If you grew up in the 80-90s, chances are you were once super hyped with handheld game consoles like Gameboy, Gamegear to name a few. In those days, you might have heard of a console called Barcode Battler II (or just “Barcode Battler”) since it was also positioned alongside. Sadly, Barcode Battler faded in about 3 years. Let’s look at what it is, the good and bad, and a few reasons why it never gained the popularity it should have outside of Japan.

Barcode Battler was a bold innovation of it’s time, featuring real life product barcodes deciphering as warriors & power ups – But only in digits & was sloppily positioned with handheld game consoles

To provide some details for clarity, the information of Barcode Battler on the internet was limited and was mainly on the international release by Irwin Toy Ltd. (North America) and Tomy UK. Ltd. (Europe). Also, Barcode Battler as most people in the international market came to know, is actually Barcode Battler II (2nd version) of the Japanese version by the maker Epoch. A detailed table of the versions are tallied for your reference at a section below.

This article will review Barcode Battler II and talk about the product journey of the Barcode Battler. The photos and references are of Barcode Battler II Japanese release since it was the most updated, final standalone version released. Furthermore, in order to not make this article complicated, the finer details of the other releases like add-on modules & connectors are not included here.

Name	Barcode Battler II
Type	Handheld battle game console
Versions	Barcode Battler II (Japanese original version), Barcode Battler (North America) & Barcode Battler (EU) Barcode Battler I (Japanese)
Add-on Modules	Barcode Battler II2 C0, Barcode Battler II2 C2 (Both must be attached to Barcode Battler II to operate)*
Years	Barcode Battler I – 1991-1992 Barcode Battler II – 1992-1995
Manufacturer/ Distributors	Epoch Co. Ltd. (Japan manufacturer), Erwin Toy Ltd. (North America distributor), Tomy UK. Ltd. & Giochi Preziosi (EU distributor).
Platform	N/A
No. of Players	1-2*
Batteries	4 AA sized batteries

* 1-4 players if you use an add-on Barcode Battler II² C0 or Barcode Battler II² C2

What is Barcode Battler?

Barcode Battler was a handheld battle game console first released in Japan by the company Epoch in 1991 (Barcode Battler I, White). The console was a pioneer and there were nothing like it at launch. It was locally well received and became instantly popular in Japan. In which the 2nd version, Barcode Battler II was released worldwide during 1992/1993 (It was called Barcode Battler instead of Barcode Battler II for the international version). At that time, it was positioned alongside with Gameboy and GameGear. Later on, in Japan, there were add on modules and abilities to connect with consoles like Super FamilyCom, and even there was an arcade game in it’s final year.

Barcode Battler reads barcodes by swiping the barcode cards on the machine and deciphering it into a digital warrior or power up. The key stats were Energy (Health Points), Attack and Defence. You then fight either an imaginary AI enemy, or a real opponent by hitting the attack button or recharge button. There were several modes to it but essentially, they were just digits on the screen and lacks any interesting graphics.

Which comes to the next point, why was it so popular in Japan but not otherwise?

The Japanese culture shock for most people outside of Japan – Why are there just digits on the LCD?

It is understandable that most people think the product itself is lacking in terms of gameplay and graphics. But that wasn’t the case in Japan. The fact is Japan has a lot of similar battle systems build somewhat like the Barcode Battler in their days (I will write about them later). And this design of just a LCD with digits (and occasionally some graphics or dot-matrix characters) was commonly accepted.

Although the LCD display element seems lacking, but the total package provided support with really nice anime arts, instruction manuals, booklets, cards, game tokens with stickers and even with finely sculptured figures. And not to say, many of them are of really deep IP (intellectual property). Think of this as a special genre of game, like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) where it is a boardgame with tokens, characters and booklets. And then playing Super Mario is a console game thing. The point is, you really can’t compare apple to oranges as they are different things completely.

The below is a page from the Barcode Battler II Instruction Booklet. It serves as a guide to go alongside with the digits on the screen.

Popularity and the eventual failure

The idea of searching and gathering your own power is always something intriguing. We love it as a kid and gotta catch em all in Pokémon. We enjoyed purchasing figures and play games and have our own special collection of powers. That’s always the case. The Barcode Battler gained the attention and popularity comparable to the Gameboy and GameGears at the time. And it fostered imitators by other competitors like Bandai and Namco, both positioned as similar competitor consoles and as a video game add on.

