Bandai WonderSwan

Summary

The WonderSwan is a handheld games console with a greyscale LCD screen from Japanese manufacturer Bandai. It was developed with Koto Laboratory in Kyoto, founded by Gunpei Yokoi after he left Nintendo in August 1996 following 31 years there. At Nintendo, Yokoi created the Game Boy, a major success with over 100 million units sold, as well as the commercially unsuccessful Virtual Boy. Tragically, he died in a car accident in 1997 and did not live to see the WonderSwan’s 1999 launch. His choice of a fast, energy-efficient 16-bit processor made the console lighter and thinner than a Game Boy, but it never seriously challenged its market dominance. Around 3.5 million units were sold, and 200 games were developed.

The WonderSwan was followed by several updated models: the WonderSwan Color in 2000 and the SwanCrystal in 2002. With colour displays, these handhelds competed with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and, of course, Nintendo’s Game Boy Color. Because the WonderSwan was released only in Japan, it is little known among Western players. One interesting feature is that games can be played with the console held either horizontally or vertically.

The WonderSwan is available in different case colors: Skeleton Blue, Green, Black, Pink (the Skeleton models are slightly transparent), Silver Metallic, Blue Metallic, Pearl White, Soda Blue, Frozen Mint, Sherbert Melon. There are also some special versions. One of the games that appeared at the start bears the name “Gunpey” in honor of the company’s founder. Later Bandai released a special edition (to be found in the collection): this contains a slightly modified version of the game in which the character “Tarepanda” plays the leading role and is depicted on the console case. Another edition bundles the system with the game “Digimon Adventure Anode Tamers”. WonderSwan models in the colors gold and coro-coro-comic aka camouflage (military look) are particularly rare.