¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Bandai
- Year of release: 2000
- CPU: NEC V30 MZ (16-bit) @ 3.072 MHz
- RAM: 64 KB
- Screen: 2.8" reflective color LCD, 224x144
- Colors: 241 on screen out of a 4096-color palette
- Sound: 4-channel PSG, built-in mono speaker
- Power: 1 AA battery
- Media: cartridge
- Controller: mandatory
¶ Presentation
The WonderSwan Color is the colour version of Bandai's WonderSwan, released in Japan in December 2000. It reuses the same processor and the same form factor as the monochrome model, but quadruples the work RAM and swaps the screen for a 2.8-inch reflective colour panel, while keeping the machine's remarkable battery life on a single AA battery.
It is backward compatible with the entire monochrome WonderSwan library. Its own catalogue is what made it memorable: Bandai secured from Square the remakes of Final Fantasy I, II and IV, exclusives that took the machine to its peak against the Game Boy Color, along with many anime adaptations (Gundam, Digimon, One Piece).
A revision, the SwanCrystal, was released in 2002 with a TFT screen offering far better legibility. Like the monochrome WonderSwan, the Color was never officially sold outside Japan and its library is entirely in Japanese.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro Mednafen_WSwan | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
The WonderSwan Color 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 essential for fan translations) and CRT video modes. Netplay is not available on this system. RetroAchievements are supported.
As on the monochrome model, 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. The controls change orientation along with the picture.
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/wswanc/
Supported extensions: .wsc .zip .7z
Roms in No-Intro format are strongly recommended. Monochrome games (
.ws) belong to the WonderSwan system, not here: Recalbox keeps the two libraries separate.