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[PumpkinSpice]

So I bought a SwanCrystal. It's on its way now. It was marked as junk on ebay but only had "missing battery door." I don't know if it actually works, but I think even if it's more than just the battery door I can fix it. Decent price at least, not as good as I originally wanted but I think a few other people must have realized the same thing I did about the battery box missing being the only thing making it "junk" -- I don't think the seller could even test it.

Apparently buying the battery boxes these days isn't so easy, so... yeah I bought the cheapest original Wonderswan I could find (hot pink yo) just to get its battery box (thanks again krae_man).

So two WonderSwans, a copy of Klonoa: Midnight Museum, Gunpey, and Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 4. My Japanese skills are pretty basic but I think with the help of a walkthrough I can get through the FF games. I managed to get through DQ7 3DS so I should be fine.

I'll post a pic of everything when I officially join the Tumbleweed Portable Club.

Sidenote: fuck ebay. I hate bid sniping so much, but you pretty much have to do it in order to get stuff at a decent price. I'd much rather do Buy It Now or give an offer -- if it's a reasonably common item the BIN price is only a bit more than completed auction price but for the SwanCrystal the cheapest you could get it BIN was > $100USD.

I got burned by sniping on a recent DS game purchase so now I force myself to not bid on anything until the last minute (just watchlist it) and only bid when there are < 10 seconds left with a healthy max bid. It's just stressful and annoying. I had to do this 3 times this weekend, ugh.

I think I should just order more stuff from BookOff online store and have it forwarded by my inlaws (they don't mind as long as its not too big or heavy) but for WS stuff they don't seem to have stock of anything.

 

[krae_man]

I kind of want a copy of Judgement Silversword now but man $150+ is a lot.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I kind of want a copy of Judgement Silversword now but man $150+ is a lot.

If you have an Xbox 360, JSS in included with Eschatos. It's a $30 import for the "best price" re-release. Region free too.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Woooooooooo two months later my SwanCrystal finally arrived.

The whole family:

SwanCrystal complete with surrogate battery door:

And it totally worked! The only thing wrong was the missing battery door. I gave it a good cleaning and replaced the batteries in the carts and everything is as good as new. Screen only has a few scratches, nothing major.

I guess I'll start playing Klonoa now. I thought about trying it on the pink one, which arrived a month and a half ago, but the smearing was offputting. The screen in the SwanCrystal is very clear, about the same as the original GBA so fairly dark but with zero ghosting.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Great pics! Swan Crystal is such pleasant looking hardware.

 

[Teknoman]

Had no idea there was even a thread dedicated to it. Will add it to the list.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Great pics! Swan Crystal is such pleasant looking hardware.

It looks a lot better in person than I expected it to. I thought this was super ugly the first time I saw pictures of it but it's surprisingly slick. The purple, which I thought would be kinda crappy, is fairly classy and kinda reminds me of the GameCube.

 

[Celine]

A beauty is a beauty.

As a side note, I set my eyes on my next game purchase for WonderSwan.
Hope to find it soon at a price I'd like to.

 

[Celine]

Finally it's here.
One Piece Chopper no Daibouken is an action RPG/rogue-like developed by Tose.
It was one of the latest release on WS in late 2003.
Being One Piece a popular IP at the time, the OP games on WonderSwan are all quite good and a few of them the best the system had to offer (for example One Piece Swan Colosseum).

 

[sixteen-bit]

I saw Yes Boss! picked up Makaimura from one of his instagram post. I feel like I'm closer and closer to doing the same, haha. I wanna get a Swan Crystal first though.

 

[Celine]

Makaimura for WS is a good game, too bad for the slowdowns and the so so music.

Yes Boss picked up a WS game and didn't post here? Bad, very bad

 

[Celine]

I've created a site dedicated to the WonderSwan, I hope it can help gamers to know this underappreciated handheld:
http://swan-of-wonders.weebly.com

 

[d+pad]

Hello everyone I finally bought myself a WonderSwan system! It was a long time coming, as before that I bought about 11 WS games over the last couple of years.

Sadly, I didn't buy a Swan Crystal, although I'll definitely be picking one up sometime next year.

