The nileswan is a fully featured flash cartridge compatible with the WS/WSC family of consoles, as well as the PCv2. It has very wide compability with existing software while also enhancing the platform in new ways suitable for modern homebrew development.
Features
General features
- Loading programs from a FAT16/FAT32 storage card (speeds up to 900 KB/s)
- Support for running WS programs up to 16 MiB in size
- Emulation of the following cartridge hardware:
- SRAM saves (32 / 64 / 128 / 256 / 512 KiB)
- EEPROM saves (128 B / 1 KiB / 2 KiB)
- RTC (Real-Time Clock)
- NOR Flash (512 KiB)
- Battery backup for save data
- Save data is transferred to card every system start to minimize data loss
- Compatible with WS, WSC, SC and PCv2 systems
- Firmware update support, with recovery options for failed updates
- Recovery button for starting WSC/SC consoles with corrupted internal EEPROM data
- Optimized power consumption
- Hard gold cartridge contacts for improved longevity
- 3-axis accelerometer for homebrew
- Open source, upgradeable FPGA and MCU firmware
- Cartridge label designed by alfaxysm
Developer features
- Support for runtime FPGA core switching
- USB port for quickly testing software (>= 55 KB/s) and debug output
- Documentation for device programming and protocols
Availability
An initial batch will be available for purchase online via shop.49bitcat.com starting on Thursday, 12th of February 2026 at 16:00 GMT.
User information
To get started, check out the quick start guide. If you run into any issues, try the troubleshooting guide.
Developer information
For more information on how to develop for the nileswan and take advantage of its features, see:
- The documentation of the hardware and programming environment
- libnile, its documentation and examples, which provide a convenient C interface to the nileswan’s dedicated hardware.