WonderSwan emulators

For emulators that run on the WonderSwan, see Emulators on WonderSwan.

WonderSwan

The WonderSwan
Developer	Koto, Bandai, Qute, Benesse
Type	Handheld game console, SDK
Generation	Sixth
Release date	1999 (WonderSwan) 2000 (WonderSwan Color) 2001 (WonderWitch) 2002 (Swan Crystal, Pocket Challenge V2)
Discontinued	2003 (WonderSwan, WonderWitch) 2006 (Pocket Challenge V2)
Predecessor	Design Master Denshi Mangajuku
Successor	WonderSwan Color
Emulated	✓

The WonderSwan, WonderSwan Color and SwanCrystal are the fifth-generation handheld game consoles produced by Bandai in 1999, 2000 and 2002, respectively. It is the brainchild of Game Boy/Color creator, Gunpei Yokoi. There were three versions eventually released: A black-and-white version, a color version, and a Crystal version with an improved screen.

WonderWitch is a software development kit by Qute for WonderSwan handheld consoles.

The Pocket Challenge V2 is a handheld learning console compatible with the WonderSwan. It was sold on Shinkenzemi (進研ゼミ).

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	PCv2	Hardware features and peripherals	Enhancements	Accuracy	License	Active	Recommended
x86
Mesen		Dev builds	✗	~	?	High	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
ares		git Artifacts v148	~	~	?	High	ISC (Permissive)	✓	✓
Mednafen Beetle Cygne		1.32.1 libretro core	✗	~	~	Mid	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
BizHawk Beetle Cygne		Dev builds 2.11.1	✗	?	~	Mid	MIT GPL	✓	✓
StoicGoose		git	✗	✗	✗	?	MIT (Permissive)	✗	~
MiracleMage		0.33English Patch[1][2]	✗	✗	✗	Low	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	~
higan (火眼) byuu (謬/view)		v110 libretro core	~	✗	✗	Mid	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✗	✗
MAME		git artifacts 0.289 libretro core	~	?	?	?	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✓	✗
Cygne		2.1a	✗	✗	✗	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	✗
Oswan		1.7.3	✗	~	~	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	✗
WonderScott		0.54b	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
WSCamp		0.21	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
Xe		2.16.2	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
ARM
Beetle Cygne		libretro core	✗	~	~	Mid	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
WonderDroid Ultra		5.5 git	✗	✗	✗	Mid*	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	~
WonderDroid X		1.0.15 ($)	✗	✗	✗	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	~
Swan.emu		1.5.85git	✗	✗	✗	Mid*	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	~
Provenance		3.3.0 git	?	?	?	?	?	✓	?
Console
Beetle Cygne		libretro core	✗	~	~	Mid	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
NitroSwan		0.7.7	~	~	~	Mid	?	✓	✓
e[mulator] for PSP		0.82f	✗	✗	✗	?*	?	✗	✓
WiiMednafen		git	✗	✗	✗	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	✓
SwanGBA		0.7.6	?	✗	✗	Mid	?	✓	~
eSwan		0.09	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
SwanEmu		git	✗	✗	✗	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	~
DualSwan		1.2.1	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
PocketWS		0.02b	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
Wonderstation		0.1	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	~
Oswan		Gameblabla's 06/03/23	✗	~	~	?	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗	~
OswanDC		0.15	✗	?	?	?	Proprietary	✗	✗
SwanAdvance		0.1	✗	✗	✗	?	Proprietary	✗	✗

Comparisons

Mesen

• High accuracy, on par and competing with ares.

ares

• High accuracy.

Mednafen

• Mid accuracy.
• Supports using external software to emulate serial port peripherals; for example, WonderFence can be used to emulate the MobileWonderGate peripheral.

NitroSwan

• Mid accuracy, constrained by the NDS's hardware limitations.
• Due to hardware limitations, there is a maximum ROM size limit on this emulator:

• DS/DS Lite: 3 MB, can be expanded with Slot-2 expansion RAM
• DSi: 8 MB
• 3DS: 16 MB

WSCamp

• A WonderSwan and WS Color emulator written by Toshi.
• The first WonderSwan emulator to feature sound as well as gamepad support.
• During its heyday in the early 2000s, it was the most accurate WonderSwan emulator, beating out Cygne and Oswan.

Cygne

• The first WonderSwan emulator created on the Windows platform, written by Dox.

MiracleMage

• High-level emulator for the WonderWitch platform, which allows running its software without a copy of the WonderWitch ROM.
• Does not support the WonderSwan Color; only runs "mono" software.

Oswan

• Improved version of Cygne.
• Supports video filters and colorization.

WonderScott

• The second WonderSwan emulator created, written in JavaScript by Julien Frelat (Gollum) and released by the same team that made Boycott Advance.
• Abandoned after its last version, v0.54b, was uploaded near the end of 2001 with poor compatibility.

Debugging

Mesen

Mesen has a well-regarded built-in debugger and profiler, as well as high emulation accuracy.

Mednafen

This multi-system emulator is said to have great debugging and cheat engine features but, unfortunately, has a CRC check function similar to default MAME. A CRC check analyses a game ROM file for any change to its data and size, so a fan-translator or ROMhacker would have to edit filenames every time for every change, which is incredibly tedious.

MAME

This well-known emulator of thousands of systems also has a normal CRC check algorithm to insure that the ROM file(s) of any supported game or clone, depending on the database/ROMset for a MAME version, match the data integrity and size of the same game/variant in the records. However, this does make it rather prickly for an aspiring ROMhacker. The MAME developers partly wanted this to reduce the nasty incidences of some sellers pawning circuit boards that were actually stuffed with user-made ROMhacks. There are a few ways around that - note that MAME developers still support genuine fan-translators, even for arcade games.

