Manufacturer: Nintendo
Designer: Masayuki Uemura
Generation: 4th Generation
Bits: 16-bit
Year Released: JP 1990, NA 1991
Units sold: 49.10 million
Media: ROM cartridge (Read Only Memory)
Summary: One of the most beloved systems of all time, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, fondly known as the SNES, is the successor to Nintendo’s massively profitable Nintendo Entertainment System. Often deemed nostalgic in nature, it is not uncommon to hear gamers reminisce of their favorite SNES games, many of which are still treasured today. Whether sitting on a dusty shelf or carefully wrapped in its original packaging, the SNES still holds the addictive power of fun as it did over 20 years ago. Many of the SNES games have been ported over to the handheld game systems as well as being made downloadable online. Avid collectors will eagerly pay through the nose in order to hold a mint copy of a rare SNES game that brings back childhood memories. With its plethora of innovative games and powerful system hardware, the SNES remained strong even as new 32-bit devices were being released into the market.
The launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983 (JP) marked Nintendo’s place on the pedestal of the gaming world. With around 62 million units sold, Nintendo had their feet firmly placed as the dominant company in the video game market. Nintendo believed themselves to be untouchable, even when Sega released their 16-bit system, the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in the USA) in 1988, Nintendo did not bat an eyelid. Although Sega’s MegaDrive offered improved graphics and sound, the NES was still the top selling system worldwide. However, once the Mega Drive’s sales began to rise due to their release of sports games and arcade ports, not to mention the popularity of their iconic character, Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo had no choice but to start thinking about a 16-bit system of their own in order to stay on top of the competition. The CEO of Nintendo at the time was Hiroshi Yamauchi, who put Masayuki Uemura, the original designer of the NES, in charge of Nintendo’s new 16-bit system. Dubbed the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the system was released on November 21, 1990 for around ¥25,000 (US$210). The initial release of 300,000 units was an instant success, with units selling out within hours of launch. Author Steven Kent wrote in his book, “The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World”, that the masses of fans vying to own a SNES on the release date caused such a disturbance that the Japanese government had to ask video game manufacturers to schedule releases only on the weekends. Author David Sheff wrote in his book “Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children” that the SNES caused the attentions of even the Yakuza, and devices were to be shipped only at night in order to avoid theft of goods.
T
he SNES was released in the United States in 1991, with a retail price of $199. The SNES in the US was shipped with Super Mario World; one of the SNES’s best selling games to date. Other initial titles include F-Zero, SimCity, Gradius III and Pilotwings (using the “Mode 7” hardware to stimulate simple 3D graphics). With the release of the SNES came the fabled “Console War” between Nintendo and Sega, in which Sega tried to advertise the Mega Drive system as being more “cool” and “mature”. Sonic the Hedgehog played an important factor in Sega’s success, as he was deemed more attractive to the young players compared to Mario, Nintendo’s mascot. Also, with the popularity of the NES still looming overhead, individuals were not partial to spending more money on a system that had no backwards compatibility available. In addition, Sega’s Genesis system was about $50 less then the SNES. However, the SNES did have its own advantages, some of which includes Nintendo’s strong connections with third party game developers such as Capcom, Square, Konami, etc. When Nintendo released the NES, the company was so dominant in the field that they could maintain exclusive control over what titles would be released for their systems. Nintendo would have to approve every game produced for them, third party developers had to release up to 5 games per year, and these games could not be released onto another console for 2 years. Game developers also had to buy the SNES cartridges from Nintendo in order to produce their games. With the rivalry between Sega, Nintendo could no longer afford to be particular. Many third party developers began to produce games for both platforms, which was partially to Nintendo’s advantage as many games produced for Sega eventually went to Nintendo as well. Other games were still made exclusively for Nintendo; such as the arcade hit Street Fighter II. Squaresoft continued to stay exclusive to Nintendo for many years, a great advantage to Nintendo as they released the Final Fantasy series, as well as having Enix to produce the DragonQuest series. The SNES probably has the largest RPG collection next to the Playstation 1 and 2.
While Nintendo’s CPU was slower than its competitors, the SNES had more powerful graphics, sound, and add on processors. The video Picture Processing Unit used Mode-7 effects that produced effective 3D visual impressions, as well as successful scaling, rotation and transparency effects; it produced 32K colors, 256 of which could be displayed on screen. Rather than having customers purchase add on modules to their systems, Nintendo thought of the ingenuous idea of releasing games with built in chips that added processing powers and features to their games. One of the most well known would be the Super FX, a chip that allowed for 3D graphics to be rendered in games, increased the SNES’s speed to 10.5 MHz and the Super FX2 increased it to 21 MHz. Most feel that it is in thanks to these chips, that the SNES was able to effectively compete with the newer 32-bit consoles.
