¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Bandai
- Year of release: 1999
- CPU: NEC V30 MZ (16-bit) @ 3.072 MHz
- RAM: 16 KB
- Screen: 2.49" monochrome LCD, 224x144, 8 shades of grey
- Sound: 4-channel PSG, built-in mono speaker
- Power: 1 AA battery
- Media: cartridge
- Controller: mandatory
¶ Presentation
The WonderSwan is a handheld console launched by Bandai in Japan in March 1999. It is the last creation of Gunpei Yokoi, father of the Game & Watch and of the Game Boy, who had left Nintendo to found the Koto studio: it embodies his philosophy of "lateral thinking with seasoned technology" — simple, cheap hardware that is extraordinarily power-efficient.
Battery life is precisely its killer feature: the WonderSwan runs for dozens of hours on a single AA battery, where the Game Boy Color needs two. Sold at a very aggressive price, it was a genuine success in Japan and became, for a while, the only handheld to seriously worry Nintendo on its home market.
Its most visible quirk is its dual control set: two D-pads, X1–X4 and Y1–Y4, laid out so the console can be held horizontally or vertically depending on the game. It never officially left Japan, and was replaced in December 2000 by the WonderSwan Color.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro Mednafen_WSwan | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The WonderSwan is available on every board supported by Recalbox.
Mednafen_WSwan is the only emulator for this system and therefore the default one. Its compatibility is excellent, it supports softpatching (an .ips or .bps patch placed next to the rom is applied automatically, which is very handy for fan translations since the library is entirely Japanese) and CRT video modes. Netplay is not available on this system. RetroAchievements are supported.
A good part of the library is played with the console turned vertically. The emulator handles that screen rotation: if a game shows up sideways, open the RetroArch quick menu during play and look for the rotation setting in the core options. Bear in mind that the controls change orientation along with the picture.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/wswan/
Supported extensions: .ws .zip .7z
Roms in No-Intro format are strongly recommended. WonderSwan Color games use the
.wscextension and belong to the WonderSwan Color system, not here.