However, as the core of the game mechanic revolves around the barcode search and find mechanics. Like, you cut off barcodes from products of real life. However, the barcode itself then can be easily printed/ copied/ shared. And even more so, after a few years there are a lot of fake barcodes circulating around and also barcode printers. Which as we know, caused backlash because the game of barcode discovery (power discovery) becomes broken and unfair. Then, a player may just take the best barcode fighter and print it off and use it. There is never any mechanics to protect players who does the hard work to search for their unique barcodes. It eventually lost it’s magic and faded out. Think of it as if you play an online game, and how much you feel disappointed when you found out it is pay-to-win.

So I believe it wasn’t mainly because of the LCD display which failed to address players with attractive graphics. It was a core game system integrity that failed to addressed by the maker. And this rule apply to then and now – That no one likes an unfair game system.

Barcode Battler II gameplay

There are three default game modes for Barcode Battler II, they are C0, C1 & C2 modes. Once you turn on Barcode Battler II, the first thing it asks you is to select the game mode. The following is a list of the modes.

Official Modes:

C0 Mode – Duel Mode (Player VS Player – 2 players)

The players swipe barcodes cards and duel on the Barcode Battler II console. Players may choose to attack, recover, or if the card is a wizard they can use spells. The objective is to reduce your opponent to 0 health points, by then the duel is over.

Additional notes for C0 mode:

• The Barcode Battler’s C0 mode deciphers the barcode entries as warriors, wizards or items.
• Initially, each player will be scanning in a battler card (warrior or wizard card) one after the other. They will each get an additional chance to scan in another item card or battler card.
• If the player scan in a battler card in place of the item cards, it will be a “fusion” of the 2 battlers. However, by carrying out “fusion”, normally you ended up with a battler of tremendous power (sometimes it will have negative effect). So unless both sides agree so, fusion make things pretty random and imbalance.

C1 Mode – Conveni Wars Story II (Player VS Computer – Single player)

For C1 mode, player scan in their 2 battler cards (one warrior and one wizard) and engage the build in, randomized enemies of the conveni world. After beating each enemy, the player might retrieve a “key”. Then, by gaining a total of 3 keys, the player will be granted access to the boss stage. Finally, beating the boss will lead to passing the stage. There are a total of 4 stages. Beating stage will allow player to gain a code to use on C2 mode. The code allows for enhanced stats when initially entered to C2 mode.

Additional notes for C1 mode:

• The instruction manual has shown graphics of all these enemies with descriptions. So to play this mode properly, you need to put the instruction manual side by side of your Barcode Battler II and visualize the battle.
• Each stage has 5 planets and one boss planet. And there are a total of 4 stages.
• Players may press “R-Battle” anytime when they are not in a battle to save progress. To load, press “R-Battle” when on the initial battler input screen of the C1 mode.
• After beating each enemy, the player’s battler will gain in stats.
• Your scanned battler cards ‘s stats are heavily discounted. Unless you use the build in, provided main character cards.

C2 Mode – Custom RPG Battle (Player VS Computer – Single Player)

C2 mode allows players to play the included cards and add-on expansion packs. Players input character cards and engage the enemy cards. Finally, the game will end when you defeat the boss card.

Additional notes for C2 mode:

• This mode was least explained of the three modes. It has a ton of table top game elements to it yet failed to communicate with the players.
• I believe to fully enjoy this game mode, you need to self-design the game and run it like a D&D game or some card or board game. In which there is a game master (can be yourself) and you make some rules to draw enemy cards. Eventually, some rules and stories occurs and you meet the final boss to beat.

The fun of barcode discovery & “The 4th Skill”

When you scan a barcode on the Barcode Battler II, you see a warrior, wizard or an item with some stats. It is absolutely exciting when you find amazing fighters. Then, when you duel, you sometimes find there seems to be some special rules such as deduction of your opponent’s defence prior to the start of the battle. What is that?

This has to do with how barcodes were deciphered on the Barcode Battler. Many people will tend to think that the deciphering is just warriors, wizards or items with their key stats. However, there is a deeper hidden game logic within here that wasn’t described on the instruction manual nor on the LCD screen. Interestingly, it was described on the manga, that aside the Health Points (HP), Strength (ST) & Defence (DF) being the first 3 stats, and the 4th stat is “The 4th Skill”.

So, this “The 4th Skill” is actually an extra stat belongs to the warrior or wizard. Now, what are these hidden powers and how are they deciphered? There are certain formula but too technical to share (you may find it at the resources section below). Let’s look at what they are and what they do.

“The 4th Skill” List

The below is a tallied list of such. While from the data I got, it wasn’t fully 100% discovered and I might miss some of them, this is pretty much it.