In fact, I only got a WS Color because it was part of an eBay auction that included Clock Tower and the three Final Fantasy games, all of which I've wanted for a while now.

Anyway, I'm happy to finally be a part of this tiny (but dedicated and passionate) little club ^^

I don't know if anyone will be interested, but I wrote a blog post about this recent acquisition the other day. It includes a bunch of photos of my new WonderSwan Color system as well as the five games that came along with it: http://www.thegaygamer.com/2015/10/...ely-wonderswan-owners-has-another-member.html

Oh, and if you'd like to see some photos of the other WonderSwan games I've bought over the years, click on the link at the end of the blog post linked to above

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Nice!

The FF WonderSwan games are really neat. It's hard to say they're better than their GBA counterparts, but they definitely stand out the most among versions of those particular games. FF4's soundtrack is really cool.

 

[Celine]

About time Bryan ;-)

 

[sixteen-bit]

Congrats on the pickup Bryan. I hope to hear some WS recommendations on Nichiest!

 

[d+pad]

Thank you, Celine, SheepyGuy and sixteen-bit

I look forward to playing through all of the games I've picked up so far--well, except for Terrors, which I probably won't be able to enjoy for some time. (My Japanese studies are going sloooooooowly.)

I especially look forward to trying the WS version of FFIV. FFIV is one of my all-time favorite games, and this would be my first time playing through it in Japanese.

Also, I'm eager to play Clock Tower for the first time ever, as well as Chocobo's Dungeon and Hataraku Chocobo.

What do all of you think of Blue Wing Blitz and Wild Card? Are they worth buying, too?

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Finally got around to getting into Klonoa. It's surprisingly very puzzle-y.

I don't really like the vertical levels, though; makes it really hard to angle the screen to the light correctly.

 

[Celine]

Finally got around to getting into Klonoa. It's surprisingly very puzzle-y.

I don't really like the vertical levels, though; makes it really hard to angle the screen to the light correctly.

Yeah, the vertical levels are just pointless (developer didn't think anything meaningful to add beside the gimmick in itself).
Makaimaura vertical stage is more interesting for example.

What do all of you think of Blue Wing Blitz and Wild Card? Are they worth buying, too?

Hard question, both require japanese comprehension.
They seems excellent games for what they are though (tactical RPG the former, card RPG the latter).

 

[Celine]

My latest purchase is the fourth Arc the Lad which was exclusive for WonderSwan.
The game is among the best looking ones on the little handheld.
It looks like a high end 16 Bit RPG, the animations are especially impressive.

 

[sixteen-bit]

'tuber with about 250K subs just made a WS vid. I think prices are gonna increase, lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbReNENRMA8

 

[Celine]

Prices are already increasing...

 

[Meffer]

I really want one.

 

[4444244]

I can't remember exactly what prompted it, but I ended up seeing a couple of YouTube videos on the swan. And remembered that I had a few bits and pieces. Having scoured the loft I have the following;

Wonderswan trans blue system.
Buffers evolution.
Pocket Fighter.
Final Fantasy boxed WS with game.
Swancrystal with front light mod.
Rhyme Rider Kerorican.
Gulity Gear II.
Judgment Silversword.

My modded Swancrystal seemed to run errors and wouldn't boot the games, but I noticed that the brighness dial was all the way up, and once I adjusted this down, the games would boot. Strange.

One thing I noticed was that the games were nigh-on unplayable on the standard unit, you really need the SC + front light.

I quite like the look of the puzzle bobble game and the klonoa one, also that dicing knight looks like a great action rpg, although i am not sure if I will get any more games for it.

I do like finding these threads and I'll keep my stuff to hand for the time being, and see if I get back into it properly.

One thing I noticed, apart from the annoying volume / no headphone socket, was there any carry cases for this, r what do people use?

 

[4444244]

C'mon there must be more fans of this little hand-held!?

Anyway, I picked up Puzzle Bobble, can't go wrong with that, it's a really fun version of the game I recommend it, go so far as to say that it is a must-buy.

One thing I would say, is that I really can't use my B&W unit, It's so difficult to play it with the quality of screen - although my eyes are really crap.

