What’s that ? I #Wonder what it can be…? May be a #Swan? http://t.co/K1QNd88dBV
Tag Archives: Bandai2001
WonderMadeleine code release
Ahoy WonderSwan users, developers and hackers!
The WonderMadeleine HDL code is available on the treasure island of GitHub. That’s some treasure chest you’ve got there.
(sorry for the pirate speak ;))
So yes the HDL code for WonderMadeleine is now available, to fit in the Altera EPM240T100C3 MAX II CPLD (a TQFP100 CPLD so not too big and easy to solder)
There is currently no support for external EEPROM, RTC of GPIO, but they will come shortly, I need to finish the documentation on how to access them from the IO port as current documentation is merely wrong. I’ll also publish a more correct hardware documentation at the same time.
This HDL code is currently licensed with the CC BY-ND-NC 4.0 license, that mean that
- You cannot take CPLDs, burn them and sell them
- But you can create your own cart and use the CPLD burn with the code, and you can sell the game cart you made using this CPLD (as you are not making profit from the CPLD, but from your game)
- I’m currently not fond in allowing fork of this project until it is fully finished, but I will be really happy for patch proposal for supporting another CPLD or correcting bugs
- And you can’t integrated this code in a larger project. that mean that you can’t integrate it with other HDL code in a bigger CPLD or FPGA.
Some of this limitation may change in a near future, but they are applicable at the time this line as been written.
I may provide in a near future a template board, either only the borders for a board that fit in existing cartridge, or even a basic board with the Bandai, Flash ROM, SRAM and save battery, depending on people’s need.
I hope that this project will help the WonderSwan homebrew scene grows as it deserve it. This game console is just an unknown jewel.
Finally…
Ten years ago, two student from the Cornell University (North Australia) released the first public homebrew cart and software for the WonderSwan that does not use the WonderWitch. See here.
Their project was a major breakthrough as they where the first to document the WonderSwan hardware, and they are the original authors of the well known wstech document.
And after they made their release… nothing more. There were no concrete or public hardware development for the WonderSwan that went to a releasable product.
Until today!
Bandai’s 2001/2003 small update
Hi folks!
I just post here a simple update on the hardware definition of the Bandai2001 / Bandai2003 due to new thing found about them 🙂
Continue reading Bandai’s 2001/2003 small update
Some WonderSwan Pr0n…
A friend of mine asked me for internal shot of the WonderWitch, so I do it even better, I take all the games I have with me, open them, then make some pron WonderSwan cardridge photos 😉
Here is a view of all the cartridge:
You can see that here the WonderGate is bit shy, he didn’t want to be nude on these photos 😉
Wonder Project! – Part 3
Today, the whole thing goes a bit further, I finally take a bit of time to look on the signals on the WonderSwan Cartridge bus, especially on the BMC signals. I think I solved the whole mystery!
Développement Wonderswan
The original thread on Wonderswan development (in french, sorry): Développement Wonderswan (le retour) « Pocket Videogames – yAronet – Attention : forum addictif !.
Wonder Project!
A few month ago, I was speaking with friend about the marvelous Bandai’s WonderSwan, about making something that is missing for now on the platform: Flash Carts.
But before going more on the subject, I will give you some clues on the WonderSwan, and why it can be so attractive, even if it didn’t went out of Japan.
The WonderSwan is the last video game console made by Bandai, and it was at first a project of Yokoi Gunpei just before his tragic death. This handled game console was in direct line with the Gunpei’s leitmotiv: “Lateral thinking of obsolete technologies”
All his life he try to make the cheapest possible device, without lowering the quality, and this by using “old” technology and by finding a new way to use them. The Wii Remote, is an example, but the GameBoy too, or even the Nintendo DS, they use “obsolete” technology in them, but with modern goal.
There is too much to say on this and could make a full article, but the WonderSwan was made with this idea. When you look at the specs of the CPU of first model, a NEC V30MZ (a clone of the 8086), and when you think that the first WonderSwan was out in Japan in 1999 this look a bit old. But this come at a big price: the device cost was awfully low compared to competition, it was sold at ¥6800 (~$60 / ~50€) when the GameBoy Color cost at least the double or the triple. The other major advantage of the WonderSwan was it’s autonomy: ~30-40Hr … with only ONE AA battery!
The first model was only black and white, like the original GameBoy, and two other version come later, the WonderSwan Color (2000) and the WonderSwan Cristal (2002) with for both a color screen (241 color out of 4096) more RAM (512KB) and for the later a better screen: a TFT LCD instead of a FSTN one used on previous models.
All of thoses models comme in multiple standard colors, and it is, maybe, the video game console with the most special edition I ever see.
So our main problem here is that the WonderSwan use, on each cartridge, a custom chip named Bandai2001 or Bandai2003 and some of its function are still unknown.