• “Triple Sword Attack” – 300% increase in attack power against particular type of occupation.
• “Triple Sword Attack” – 300% increase in attack power against particular type of race.
• 10% strength (ST) decrease and 0.5x attack power.
• 50% or 100% strength (ST) increase and 150% or 200% in attack power.
• Main character has a 50% chance to go for 100% strength (ST) increase and 200% in attack power.
• 10%/ 30%/ 50% defence (DF) up (0.9/ 0.7/ 0.5 shield).
• Decrease your opponent’s strength (ST) by 30%/ 50%.
• Decrease your opponent’s defence (DF) by 30%/ 50%/ 80%.
• Decrease your opponent’s health (HP) by 30%/ 50%.
• There is a 50% chance where the player, when using a health (HP)/ strength (ST) or defence (DF) item, will cause it to deduct value instead of adding it.
• Increase own attack rate.
• Increase own hit rate.
• Opponent’s hit rate up.
• Own hit rate down.
• Opponent’s hit rate down.
• Ban your opponent from using recovery.
• Decrease effect of your opponent’s recovery.
• Increase effect of your own recovery.
• Nullify all of your opponent’s special abilities.
• “Hero Flag” – Indicate to the Barcode Battler console that this is a hero card and the stats are treated differently on the C1 & C2 modes.
• When defeated, you get some bonus stats or passcode (For C1 & C2 modes only).

It was a pity that these weren’t well described both on the manual & the LCD. Imagine if on the LCD screen, it says your warrior has an extra skill and you can reference that to the instruction manual!

Releases/ Collector’s Guide

To ease the headache for anyone wishes to buy a Barcode Battler, here is a table showing the released versions of Barcode Battler II. I have also included the first version, Barcode Battler I which was never released outside of Japan for a more complete reference. (Updated Apr 18, 2024)

Version	Colour	Language on LCD, Box, Manual, Cards	Markings (In all CAPs)	Barcode Reader Format	Maker/ Distributor	Pictures
Barcode Battler I	White	Japanese	“Card Battle Machine”,”Conveni Wars Barcode Battler”	EAN	Epoch Co. Ltd.	Picture1
Barcode Battler I Myojo*	Yellow	Japanese	“Card Battle Machine”,”Conveni Wars Barcode Battler”	EAN	Epoch Co. Ltd.	Picture1
Barcode Battler I Special Edition**	Gold	Japanese	“Card Battle Machine”,”Conveni Wars Barcode Battler”	EAN	Epoch Co. Ltd.	Picture2
Barcode Battler II (Japan)	Black	Japanese	“Epoch Card Battle System”,”Conveni Wars Barcode Battler II”	EAN	Epoch Co. Ltd.	Picture1
Barcode Battler II (Japan) Special Edition***	Gold	Japanese	“Epoch Card Battle System”,”Conveni Wars Barcode Battler II”	EAN	Epoch Co. Ltd.	Picture4
Barcode Battler II (North America)	Black	English	“Card Battle System”,”Barcode Battler”	UPC	Erwin Toy Ltd.	Picture3
Barcode Battler II (EU)	Black	English, French, German or Spanish on box (Yet, the LCD & cards for French/ German or Spanish versions were still in English)	“Card Battle System”,”Commerce Conflict Barcode Battler”	EAN	Tomy UK. Ltd., Giochi Preziosi or Bizak	Picture3

* Barcode Battler Myojo: There were only 3,000 of such units made as part of a lucky draw event.
** Barcode Battler I Special Edition: Not many were made but I think there were more of these than the Barcode Battler II Special Edition.
*** Barcode Battler II Special Edition: These are very rare, likely only 50 existed and were given to the winners of a special event.

1: My own pictures.
2: Taken from Mercari listings (These listings are too dynamic to direct link them).
3: Taken from EBay listings (These listings are too dynamic to direct link them).
4: https://photohito.com/photo/2374463/.

What’s in the Box? Product contents of Barcode Battler II (Japanese Version)

• 1 main console (Barcode Battler II)
• 32 cards:
  • 6 main character cards
  • 10 item cards
  • 10 enemy cards
  • 4 blank white cards
  • 2 special white cards
• 1 instruction booklet
• 1 page brochure

Related product releases

Barcode Battler cards

Just like many of the products, Barcode Battler had various publications and productions including manga, games, phone cards, trading cards, toys and many other collaborations.