Good job I have a front-lit Swan crystal;

I've just picked up a Genpey loose cart and now I'm toying with picking up Magical drop.

.



= Can any WS owners advise what they use to carry the console in ? =



.

 

[coughlanio]

I can't remember exactly what prompted it, but I ended up seeing a couple of YouTube videos on the swan. And remembered that I had a few bits and pieces. Having scoured the loft I have the following;

Wonderswan trans blue system.
Buffers evolution.
Pocket Fighter.
Final Fantasy boxed WS with game.
Swancrystal with front light mod.
Rhyme Rider Kerorican.
Gulity Gear II.
Judgment Silversword.

My modded Swancrystal seemed to run errors and wouldn't boot the games, but I noticed that the brighness dial was all the way up, and once I adjusted this down, the games would boot. Strange.

One thing I noticed was that the games were nigh-on unplayable on the standard unit, you really need the SC + front light.

I quite like the look of the puzzle bobble game and the klonoa one, also that dicing knight looks like a great action rpg, although i am not sure if I will get any more games for it.

I do like finding these threads and I'll keep my stuff to hand for the time being, and see if I get back into it properly.

One thing I noticed, apart from the annoying volume / no headphone socket, was there any carry cases for this, r what do people use?

You know Judgement Silversword is worth about $600 right?

 

[4444244]

You know Judgement Silversword is worth about $600 right?

Not that much surely? Isn't that just an eBay price that no one pays?

 

[Celine]

= Can any WS owners advise what they use to carry the console in ? =

My Swan Crystal reside into an official socket for Nintendo DS which I got from Club Nintendo.
Obviously it's not rigid but I don't carry the handheld away from home so it's fine for me.

It's a wonderful handheld IMO, too bad not many on GAF actively support/appreciate/know about it.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

I just use my 3DS cases. It's not even close to a perfect fit but good enough to avoid scratches.

 

[Tain]

Weird handheld. Emulating the WS version of beatmania was my intro to the series, lol.

trap15 has that STG in development...

 

[Celine]

Weird handheld. Emulating the WS version of beatmania was my intro to the series, lol.

trap15 has that STG in development...

Ah that's cool, I didn't know about it!

http://firelancer.ws/

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjTpAOlzHHY

 

[4444244]

Cheers chaps, I'll look for a DS pouch or summat.

Did anyone here get one of these Flash carts?

- http://www.flashmasta.com/category/wonderswan-flash-cart/

By the way that shooter in development looks great, but there seems like there will be too much shrapnel / you won't see bullets.

 

[Celine]

WonderSwan emulation is known for to be kind of shitty and not very accurate, thanks god this is going to change with the release of Byuu's BWS which is the most accurate WonderSwan emulator currently available.
For example in the old WS emulators the music of Flash Koibito Kun was often fucked up (wrong tempo). Not anymore!!!

http://download.byuu.org/bws.html

 

[sixteen-bit]

swag

 

[Mr. Virus]

Ended up getting a WSC over Christmas.

Anyone had any joy in finding the headphone adapters for not ridiculous prices?

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Ended up getting a WSC over Christmas.

Anyone had any joy in finding the headphone adapters for not ridiculous prices?

I searched through junk bins at several hard offs for several hours with an eye out for one and didn't find any. I can tell you there was no joy in that.

 

[Jamix012]

I got a Crystal Model late last year but I so far only have the Mega Man game for it. I want recommendations for a game that gives me the following:

- Is a color game
- Can be played without any Japanese
- Isn't ported to more powerful hardware later
- Isn't >$100

Anything that fits that bill?

 

[sixteen-bit]

I got a Crystal Model late last year but I so far only have the Mega Man game for it. I want recommendations for a game that gives me the following:

- Is a color game
- Can be played without any Japanese
- Isn't ported to more powerful hardware later
- Isn't >$100

Anything that fits that bill?

Do you like Fighting games? The Guilty Gear Petits might be worth a look.

 

[Celine]

Ended up getting a WSC over Christmas.

Anyone had any joy in finding the headphone adapters for not ridiculous prices?

Nope.

