The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a
16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors.
A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...
home video game console developed by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
that was released in 1990 in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
South Korea,
1991 in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, 1992 in
Europe and
Oceania, and 1993 in
South America. In Japan, it is called the In South Korea, it is called the Super Comboy and was distributed by
Hyundai Electronics.
The system was released in Brazil on August 30, 1993,
by
Playtronic. Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of
regional lockout prevent cartridges for one version from being used in other versions.
The Super NES is Nintendo's second programmable home console, following the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
(NES). The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other systems at the time. It was designed to accommodate the ongoing development of
a variety of enhancement chips integrated into
game cartridges
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electro ...
to be competitive into the next generation.
The Super NES received largely positive reviews and was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the
16-bit era
In the history of video games, the fourth generation of game consoles, more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era, began on October 30, 1987, with the Japanese release of NEC Home Electronics' PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North Amer ...
after launching relatively late and facing intense competition from
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
's
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
console in North America and Europe. Overlapping the NES's 61.9 million unit sales, the Super NES remained popular well into the
32-bit era
The fifth-generation era (also known as the 32-bit era, the 64-bit era, or the 3D era) refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming consoles dating from approximately October 4, 1993 to March 23, 2006. For home ...
, with 49.1 million units sold worldwide by the time it was discontinued in 2003. It continues to be popular among collectors and
retro gamers, with new
homebrew
Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer.
Homebrew or home brew may also refer to:
Computing
* Homebrew Computer Club
* Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux
* Homebrew (video game ...
games and Nintendo's emulated rereleases, such as on the
Virtual Console, the
Super NES Classic Edition,
Nintendo Switch Online; as well as several non-console emulators which operate on a desktop computer, such as
Snes9x.
History
To compete with the popular
Family Computer in Japan,
NEC Home Electronics
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
launched the
PC Engine in 1987, and
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
followed suit with the
Mega Drive in 1988. The two platforms were later launched in North America in 1989 as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Sega Genesis respectively. Both systems were built on 16-bit architectures and offered improved graphics and sound over the
8-bit
In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...
NES. However, it took several years for Sega's system to become successful. Nintendo executives were in no rush to design a new system, but they reconsidered when they began to see their dominance in the market slipping.
On September 9, 1987, then-Nintendo president
Hiroshi Yamauchi revealed the development of the Super Famicom in the newspaper ''
Kyoto Shimbun''. On August 30, 1988, in an interview with ''TOUCH Magazine'', he announced the development of ''
Super Mario Bros. 4'', ''
Dragon Quest V
''Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride'' is a role-playing video game and the fifth installment in the ''Dragon Quest'' video game series, second of the Zenithian Trilogy. Originally developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix Corporation, ' ...
'', three original games, and he projected sales of 3 million units of the upcoming console. ''Famicom Hissyoubon'' magazine speculated that Nintendo's early announcement was probably made to forestall
Christmas shopping for the PC Engine, and relayed
Enix's clarification that it was waiting on sales figures to select either PC Engine or Super Famicom for its next ''Dragon Quest'' game. The magazine and Enix both expressed a strong interest in networking as a standard platform feature.
The console was demonstrated to the Japanese press on November 21, 1988, and again on July 28, 1989.
Launch
Designed by
Masayuki Uemura
was a Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor. He was known for his work as an employee of Nintendo from 1971 to 2004, most notably for serving as a key factor in the development of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
A former ...
, the designer of the original Famicom, the Super Famicom was released in Japan on Wednesday, November 21, 1990, for . It was an instant success. Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours, and the resulting social disturbance led the Japanese government to ask video game manufacturers to schedule future console releases on weekends. This gained the attention of the
Yakuza criminal organization, so the devices were shipped at night to avoid robbery.
With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the Japanese console market. Nintendo's success was partially due to the retention of most of its key third-party developers, including
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
,
Konami,
Tecmo,
Square,
Koei
Koei Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game publisher, developer, and distributor founded in 1978. The company is known for its ''Dynasty Warriors'' games based on the novel ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', as well as simulation games based on p ...
