Remember those weird little e-Reader cards for the GBA? This thing was ahead of its time—you'd swipe physical trading cards through the slot to unlock mini-games, characters, or even full NES classics. I still have a stack of these tucked in my old DS case, all bent from frantic middle-school swiping.

Some cards were total duds (looking at you, Animal Crossing furniture sets), but stumbling on a rare one that unlocked something like Excitebike felt like magic. The scanner was finicky—half the time you had to swipe at just the right speed or it'd error out—but when it worked? Pure dopamine. The graphics are obviously retro now, but there's something charming about how janky some of the unlockables were.

If you ever had one of these as a kid, digging it out feels like unearthing a weird artifact. Just don't expect the cards to scan any better now than they did in 2003.