WonderSwan
Naoharu Yamashina founded Bandai in 1950 as a manufacturer of toy cars and plastic models. The company shifted its focus to electronic games by licensing the anime character Tetsuwan Atomu in 1963. By the 1970s, Bandai produced LCD games based on television programs and dedicated consoles. In 1982, the company released the Intellivision in Japan. It became one of the first third-party licensees for the Family Computer in 1985. The Tamagotchi virtual pet, released in 1996, marked Bandai's greatest success in electronic games. Plans emerged in 1997 for Bandai to merge with Sega to form Sega Bandai Ltd. The merger was called off less than a week after approval. Bandai's board of directors opposed the merger while Sega accepted their actions at an emergency meeting. President Makoto Yamashina took responsibility for failing to gain support for the deal. This left Bandai to enter the market without outside support.
Engineer Gunpei Yokoi created the Game Boy handheld system at Nintendo before leaving the company in 1996. He established his own engineering firm named Koto Laboratory following the failure of the Virtual Boy. Bandai approached Yokoi to create the WonderSwan to compete directly with the Game Boy. Yokoi remained involved in the development of this new handheld until his death in 1997. He died in a car accident before the console could be released to the public. The final piece of hardware he worked on would become known as the WonderSwan. His vision shaped the device's unique design philosophy and technical capabilities. The system was officially unveiled in Tokyo on the 8th of October 1998. Bandai chose the name to highlight its aesthetics and technical power because the swan is recognized as an elegant bird. Its powerful legs aid its graceful swimming motion.
The main CPU of the WonderSwan is a 16-bit NEC V30 MZ processor. It functions as a variant of the Intel 8086 chip. The original model's screen displays up to 16 shades of gray while showing eight colors simultaneously. This contrasts sharply with the four colors displayed by the Game Boy. An extra set of buttons allows gamers to play games in both portrait and landscape orientations. Similar to the Atari Lynx, these controls enable dual-orientation gameplay. The series runs on a single AA battery for extended periods. The original monochrome version offers a battery life of 40 hours. Players can record personal information like their birth date or blood type into the unit. The LCD screen measures 2.5 inches and displays at a resolution of 224 by 144 pixels. Sound capabilities include four wavetable channels playing 32-sample, 4-bit sounds. The second channel handles 8 bit unsigned PCM samples while the third uses hardware sweep. The fourth channel plays LFSR based noise patterns.
The WonderSwan launched on the 4th of March 1999 in Japan. Nine casing colors were available including pearl white and skeleton green. Three limited edition two-tone models appeared in frozen mint and sherbet melon. These colors were chosen through an online poll at Bandai's website. Metallic and pearl white models were discontinued on July 22 to make room for special editions. Nintendo released the Game Boy Color five months prior to this launch. Bandai remained confident that the monochromatic FSTN display would perform well despite the competition. The retail price was set lower than its main rivals. In 2000, Bandai signed an agreement with Mattel to bring the handheld to North America. They ultimately decided against a Western release due to the crowded market. The exact reason for this decision remains unknown to historians today.
Bandai announced the WonderSwan Color later in 1999 to incorporate a passive matrix FSTN color screen. It retained backward compatibility with the original WonderSwan model. The system released on December 9 in Japan with five new casing options. Sales reached 270,632 units in under a month after its release. Nintendo announced the Game Boy Advance before the WonderSwan Color could fully establish itself. The Advance featured superior hardware compared to the Color. The WonderSwan Color still retailed at a lower price point of 4,800 yen versus the Advance at 12,500 yen. Despite peaking at 8% of the handheld market share in Japan, sales never recovered after March 2001. A redesign titled SwanCrystal released on the 12th of July 2002 for 5,800 yen. This unit used a TFT LCD monitor with superior response time to reduce motion blur. Bandai discontinued the entire line in 2003 due to low demand and backed out of producing video game hardware altogether.
Koto Laboratories claims that the WonderSwan sold 10 million game cartridges in all. Banpresto added support by way of anime licenses and licensed titles. Namco and Capcom also developed titles for the handheld. Squaresoft contributed remakes of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, and Final Fantasy IV. Taito contributed well-received ports such as Space Invaders and Densha de Go!. Bandai augmented these releases with exclusive titles in the Digimon and Gundam franchises. Gunpei Yokoi developed a puzzle game named Gunpey in his own honor. A sequel known as Gunpey EX served as a launch title for the WonderSwan Color. Certain games produced through the WonderWitch kit like Judgement Silversword have been noted as excellent titles. Support for the WonderSwan has been considered underwhelming by many industry observers. Most publishers continued to exclusively support Nintendo's handhelds instead. The departure of Squaresoft as a developer cited as a factor in diminishing sales later years.
Selling 3.5 million units combined across all variations, the WonderSwan captured up to 8% of the Japanese market at its peak. It was ultimately outperformed by Nintendo's Game Boy Advance which ensured near-monopoly status until 2004. Writing for USgamer, Jeremy Parish considers the WonderSwan the ultimate expression of Gunpei Yokoi's design philosophy. He notes its modest impact on the market but blames Bandai for its lack of success. Luke Plunkett from Kotaku praised the WonderSwan's challenge to Nintendo. He stated that it tried some pretty unique and interesting things during its run. Retro Gamer's Kim Wild criticizes aspects including its lack of a headphone port. She also points out poor control scheme issues for left-handed individuals. Despite these flaws, she states what Bandai managed with the WonderSwan was impressive given the competition. The low price even today makes it more than worthy of consideration by collectors.
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Common questions
Who founded Bandai and when did the company start?
Naoharu Yamashina founded Bandai in 1950 as a manufacturer of toy cars and plastic models. The company shifted its focus to electronic games by licensing the anime character Tetsuwan Atomu in 1963.
When was the WonderSwan console officially unveiled and released?
The system was officially unveiled in Tokyo on the 8th of October 1998. The WonderSwan launched on the 4th of March 1999 in Japan with nine casing colors available including pearl white and skeleton green.
What processor does the main CPU of the WonderSwan use?
The main CPU of the WonderSwan is a 16-bit NEC V30 MZ processor that functions as a variant of the Intel 8086 chip. This hardware allows the original model's screen to display up to 16 shades of gray while showing eight colors simultaneously.
Why did Bandai decide against releasing the WonderSwan in North America?
Bandai signed an agreement with Mattel to bring the handheld to North America in 2000 but ultimately decided against a Western release due to the crowded market. The exact reason for this decision remains unknown to historians today.
How many units of the WonderSwan sold combined across all variations?
Selling 3.5 million units combined across all variations, the WonderSwan captured up to 8% of the Japanese market at its peak. Bandai discontinued the entire line in 2003 due to low demand and backed out of producing video game hardware altogether.