website/content/museum/bandai-wonderswan.md

---
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
  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
  comments:
  - author: Kaleb losher (USA)
    date: Wednesday 27th September 2017
    text: 'idk why i said i don''''t know my keyboard glitched out but what i wanted to say was These old systems are really cool and i actually had a nintendo 64 and i still have it! :p XD xD xd Xd lol lel lul :P $p $P $D d$ d: D$ D: lolololololololololoXdXDXDXDXDXDXxDxDxD WHY AM I SAYNG XD LUL'
  - author: Kaleb losher (USA)
    date: Wednesday 27th September 2017
    text: I don''t know
  - author: Godzil (UK)
    date: Monday 9th May 2016
    text: |-
      If you have ever found a WonderSwan, B$W, Color or Crystal in another country than Japan, it was imported, without the approval of Bandai. and $150 is 2 to 3 times more expensive than what is was in Japan..

      Also there is a small error in the desctiption

      "ROM: 1KB save EEPROM" mean nothing, there is an internal EEPROM but it''s not used as a save memory for game, it''s only to store some internal information for the console, and the Owner Infos

      Also, the Media is proprietary ROM, that''s true, but the "small amount of EEPROM for game save (max 16MB)" is eaither badly written, or just false.

      There are two type of possible save method on the WonderSwan, SRAM and EEPROM (like early GBA game in fact), the EEPROM capability have a limit of 16KB (maximum of 13 bit of Address with 16bit data) and have the ability to address 256 \* 64KB of SRAM so 16MB in this case.)
  - author: Raindance Rob (UK)
    date: Friday 30th July 2010
    text: this handheld was also sold in the UK, im not sure if it was sold in all of Europe but it was definitely on sale here in the UK. i can remember Argos $ Toys R Us selling them $ also the colour version.
  - author: Bearzilla (USA)
    date: Saturday 3rd February 2007
    text: I would like to "correct" the information given about this system. It was infact sold here in the US, mainly through Toys R Us. Later when the system failed a very weak "buy back" offer was put to use to "reclaim" all hardware so it could be destroyed. The system itself sold for nearly $150.00 us and only had a few games available.
  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