The Wonderswan is one of Japan's most unique retro handhelds, even more so the WonderSwan Crystal, which I personally added to my collection recently, so this news is warmly welcomed.
Admittedly, it has limited battery life and a very heavy focus on Japanese games, making it a very niche device for Western folk, but that takes nothing away from its magic.
Spotted first at TimeExtension, this beautiful console is getting a new flashcart, which has been in development for almost two years, thanks to the legends over at 49bitcat.
General features
- Loading programs from a FAT16/FAT32 storage card (speeds up to 900 KB/s)
- Support for running WS programs up to 16 MiB in size
- Emulation of the following cartridge hardware:
- SRAM saves (32 / 64 / 128 / 256 / 512 KiB)
- EEPROM saves (128 B / 1 KiB / 2 KiB)
- RTC (Real-Time Clock)
- NOR Flash (512 KiB)
- Battery backup for save data
- Save data is transferred to card every system start to minimize data loss
- Compatible with WS, WSC, SC and PCv2 systems
- Firmware update support, with recovery options for failed updates
- Recovery button for starting WSC/SC consoles with corrupted internal EEPROM data
- Optimized power consumption
- Hard gold cartridge contacts for improved longevity
- 3-axis accelerometer for homebrew
- Open source, upgradeable FPGA and MCU firmware
- Cartridge label designed by alfaxysm
Developer features
- Support for runtime FPGA core switching
- USB port for quickly testing software (>= 55 KB/s) and debug output
- Documentation for device programming and protocols
The flash cart will retail for €85/£75/$99 and will be available to purchase on 24th November 2025 at 16:00 GMT from 49BitCat's store.
It's going to open up a lot of new opportunities for homebrew development, which I am excited about, and fingers crossed this gains traction in the Wonderswan community.