, and
Enix.
Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for . It began shipping in limited quantities on August 23, 1991, with an official nationwide release date of September 9, 1991. The Super NES was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992 for .
Most of the
PAL region versions of the console use the Japanese Super Famicom design, except for labeling and the length of the joypad leads. The Playtronic Super NES in Brazil, although
PAL-M, uses the North American design. Both the NES and Super NES were released in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic, a
joint venture between the toy company
Estrela and consumer electronics company
Gradiente.
The Super NES and Super Famicom launched with few games, but these games were well received. In Japan, only two games were initially available: ''
Super Mario World'' and ''
F-Zero''. ''
Bombuzal
''Bombuzal'' is a puzzle video game designed by Antony Crowther (credited as "Ratt" in the game) and David Bishop for Image Works. The game was released in 1988 for the Amiga, Atari ST and Commodore 64. It was also released in 1989 for MS-DOS ...
'' was released during the launch week. In North America, ''Super Mario World'' was launched as a bundle with the console; other
launch games
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
include ''F-Zero'', ''
Pilotwings
''Pilotwings'' is a series of flight simulation video games beginning with the 1990 video game '' Pilotwings'' and most recently ''Pilotwings Resort'' in 2011. One of Nintendo's franchises, the series was released on the Super Nintendo Entertain ...
'' (both of which demonstrate the console's
Mode 7 pseudo-3D rendering), ''
SimCity'', and ''
Gradius III''.
In Thailand, Family Corporation distributed clone called FR402.
Console wars
The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega was described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history, in which Sega positioned the Genesis as the "cool" console, with games aimed at older audiences, and aggressive advertisements that occasionally attacked the competition. Nintendo, however, scored an early public-relations advantage by securing the first console conversion of Capcom's arcade hit ''
Street Fighter II
is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...
'' for Super NES, which took more than a year to make the transition to the Genesis. Though the Genesis had a two-year lead to launch time, a much larger library of games, and a lower price point, it only represented an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market in June 1992, and neither console could maintain a definitive lead for several years. ''
Donkey Kong Country'' is said to have helped establish the Super NES's market prominence in the latter years of the 16-bit generation, and for a time, maintain against the
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
and
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
. According to Nintendo, the company had sold more than 20 million Super NES units in the U.S. According to a 2014
Wedbush Securities
Wedbush Securities Inc. is a privately held investment firm based in Los Angeles. As of February 2022, the firm had $4.1 billion under management with 7,460 clients.
History
The firm was founded in 1955 by two high school friends, Ed ...
report based on
NPD sales data, the Super NES outsold the Genesis in the U.S. market by units.
Changes in policy
During the NES era, Nintendo maintained exclusive control over games released for the system – the company had to approve every game, each third-party developer could only release up to five games per year (but some third parties got around this by using different names, such as Konami's "
Ultra Games" brand), those games could not be released on another console within two years, and Nintendo was the exclusive manufacturer and supplier of NES cartridges. However, competition from Sega's console brought an end to this practice; in 1991,
Acclaim Entertainment began releasing games for both platforms, with most of Nintendo's other licensees following suit over the next several years;
Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
(which licensed some games to Sega instead of producing them directly) and
Square were the most notable holdouts.
Nintendo continued to carefully review submitted games, scoring them on a 40-point scale and allocating marketing resources accordingly. Each region performed separate evaluations.
Nintendo of America also maintained a policy that, among other things, limited the amount of violence in the games on its systems. The surprise arcade hit ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...
'' (1992), a gory fighting game with huge splashes of blood and graphically violent
fatality moves, was heavily censored by Nintendo.
[In both ''The Ultimate History of Video Games'' and ''Purple Reign: 15 Years of the SNES'', the disparity in sales is directly attributed to the Super NES version lacking the excessive blood which was recolored grey and described as "sweat", and lacking some of the more gruesome finishing moves. See the Talk page for details.] Because the Genesis version allowed for an uncensored version via cheat code,
it outsold the censored Super NES version by a ratio of nearly three to one.
