---
title: Bandai WonderSwan
categories:
- Consoles
params:
  name: WonderSwan
  image: /media/museum/photos/bandai_wonderswan-blue_1s.jpg
  logo: /media/museum/logos/wonderswan_logo.gif
  company: /companies/bandai
  company_name: Bandai
  tabs:
  - photos
  - software
  - emulators
  - links
  forum_thread: 1143
  photos:
  - title: SKELETON BLUE WONDERSWAN
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bandai_wonderswan-blue_1.jpg
  - title: SKELETON BLACK WONDERSWAN
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Skeleton Black WonderSwan playing Space Invaders

      Thanks to [Little Video Game Area](http://www.studio42.info/index.shtml) for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/bandai_wonderswan-black_1.jpg
  screenshots:
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/software/bandai_wonderswan_lode-runner_ss.gif
  - title: SCREENSHOT
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/software/bandai_wonderswan_puzzle-bobble_ss.png
  emulators:
  - title: Cygne
    url: http://cygne.emuunlim.com/
    platform: Windows
    text: The first WonderSwan emulator
  - title: OSwan
    url: http://calice.emu-france.com/oswan/index.html
    platform: Windows
    text: Excellent WonderSwan emulator
  - title: WonderScott
    url: http://www.zophar.net/ws.html
    platform: Windows
    text: Another WonderSwan emulator by the Boycott Advance team
  - title: WScamp
    url: http://www.zophar.net/ws.html
    platform: Windows
    text: Very good WonderSwan emulator
  - title: eSwan
    url: http://pspupdates.qj.net/category/Wonderswan/cid/769
    platform: Other platform
    text: WonderSwan emulator for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) !
  links:
  - title: Cygne Emulator - Tech info page
    url: http://cygne.emuunlim.com/files/wstech21.txt
    text: Detailed technical information
  - title: Official website (Bandai-Asia)
    url: http://www.bandai-asia.com/wonderswan/
    text: Description, features and games
  - title: Planet Pockets
    url: http://www.planet-pockets.de/?show=articlelist&id=68
    text: German site dedicated to pocket systems. Includes WonderSwan reviews
  - title: Swan Song Color
    url: http://www.j-fan.com/swansong/
    text: Website dedicated to the WonderSwan
  - title: The Wonderswan Blog
    url: http://www.wonderswan.co.uk/
    text: A blog dedicated to Bandai's Wonderswan console.
  - title: Wonder Witch
    url: http://wonderwitch.qute.co.jp/
    text: Japanese website dedicated to Wonder Witch, a personal Software Development Kit for the WonderSwan
  - title: Wonder Witch Link Site
    url: http://jekyll.hp.infoseek.co.jp/english/
    text: Japanese site (with english version) with links, news and a lot of interesting info
  oc_id: 1175
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230516092219/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1175
    date: '2023-05-16'
---

The WonderSwan was developed by Yokoi Gunpei (known as the father of the Nintendo Game Boy). A low price point and extremely low battery consumption is considered to be the original vision of Yokoi. Sadly, Yokoi died in a car accident before seeing a completed WonderSwan.

Most of the games for the WonderSwan were based on Japanese Anime series. The system had no success outside of the Japanese domestic market, mainly beacause it was not ditributed and marketed efficiently. One of the system's interesting features is the control layout allows for games to be played in either vertical or horizontal position.

Other than the original WonderSwan's lack of color support it was a brilliantly engineered system. Shame it didn't have success outside of Japan.

---

Author : Yuki Itada