Thread by @kelslewin

With expensive Nintendo stuff in the news lately, I wanted to share a very special but totally unassuming accessory in my collection.

Let me introduce you to one of the rarest official Nintendo accessories of all time: the Nintendo GameCube SD Card Adapter!

But first let me take you back to the year 2000, where Nintendo showed off the GameCube publicly for the very first time at that year’s Space World.
Press releases stated there would be two options for memory storage — 4MB memory cards, or 64MB SD Card Adapter cards.

The SD card adapter showed up again in 2001 at CES — things were looking good!
But then Nintendo just kinda stopped talking about it. When the GameCube was released later that year, there was no longer any mention of the SD card adapter.

Eventually in 2003, it limped back into the world through Nintendo’s Japanese online store, where it could be purchased for 1500¥, or 3000¥ with an accompanying 16MB SD card.

But wait! It was actually an entirely new product than originally advertised! It’s not a memory card.

Instead, the SD card adapter worked with exactly two games. Doubutsu no Mori e+ (the third iteration of the original Animal Crossing in Japan), and Pokemon Channel.

In Animal Crossing, you could take screen shots and make a copy of your town’s data. SD cards work with PCs, so this meant you could actually upload your town’s data online! You could share your town with someone faraway — if they also had an SD card adapter.

In Pokemon Channel, it was pretty much just used for printing the game’s coloring pages. Not super exciting.

As you can imagine, an accessory sold exclusively online, exclusively in Japan, and that worked exclusively with just two games (one of which was the THIRD VERSION of the SAME GAME)...did not do very well. In fact, it’s rare that one of these pops up for sale at ALL in Japan.

I had a search alert on for one of these for a year before there was a single one listed for sale. A lot of people have never even heard of it. But I’m fascinated by how it brought a slice of primitive internet connectivity to the world of Animal Crossing years before the DS

(And actually, I was inspired to write this thread because I got a search alert that there *is* another one for sale now. If you feel so inclined...)
page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g39…