In the year 1999, Bandai announced the MobileWonderGate – a device which allowed connecting a WonderSwan to the Internet thanks to a collaboration with the mobile network NTT DoCoMo. This was primarily used by a selection games to provide downloadable content, as expected for this type of handheld attachment.
… Oh, it also came with a web browser supporting a subset of HTML 3.2, tables, GIF images, reading Japanese websites, a bookmark system, and cookies. On a handheld competing with the Game Boy Color.
Did i mention it also acted as an SMTP/POP3 e-mail client?
However, this browser assumed you’re on NTT’s network; it utilized a special service called “mopera”, short for Mobile OPErator RAdio. Unfortunately, on the final day of 2004, this service was shut down. Since then, nobody could use a WonderSwan to browse the web, which naturally is the kind of injustice that just cannot be left uncontested.
Hardware and software will never be buried by the sands of time as long as crazy people like these exist.
It’s very concerning that it was ever doing the secret communication discussed in the article; it doesn’t seem to have been for the benefit of the users. Bandai has demonstrated by this that they are not a trustworthy company.