Wonderswan Gaming

Watch Wonderswan TV Ads

2006-09-06T10:40:00.000+01:00

I found this really cool site that had tonnes of TV ads from loads of different countries for an exhaustive list of consoles.

Check out the Wonderswan page for TV spots for Final Fantasy II and other Wonderswan games.

I also enjoyed checking out the ads for 3D0 and Atari Jaguar!

Wonderswan Sat Nav

2006-07-02T22:35:00.000+01:00

Things to do with a Wonderswan...

Connect it to a GPS device and use it as a Sat Nav system! I found this picture whilst Googling which shows how some Japanese hobbyist has set up his Wonderswan for sat nav and connected it to his bike. Unfortunately the page is in Japanese (a familiar problem for us Western Wonderswanners) but you might get the gist.

Wonderswan Profiled

2006-06-25T11:29:00.000+01:00

Sean O'Mara has written up an excellent profile of the Wonderswan on deadOtaku, which is "a blog dedicated to covering esoteric extremities of Japanese popular culture".

He's done a great job of detailing the lifespan of the system and given attention to some of the highest profile games available, as well as listing all the hardware specs and available accessories.

Judgement Silversword

2006-05-14T08:51:00.000+01:00

We found out a bit more about Judgement Silversword in this post back in January.

I was just checking eBay for any new stuff and realised I hadn't checked eBay.com (rather than .co.uk) for sometime. I wish I had checked earlier because I could have told you about the auction for a brand new copy of Judgement Silversword which is now finishing in about... 2 hours from now.

It's worth visiting the auction site though because the seller has put up some great information about how the game came to be

If anyone is selling any Wonderswan stuff on eBay which is a bit special or noteworthy, feel free to email me with details.

Rewind: Wonderswan Color Hatches

2006-05-13T17:48:00.000+01:00

I recently came upon a pile of old Edge magazines, and have been going through them to see what kind of fanfare was given to Wonderswan at the time of its release.

First up is this piece from issue 90, released Nov 2000. I don't know about the legality of copying the whole article so I'll just paste in some choice snippets to give you a flavour how it was being anticipated.

Wonderswan Color Hatches
Bandai has announced details of its off postponed colour handheld device, just a few days after Nintendo's Spaceworld 2000.
...
The general specifications of the device are largely the same as its black and white predecessor, though there are a few changes ... One of the biggest problems with the original Wodnerswan was that its screen was fair reflective, make it difficult to play. It would appear this has not been fixed.
...
There are a host of peripherals planned for the device. The WonderGate adaptor will enable it to be connected to mobile phones, and there also extensions that add compatibility to MemoryStick and SD Cards. There is also a USB port and a demo has showed the Wondeswan Color linked to a PC laptop and PS2.
...
Bandai's greatest problem will be competing with Game Boy Advance. A strong software line up did not enable the original Wonderswan to seriously compete with Game Boy Color, and Nintendo's strategy for the handheld market seems to be much more robust than Bandai's.

USB Port??? Is there??

So it seems that the view from the widely respected Edge magazine at the time, was that the WSC was facing an uphill struggle from day one thanks to the competition provided by Nintendo's GBA which stolen the show at the Spaceworld 2000 exhibition and was getting very favourable buzz.

Wonderswan Promotional Material

2006-05-03T09:28:00.000+01:00

David Lo has kindly sent in some pictures of original promotional material from Bandai for the monochrome Wonderswan console. I think it looks pretty cool - if I didn't already have, I'd definitely want one!

Thanks David, it's great to see this kind of thing. If anyone has anything else of a similar ilk, email it in and I'll put it up.

But what if you can't speak Japanese?

2006-05-01T10:01:00.000+01:00

Received this email from David, who has come up against a similar challenge as many as us other Western Wonderswan owners have found - what are the best games for no Japanese speakers?

It's always nice to visit this Wonderswan shrine site and also to visit the auctions to check what is on sale. I was wondering if anyone had like a recommended list for games to get for those with little or no Japanese language ability.

