History of video games/Platforms/WonderSwan

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  Various WonderSwan consoles

History

WonderSwan logotype.

Development

Following his 1996 departure from Nintendo, Gunpei Yokoi, the designer of the Game Boy and the Virtual Boy, spearheaded the creation of a new handheld with Bandai through his new company Koto Laboratory. Though Gunpei would die in a traffic accident in 1997 the console continued to be developed.

Launch

The original WonderSwan was released in Japan on March 4th, 1999 by Bandai at a cost of ¥6800 yen.

In 1999 an accessory was announced that would allow photos from a specific digital camera to be sent to a WonderSwan, however this device was not released.

In 2000 the WonderGate was announced, a device which would allow the WonderSwan to connect to NTT DoCoMo mobile phones and connect to the Internet.

The improved Wonderswan Color was released in December 2000, and managed to climb close to a 10% marketshare of Japanese gaming handhelds before the GameBoy Advance was released.

An ultimately unreleased GPS add on was demoed in 2001, as well as three games by Namco that would leverage the GPS support. Also in 2001 an unreleased wireless adapter for a Casio watch camera was announced.

The WonderSwan crystal was released in 2002 with an improved display.

Legacy

The WonderSwan Monochrome, Color, and Crystal collectively sold an estimated 3.5 million systems in Japan, the only region it was officially sold.

Technology

Compute

The WonderSwan uses a 16 bit SPGY-1001 processor, a custom version of the NEC V30 MZ, clocked at 3.072MHz.

The WonderSwan has 16 kilobytes of RAM.

Design

The WonderSwan could be used vertically, as well as horizontally.

The layout of buttons on the system was designed to allow for either vertical or horizontal play.

Notable Games

1999

• Gunpey
• Digimon Adventure: Anode/Cathode Tamer
• Ganso JaJaMaru-kun
• Buffers Evolution
• Clock Tower
• Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum
• Magical Drop for Wonderswan
• Makaimura for WonderSwan
• Mr. Driller
• Puyo Puyo 2
• Tekken Card Challenge
• Rockman & Forte Mirai kara no Chōsensha

2000

• One Piece: Become the Pirate King!
• Rainbow Islands: Putty's Party
• Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms II
• Ring: Infinity
• Rhyme Rider Kerorican - The only game to use the system diagonally.

2001

• Blue Wing Blitz
• Digimon Battle Spirit
• Guilty Gear Petit
• Guilty Gear Petit 2
• Final Fantasy II
• Judgement Silversword
• Romancing SaGa

2002

• Final Fantasy IV - RPG
• Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit Ver. 1.5
• Digimon Battle Spirit 2
• The Final Fantasy Legend
• Front Mission
• Namco Super Wars - Crossover Tactical RPG
• Riviera: The Promised Land - RPG
• X: Card of Fate - Card battle game based on a manga.

2003

• Rockman EXE N1 Battle
• Rockman EXE WS
• Kidou Senshi Gundam: Gihren no Yabou Special - Mobile Suit Gundam: Gihren's Greed
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Gallery

• 
  The monochrome WonderSwan
• 
  The WonderSwan Color
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  The WonderSwan Color back. The console ran on a single AA battery.
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  The red-purple wine colored SwanCrystal.
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  The blue colored SwanCrystal.
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  The WonderSwan WonderWave allowed limited IR communication with other WonderSwan consoles, as well as the Sony PocketStation as shown here.
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  The Headphone Adapter and WonderWave modules.