The History of Super Nintendo Emulators - Foreword

Super Nintendo and Super Famicom

The Super Nintendo, or Super Famicom in Japan, was released in 1990 to compete with the Mega Drive, which in turn, along with the PC Engine, had surpassed its predecessor, the NES. The project was announced in 1987, before the launch of Sega's 16-bit console. It was made public twice, in 1988 and 1989, before being released. One of the main changes was its controller, which now came with 4 buttons on the front and 2 on top.

SNES Hardware

The console ran on a 16-bit Ricoh 5A22 central processor running at 3.58 MHz (based on the WDC 65C816 processor used in the Apple IIGS computer). It had two 16-bit Ricoh video GPUs, the 5C77-01 and 5C78-03, running at 2.56 MHz each. While its Sega competitor had 512 colors, the Super Nintendo reached the 32,000-color mark. It also had 64kb of memory at its disposal. From 0 to 7, there were eight video modes available to game programmers, each with a different type of layer and color. The most innovative was Mode 7, where the layer could be rotated and scaled, transforming it into a two-dimensional horizontal texture plane. Other consoles of the time, such as the Sega CD, developed their own way of doing this. Games such as Mario Kart and F-Zero worked with this system. Its sound was coordinated by an 8-bit coprocessor developed by Sony called the SPC700. Inside it was a 16-bit digital signal processor and 64kb of memory. This entire set was called the Nintendo S-SMP. It had a frequency of 24,000 MHz with eight stereo audio channels. This sound system allowed for sung songs to be played during the game, making it the first video game in history to offer this function. Finally, its RAM was 128kb, divided in half between sound and image.

Stellaview

The SNES had some interesting accessories, such as the Satellaview add-on, released in 1995, which allowed access to the Internet, allowing users to browse websites, read magazines and listen to music, as well as download Nintendo games to the console, all starting from an animated lobby, like a more modern online RPG game, where each building represented each online service mentioned. It requires a cartridge to work and a subscription to a satellite service. Many of the games available were remade or altered versions of NES games or old SNES games, as well as new releases. It came with 1MB of ROM space and 512KB of RAM, and could be expanded to 8MB with external memory packs, similar to the memory cards used in consoles such as the NeoGeo AES and the future PSX. There was also the Super Game Boy, which allowed GB cartridges to be inserted to be played on the console, improving its color palette and other features.

Super FX and StarFox Chip

Regarding SNES games, the exclusive contract for game production ended in 1991, starting a war between MD and SNES in several arcade ports and console releases. In addition to its super GPU, it also began developing special chips integrated into the game cartridge in 1991, with the game Pilotwings, using the famous Mode 7. It also provided trigonometric calculations for 3D language. This chip was called DPS-1. There were DPS-2, 3 and 4, which added other functions to the games. The most famous of these was the Super FX, which came with 32kb of memory and rendered 3D polygons present in games like Star Fox. A second version of it was released, allowing full use of its 21 MHz clock, which was used in half in its first version. The second version was in games like Doom and Yoshi Island. The other chips were the CX4 from Megaman X2 and X3, the SA-1 from Super Mario RPG, the SDD-1 from SF Alpha 2, as well as the OBC-1, S-RTC, SPC7110, and the ST010, 011 and 018 lines. In addition to the chips, the console also had a region lock, with the SNES having a physical lock that did not allow Japanese cartridges. On the Super Famicom, the American cartridge did not fit, because the space was too small for it.

SNES Games

Among the titles released for the console, we have anime titles, such as 3x3 Eyes, Dragon Ball Z, Ranma ½, Ashita no Joe, Captain Tsubasa, Shin-Chan, Cyborg 009, Doraemon, Cyber ​​​​Formula, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Zenki, Magic Knights Rayearth, Mazinger Z, Gundam Wing, Yu Yu Hakusho and Sailor Moon. Along with the PC Engine and Sega Saturn, it was the one that released the most anime games in the 1990s. Puzzle games, such as Yoshi's Cookie, Kirby's Adventure, Pieces, Troddlers, Tetris & Dr. Mario, Bust-a-Move, Lemmings, Puzzle Dama, Bomberman, Puyo Puyo, Sailor Moon, Tetris 2, Tetris Attack, Ranma ½ and Magical Drop. Platformers, such as Demon's Crest, Metroid, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, ActRaiser, Castlevania, Kirby, Megaman and Earthworm Jim. From RPGs, such as Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Triger, Super Mario RPG, Breath of Fire, Terranigma, Lufia, Earthbound, Harvest Moon, Tales of Phantasia, Secret of Mana and Soul Blazer. From shmup, we had the franchises Darius, R-Type, Star Fox, Parodius, Thunder Force, Contra, in addition to the games Axelay, BioMetal, Thunder Spirits, Imperium, UN Squadron, Raiden, Aero Fighters and Smash TV. From beat 'em up, such as Final Fight, Ninja Turtles, Sailor Moon, Double Dragon, Power Rangers, Marvel Super Hero, Venom, Batman Forever, Undercover Cops, Sonic Blastman, Sunset Riders and Kamen Rider. Racing games include F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Rock'n Roll Racing, Top Gear, Super Off Road, Street Racer, Bike Mars From Mars, The Duel, Lamborghini American Callenge, Super Chase HQ, as well as F1 games. Fighting games include the SF II, KOF, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, Art of Fighting, Mortal Kombat franchises, as well as ClayFighter, Killer Instinct, Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DBZ, Sailor Moon and Ranma ½. Disney games include Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story, Mickey Mouse (such as Mickey Mania and Magical Quest), The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast and Timon and Pumbaa. Marvel games include Captain America, Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man (such as Spider-Man vs. X-Men and Venom) and Marvel Super Heroes. From sports, such as NBA Jam, Super Punch-Out, NHL, Intentional Superstar Soccer, Madden NFL, Super Tennis, WWF and FIFA Soccer. From Warner Bros, such as Bugs Bunny, Tiny Toons, Daffy Duck, Taz-Mania and Looney Tunes. And finally, from DC, such as Superman, Batman (such as Returns and Forever) and Justice League. The SNES was the console that released the most games until the 1990s, with more than 1,700 releases, second only to the PSX. Despite having difficulty competing with the Mega Drive at the beginning, it soon surpassed it and became the best-selling console of the 4th generation with more than 50 million copies worldwide. The Super Nintendo was discontinued in 1999.