Bandai WonderSwan

The WonderSwan's development is inseparable from the legacy of Gunpei Yokoi, one of the most influential figures in video game history. After 31 years at Nintendo, where he had created the D-pad, Game & Watch series, Game Boy, R.O.B., and (unfortunately) the Virtual Boy, Yokoi departed the company in August 1996. The Virtual Boy's commercial failure was widely perceived as the reason for his exit, though Yokoi himself stated he had been planning retirement for years.

Yokoi immediately founded Koto Laboratory with several colleagues and began work on a new handheld console. He brought the design philosophy that had made the Game Boy a phenomenon: prioritize battery life and playability over raw technical specifications. Where the Game Boy's competitors (Game Gear, Lynx, TurboExpress) had offered superior screens but poor battery life, Yokoi knew that a handheld's true value lay in being able to play it anywhere, for extended periods, without worrying about power.

The NEC V30MZ processor was chosen for its excellent power efficiency. This 16-bit CPU, running at just 3.072 MHz, consumed minimal battery power while providing sufficient processing capability for engaging 2D games. The single AA battery design was a deliberate statement ??in an era when competitors used four or six batteries, the WonderSwan's radical minimalism was pure Yokoi.

The dual-orientation concept was Yokoi's most innovative contribution to the WonderSwan. By placing two sets of directional controls (one for horizontal play, one for vertical), the WonderSwan could switch between landscape and portrait orientations with the press of a button. This was not merely a gimmick ??vertical orientation was ideal for shooters, puzzle games, and RPGs with vertically-scrolling interfaces, while horizontal mode suited platformers and action games. This design concept would later influence smartphone gaming and even Nintendo's own future products.

Yokoi's sudden death in October 1997 ??he was struck by a car after exiting his vehicle to inspect damage from a minor highway collision ??sent shockwaves through the gaming industry. The WonderSwan project was carried forward by the remaining Koto Laboratory team with Bandai's engineering support. The development team was determined to realize Yokoi's vision as faithfully as possible.

Bandai's decision to pursue Square as a exclusive software partner for the WonderSwan Color was a strategic masterstroke. Square, still four years away from merging with Enix, was the most prestigious RPG developer in Japan. At the time, Square was exploring platforms beyond the PlayStation, and Bandai's executives negotiated a deal that brought Final Fantasy and other Square franchises to the WSC. The presence of Square's RPGs gave the WonderSwan Color a level of software prestige that far exceeded what Bandai's own development teams could have achieved alone. The Final Fantasy remakes, in particular, were carefully crafted to take advantage of the WSC's capabilities and attracted a significant RPG-focused audience.

The SwanCrystal, the platform's final revision, addressed the most common criticism of the original WSC ??its reflective STN LCD's poor visibility in certain lighting conditions. The TFT upgrade was expensive, and the SwanCrystal was priced higher than the WSC as a result, but it offered dramatically better image quality.