That way people can see if the swan can be for their videogame/system collection. Seeing some of the screens of the RPG's it just seems too difficult to get through those games. Now if the swan had MarioKart...

You will suggestions buried within the comments sections of previous posts David, but hopefully we can compile a new list of suggestions within this post!

Wonderswan Vs Gizmondo

2006-04-03T21:10:00.000+01:00

The Gizmondo recently joined the band of defunct handheld consoles. It was launched with a great fanfare in 2004, and was a kind of interesting convergance device. Yes, it played games but it also had a Windows Media player onboard which made it great for playing movies and music. Built in GPS made it good for geocaching and also an affordable satellite navigation system.

There's no point comparing the two consoles technology wise as there's years between them, but for handheld afficionados, you might like the picture below which shows how they compare size wise.

Eek!

2006-03-17T13:00:00.000Z

Ok, so my recycling effort fell at the first hurdle when my copy of SD GUNDAM Eiyuuden Musha Densetsu went for only £1.30 on eBay. I guess I should have given it a better review when I got it - it might have helped to ramp up the price!

More disappointing than that was my original NES Zapper and copy of Mario Bros / Duck Hunt that sold for one single solitary penny! eBay is an unpredicatable beast, that's for sure.

Just checking what's up on eBay at the moment. There's a few good titles up there, but no cool accessories or box sets of any note.

The one game which I'd love to try out, and a previous contributor was asking about this game, is DENSHA DE GO - the popular train simulator. It's a mono game but one worth checking out I reckon. It's up at the moment with a Buy It Now price of £6.50.

Recycling

2006-03-07T21:11:00.000Z

OK, with my perilous financial situation, I'm going to have to sell some stuff before I can buy any new Wonderswan games.

So if any of you are into RPGs, and can understand Japanese or make a reasonable fist of translating, check out my auction for SD GUNDAM Eiyuuden Musha Densetsu.

I reviewed in as much as I could back in the early days of this blog, and personally I found it hard to penetrate, but for RPG devotees, it might be a welcome addition to your collection.

Whilst I'm short of new material to blog on, please do feel free to get involved and email me any reviews of Wonderswan games you've enjoyed playing. A photo of the cart and/or box always go down nicely too.

Wonderborg Spotted

2006-02-27T13:03:00.000Z

With Wonderborgs being pretty rare, I feel duty bound to share any eBay sightings with you.

This Wonderborg is currently at £49 and finishing in 5 days.

Too rich for my blood at the moment, but I'm sure it will goto a deserving collector.

Normal Serviced Resumed...

2006-02-27T12:47:00.000Z

Well, sorry for that little interruption!

I was kind of knocked out by a cold or flu that lasted a couple of weeks early Feb, and then coldn't quite get back in the groove.

I thought I'd wait a bit and start blogging again when I got the two games I really wanted which were both on eBay - Gunpey EX and also Mr Driller. But I'm embarrased to say I messed up again and missed out on both! Doh!!!!

I'm trying to raise funds for new Wonderswan purchases by selling off some other stuff so have just put up a few bits to sell on eBay myself, including the sought after Alien Vs Predator on Atari Jaguar.

My gaming attention has also drifted back to an old favourite: I picked up a cheapo Super Nintendo at a car boot sale which has been very fun to get to know again. I sold my original SNES years ago, but miracle of miracle, for some reason which I completely forgot, I retained Super Tennis which was one of my fave ever games and I just happened to find it last weekend.

So back to Wonderswan... well, I'm waiting on new titles to play, so I better get bidding!

Wonderwave Goodbye

2006-02-06T12:44:00.000Z

I can't believe that I missed out on a brand new Wonderwave that was selling on eBay and went for £5.19.

I would have had no use or purpose for it, but as a Wonderswan collector, you have to take these opportunities when you see them. I actually had it on my Watch list but had to go out and forgot to bid.

