r/WonderSwan • u/TheArtificerWrites • 9d ago

Getting Into Wonderswan

Hiya folks, I’ve always been vaguely aware of the Wonderswan family of systems but never really thought about it. But it’s stuck in my brain now. It’s wild that it never left Japan considering how many neat features and games it had. I’m thinking about getting into it. I’d like to get one and a flash cart so I can run English patched games

My question is, has anyone translated the operating system? That might be worded poorly. What I mean is, I saw that it asks for your name, birthday, etc. I think this is kinda cute. It reminds me of the DS and I’d like to have the full experience. So has anyone found a way to translate those prompts?

2 Upvotes

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5

u/AnWanderingTraveller 9d ago

That menu is already in English in its entirety (it's just one or two screens, depending on model), so it doesn't need a translation.

3

u/Nbisbo 8d ago

the bios is in English just hold start when a game is in the system and power it on

2

u/Goodwill_Gamer 9d ago

Picking up a wonderswan: Easy. Highly recommend. 10/10.

Getting a Wonderswan flash cart? Ha! Good luck...

3

u/strongjoe 9d ago

Well, nileswan round 3 will come soon, you just have to be aware of the precise time it drops. And hopefully demand will drop after most people have one.

3

u/Goodwill_Gamer 8d ago

Hopefully, the first two drops sold out in under a minute 😞 I'm trying to decide if it's even worth trying for drop 3 because based on the level of interest still being sky high it's going to do the same thing.

3

u/strongjoe 8d ago

Hard to say, but of course you could try your luck when they drop it

1

u/Mexr3 6d ago

Definitely worth picking one up, maybe a colour and IPS mod if you don't get on with the screen

1

u/gio-74 8d ago

For years, the flash cart market for Bandai's handheld has been incredibly niche, expensive, and technically frustrating. But things are finally moving fast. Here is the current situation:

1. "Old School" and Chinese Clones Historically, the market was dominated by the FlashMasta (which is now almost impossible to find). Recently, a cheap Asian clone called the "Flash Masta Youth Edition" started popping up on AliExpress. The catch? It's a leap backwards: no MicroSD slot, limited memory, and it requires an external USB hardware flasher/dumper to inject games one by one, that you can find translated in this pinned post.

2. The Revolution: nileswan This is the modern flash cart everyone was dreaming of. It finally supports MicroSD cards (FAT32), features RTC (Real-Time Clock for games like Digimon), has an updatable FPGA chip, and boots ROMs up to 16MB. The big downside? It is produced in tiny batches, and restocks sell out in a matter of seconds.

So, it's up to you! I suggest buying a WSC using buyee in Japan, rather than using ebay.