On March 30, 2001, Bandai unveiled during the Tokyo Game Show a GPS unit for the WonderSwan.
At that time. GPS were very expensive and the idea of using the WonderSwan screen and CPU to run the software allowed Bandai to create a very low cost-GPS. The map would have been downloaded to a memory card. The GPS was planned to be sold as a peripheral to the WonderSwan or bundled with the WonderSwan Color. The bundle price was set to be between ¥15,000 to ¥20,000 .
The GPS prototype was completed and ready to go into production and Bandai was working in collaboration with NAMCO to the creation of 3 GPS-based games:
Magic Formation WARS | The first one dubbed tentatively “Magic Formation WARS” was a role-playing game. Years before Pokémon GO!, Namco have planned an RPG where you would need to capture demons. The various demons would appear depending on your actual GPS location, making certain demons exclusive to certain neighborhoods. The demon could then be combined together to create more powerful demon. The game would have allowed to cast magic by drawing spell on the map. |
Super GPS Pacman | The second game being created by NAMCOM was Super GPS Pac-Man. This project was the most ambitious of the three as it would use the GPS and the WonderGate. The GPS was used to capture the current location and then using the map data, use the actual street to create a maze. The WonderGate would have allowed the WonderSwan to connect to the NTT Docomo network, the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan, to add some online features such as a two-player tag-like game . |
Let’s Play Golf | The last game in development for the WonderSwan GPS was a Golf game call (tentatively) Let’s Play Golf. The game relied on the GPS to create a new course based on your surroundings. The games would then force you to walk the distance your ball virtually travel in order to play your next shot. Again, ahead of its time, the cartridge features an accelerometer which allowed the player to use motion control to swing and put. |
It is not known why the Bandai never release the GPS, especially since it was so late in the development cycle.