[ Kent (2001), pp. 461–480. "nearly three to one".]
U.S. Senators
Herb Kohl
Herbert H. Kohl (born February 7, 1935) is an American businessman and politician. Alongside his brother and father, the Kohl family created the Kohl's department stores chain, of which Kohl went on to be president and CEO. Kohl also served as a ...
and
Joe Lieberman convened a Congressional hearing on December 9, 1993, to investigate the marketing of violent video games to children. Though Nintendo took the high ground with moderate success, the hearings led to the creation of the
Interactive Digital Software Association and the
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in the United States and Canada. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Asso ...
and the inclusion of ratings on all video games.
With these ratings in place, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed.
32-bit era and beyond
While other companies were moving on to
32-bit systems,
Rare and Nintendo proved that the Super NES was still a strong contender in the market. In November 1994, Rare released ''
Donkey Kong Country'', a platform game featuring 3D models and textures pre-rendered on
Silicon Graphics workstations. With its detailed graphics, fluid animation, and high-quality music, ''Donkey Kong Country'' rivals the aesthetic quality of games that were being released on newer 32-bit CD-based consoles. In the last 45 days of 1994, 6.1 million copies were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game in history to that date. This game conveyed that early 32-bit systems had little to offer over the Super NES, and proved the market for the more advanced consoles of the near future.
[ Kent (2001), pp. 491–493, 496–497.] According to TRSTS reports, two of the top five best-selling games in the U.S. for December 1996 are Super NES games.
In October 1997, Nintendo released a redesigned model of the Super NES (the SNS-101 model referred to as "
New-Style Super NES
The New-Style Super NES (also known by its model number SNS-101) is a compact redesign of the original Super Nintendo Entertainment System home video game console released by Nintendo in 1997. In Japan, the system is called the Like the redes ...
") in North America for , with some units including the pack-in game ''
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island''.
Like the earlier
New-Style NES (model NES-101), this is slimmer and lighter than its predecessor,
[ but it lacks S-Video and RGB output, and it is among the last major Super NES-related releases in the region. A similarly redesigned Super Famicom Jr. was released in Japan at around the same time. However, the redesign did not make it to Europe.
Nintendo ceased production of the Super NES in North America in 1999,] about two years after releasing '' Kirby's Dream Land 3'' (its final first-party game in the US) on November 27, 1997, and one year after releasing '' Frogger'' (its final third-party game in the US) in 1998. In Japan, Nintendo continued production of both the Family Computer and the Super Famicom until September 25, 2003, and new games were produced until the year 2000, ending with the release of '' Metal Slader Glory Director's Cut'' on November 29, 2000.
Many popular Super NES games were ported to the Game Boy Advance, which has similar video capabilities. In 2005, Nintendo announced that Super NES games would be made available for download via the Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
's Virtual Console service. On October 31, 2007, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would no longer repair Family Computer or Super Famicom systems due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts. On March 3, 2016, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would bring Super NES games to the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL (and later the New Nintendo 2DS XL) via its eShop download service. At the ''Nintendo Direct
Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentation or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began i ...
'' event on September 4, 2019, Nintendo announced that it would be bringing select Super NES games to the Nintendo Switch Online platform.
Hardware
Technical specifications
The 16-bit design of the Super NES incorporates graphics and sound co-processors that perform tiling and simulated 3D effects, a palette of 32,768 colors, and 8-channel ADPCM audio. These base platform features, plus the ability to dramatically extend them all through substantial chip upgrades inside of each cartridge, represent a leap over the 8-bit NES generation and some significant advantages over 16-bit competitors such as the Genesis.
CPU and RAM
The CPU
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
is a Ricoh 5A22, which is a derivative of the 16-bit WDC 65C816 microprocessor. In NTSC regions, its nominal clock speed is 3.58 MHz but the CPU will slow down to either 2.68 MHz or 1.79 MHz when accessing some slower peripherals.