The lesson from this story? Never go out again and you will get eBay bargains.

Guilty Gear Petit

2006-02-04T14:58:00.000Z

My latest bundle of joy direct from Nipon came tumbling through the letterbox today. A copy of Guilty Gear Petit, which I got for about £11 on eBay.

For those that don't know, Guilty Gear is a popular beat 'em up series published by Sammy. It started life in the arcades in the late 90s and has made appearances on many formats, although the Wonderswan and GBA being the only portable to have it, as far as I know - but versions are in development for DS and PSP.

Set in 2180, the story is roughly that a group of Gears - warriors equipped with a super energy called magic - plan to wipe out the human race and so a tournament is held to find best fighter who can take on and destroy the gears.

In Guilty Gear Petit, you get six characters from the start, although hidden characters are available.

* Sol-Badguy
* Ky Kisk
* Potemkin
* May
* Millia Rage
* Fanny

The game is easy to play as the menu screens are in English. When you start you can choose between Story Mode, Vs Mode (requires two players and a link cable) and Training mode which just lets you beat up an opponent for as long as you want. Your opponent puts up no resistance and just absorbs the blows, giving you time to develop your skills. I couldn't help but think this is how it must be to fight with Gandhi.

The game itself is great to look at - the graphics are bright and details. The soundtrack is fine too, although there seemed to be a curious lack of sound effects. Most beat em ups accompany each blow with some kind of sound, but not here (unless there's some FX option I need to change) which kind of gave the game play a detached feel.

The characters all have a selection of whacky moves, which are details in the instruction manual. I particularly taken with Fanny the nurse and her hyperdermic needle, which also turns into a pair of scissors.

Playing this kind of game isn't that easy using the Wonderswan controls, as many of the moves require diagonal movements, and as you know, the Wonderswan doesn't have a standard D-pad, but instead had 4 directional buttons. Sammy overcame that by supplying the game with a Wondercoin - a small plastic D-Pad you can attach to your controller.

All in all, its a cool game, and it's great to get a chance to finally do some proper Wonderswan gaming, following my previous purchases which were interesting novelties but offered no gaming satisfaction.

Densha de Go! - A reader writes...

2006-02-02T09:15:00.000Z

Received this nice email from David, who has been reading the blog.

Hi, Congratulations on your very nice & well put together tribute to this special system. I was in Tokyo when the Neo Geo Pocket Color made its debut and there was that buzz in the shops with posters and promo items for that system.

I like the quality of both handhelds, and have always been interested in the WS but the language barrier of Japanese held me off. Now, I am reconsidering this from reading your blog. Currently I am interested in the game Densha de Go! for WS. I think the instructions for this train simulator can be gleaned from the Gamefaqs site on the PS2's version of the same game from Taito. The address for that Faq is:
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/densha_de_go_final.txt>

I believe this Faq will assist the gamer to become competent in playing the WS version of the game. I am wondering if anyone has any review or experience of Densha de Go? Were you able to finish the SD Gundam RPG?

Thanks for the email, David - it's always really nice to hear from people who like the blog.
I was looking through the Wonderswan software on Bandai's site and the train simulator did stand out as a title I would love to try out. I am afraid I haven't played it myself so can't tell you manything you won't already know. I'll check up with a friend of mine who likes train simulators (and also japanese cooking simulators!*) and see if she has tried it.

It would be great if any readers who have played Densha de Go! on the WS could post any comments with what they thought of it.

To be honest I didn't get very far with the SD Gundam RPG. The language thing was just too tricky for me. I know some people can manage to circumvent this with some translation tools or a dictionary but I'm not committed enough to RPGs to persevere with it. I just ordered Guilty Gear Petit the other day from an eBay seller so am looking forward to checking that out any day now.

