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#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
Japan topic of the Month - WonderSwan (color/crystal)
By: Orchid Date: December 18, 2015, 10:41 pm
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Ever heard about the WonderSwan? Its my favorite handheld!
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/WonderSwan-Black-Left.jpg/175px-WonderSwan-Black-Left.jpg
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/WonderSwan-Color-Blue-Left.jpg/175px-WonderSwan-Color-Blue-Left.jpg
HTML https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/SwanCrystal-Wine-Left.jpg/175px-SwanCrystal-Wine-Left.jpg
Presenting the WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color, and Swan Crystal!
(photo form Wikipedia). I know what you're thinking. What a
weird name! What a weird design! But the WonderSwan was made
with real care, its no knock-off! Once you learn more about it,
you wont think its such a silly handheld.
HISTORY AND SPECS
The WonderSwan was actually made by the same person who made the
original Gameboy and Virtual Boy, Gunpey Yokoi. He originally
left Nintendo after the failure of the VirtualBoy (we all forgot
about that) to create his own company called Koto Laboratory.
His company partnered with Bandai (after the failure of Bandai
and Sega merger, but no one remembers) to create the Wonderswan.
Now for the important stuff: The reason why it was named after
the bird was because the Swan above water shows an elegant bird
but below has powerful legs to help it swim. It was a symbol of
what the WonderSwan is, powerful and beautiful. When you think
about it like that, the name fits perfectly. Unfortunately
Gunpey Yokoi died before he can even see his work be released
(and some fans even use the sad pun of it being his Swan song).
Sadness aside, lets now talk about the design.
All WonderSwan versions run one just one-single AA battery. But
they were able to play for about 20 hours. As for the design,
you probably already guessed the oddity, it has a second D-pad
on the top-left hand corner. You see the best thing about this
handheld is that some games were designed to be played
vertically. To be honest, i don't think it was the "best" design
but i do think it works well for those games. This was probably
unintended but it works even better for games meant to be played
horizontally and use the additional D-pad. Games like Dicing
Knight Period definitely use this.
The original WonderSwan was monochrome in 1999 device which was
released around the Gameboy color in 1998. Why did they do this?
Gunpei Yokoi did this based from past experience with the
Gameboy. Gameboy was popular despite it being monochrome while
the Game Gear (from Sega, that again, no one remembers) wasn't
doing so well. The WonderSwan is still superior to the original
Gameboy in terms of graphics. The original Gameboy had only 4
shades of grey. The WonderSwan had 8 shades of grey. And a lot
of WonderSwan games used most of the shades.
HTML http://www.swan.channel.or.jp/swan/software/line_up/ring_infinity/images/hc_ring.gif
An example of the 8-shades being used. Far more detail. The
WonderSwan was able to have visual novels. This one is Ring
Infinity.
But despite all that work, the WonderSwan wasn't gaining much
success. Color Handhelds were highly successful. So Bandai/Koto
Laboratory would work on a new iteration, this time with color.
But this time, it wasn't going to just improve 1-up the Gameboy
color by adding a few colors, The WonderSwan Color completely
blow it out of the park. You see for Japan, before Gameboy
Advance there was WonderSwan color. That's right! The WonderSwan
Color was actually at the level of the GBA, if not better and it
came before the GBA. Let me give an example:
Final Fantasy I released for both Gameboy Advance and Wonderswan
Color.
WonderSwan Color:
HTML http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/finalfantasy/ff1/ff1-ws-map.png
Gameboy Advance:
HTML http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/finalfantasy/ff1/ff1-gba-map.png
Gameboy Advance has more detailed water (which the WSC is fully
capable of too) but the WonderSwan Color is far more vibrant in
color. As an addition, the Visual novels were even more
stunning.
HTML http://www.swan.channel.or.jp/swan/software/line_up/terrors2/images/hc_terors2_2.gif
Terrors 2, for WonderSwan color (and compatible with the
original WonderSwan).