This CPU has an 8-bit data bus and two address buses. The 24-bit "Bus A" is designated for general accesses, and the 8-bit "Bus B" can access support chip registers such as the video and audio co-processors.
The WDC 65C816 supports an 8-channel DMA
DMA may refer to:
Arts
* ''DMA'' (magazine), a defunct dance music magazine
* Dallas Museum of Art, an art museum in Texas, US
* Danish Music Awards, an award show held in Denmark
* BT Digital Music Awards, an annual event in the UK
* Doctor of M ...
unit, an 8-bit parallel I/O port a controller port interface circuits allowing serial and parallel
Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Computing
* Parallel algorithm
* Parallel computing
* Parallel metaheuristic
* Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel
* Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of IBM ...
access to controller data, a 16-bit multiplication and division unit, and circuitry for generating non-maskable interrupts on V-blank and IRQ interrupts on calculated screen positions.
Early revisions of the 5A22 used in SHVC boards are prone to spontaneous failure which can produce a variety of symptoms including graphics glitches in Mode 7, a black screen on power-on, or improperly reading the controllers. The first revision 5A22 has a fatal bug in the DMA controller that can crash games; this was corrected in subsequent revisions.
The console contains 128KB of general-purpose RAM, which is separate from the 64KB VRAM dedicated to the video and audio subsystems.
Video
The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) consists of two closely tied IC packages. It contains 64KB of SRAM for video data, 544 bytes of object attribute memory (OAM) for sprite data, and 256 × 15 bits of color generator RAM (CGRAM) for palette
Palette may refer to:
* Cosmetic palette, an archaeological form
* Palette, another name for a color scheme
* Palette (painting), a wooden board used for mixing colors for a painting
** Palette knife, an implement for painting
* Palette (company), ...
data. This CGRAM provisions up to 256 colors, chosen from the 15-bit RGB color space, from a palette of 32,768 colors. The PPU is clocked by the same signal as the CPU and generates a pixel every two or four cycles.
Audio
The S-SMP audio chip consists of an 8-bit CPU, a 16-bit DSP, and 64KB of SRAM. It was designed and produced by Sony and is completely independent from the rest of the system. It is clocked at a nominal 24.576 MHz in both NTSC and PAL systems. It is capable of stereo sound, composed from 8 voices generated using 8 bit audio samples and various effects such as echo.
Regional lockout
Nintendo employed several types of regional lockout, including both physical and hardware incompatibilities.
Physically, the cartridges are shaped differently for different regions. North American cartridges have a rectangular bottom with inset grooves matching protruding tabs in the console, and other regions' cartridges are narrower with a smooth curve on the front and no grooves. The physical incompatibility can be overcome with the use of various adapters, or through modification of the console.
Internally, a regional lockout chip
In a general sense, a lockout chip is a chip within an electronic device to prevent other manufacturers from using a company's device to perform certain functions.
A notable example is the lockout chip found in Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment Sy ...
(CIC
CIC may refer to:
Organizations Canada
* Cadet Instructors Cadre, a part of the Canadian Armed Forces
* Canadian Infantry Corps, renamed in 1947 to Royal Canadian Infantry Corps
* Canadian International Council
* Canadian Islamic Congress
* Chemi ...
) within the console and in each cartridge prevents the PAL region games from being played on Japanese or North American consoles and vice versa. The Japanese and North American machines have the same region chip. This can be overcome through the use of adapters, typically by inserting the imported cartridge in one slot and a cartridge with the correct region chip in a second slot. Alternatively, disconnecting one pin of the console's lockout chip will prevent it from locking the console; hardware in later games can detect this situation, so it became common to install a switch to reconnect the lockout chip as needed.
