Adventures with a Wonderswan

[rubber_jonnie]

I've recently received a couple of Wonderswans (Wonderswans and though I haven't been able to verify operation fully as yet as I'm waiting on a cart for them, it's clear the Colour seems to have a working screen (I will likely upgrade to an IPS display at some point though), but the B&W version does not. I can see a small icon appear at the bottom left, but the rest of the screen is just meh.

Doing some research and it seem that there are lots of polariser issues with these B&W Wonderswans, and it seems this is the case with mine. You can see here the wrinkled mess that one half of the polariser is:

IMG20240601105623.jpg

This isn't the end of it though. There is another part, a plastic film on the display that needs to be removed and it seems to be quite a trial to get it removed.

I have some new polariser film on the way, luckily it's linear polariser, but in the meantime I'll do the prep work to get the old film removed and all cleaned and ready to go.

[HigashiJun]

A new saga begins !

:D

[rubber_jonnie]

@HigashiJun

Indeed it does! Interesting little consoles, but it looks like removing the film from the display is a tricky process, I'll have to be careful!!

Lots of helpful videos on YouTube though :)

[BennehBoy]

I never even knew these were a thing, were they Japan only?

[rubber_jonnie]

I never even knew these were a thing, were they Japan only?

Yep they were Japan only, so as such have no region, just Japan. From what I can dig up, there are some games that have had an english conversion, but I need to get an SD card adapter first, looks like the FlashMasta is the best one for this, if I can find one.

Saying that, there is a cartridge dumper/ROM cart combo on Ali Express, but either way I need to wait before I get them as I we've had some expenses this month so it'll have to be next month.

I've now removed the old polariser parts from the screen, this is partway through:

IMG20240601141854.jpg

And here with all the film removed:

IMG20240601142934.jpg

Last part was a full clean with IPA to get the very sticky glue removed. Total time for removal and cleanup was 45 minutes to an hour, mostly because the display is glass and you have to be super careful when removing the film, and then the glue needs a lot of scrubbing to remove. Breakage is not an option because these screens just can't be replaced at the moment.

The safest way to do it is to remove the display from the machine, then it's possible to fold the ribbon flat and away, allowing the display to lie flat on a work surface, which in my case was a blue silicone mat, which both stopped it from sliding around and allowed me to grip it firmly without applying too much pressure.

I refitted it to the machine and used a polarising filter from my Dad's camera bag, and the display is clean and I can see the icons in the bottom row. Just need to wait for the polarising filter and test game to arrive now.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, interesting, it seems I missed this in the first pass on Ali Express:

Wonderswan B&W replacement display

TBH I think the polariser fix will do the job, but at least I have a backup plan if it doesn't.

[HigashiJun]

Well done with the polarizer removal !

Neat and clean.

8-)

[rubber_jonnie]

Well done with the polarizer removal !

Neat and clean.

8-)

Thanks 😁

It was definitely worth the effort to be patient with it, once I got the glue off it came up really nice and clean, but it was definitely a tricky job.

[HigashiJun]

...but it was definitely a tricky job.

The kind of job I hate...

[rubber_jonnie]

...but it was definitely a tricky job.

The kind of job I hate...

Me too. I at least I now know if I had broken it that IPS screens are available. All I need to find now is a battery box, though the Colour's does fit, the shape isn't quite right.