Wonderswan/color - dive in?

robinhoodie

MDS-02 Kevin Mellot, who is making the Virtual Boy flash cart is apparently working on one. You can sign up for the Flashmasta mailing list and usually you get a good heads up on when they will be in stock

donrumata

exodus
I missed a lot of wonderswan games that went for $30 that had a copy of then-undumped Tenori-On for Wonderswan. Would rather play Dicing Knight, but that Tenori-On was like a one in a million find and I slept through the end of it.

Also if anyone makes a flashcart for these things that can support multiple saves at the same time without overwriting them that would be killer imo.

Southeastpaw

I’d echo many of the recommendations listed so far. It’s awesome to find people that are not only aware of the WS but have also PLAYED the games on the original hardware. I got my first one (an original) in 2000 so I could play Beatmania and I got a Crystal on release. It was my go to portable for years, that single AA battery was a life-saver when I was living on $30 a week in college.

Some games I would recommend that I haven’t seen suggested:

Engacho! which is a cool puzzle game that is very friendly to those that do not speak Japanese.
Kidou Senshi Gundam- three volumes, all of which play similarly. I don’t know a lick of Japanese but I worked my way through these. I found the battles really engaging and the art was beautiful on that screen.
Ganso Jajamaru-kun- Not a WS original but a darn fun game

I love the Klonoa series so I’ve played through that game many times, How cool is it that the WS game was the second in the series and changed the look and feel to work on a portable and this carried on to the much more popular GBA version?!

Gunpey also started on this little system and anyone looking to play an amazing (and unfortunately soon to be delisted) version should look into the PSP version. Riveria too! I nearly forgot

Loved Rhyme Rider Kerorikan and playing it over that small speaker :)

I would recommend Yanic Magnan’s WS videos. Such a shame he stopped going through the collection.

exodus

Southeastpaw Yeah, I played a lot of these! It does feel like one of those systems where some folks simply collect for it, and don’t actually play what they have (likely because of the japanese barrier but also because folks got into it much later). I got a crystal when it came out and played through Macross True Love Song and Riviera while working an usher job in college. I now have threeeeeeeeeee of them for whatever dumb reason.

I do need to get some of those digimon games - there’s that one that’s fully translated into english, for example!

treefroggy

Oh yeah! Beatmania! Pick up any of those you see, get an extra for me! the Wonderswan Flash Masta is alright, but I’m waiting for developments on another flash cart, especially the WonderCard or whatever, where it has an e-ink label.

donrumata

I think I’ve posted this before but my personal conspiracy theory about the weirdo English digimon game that was only released in Korea is that it was intended to be released stateside but wasn’t because the game starts with a terrorist attack and would have been released right around 9/11. The Hong Kong version is listed as having released literally on 9/18/01 on wikipedia.

treefroggy

This week, Flash Masta products are 20% off, so I ordered a Wonderswan Flash Masta. It arrived in only three days.
I love the stock screens on my Wonderswan and Wonderswan Color. Looks amazing under my reading lamp. Same way I feel about all unmodified, unlit, stock reflective LCDs for portables, you already know.
Still, look at how crisp and clear it looks under my reading lamp

https://gfycat.com/feistyadmiredgrasshopper
under blue light

I want a headphone adapter!!!!!! Maybe I can DIY one!!

I’ve narrowed it down to a few zingers, just the right amount to fit on this flashcart that only has 16 slots and 1 sram save at a time. Flash Masta was a good pick for me after all!

This flash cart was worth it just for Dicing Knight alone!! God bless the Wonder Witch, Dicing Knight is better than anything else on this entire console!! The music is soo good…

Now I know I have more than enough entertainment to lay on the hill by the beach all day playing in the sun!

donrumata

treefroggy
One thing I’ll say about the original screens: the SwanCrystal screen has vastly less ghosting than the regular Color model. If you can ever find one for a reasonable price (which is harder and harder every day unfortunately) I’d really recommend picking it up. It might’ve just been an issue with my particular unit but the ghosting on the WSC made some of the more action-y games a little tougher to play than I would have preferred.