Wonderswan Box Shots

2006-01-28T13:45:00.000Z

Andy's Lofi Gaming Museum is a site dedicated to retro gaming machines. He keeps a nice inventory of his game collection, including clear pictures of games boxes, which provides a good opportunity to have a look at soem great Wonderswan artwork.

eBay Roundup

2006-01-28T13:13:00.000Z

Been a bit of a quiet week this week on the Wonderswan front, as I've not got anything new. I'm letting my funds replenish and hope to go on a game buying spree in the next couple of days, using some of the recommendations that came through in response to an earlier post.

I thought I would just point out a couple of really interesting items on eBay at the moment though.

Tare Panda With Gunpey Boxset
Tare Panda - meaning lazy panda - is apparently with the most popular cartoon characters in Japan. I'm not entirely sure what this is, but it seems to be some kind of Tare Panda branded version of the popular Gunpey puzzler, in a limited edition box set. Definitely looks like a great item for a collector. It was released in 1999 and the console & game are both monochrome.

Just as I was about to post this, I saw that another of these box sets has just been put on eBay, so keep an on this one too if you're interested.

Judgement Silversword
Any Wonderswan item on eBay with a Buy It Now price of £125 certainly must be interesting. And it seems this is definitely a title for the collectors, but I must admit I'm not entirely sure why. According to the Encyclopedia of Games Machines, this was the very final Wonderswan cartridge. Mysteriously, it doesn't appear on the official Wonderswan list of software, which Bandai maintains. But if this is Judgement Silversword: Rebirth Edition, could it be that this is the software title that won the Wonderwitch developer's contest? I don't know if the Rebirth Edition is some home brew sequel to an original title, or if this is one and the same game, so if anyone can shed some light, any replies would be welcome.

Wonderswan Game Recommendations

2006-01-21T17:38:00.000Z

So I now have two Wonderswan consoles, and have discussed the accessories available, but now want to spend a bit more time checking out the games for the Wonderswan.

One game that I really want to get is Gunpey EX, and I'm also keen to get hold of Tetris. But if you stumble upon this page and can tell me what other Wonderswan games you would personally recommend, please feel free to use the comments section below to post details of what games you think are worth checking out and why.

The blog isn't massively read, so I'm not expecting to be overwhelmed with suggestions, but I'd really like to hear from anyone who has a view on the "must play" Wonderswan games.

Final Fantasy II Boxset

2006-01-19T14:35:00.000Z

I've just got hold of a gorgeous Final Fantasy II Wonderswan boxset!

For those that don't know, Final Fantasy is a hugely popular RPG franchise from Square Enix which has appeared on almost every console format going, as well as in online games, mobile phones and has also been the subject of two full length movies.

It was the success of Final Fantasy I and II on Wonderswan that helped the console get an 8% share of the handheld market. To mark the release of these landmark titles, Bandai released a couple of boxsets.

Inside the boxset is a special white Final Fantasy edition of the Wonderswan color, a copy of the Final Fantasy game and a Final Fantasy premium phone strap.

The console itself has a Final Fantasy illustration above the screen, and the words "And, we meet in the truth" - in English, interestingly.

The console has a matt finish and feels a bit more weighty than the SwanCrystal. It actually feels more satisfying in the hand I have to say.

I managed to get this box set from eBay and they seem to come up fairly often, so keep your eyes peeled if you too want to get a white box of Wonderswan loveliness.

Play Wonderswan on your DS

2006-01-16T23:32:00.000Z

One day I will do a posting with a complete listing of the Wonderswan emulators available for various systems. I already mentioned previously about the Swan emulator on PSP, and have now found an emulator for the Nintendo DS.

Visit WonDerS - WonderSwan Emulator

One of the things that got me interested in the Wonderswan in the first place was the fasinating story of its creator, who was instrumental in the design of the Nintendo Gameboy. To play Wonderswan games on one of the Gameboy's successor consoles seems almost touching somehow...

What is Wondermagic Color?

2006-01-16T16:05:00.000Z

In polite society, we refer to Wondermagic Color as a "backup device".

