Released in Japan on July 12, 2002 the is the third and final release in
Bandaiis a Japanese toy making company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third largest producer of toys. Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs....
's WonderSwan
handheld game consoleA handheld game console is a lightweight, portable device with a built-in screen, games controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...
series, succeeding the
WonderSwanis a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai on March 4, 1999. It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai. The WonderSwan was made to compete with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the market leader Nintendo's Game Boy Color .The WonderSwan was later replaced by...
and
WonderSwan ColorThe is a handheld game console designed by Bandai. It was released on December 30, 2000 in Japan, and was a moderate success.The original WonderSwan had only a black and white screen. Although the WonderSwan Color was slightly larger and heavier compared to the original WonderSwan, the color...
.
The SwanCrystal was a 16-bit handheld game console that like its' predecessors ran off one AA battery. It allowed the input of personal data such as name, birth date, gender, and blood type by holding the Start button while turning the system on (this was possible in both the previous consoles as well).
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Released in Japan on July 12, 2002 the is the third and final release in
Bandaiis a Japanese toy making company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third largest producer of toys. Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs....
's WonderSwan
handheld game consoleA handheld game console is a lightweight, portable device with a built-in screen, games controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...
series, succeeding the
WonderSwanis a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai on March 4, 1999. It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai. The WonderSwan was made to compete with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the market leader Nintendo's Game Boy Color .The WonderSwan was later replaced by...
and
WonderSwan ColorThe is a handheld game console designed by Bandai. It was released on December 30, 2000 in Japan, and was a moderate success.The original WonderSwan had only a black and white screen. Although the WonderSwan Color was slightly larger and heavier compared to the original WonderSwan, the color...
.
Features
The SwanCrystal was a 16-bit handheld game console that like its' predecessors ran off one AA battery. It allowed the input of personal data such as name, birth date, gender, and blood type by holding the Start button while turning the system on (this was possible in both the previous consoles as well). It was compatible with all previous games for both the WonderSwan Color and the original WonderSwan. It came available in four different colors: Skeleton Blue, Skeleton Black, Blue Violet and Red Wine.
Improvements
One of the largest improvements to the SwanCrystal was the use of a
TFT LCDA thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
monitor, which was superior in response time to the FSTN monitor used previously by the WonderSwan Color. This gave the screen a much crisper look during gameplay, due to sharper contrast and significantly reduced ghosting. As a result, the SwanCrystal does not possess the contrast adjustment dial found on the other consoles.
Other possible improvments are the four selectable volume settings (compared to three on both the WonderSwan and WonderSwan Colour), and a face-mounted power button (compared to a side-mounted switch on the WonderSwan).
Drawbacks
One possible drawback of the SwanCrystal is that the new TFT LCD monitor required more power than the WonderSwan Color's FSTN monitor, thus lowering its play time from 20 hours to 15 on one AA battery.
Sometimes, when the game cartridge is inserted all the way in (which would be normal for most consoles), the game will not load properly, or not turn on at all. A solution for this was to leave a little gap between the system and the cartridge.
This doesn't seem to be the case with the two previous systems.
Hardware specifications
- CPU: SPGY-1003, a 3.072 MHz 16-bit NEC V30MZ Clone
- Memory: 64Kbyte VRAM/WRAM (shared)
- Screen:
- TFT reflective Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures...
- 2.8 inch (71 mm) diagonal
- no backlight
- resolution: 224x144 pixels
- colors: 241 out of 4096 colors
- Sound: Built-in mono speaker or stereo with optional headphones adapter
- Four volume settings selectable via button: loud, medium, soft, mute
- Link: Two players (adapter needed)
- Power: one AA battery (~15 hours of game play)
- Size: 127.7 by 77.5 by 24.3 mm
- Weight 95 g (3.35 oz) including battery
External links