As a kid I treasured my Barcode Battler and their cards like they were my ultimate companion. I guess by growing up as an Asian and also exposed to the Western later on, I was fond of both sides. I was able to appreciate why the Japanese kids love this machine so much (including me).

Over the years, there are quite a few publications of manga, trading cards, plastic figures, boardgame, stationaries, stickers, and many more. Then, the main art’s evolution has pretty much followed some sort of SD Gundam style (popular of that time) and it stayed consistent over the years of their publish.

Other related product releases/ publications

Here are a list of products that were produced to work with the Barcode Battler II. They include add-ons, card sets and more. This Section will be expanded in time to contain all the relevant goods. So stay tuned on this part.

• Add-on Hardware
  • Barcode Battler II² C0
  • Barcode Battler II² C2
• Famicom and Super Famicom Collaborations
• Manga
• Music/ CD

Final thoughts

Barcode Battler was one of my favourite childhood toy. It was a centre piece of my go to gadgets since I enjoyed so much on the seeking of new barcodes powers and creation of new warriors and items. I remembered back then I got my brother and cousin also creating their own team of warriors but we never really played the VS mode (C0 mode) extensively. The discovering and creating was really the gem for me. And to this day, I still have the set and it was one of my best kept toy (90% new).

It was a pity that this innovation didn’t live on as a “Barcode Battler” brand or something. However, I will argue that Barcode Battler was one of a kind and an important inspiration to battle game consoles to this day. And it touched on a few really amazing elements that we can all learn on, such as gathering your own powers via daily, common items.

If you really wish to try it out, you may. But I think overall it is about more on imagination rather than the physical look and feel. To prepare you for it. The battle itself feels like taking turns rolling a die using a barcode battler. But yet the characters stats are already recorded on the machine and allowing only one instant of battle. So if you are a person who can imagine battles and character actions in your mind, I think the barcode battler is a really fun thing to play with. And I mean, you can still cut modern barcodes and use them. Beware though, it is really addicting. Numerous times I was caught with cutting almost every barcode off of anything! And thus, my warning to you issued.

Pros (Why It is Awesome)

• Absolutely an innovative product that inspired.
• Search, discover and make your own warriors is FUN!
• The game is actually deep. You take barcodes and try to discover what holds in the Black box given to you (Barcode Battler). That is, there are so many hidden abilities and small things.
• Mode C2 was largely unappreciated. However it is actually a big RPG on its own as the cards have built in special abilities for the players to discover and fit to the story given.

Cons (What could be done better)

• The art not able to apply to the product/ gameplay itself is daunting.
• The technology is lacking to fully capture the power and imagery of battles.
• The idea is innovative, but the execution isn’t, including the battle.
• If they had done better by letting people know that special ability code, it will be so much better in terms of searching and having fun discovering.
• Their global launch was a disaster, because of the mismatched expectations and the wrong positioning alongside the Nintendo Gameboy and Game Gear. Also, their global product has mismatched art, and it confused people in the process.
• Boring digital sounds.
• Boring led indicators.
• Limited choice in fighting.
• The digital VS AI modes C1 & C2 isn’t really great.

Further readings & resources:

• Barcode Battler Wiki – Showing the entire list of Japanese cards (just use Google Translate the page)
• Barcode Battler II Wiki (Japanese) – Showing the full list of products released (just use Google Translate the page)
• Barcode Battler (North America) Pamphlet
• Barcode Battler (EU – French Edition) Pamphlet
• Barcode Battler Cards Comparison (Japanese VS International Version)
• Barcode Battler Museum with formula and card information – One of the oldest, but yet surprisingly still existing sites. In here you may find information on some of the Barcode Battler inner formula.

Should you have further questions or comments, please let me know in the comments below I will try best to answer them! I gone pretty deep in Barcode Battler so I am confident I can answer most of your questions! 🙂

Written by NKBDL for Strategy Games Evolution, Mar 23, 2023 (Updated Apr 25, 2025)

Disclaimer: All pictures shown on the article were taken by me from my own collections. For pictures that are linked out, and are very specific like those really rare items, I downloaded them from online auction websites and will reference them as best as possible. As these websites listings are quite dynamic it is very hard to keep a permanent link to them. If you found yourself to be the owner of such photos and I didn’t do my reference right, please contact me right away. Thank you!

I started this site so that anyone (including me) can come and learn about/ reference on interesting strategy game products, so being able to show and reference the right pictures meant a lot to me and my audiences. Of course I did put up some referral links so that I can continue to support this site and buy more products to review. So I shall let everyone know about this point too. Thanks again.