1) Try using the HBMAME or MAMEUIFX frontend, which may support loading modified ROMs.

2) If you don't zip the set and instead make a folder with the zipname inside your rompath with properly-named loose files inside there, MAME will fuss up, but it will run the game even though the CRCs don't match.

3) With the new GEnie build system, it's pretty easy to build a one-game-off version of MAME that builds in seconds on pretty much any worthwhile PC.

make SUBTARGET=rom_name DRIVERS=src/mame/drivers/whatever.c REGENIE=1

Oswan

Another emulator with a built-in debugger, which is somewhat more user friendly than Mednafen's.

Enhancements

Name		Mesen	ares	Mednafen	BizHawk	StoicGoose	MiracleMage
Audio	Higher sample rates	✗	✗	✓	?	?	?
Controls	Input lag-mitigating technique	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Turbo button	✓	?	?	?	?	?
Graphics	Remove sprite limit The WonderSwan supports up to 32 sprites per line out of 128 sprites total.	✗	✗	✗	?	?	?
	Resizable internal resolution	For emulation of 2D systems, the resolution can only be upscaled, making the pixels more apparent.
	Sprite replacement	?	✗	?	?	?	?
	Widescreen hack	?	?	?	?	?	?
Performance	Internal frame rate hack	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Overclock	?	?	?	?	?	?
Post-processing	AI-powered filter compatible (Freestyle)	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Filters	✓	✓	✓	?	?	?
	Inverse tone mapping compatible	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Post-rendering scaling (Sharp bilinear, Lanczos and FSR 1)	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Shader chain	?	?	~	?	?	?
Quality of life	Automatic updater	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Big Picture Mode	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Built-in custom resolution/CRTSwitchRes For using this on Windows OS you need CRT Emudriver. Another option is using EDID editor tool such as "Custom Resolution Utility".	Exclusive to libretro cores and GroovyMAME at the moment. Also there is a project for achieving software emulators like libretro cores and GroovyMAME send the raw RGB data over a network to a core running on MiSTer, it basically turns the MiSTer into a GPU for the emulator allowing for easy setup and use with CRT TVs/Arcade monitors.
	Built-in cheat manager	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Built-in mod editor and manager	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Built-in patch manager	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Command line options	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Pause/resume emulation	✓	?	?	?	?	?
	Per-game profiles	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Streamable compression format	?	?	?	?	?	?
TAS features	Fast-forward/Turbo speed	✓	✓	✓	✓	?	?
	Macros/Scripts/Lua	?	✗	?	✓	?	?
	Movie recording/playback	?	✗	?	✓	?	?
	Rewind	✓	✗	?	✓	?	?
	Save states	✓	✓	✓	✓	?	?
Misc.	AI service With the help of OCR and other techniques, the AI service can provide a live translation of a game, or text-to-speech capabilities for the visually impaired among other things, either on demand or automatically.	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	Debug features	✓	~	✓	~	?	?
	EmuVR support	Exclusive to libretro cores at the moment.
	Netplay	✗	✗	✗	?	?	?
	RetroAchievements	✗	roadmap	~	✓	?	?

Higher sample rates

While the WonderSwan outputs 24,000 Hz digital audio, there is nothing preventing an emulator from clocking the audio hardware at a higher effective sample rate.

Hardware features and peripherals

Name		Mesen	ares	Mednafen	BizHawk	StoicGoose	MiracleMage
Cartridge features	Handy Sonar	✗	✗	✗	✗	?	?
	Real-time clock	✗	✓	✓	?	?	?
	WonderWitch flash memory	✗	✓	✓	?	?	?
Hardware features	75 Hz refresh rate The WonderSwan outputs frames at 75.47 Hz.	?	✓	?	?	?	?
	Headphone/Speaker toggle As most emulators assume a connected headphone cable, this refers to the ability to emulate the console's built-in speaker output instead.	✓	✓	✗	?	?	?
	Internal EEPROM configuration Setting the owner name/birthday and other settings. This can be done via BIOS, if emulated.	✓	✓	✓	✓	?	?
	LCD icons	✓	✓	✗	✗	?	?
	System BIOS	✓	✓	✗	✗	?	?
Peripherals	Link cable	✗	✗	?	✗	?	?
	Mama Mitte	✗	✗	✗	✗	?	?
	MobileWonderGate	✗	✗	~	?	?	?
	WonderBorg	✗	✗	✗	✗	?	?
	WonderWave	✗	✗	✗	✗	?	?
	WonderWitch file transfer	✗	✗	~ Tutorial	?	?	?

Gallery

The WonderSwan Color

The SwanCrystal

Resources

• WSdev Wiki - up-to-date hardware documentation
• awesome-wsdev - homebrew development resource list

Historical websites

• BANDAI WONDERSWAN 101: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE (July 6th, 2007 by racketboy; updated June 19th, 2018. Old feature covering early WonderSwan emulation. Oswan and WSCamp were the recommended emulators according to the article. Both are too old by now and not recommended.)
• Wikibooks.org (PSP/Emulation List. 5 old emulators and ports for the PSP.)
• VTEmulation.net (Old list of 3 old, early 2000's recommended emulators. Site no longer maintained.)
• Old-Computers.com (List of 5 old, early 2000's emulators. For reference only.)
• Zophar's Domain (List of downloads for 5 old, early 2000's emulators.)

Also See

• Emulators on WonderSwan