I got a Crystal Model late last year but I so far only have the Mega Man game for it. I want recommendations for a game that gives me the following:

- Is a color game
- Can be played without any Japanese
- Isn't ported to more powerful hardware later
- Isn't >$100

Anything that fits that bill?

http://swan-of-wonders.weebly.com/top-15-games.html

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Cheers chaps, I'll look for a DS pouch or summat.

Did anyone here get one of these Flash carts?

- http://www.flashmasta.com/category/wonderswan-flash-cart/

By the way that shooter in development looks great, but there seems like there will be too much shrapnel / you won't see bullets.

I actually was meaning to ask this too. I was thinking to pick one up to play some fan translations on my SwanCrystal but the price is... a little... I mean... it's probably fair considering only like 10 people are going to buy it but it's still $95 USD.

 

[Mr. Virus]

I searched through junk bins at several hard offs for several hours with an eye out for one and didn't find any. I can tell you there was no joy in that.

Yeah, figured the mark ups were all for a reason . Bit of a pain when the console itself can be cheaper than the accessory but at least it's not GC component cable prices yet.

Oh well, playing it muted while travelling.l it is.

 

[d+pad]

So, although I've owned a WonderSwan Color and about 16 WS games for ages now, I never really played any of them until earlier today.

The games I spent a little/a lot of time with this morning:

Engacho!
Flash Kobito-kun
Mr. Driller
Rainbow Islands: Putty's Party
Tane wo Maku Tori
Xi Little

I wanted to play some Chocobo no Fushigi Dungeon as well, but it appears my cart no longer works

Anyway, I enjoyed all of them to varying degrees, with my favorites being Engacho! and Tane wo Maku Tori. Flash Kobito-kun was nice, too, if perhaps more straightforward/simplistic than I assumed it would be.

The Mr. Driller port is surprisingly good, but at the end of the day, it's ... a Mr. Driller port, you know?

Rainbow Islands: Putty's Party was the most disappointing of the bunch. I expected it to be fine, despite its shocking lack of color, but the slow, stilted jumping really gets in your way and makes enjoying the game difficult.

I'm going to put some more time into all of the above over the next few days and even weeks and then write about them as part of a new WonderSwan-focused series on my blog moving forward.

I'll also play/"review" some of the WS games I've picked up in recent months but didn't mention earlier, including Clock Tower, Hataraku Chocobo, Final Fantasy I/II/IV, Romancing SaGa and SaGa.

Would any of you recommend any WonderSwan games I failed to mention? I've already got my eye on Blue Wing Blitz, Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, Makaimura and Wild Card, but that's about it, so if any of you have any recommendations, please share them!

 

[EYEL1NER]

One of these days I'm going to buy the Final Fantasy and Gundam/Zaku limited edition Wonderswans. I only have a SwanCrystal, Beatmania, and then a Gundam game that I don't know the name of (haven't ever played it either; it's a very text-intensive strategy game). There are quite a few games I want to track down at some point too. I remember having a ton of fun with Beatmania and the circular scratch pad attachment when I bought mine, what, like 12 years ago or so?

 

[Celine]

Anyway, I enjoyed all of them to varying degrees, with my favorites being Engacho! and Tane wo Maku Tori.

Puzzle is, with RPG, the strongest genre on WonderSwan.
Engacho is fantastic!

Flash Kobito-kun was nice, too, if perhaps more straightforward/simplistic than I assumed it would be.

While it might not look at first, Flash Koibito-Kun is a puzzle game which focus on score.
For instance in the first stage you can easily achieve more than 1 million points (if I remember correctly my record is about 2.9 million).
To achieve said huge record is the inherent depth of Flash Koibito-Kun game play system.
It's simple but to achieve big score you need good coordination (it's heavy on the action puzzle game side), basically a high caliber Nintendo Game & Watch.

Would any of you recommend any WonderSwan games I failed to mention? I've already got my eye on Blue Wing Blitz, Kaze no Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, Makaimura and Wild Card, but that's about it, so if any of you have any recommendations, please share them!

One Piece Swan Colosseum is a must own.

Can you read Japanese? Arc the Lad Kishin Fukkatsu (exclusive Arc the Lad spin off) is among the most impressive game on the system.