PAL consoles face another incompatibility when playing out-of-region cartridges: the NTSC video standard specifies video at 60 Hz but PAL operates at 50 Hz, resulting in an approximately 16.7% slower framerate. PAL's higher resolution results in letterboxing of the output image. Some commercial PAL region releases exhibit this same problem and, therefore, can be played in NTSC systems without issue, but other games will face a 20% speedup if played in an NTSC console. To mostly correct this issue, a switch can be added to place the Super NES PPU into a 60 Hz mode supported by most newer PAL televisions. Later games will detect this setting and refuse to run, requiring the switch to be thrown only after the check completes.
Casing
All models of the Super NES control deck are predominantly gray, of slightly different shades. The original North American version, designed by Nintendo of America industrial designer Lance Barr (who previously redesigned the Famicom to become the NES), has a boxy design with purple sliding switches and a dark gray eject lever. The loading bay surface is curved, both to invite interaction and to prevent food or drinks from being placed on the console and spilling as with the flat-surfaced NES. The Japanese and European versions are more rounded, with darker gray accents and buttons. The North American New-Style Super NES
The New-Style Super NES (also known by its model number SNS-101) is a compact redesign of the original Super Nintendo Entertainment System home video game console released by Nintendo in 1997. In Japan, the system is called the Like the redes ...
(model SNS-101) and the Japanese Super Famicom Jr. (model SHVC-101), all designed by Barr, are both smaller with a rounded contour; however, the SNS-101 buttons are purple where the Super Famicom Jr. buttons are gray. The European and American versions of the Super NES controllers have much longer cables compared to the Japanese Super Famicom controllers.
All versions incorporate a top-loading slot for game cartridges, although the shape of the slot differs between regions to match the different shapes of the cartridges. The MULTI OUT connector (later used on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube
The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
) can output composite video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channels) a ...
, S-Video and RGB signals, as well as RF with an external RF modulator. Original versions additionally include a 28-pin expansion port under a small cover on the bottom of the unit and a standard RF output with channel selection switch on the back; the redesigned models output composite video only, requiring an external modulator for RF.
The Nintendo Super System (NSS) is an arcade system for retail preview of 11 particular Super NES games in the United States, similar to the PlayChoice-10 for NES games. It consists of slightly modified Super NES hardware with a menu interface and 25-inch monitor, that allows gameplay for a certain amount of time depending on game credits. Manufacturing of this model was discontinued in 1992.
Yellowing
The ABS plastic
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C8H8)''x''·(C4H6)''y''·(C3H3N)''z'' is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately . ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point.
AB ...
used in the casing of some older Super NES and Super Famicom consoles is particularly susceptible to oxidization with exposure to air. This, along with the particularly light color of the original plastic, causes affected consoles to quickly become yellow; if the sections of the casing came from different batches of plastic, a "two-tone" effect results. This issue may be reversed with a method called Retrobrighting, where a mixture of chemicals is applied to the case and exposed to UV light.
Game cartridge
Super NES games are distributed on ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electroni ...
s, officially referred to as Game Pak in most Western regions, and as in Japan and parts of Latin America. Though the Super NES can address 128 Mbit,[Unless otherwise specified, kilobyte (KB), ]megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
(MB), and megabit (Mbit) are used in the binary sense in this article, referring to quantities of 1024 or 1,048,576. only 117.75 Mbit are actually available for cartridge use. A fairly normal mapping could easily address up to 95 Mbit of ROM data (48 Mbit at FastROM speed) with 8 Mbit of battery-backed RAM. However, most available memory access controllers only support mappings of up to 32 Mbit. The largest games released ('' Tales of Phantasia'' and ''Star Ocean
is a franchise of action role-playing video games developed by the Japanese company tri-Ace and published and owned by Square Enix (formerly Enix).
Development History
The series is also known for being some of the earliest action RPGs to allo ...
'') contain 48 Mbit of ROM data, and the smallest games contain only 2 Mbit.
Cartridges may also contain battery-backed SRAM to save the game state, extra working RAM, custom coprocessors, or any other hardware that will not exceed the maximum current rating
Ampacity is a portmanteau for ''ampere capacity'' defined by National Electrical Codes, in some North American countries. Ampacity is defined as the maximum current, in amperes, that a conductor can carry continuously under the conditions of use ...
of the console.
