

E3 2001 Pichu & Dratini

A better quality of E3 2001 Pichu & Dratini were also found.

Pichu:

• Left: Previous image available
• Right: Image found

This Pichu is totally different from Neo Genesis (unlike what Bulbapedia indicates)

Pichu (E3 2001)

Flip a coin. If heads, put up to 2 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your hand.

• Left: Neo Genesis (1st Edition)
• Right: E3 2001

Dratini:

Mad Attack (10+)
Flip a coin, if heads this attack does 10 damage plus 10 damage for each damage counter on Dratini. If tails, this attack does nothing.

Slam (20x)
Flip 2 coins. This attack does 20 damage times the number of heads.

• Left: Previous image available
• Right: Image found

E3 2001 Pikachu

Remember the SpaceWorld 2001 Pikachu that was found on Mercari Japan last year???
Well, there was an English version that was shown along Pichu & Raichu.

• Left: SpaceWorld 2001
• Right: E3 2001

E3 2001 Psyduck and others

English versions of the SpaceWorld 2001 e-Cards were shown. Psyduck & Abra were some of the monsters that were shown in the event.

Psyduck:

• Left: SpaceWorld 2001
• Right: E3 2001

Abra:

• Left: SpaceWorld 2001
• Right: E3 2001

Rabbit Hole gets deeper

As you have surely realized, almost all images have the stamp of Pokemon Abode, a fan website created by Ryan Dumlao (PokeAbode Man).

Despite nowadays website is extinct, there are still some evidences available in the E3 2001 article written for this site.

Much to the surprise of myself, The Pokémon Card E Reader made its US debut at E3. The adapter now sports a new Pokémon logo and isn’t as large as I had envisioned. The system is relatively simple. Special TCG cards are made that have a dot-based bar code on the left and bottom of the card. When slid on the bottom, a short animation and text info is displayed about that character. However, the main appeal about the system is that when read from the left side of the card, a special game can be accessed. However, this requires certain multiple cards, since the cards only contain a mere 3,360 bytes of data, so don’t expect an RPG or anything. When a Pichu and Pikachu card are scanned, the system will load basic graphics and a game can be played. In this case it brought up a game where, playing as Pichu, you have to keep a group of 6 rising Hoppips from reaching the top of the screen. To achieve this, you have to keep pulling them down one at a time from the vines attached to them. Sounds simple, but it gets harder as the Hoppips ascend faster and faster. Of course, some games require more, with one reaching 5 cards needed. In order to tell what cards are needed to play a game, they will be listed on the cards themselves.

The games are reminiscent of the Game and Watch Gallery games. Although simplistic, the idea of using TCG cards to play games is an inventive idea. The cards will come in packs sold separately and given the past collectability of the Pokémon franchise, they will sell quickly. No firm date or price has been set for the system yet, but Nintendo should reveal more details at the upcoming Spaceworld Show in August.

The minigame mentioned in this article is “Hold Down Hoppip”. This application is available in Expedition Base Set for West … and Base Expansion Pack in Japan. (Pichu and Hoppip from these expansions are needed to have access to this application. Take in consideration that e-Reader has Region Lock, so you can’t load Japanese e-Cards on West peripheral … and viceversa)

Regarding E3 2001 e-Cards, you’d need Pichu and Pikachu (both from E3 2001)

There are more images, but all seems to be lost

Most of these images have not been saved

However, Nick15 managed to find 2 more images

Again, huge thanks to @nick15

Thank you so much!!!

Hope you have liked this article

Dr. Omanyte (Dark Magician Oma)

[hian_43]

Very cool read, thanks for putting this post together!

[milhouse]

[KantoHustle]

Thank you for sharing this, there’s still more to that mystery, this is just a sample. csi voice ‘ yeahhhhhhhhhhh’

[pwavy]

Thank you so much for posting! I had never seen these cards/pictures before. Guess I’ll add another raichu to the list of unobtainables

[joponnes]

Raichu seems to also be yet another case of this background

[dromanyte]

Background from E3 2001 Raichu might be from Sozaijiten.

Several cards have backgrounds from these CDs. For example Base Set Poliwhirl:

Render96 VGTP (@Render96VGTP) on X

Mew background is also one of these cases …
The background comes from Sozaijiten Vol. 7 - SG148 & SG009

Render96 VGTP (@Render96VGTP) on X

It’d be interesting to search the origin of the E3 2001 Raichu background … it’s a mix between SG009 and other background.

SG009 is this star pattern

It’s present in several cards

It matches E3 2001 Raichu (as mentioned previously, it’s a mix between SG009 and other background)

Credits for the info: Gareth48

[Quuador]

@milhouse

Tbf, these are just pictures discovered on an old archived CD. It’s not like the cards themselves have been found.

But cool to see. I was also only aware of those two pictures, so it’s cool to have four more pictures now, including a previously unseen Raichu!
PS: I was already aware the English Pikachu (once) existed, since it’s also shown in the Pichu image.

Greetz,
Quuador

[pikachutcg]

@dromanyte

This Raichu features artwork by Ken Sugimori (Watercolor) and a background most likely from Sozaijiten.

It definitely is! It looks like a combination of multiple Sozaijiten backgrounds, which was common for Ken Sugimori illustrations.

The star layer was re-used many times on cards like Base Set Vulpix, Neo Destiny Unown, and even much later on with Holon Phantoms Regice.

I remember finding the Regice background a few years ago in this thread:

Early Sets - From Stock Image to Pokemon Card Background

Found it! Vol.6 #SF137 “Photo of splashing waves” [image] This is super fun!

If I’m correct, the second layer also comes from the same Sozaijiten volume.

After combining the two backgrounds, this is the closest reconstruction I could come up with after a bit of tinkering in GIMP:

[Quuador]

@dromanyte

@pikachutcg

I was aware of the Vulpix, Mew, and Regice, but TIL that those four-pointed stars with light beams were also used on two different Unown cards. Thanks for sharing.

Greetz,
Quuador

[camrok37]

Fantastic article! Thanks for taking the time to gather this info!

Let it be known I’m offering my left kidney if someone finds the Psyduck card

[nick15]

Excellent article! Thanks for your hard work And you’re welcome!

BTW, the attacks for Pichu and Dratini are probably (italics are added):

Flip a coin. If heads, put up to 2 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your hand.

Flip a coin, if heads this attack does 10 damage plus 10 damage for each damage counter on Dratini. If tails, this attack does nothing.

The Raichu one will definitely need some Gill Sans forensics. I’ll see if I can work on that in the near future.

[redvogg]

Great article, thanks! And hearing about the Hold Down Hoppip minigame finally connects the dots in my head about why Pichu and Hoppip were then later chosen from Expedition Base Set (out of all the other potential cards that could have been used) to be the holepunched cards used to demonstrate the e-Reader functionality.

[dromanyte]

@nick15

BTW, the attacks for Pichu and Dratini are probably (italics are added):

Awesome!!! I added them to the article. Thank you so much as always!!!