Also, I’ve posted about this previously, but the Flashmasta can run Wonderwitch games that weren’t commercially released with the use of converted ROMs. There’s a tool for this out there called romwitch. There are a couple of really solid games out there for the Wonderwitch, including a semi-sequel to Judgement Silversword called Cardinal Sins. Would recommend checking it out.

exodus

treefroggy is the flashmasta still a single game at a time or is there a game selector now?

also I haven’t seen these green screen backgrounds - my first instinct was it’s just lighting, but I guess you took these pictures so you’d know! pretty odd.

treefroggy

I need a true wonderswan expert for this question!!

What’s the deal with this??

I’ve noticed some original B&W wonderswan screens are green like a Gameboy DMG, and some are true B&W like a gameboy pocket. Did they originally ship both ways or is one the result of replacing polarizing film? My guess is that bandai shipped both ways depending on their stock, like launch models may have been B&W for a time, then when the late 1999 soda/sherbert color varieties released they started using cheaper available green tinted screens.(?)
It also seems like it could be a result of replacing the polarizing film, that the original models were all gray but now they’re being turned green…. Which would be quite unfortunate in my book.

I’m searching for the truth.

robinhoodie

Flashmasta has a menu. But you can only load 16 games into it. Not the full library on an SD card.

The answer is different polarizing films I believe. I think there is a higher quality more expensive film that gives you the black and white over the green

exodus

robinhoodie interesting. I have one of the earliest flashmasta carts (just a bare PCB), I think it was menuless at the time.

donrumata

robinhoodie
To add to this, you can store 16 games or so but it’s got one battery backed ram for all of em. This can be a little annoying to work around. The guy who makes ’em has said they’re looking at adding support for backing saves up in software, but there’s a reasonable chance it never materializes. This is the cheapest way to play some of the best games on the system, but it’s also a little more jank than something like an everdrive.

Also for NGPC I totally recommend the Neopocket Gamedrive from RetroHQ. Out of stock everywhere right now though.

robinhoodie

exodus The Red PCB one? I have that and the more modern version, I put the pure PCB version in my Wonderswan classic and it def has a menu

exodus

looks like I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about!! I am probably confusing it with the early neo geo pocket flashmasta. I think I never got my wonderswan interface working to even find out, now that I think about it.

robinhoodie

exodus NGPC Flashmasta, yeah that is a one or two games at a time cart. I just made it my dedicated Card Fighters Clash 2 / Rockman translation cart. You can buy a shell from the guy who makes them now though as I also had just the pure PCB version at first.

treefroggy

@exodus to add a menu, just download the latest flash masta softo, along with the menu.ws and then it should work.
robinhoodie ah, thanks for the info. That’s a bummer that anyone would settle for green in that case. I’m not going to settle for anything less than beautiful b&w. Amazing how the aftermarket film green ness has become so standard, it’s not even noted anywhere. No one cares about wonderswan :/ except for r/funnyfatty I guess, lol

robinhoodie

treefroggy Its such a tough call as it looks like the high quality polarizer film is about the same price as the IPS kit, and its hard to make sure you are actually ordering the FSTN type. I can’t say I LOVE the cheaper polarizer film even if it works. So not sure exactly how I want to proceed with my WS classic

treefroggy

robinhoodie on the plus side, I can just slide it in and don’t ever have to remove adhesive again.
You’re saying the proper film is crazy expensive? Looks like time for science, bet I can find a cheap supply or salvage from crappier electronics.

Anyways, I’ll have all my wonderswan jazz in the mail this weekend, and I’ll spend all weekend in my recently acquired beach chair playing wonderswan on the boardwalk, and then I’ll have a lot to say here! ;)
You already know it’s gonna be about how non backlit, stock reflective lcds are bathed in honeyed rays of gold!

exodus

treefroggy

exodus I see those street fighter images a lot when I search for Firestarter the fictional wonderswan game from FLCL

Some people have made flash renditions of this game but they made the unforgivable major oversight of making the game in landscape mode when it’s so clearly a portrait mode game.
I like to imagine it’s a wonderwitch doujin that was lost to time because the developer wanted to remain underground.

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