 

[d+pad]

Puzzle is, with RPG, the strongest genre on WonderSwan.
Engacho is fantastic!

Yeah, I know a lot of people (esp. in the West) ignore Engacho! because they think it's childish/gross, but I think that's a mistake. The gameplay is really unique/interesting and worth buying/playing for that reason alone, IMO.

While it might not look at first, Flash Koibito-Kun is a puzzle game which focus on score.
For instance in the first stage you can easily achieve more than 1 million points (if I remember correctly my record is about 2.9 million).
To achieve said huge record is the inherent depth of Flash Koibito-Kun game play system.
It's simple but to achieve big score you need good coordination (it's heavy on the action puzzle game side), basically a high caliber Nintendo Game & Watch.

That makes sense. And don't worry, I'm not giving up on it, by any means! I only played it for about 15 minutes yesterday, and that's why I described it as simplistic. I'll put a lot more time into it in the coming days/weeks and in that time try to look at it from the perspective you offered up here

BTW, you describing it as being like a G&W game is spot-on. That's exactly what it feels like--and I mean that in a good way!

One Piece Swan Colosseum is a must own.

Can you read Japanese? Arc the Lad Kishin Fukkatsu (exclusive Arc the Lad spin off) is among the most impressive game on the system.

Thank you for the recommendations! I'm currently at the early stages of learning Japanese. As such, I probably don't know enough to be able to translate much of Arc the Lad, but that's OK. It looks good enough that I'm willing to put up with being a bit confused while playing it XD

As for the One Piece game, I've got to say I'm not much of a One Piece fan, which helps explain why I've ignored this game until now. I'll go watch some videos of it, though, and see if that changes my mind. Thanks again!

 

[Celine]

As for the One Piece game, I've got to say I'm not much of a One Piece fan, which helps explain why I've ignored this game until now. I'll go watch some videos of it, though, and see if that changes my mind. Thanks again!

One Piece Swan Colosseum is among the best games on WonderSwan regardless if you like the OP license or not.
It's a fighting game akin to Smash Bros with stunning graphics and animations.

 

[d+pad]

Does anyone here have any experience w/ Rainbow Islands: Putty's Party?

I've been playing it this week, and I'm confused about a few things:

1. What causes the exit door to appear in the 3rd stage of the 2nd and 4th worlds? (Unlike every other stage, your goal isn't just to get to the "top" of these stages. Something you do causes an exit door to appear, but I'm not quite sure what--just jumping onto a platform, hitting it with one of your rainbows, beating enough enemies, collecting enough items...)

2. Are there more than 4 words in this version of the game? I've beaten the ones are available, but nothing else opened up after that.

Anyway, I'm finding the gaming surprisingly enjoyable despite the fact that it's more than a bit awkward to play...

 

[d+pad]

Sorry for bumping this thread again, but I'm wondering if any of you have played Clock Tower for WonderSwan? Or, hell, do any of you own a CIB copy of the game and, if so, would you be willing to check out its manual to help me with a few questions?

One is: does Clock Tower for WonderSwan have a panic button like the Super Famicom version does? If so, which one is it? Or is it that the WS' A button doubles (triples/quadruples) as a panic button when the need arises? (I know the A button acts as the walk/run button as well as the investigate button, and the B button stops Jennifer in her tracks, but that's all I'm sure about right now.)

Two: does this version of the game have an item button? Or, again, does the A button take care of that as the need arises? (If not, what am I supposed to hit when I need to use an item?)

Three: does Clock Tower for WonderSwan allow you to see/check Jennifer's strength level? Or is that not a thing in this version of the game? If it is, how do you check it, or how do you know what level she's at?

Believe me, I'd look at my own manual if I could, but it's currently in storage many, many miles away and I won't have access to it until the end of the year As such, thanks to anyone who can provide any help here!

 

[4444244]

Sorry I can't help d+pad.

With reference to an earlier post I made, I finally found an official (I think or as good as) pouch for my Wonderswans.


Its not padded, but it'll do.

Also has a see-through back.

 

[sixteen-bit]

That case looks so cool!