In November 1994, Rare released Donkey Kong Country, a title with high quality detail and music, rendered in 3D models, and playable on the 16-bit SNES. The graphics of Donkey Kong matched or even triumphed the quality of games being released on the 32-bit systems, selling 6.2 million copies in the last months of 1994. Donkey Kong Country is still the fastest selling game in history to this day. It was also easy to play imports on the SNES, one could easily mod an imported SNES game by taking pliers and breaking off the plastic casing on the cartridge to fit into the US SNES system, or one could buy a mod device as well. The SNES also used AV and S-Video cables that were compatible with the N64 and the Gamecube, a great bonus I found, when I lost my SNES cable a few years ago.
Nintendo also continued to maintain their reputation as a family friendly company with their strict censorship policy. When Mortal Kombat was released in 1992, both Sega and Nintendo acquired the license to distribute the game, with the exception that Nintendo censored Mortal Kombat. The Sega version kept the gore and violence aspect of the game, outselling Nintendo’s version 4 to 1. On December 9th, 1993 Congress held a hearing to discuss violence in video games, leading to the creation of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). With the ESRB ratings on all video games, Nintendo no longer needed to censor all their games, opening the door to a wider variety of games for their fans.
After the release of the SNES, Nintendo began agreements with Sony to create a CD-ROM version of their console. The costs of using a CD-ROM based system rather than the cartridges would be more cost efficient, there were numerous advantages to using a disc format, and Nintendo needed to broaden their horizons in order to compete with their rivals, who were all moving towards disc based games. The project Nintendo and Sony were working on was codenamed “PlayStation”. The design for the original Playstation was an extension that would connect to the SNES console to allow for 680MB CD games to be played, similar to the Sega’s Mega CD. However, once Nintendo realized that Sony wanted full license rights to any CD based games released on the SNES, the plans were discarded (although Sony would go on to release the Playstation on their own).
prototype model for future consoles (not only limited to Nintendo) using a similar ergonomic handheld design. The Nintendo Wii has a separate controller accessory titled the “Wii Classic Controller” that is based off the SNES controller. Certain older games downloaded from the Virtual Console for the Wii require the use of the Classic Controller. Other peripherals for the SNES include the Super Scope/Nintendo Scope, a wireless light gun that uses an infrared receiver, powered by 6 AA batteries. The Super Advantage is an arcade style joystick. The SNES Mouse was packaged for use with the application Mario Paint. The Super Multitap was a multiplayer adapter for use with Hudson Soft’s popular game series, Bomberman. Third party controllers include ASCII’s Stick, Sport’s Science’s TeeV
Golf Club (only for use with PGA Golf by EA Sports) and the Batter Up! baseball bat, etc. Nintendo also released the Super Game Boy adapter cartridge that allows gamers to play their Game Boy titles on the SNES. In Japan, the Super Game Boy 2 was released for use with multiplayer games. Backup devices such as the Game Doctor allowed gamers to create backup copies of their cartridges lest it should break, but this also allowed people to copy rented video games and upload them online for use as downloadable ROMs.
The Satellaview was only released in Japan for use with the Super Famicom system. The Satellview was an attachable modem that connected to a satellite radio station called St. GIGA (now defunct, originally founded by WOWOW Japan). Those with access to St. GIGA had access to remakes or sequels of older game titles, as well as being able to download news related to games and exclusive games through the satellite channel. The Satellaview was functional only from April 23, 1995 to June 30, 2000.
Strong variety of games in SNES library (785 listed), known for racing, platform and role playing games
One of the best RPG game collections in all of video game history
SNES is one of the most durable systems of its time; many are still in perfect working condition
Use of Mode-7 effects and 256 colors onscreen at a time
Mostly self-contained audio system allowed for high quality playback, voice, and sound effects as well as emulation of game music for ROMs
Use of internal chips in cartridges to supply increased speed, power, and visuals to games
Accessible import play modification
SNES AV and S-Video cables can be switched between the N64 and the Gamecube
Action/Adventure + Platform/Side Scrolling
Castlevania Series
EarthWorm Jim 1-2
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Contra III
MegaMan Series (notably X-X3, and 7)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Metroid
Super Mario All Stars
Super Mario World
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Kirby SuperStar
Kirby Dreamland 3
Donkey Kong Country Series
Ninja Gaiden Series
Super Double Dragon
Pocky and Rocky
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Prince of Persia
Equinox
E.V.O. Search for Eden
Final Fight
TMNT: Turtles in Time
Sparkster
RPG
Earthbound
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy Series (notably III in US or VI in Japan)
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Terranigma (Japan Only)
Soul Blazer
Illusion of Gaia
Brandish
Live a Live (Japan Only)
Tales of Phantasia
Breath of Fire Series
Romancing Saga Series (Japan Only)
Star Ocean (SNES version never released in the US)
Shin Megami Tensei Series (SNES version never released in the US)
Lufia Series (notable, but not recommended in my opinion)
Chrono Trigger
Secret of the Stars
Bahamut Lagoon
DragonQuest Series
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
Puzzle
Dr. Mario
Tetris
Puyo Puyo (Japan only)
Bomberman Series
Strategy
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Fire Emblem Series (SNES version never released in the US)
Langrisser Series
Stimulation
Harvest Moon
SimCity
ActRaiser
Combat
Street Fighter II
Super Punch Out
Mortal Kombat II
Flight/Racing
Gradius III
Super Mario Kart
Star Fox
F-Zero
PilotWings
Sports
Madden
NBA Jam
“Nintendo SNES History”. team47goman.blogspot.com.Video Games History, 16 Oct. 2006. Web. 30 Mar. 2010.