Games
1757 Super NES games were officially released: 717 in North America (plus 4 championship cartridges), 521 in Europe, 1,448 in Japan, 231 on Satellaview, and 13 on Sufami Turbo. Many Super NES games have been called some of the greatest video games of all time, such as '' Super Mario World'' (1990), '' The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past'' (1991), '' Donkey Kong Country'' (1994), ''EarthBound
''EarthBound'', released in Japan as is a role-playing video game developed by Creatures (company), Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second entry in the Mother (video game s ...
'' (1994), '' Super Metroid'' (1994), and ''Yoshi's Island
''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'' is a 1995 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The player controls Yoshi, a friendly dinosaur, on a quest to reunite baby Mario with his ...
'' (1995). Many Super NES games have been rereleased several times, including on the Virtual Console, Super NES Classic Edition, and the classic games service on Nintendo Switch Online. All Game Boy games are playable with the Super Game Boy add-on. Many Super NES emulators have been produced. Mode 7 is a graphics mode that can simulate simple 3D effects.
Peripherals
The Super NES controller design expands on that of the NES, with A, B, X, and Y face buttons in a diamond arrangement, and two shoulder buttons. Lance Barr created its ergonomic design, and he later adapted it in 1993 for the NES-039 "dogbone" controller. The Japanese and PAL region versions incorporate the four colors of the face buttons into the system's logo. The North American version's buttons are colored to match the redesigned console; the X and Y buttons are lavender with concave faces, and the A and B buttons are purple with convex faces. Several later controller designs have elements from the Super NES controller, including the PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
, Dreamcast, Xbox, and Wii Classic Controller
The is a game controller produced by Nintendo for the Wii home video game console. While it later featured some compatibility with the Wii U console, the controller was ultimately succeeded by the Wii U Pro Controller. In April 2014, Nintendo d ...
. This face button layout is on future Nintendo systems since the Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
.
Several peripherals add to the functionality of the Super NES. Some are required by certain games, such as the Super Scope
The Super Scope, known as the Nintendo Scope in Europe and Australia, is a first party light gun peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The successor to the NES Zapper, the Super Scope was released in North America and the P ...
light gun, and the Super NES Mouse
The Super NES Mouse, sold as the in Japan, is a peripheral created by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was first released on July 14, 1992, in Japan, in August 1992 in North America, and on December 10, 1992, in Europe. O ...
for a point and click interface. Various third-parties, under license from Nintendo, released multitap adapters connecting up to five controllers into a single console, starting with the Super Multitap by Hudson Soft
was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...
in conjunction with the ''Super Bomberman
is an action, maze game, part of the ''Bomberman'' series, released for the Super NES in 1993. It is the first in the series to be released in Europe keeping the ''Bomberman'' title instead of being called ''Dynablaster'' or ''Eric and the Floate ...
'' series. Specialized third-party controllers, such as the AsciiPad and Super Advantage (the successor to the NES Advantage
The NES Advantage is an arcade style controller manufactured by Asciiware and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.Nintendo Power: "Also from Asciiware, who actually made the NES Advantage that Nintendo of America t ...
) by Asciiware, and the Capcom Fighter Power Stick, an arcade-like joystick controller by Capcom
is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...
designed specifically for ''Street Fighter II
is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the ''Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's ''Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Syst ...
''. Unusual controllers include the BatterUP
BatterUP is a "24-inch foam-covered plastic" baseball bat-shaped controller manufactured for the personal computer, Sega Genesis, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Sports Sciences Inc.
Compatible Super NES games
*'' Cal Ripken Jr. ...
baseball bat, the Life Fitness
Life Fitness is an American fitness company specializing in the production and distribution of cardiovascular and strength training equipment under several brands including Life Fitness, Cybex and Hammer Strength. It is headquartered in Franklin ...