Unfortunately, the biggest issue with WonderSwan is the screens.
They were inferior when it came to any form of gaming (personal
experience with both WonderSwan and Color). The Heavy heavy
detail of the visual novels look stunning when i play it in an
emulator, but i see only a fraction of it on the actual screen.
The same goes for the color version. I don't think it was "that'
bad as some youtube reviewers make it out though.
Rose Colored Gaming actually made custom WonderSwan colors with
back-lit screens and custom color. Unfortunately, they are out
of stock (and doubt they will ever restock). So the lucky few
who found them and took advantage of the sale, i say "Damn you!"
(kidding).
[img]
HTML http://rosecoloredgaming.com/uploads/3/3/0/0/3300087/2481603.jpg?157[/img]
But that didn't stop the WonderSwan series. An updated Color
version using better screen was made. This one was called
SwanCrystal. A good name, but unfortunately i haven't been able
to play for myself to test out. The SwanCrystal still didn't
have a backlit screen, but i hear that it helps marginally.
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
The WonderSwan continues to be even more intersting through
Hardware and Software accessories. (Warning, most accessories
use the term Wonder a lot. Be prepared to be annoyed how tedious
the names get) The first object is a simple one. Instead of a
Link Cable, players can connect wirelessly through an add-on
accessory called WonderWave. This existed before the GBA, so its
still worthy of a mention.
The next accessory also uses the Wonderwave, but it is the most
interesting thing that Bandai has ever came up with. The
WonderBorg. It was a beetle like robot, that you can actually
program and control with a WonderSwan. It came with a special
cartridge that helps you control it and more software to program
it through your computer. If Bandai/Koto focused their selling
point on this. I'm positive that the WonderSwan would've been
more successful. But sadly they didn't take full advantage of
this.
HTML http://www.retro-games.co.uk/bandai/wonderbotg.gif
[img]
HTML http://www.pockett.net/jeu_video/WS/Bandai/Wonderborg/Wonderborg%202.JPG[/img]
Note: The one with blaster may not be real. I havent seen a
wonderborg with such an item. but if it was real, it wold make
it even more appealing.
What could be better than that? Well, lets see a programming kit
called WonderWitch (i wasn't joking about the names). This kit
helped you make your own game! You would get a cartridge of your
own and write the name of the game. Like a mix-tape. They even
made competitions for it for those who wanted to make WonderSwan
games. Winners would get their game reworked and published. The
two most famous games that came from these competitions were
Dicing Knight (Period) and Judgement Silversword (Rebith
Edition). The paranthesis is part of the name when it got
published.
And speaking of which, i haven't talked about the large variety
of games. The WonderSwan has a large amount of games. Some were
games that already existed and were ported over. For some reason
the WonderSwan had a significant ammount of Horror games. Ring
Infinity, Two games based on Junji Ito's Uzumaki (1 visual
novel, 1 simulator) Clock Tower for WonderSwan, TERRORS and
TERRORS2 (that i can think of at the top of my head.
If you look up WonderSwan, don't let people fool you into
thinking its a weeaboo/hipster console. Some of these reviews
will make you believe the best games from WonderSwan ported to
GBA. And that's not true. There was some pretty great games that
are still exclusive to this day. Dicing Knight Period, Judgement
Silversword (ok this one isn't. But still hard to find), Dark
Eyes: Battle Gate, Saga (better version of the Gameboy Final
Fantasy Legend), Romancing Saga (a game we never got in the
west), SD Gundam games.
Unfortunately, thats where the series died. in 2003, Bandai/Koto
discontinued. But its still an amazing console that accomplished
alot more than what we can say about other Handhelds.
#Post#: 53--------------------------------------------------
Re: Japan topic of the Month - WonderSwan (color/crystal)
By: Lumaria Date: December 20, 2015, 4:31 am
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Those Rose-Colored gaming look amazing. I would've loved to have
one. I gotta admit, its a cute handheld just by the images.
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