But in reality, devices like this are used to download ROMs from the net, copy them to the flash memory cartridge using a parallel cable and then play them on the console. You can get similar things on most cartridge based systems. I don't know about the morality of it, but as Wonderswan could probably be described as a dead and unsupported format, is there any harm to it? Feel free to argue the pros and cons of that in the Comments section.

The Wondermagic Color is pretty rare and I found this picture whilst continuing my trawl of Yahoo! Japan's auction site.

Talking of pictures, I have fond a picture of the Handy Sonar device and added it to my earlier post on Wonderswan accessories.

More on Wonderswan Accessories

2006-01-16T12:21:00.000Z

A recent question to the blog about the availability of accessories made me think how rare it is to see Wonderswan accessories in import shops, or even on eBay.

So I got to thinking that the place to get info on these bits and pieces is to go straight to the source itself. I'm reliably informed that in Japan, eBay is not the dominant force it is elsewhere, so I checked out the Yahoo auction site for Japan and found tonnes of cool Wonderswan games and also some accessories.

Wonderswan Link Cable

Wonderswan Headphone Adaptor

Worm light for Wonderswan

This is a 3rd party accessory from a company that has a logo with an uncanny likeness to the logo used by Nintendo on the splash screen of the Nintendo 64!

If you wanted to order anything like this from Japan, you should be aware that many sellers wont trade with international buyers. One useful service you can check out is Mail Order Japan, who will act as an intemediary for you, taking possession of the item in Japan iself from the seller, and then posting to you.

What is Wonderborg?

2006-01-15T20:14:00.000Z

Wonderborg is a cool little robot kit which works in conjunction with the Wonderswan.

The kit comes with a robot, in the general shape of a bug, that you assemble, and a game cart which you plug into the console. The cartridge has an Infra Red transmitter embedded into the cartridge itself, so when it's plugged in, you can beam instructions directly to the borg.

From what I have read, the cart offers English language menus which makes it usable for those not in Japan, and lets you have a Pet Mode which turns it into a Tamagotichi-like toy, or beam instructions directly to it. You can also create programmatic routines for the the cute bot.

Bandai have a page dedicated to the Wonderborg within their Wonderswan pages, but the best resource is over at Caz Robots Factory. There's a really detailed look at the Wonderborg including videos of it in action. The author's coming at it from a Robot perspective rather than as a gamer, but it's a great read.

I had hoped to have a Wonderborg of my own to show you, and I did actually win an auction on eBay to get one but the final price of over £41 (GBP) didn't meet the seller's reserve price. No idea how much he thinks its worth but the market doesn't seem to agree with him at the moment!

Wonderswan Vs GBA

2006-01-14T16:22:00.000Z

This isn't a general comparison of the two consoles, but I just thought I would put a picture up showing the difference in size for anyone that's interested.

Sorry for the quality of the picture, the lightings not very good at all. I'm going to create some kind of photo tent or lightbox soon using the cool instructions I found on this site to help me take better photos.

[Edit]

Many thanks to Anime5ever who has contributed this picture below. Clearly the man is a connoseiur of fine handheld consoles, with a Nintendo DS, Nintendo GBA SP, Nintendo GBA and Nintendo GBA Micro all pictured alongside a Wonderswan Colour.

What is WonderWitch?

2006-01-14T16:02:00.000Z

Wonderwitch is an official development kit for the Wonderswan which lets hobbyists and enthusiasts code their own homebrew creations for the console.

It was distributed soley in Japan by mail order, by a company called Qute. The kit includes a manual and CD with the development tools, cables to connect your Wonderswan to the PC and a rewriteable cart for you to download your creations on to.

From what I can gather, it seems there was a healthy development community and contests were held to see who could create the best stuff.

Getting hold of info on the console itself is pretty hard, but getting info on the development community is even harder due to it being an almost exclusively Japanese thing. The picture below shows the contents of the Wonderwitch kit.

The pic was taken from http://www.atmarkit.co.jp/fitbiz/column/spec001/wonderwitch.html