Entertainment System (an exercise bike
A stationary bicycle (also known as exercise bicycle, exercise bike, spinning bike, spin bike, or exercycle) is a device used as exercise equipment for indoor cycling. It includes a saddle, pedals, and some form of handlebars arranged as on ...
controller with built-in monitoring software), the TeeV Golf golf club, and the Justifier (a revolver-shaped light gun made by Konami for ''Lethal Enforcers
is a 1992 light gun shooter released as an arcade video game by Konami. The graphics consist entirely of digitized photographs and digitized sprites. Home versions were released for the Super NES, Genesis and Sega CD during the following year an ...
'').
Though Nintendo never released an adapter for playing NES games on the Super NES, the Super Game Boy adapter cartridge allows games designed for Nintendo's portable Game Boy system to be played on the Super NES. The Super Game Boy touts several feature enhancements over the Game Boy, including palette substitution, custom screen borders, and access to the Super NES console's features by specially enhanced Game Boy games. Japan also saw the release of the Super Game Boy 2, which adds a communication port to enable a second Game Boy to connect for multiplayer games.
Like the NES before it, the Super NES has unlicensed third-party peripherals, including a new version of the Game Genie cheat cartridge
Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...
designed for use with Super NES games.
Soon after the release of the Super NES, companies began marketing backup devices such as the Super Wildcard, Super Pro Fighter Q, and Game Doctor. These devices create a backup of a cartridge, and can be used to play illicit ROM images or to copy games, violating copyright laws in many jurisdictions.
The Japan-only Satellaview is a satellite modem attached to the Super Famicom's expansion port and connected to the St.GIGA
, trading as , was a Japanese satellite radio company headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo. The company was established on April 2, 1990 as a subsidiary of the television station provider WOWOW, achieving a cult following through its "Tide of Sound" ...
satellite radio
Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...
station from April 23, 1995, to June 30, 2000. Satellaview subscribers could download gaming news and specially designed games, which were frequently either remakes
A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sam ...
of or sequels to older Famicom games, and released in installments. In the United States, the relatively short-lived XBAND allowed users to connect to a network via a dial-up modem to compete against other players around the country.
Nintendo attempted partnerships with Sony and then Philips, to develop CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
-based peripheral prototypes for the console to compete with the Sega CD. Sony produced a Nintendo Play Station prototype which was canceled, diverting this inertia into its own PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
console. The Philips project was canceled without a prototype but Philips retained the contractual right to develop games based on Nintendo franchises, which it published for its CD-i
The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage device, data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of Compact Disc Di ...
multimedia console.
Enhancement chips
As part of the overall plan for the Super NES, rather than include an expensive CPU that would still become obsolete in a few years, the hardware designers made it easy to interface special coprocessor chips to the console, just like the MMC chips used for most NES games. This is most often characterized by 16 additional pins on the cartridge card edge.
The Super FX is a RISC
In computer engineering, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a complex instruction set comput ...
CPU designed to perform functions that the main CPU can not feasibly do. The chip is primarily used to create 3D game worlds made with polygons, texture mapping and light source shading. The chip can also be used to enhance 2D games.
The Nintendo fixed-point digital signal processor
A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...
(DSP) chip allowed for fast vector-based calculations, bitmap conversions, both 2D and 3D coordinate transformations, and other functions.[ Refer to the command summaries for all four DSP versions.] Four revisions of the chip exist, each physically identical but with different microcode
In processor design, microcode (μcode) is a technique that interposes a layer of computer organization between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. Microcode is a laye ...
. The DSP-1 version, including the later 1A and 1B bug fix revisions, is used most often; the DSP-2, DSP-3, and DSP-4 are used in only one game each.
Similar to the 5A22 CPU in the console, the SA-1 chip contains a 65C816 processor core clocked at 10 MHz, a memory mapper, DMA, decompression and bitplane conversion circuitry, several programmable timers, and CIC region lockout functionality.