“Super Nintendo (SNES) 101: A Beginners Guide”. racketboy.com. Retro Gaming with Racket Boy, 1 Feb. 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2010
“Nintendo SNES”. cyberiapc.com. Nintendo SNES (History, Specs, Pictures). n.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2010
-Images of SNES hardware and peripherals, good information on history of system, includes FAQS
-Image and information references of SNES system as well as accessories
-List of Top 25 SNES games
-List of SNES games both unknown and popular
-SNES wikipedia site, everything you thought you knew about SNES and than some
-Information of all the enhancement chips used in SNES games
-Interesting website listing 100 popular SNES games
The SNES was continually produced until 2003, although in much lower quantities starting in 1999. Kirby’s Dreamland 3 was the last first party game released for the SNES on November 27, 1997 and other SNES games were being produced until 2000. Nowadays, one can play ports of popular SNES titles on handheld systems, and starting in 2005 SNES titles were made available for download through the Wii’s Shopping Channel. There are also many SNES emulators one can find online as well as a massive collection of SNES ROM games to download for play.On October 20, 1997 Nintendo released the SNS-101, a slimmer version of the original SNES in the USA retailing at $99.95; five months later Japan received the Super Famicom Jr. The SNS-101 had some slight differences, such as the power and reset buttons being moved to the left hand side, and there was no longer a cartridge eject button. The LED light that indicated the system was on was also removed as well as slight color changes to the buttons on the controller. The SNS-101 also no longer supported S-Video connection and RF output.
(technical statistics courtesy of SNES Wikipedia)
CPU: 16-bit 65c816 Ricoh 5A22 3.58 MHz
Processor: Ricoh 5A22, based on a 16-bit 65c816 core
Clock Rates (NTSC): Input: 21.47727 MHz
Bus: 3.58 MHz, 2.68 MHz, or 1.79 MHz
Clock Rates (PAL): Input: 21.28137 MHz
Bus: 3.55 MHz, 2.66 MHz, or 1.77 MHz
Buses: 24-bit and 8-bit address buses, 8-bit data bus
Additional Features:
· DMA and HDMA
· Timed IRQ
· Parallel I/O processing
· Hardware multiplication and division
Video Resolutions: Progressive: 256x224, 512x224, 256x239, 512x239
Interlaced: 512x448, 512x478
Pixel Depth: 2, 4, 7, or 8 bpp indexed; 8 or 11 bpp direct
Total Colors: 32768 (15-bit)
Sprites: 128, 32 max per line; up to 64x64 pixels
Backgrounds: Up to 4 planes; each up to 1024x1024 pixels
Effects:
· Pixelization (mosaic) per background
· Color addition and subtraction
· Clipping windows (per background, affecting color, math, or both)
· Scrolling per 8x8 tile
· Mode 7 matrix operations
Audio/Sound Processors: Sony SPC700, Sony DSP
Clock Rates: Input: 24.576 MHz
SPC700: 1.024 MHz
Format: 16-bit ADPCM, 8 channels
Output: 32 kHz 16-bit stereo
Effects:
· ADSR envelope control
· Frequency scaling and modulation using Gaussian interpolation
· Echo: 8-tap FIR filter, with up to .24s delay
· Noise generation
Memory Main RAM: 128 kB [cn 6]
Memory Video RAM: 64 kB main RAM
512 + 32 bytes sprite RAM
256 × 15 bits palette RAM
Memory Audio RAM: 64 kB
The external design of the SNES models differed based on region release. The main tone of the SNES is gray, just in varying shades. The Japanese and European models were more rounded in design with a dark gray casing. The controller buttons X,Y, B, and A were in the colors of green, blue, yellow and red with the Famicom logo placed next to the Super Nintendo name. The US model was redesigned to be more rectangular, and the controller and system were given a lavender/purple hue along with the gray. The Famicom logo was also removed from the controller design. The US model featured sliding Power On/Off and Reset buttons with a dark gray push button to eject a cartridge, while the European and Japanese versions featured push buttons and a small grey sliding Power button.
The standard SNES controller added two new buttons to the NES controller design for a total of 4 buttons, plus two new shoulder buttons (L and R). The SNES controller in essence became the primary