In Japan, games could be downloaded cheaper than standard cartridges, from Nintendo Power kiosks onto special cartridges containing flash memory
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...
and a MegaChips MX15001TFC chip. The chip manages communication with the kiosks to download ROM images and has an initial menu to select a game. Some were published both in cartridge and download form, and others were download only. The service closed on February 8, 2007.
Many cartridges contain other enhancement chips, most of which were created for use by a single company in a few games.
Reception and legacy
Approximately 49.1 million Super NES consoles were sold worldwide, with 23.35 million of those units sold in the Americas and 17.17 million in Japan. Although it could not quite repeat the success of the NES, which sold 61.91 million units worldwide, the Super NES was the best-selling console of its era.
In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five '' Electronic Gaming Monthly'' editors gave the Super NES scores of 5.5, 8.0, 7.0, 7.0, and 8.0. Though they criticized how few new games were coming out for the system and how dated its graphics were compared to current generation consoles, they regarded its selection of must-have games to be still unsurpassed. Additionally noting that used Super NES games were readily available in bargain bins, most of them still recommended buying a Super NES. In 2007, ''GameTrailers
''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
'' named the Super NES as the second-best console of all time in their list of top ten consoles that "left their mark on the history of gaming", citing its graphics, sound, and library of top-quality games. In 2015, they also named it the best Nintendo console of all time, saying, "The list of games we love from this console completely annihilates any other roster from the Big N." Technology columnist Don Reisinger proclaimed "The SNES is the greatest console of all time" in January 2008, citing the quality of the games and the console's dramatic improvement over its predecessor; fellow technology columnist Will Greenwald replied with a more nuanced view, giving the Super NES top marks with his heart, the NES with his head, and the PlayStation (for its controller) with his hands. GamingExcellence also gave the Super NES first place in 2008, declaring it "simply the most timeless system ever created" with many games that stand the test of time and citing its innovation in controller design, graphics capabilities, and game storytelling. At the same time, GameDaily rated it fifth of the ten greatest consoles for its graphics, audio, controllers, and games. In 2009, ''IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
'' named the Super NES the fourth-best video game console, complimenting its audio and number of AAA games.
Emulation
Like the NES before it, the Super NES has retained a fan base. It has continued to thrive in the second-hand market, emulators, and remakes. The Super NES has taken the same revival path as the NES.
Super NES emulation began with VSMC in 1994, and Super Pasofami became the first working Super NES emulator in 1996. During that time, two competing emulation projects, Snes96 and Snes97, merged to form Snes9x.[(2007-05-01) Snes9x readme.txt v1.51. ''Snes9x''. Snes9x. Retrieved on July 3, 2007.] In 1997, ZSNES
ZSNES is a free software Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator written mostly in x86 assembly with official ports for Linux, DOS, Windows, and unofficial ports for Xbox and macOS.
Background
Development of ZSNES began on 3 July 1997 and ...
development began. In 2004, Bsnes development began with the goal of preservation through maximal accuracy and compatibility, and was renamed to Higan.
Nintendo of America maintained its stance against the distribution of Super NES ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* R ...
image files and the use of emulators as it does with the NES, insisting that these things represent flagrant copyright infringement. Emulation proponents assert that the discontinued hardware production constitutes abandonware status, the owners' right to make a personal backup, space shifting for private use, the development of homebrew games, the frailty of ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electroni ...
s and consoles, and the lack of certain foreign imports. Nintendo designed a hobbyist development system for the Super NES, but never released it.
Unofficial Super NES emulation is available on virtually all platforms, such as Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
, iOS, game consoles, and PDAs. Individual games have been bundled with official dedicated emulators on some GameCube discs, and Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
introduced diverse and officially licensed Super NES emulation.
The Super NES Classic Edition was released in September 2017 following the NES Classic Edition. This emulation-based mini-console, which is physically modeled after the North American and European versions of the Super NES, is bundled with two Super NES-style controllers and 21 games, including the previously unreleased '' Star Fox 2''.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
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