Super nintendo

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, popularly known as the Super Nintendo, also called the Super Famicom (Japanese: スーパーファミコン, Hepburn: Sūpā Famikon) in Japan (abbreviated SFC) and the Hyundai Super Comboy (Hangul: 현대 슈퍼 컴보이, revised romanization: Hyeondae Syupeo Keomboi) in South Korea, also officially named for short as the Super NES or SNES in America and as the Super Nintendo in Europe, it is Nintendo's second discontinued home video game console and the successor to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in America and Europe. It had a great rivalry around the world with the Sega Mega Drive (or Sega Genesis) during the 16-bit era. It was discontinued in 1999 (2003 in Japan) and years later, it was re-released virtually via Virtual Console on the Wii in 2006, Wii U in 2013, Nintendo 3DS (New version only) in 2016, and Nintendo Switch. in 2019 through the online service Nintendo Switch Online.

History

Background (8-bit era)

During the mid-1980s, Nintendo had consolidated the video game market inside and outside Japan through its NES (Nintendo Entertainment System/Nintendo Famicom) console with significant marketing policies and strategies. Thanks to this, in 1986, it had helped revitalize the industry in the United States, after it was in a period of financial crisis beginning in 1983, placing itself in a dominant position in the market, compared to other companies (mostly national such as Atari) that had broken or lost an important trust and economic presence due to the ravages caused by the aforementioned crisis; the company would have managed to penetrate other markets, mainly Europe and Asia, thanks to a strategic association with different companies for the distribution of its consoles.

At the end of 1987 the situation in the Japanese market presented changes, on October 30 of that same year the Hudson Soft company in association with the manufacturer of the electronics industry NEC would launch the PC Engine console (which would be known in other markets such as the TurboGrafx-16), presenting a compact design, superior hardware and graphics compared to the NES, already being a direct competitor. NEC's interest in entering the video game market coincided with Hudson's failed attempt to sell graphics chip designs for Nintendo. On the other hand, Sega was another company that had been competing for years to consolidate a video game console in the Japanese market, after having made unsuccessful attempts to launch and market other consoles in the past: the SG-1000 in 1983, Sega Mark III in 1985 and Sega Master System in 1986, the company decides to design and market a new console based on 16-bit architecture that could superiorly rival Nintendo, based on their own hardware. arcade systems of those years, the development of the new console would bear fruit and on October 29, 1988 the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis would be launched, being a system that offered a processor, completely 16-bit graphics and a quality top audio. Although those two consoles could not truly compete with the Famicom when they were released, Nintendo executives considered rethinking their position once their competitors could offer new systems that were truly superior to their console.

Development

Sometime in 1987, Masayuki Uemura, the designer of the original Famicom, would develop what would become the new Nintendo console, while Ken Kutaragi would design an important part of the new system, the sound, which would be the development of a powerful sound chip that would later be known as the SPC700, work that was kept secret because Ken was a Sony employee and had secretly agreed to work for Nintendo. The situation became tense once Sony discovered the project in 1988, but it was allowed to continue once Sony's then-CEO Norio Ohga allowed his employee to continue working together for Nintendo.

Introduction

On November 21, 1987, the real prototype of the console known as the "Super Famicom Computer" was presented to the Japanese press. rotating and scaling graphics capabilities (pseudo-3D rendering capability), known as "Mode 7" through a prototype game called DragonFly, which would be the precursor to the video game Pilotwings; the expected launch would be during the month of July 1988. A second demo was held at another press conference on July 28, 1989, another game used in the demo was shown, a prototype of the video game Super Mario World, it would confirm that the console launch would be would postpone until 1990.

Launch

The Super Famicom was released in Japan on Wednesday, November 21, 1990 for ¥25,000 (US$210). It was an immediate success; the first 300,000 units were sold in just hours, and as a result of the social unrest, the Japanese government asked video game companies to plan future console releases on the weekend. The launch of the system also drew the attention of the Japanese mafia (Yakuza), making the decision to distribute the product at night to avoid theft.

Sales of the Super Famicom quickly outpaced the competition, reaffirming Nintendo's position as the leader of the Japanese console market. Nintendo's success was due in part to the retention of key developers from its previous system, including Capcom, Konami, Tecmo, Square, Koei, and Enix.

"However, the key factor in sales was the game that came with the SNES - Super Mario World console."

On August 23, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (A redesigned version of the Super Famicom) was released in North America for $199. The SNES was released in the UK and Ireland in April 1992 for GB£150, weeks later it was also released in Germany. In Brazil in 1992 by Playtronic, a joint venture between the toy company Estrela and the consumer electronics company Gradiente. Most PAL versions of the console used the Japanese Super Famicom design, except for the labeling and labeling. control cable length.

The Super Famicom and SNES launched with few games, but they were well received in the market. In Japan, only two games were initially available: Super Mario World and F-Zero. In North America, Super Mario World was released in a pack with the console and other launch titles; including F-Zero, Pilotwings (both demonstrating "Mode 7" pseudo-3D rendering capability), SimCity, and Gradius III.

Competition with Sega (Console War)

The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega led to what has been described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history. While in Japan Sega remained aloof in the video game market, in North America would remain dominant with its Sega Genesis console, called the Sega Mega Drive outside of North America, developing important aggressive advertising campaigns against Nintendo starting in 1989, one of the most remembered by the American public was the advertising campaign called "Genesis does what Nintendon"t" (in Spanish: "Genesis does what Nintendo doesn") that demonstrated the technical capabilities Sega's superior 16-bit console and an extensive catalog of sports video games compared to the 8-bit capabilities of the NES console with its licensed video games of arcade titles. However, one of the key factors in the success of the Genesis in the United States United was the incorporation of the video game Sonic the Hedgehog in the console package in 1991, the title achieved favorable reviews and helped many gamers buy the Genesis console instead of the SNES. By 1992, Nintendo would have to now facing a rival already established in the American and European markets for some years, in North America it would not be able to consecrate itself until 1994.

Policy Changes

While the practices carried out by Nintendo regarding the retention of video game licenses and developers during the NES era helped sales, they could not be sustained in the 1990s due to competition from the Sega Mega Drive. In 1991, the Acclaim company would launch new titles for both platforms while other companies such as Capcom decided to license video games to third parties or to Sega itself, instead of producing them directly.

Another type of policy that would change over the years was the application of censorship to violence and its limitations that Nintendo gave to certain titles that would go on the market, mainly in its American subsidiary, since it maintained a policy of limitation of violence to their titles and, therefore, the release of a video game to their consoles could be different from their European or Japanese versions. The video game that truly challenged that policy would be Midway's 1993 title Mortal Kombat, a 1992 arcade hit about fighting that featured blood spattering and dismemberment in finishing moves. Due to Nintendo's policies, the game presented severe and notable changes, blood and violent movements were removed from the SNES version, while Sega was more open and instead of censoring introduced moderate changes to the elements (changing blood for sweat) only to be changed into actual violence through the use of a special code; consequently the Sega version of Mortal Kombat outsold the Nintendo version.

The case on violence in video games went further, and for a time the creation of a system that classified the content presented in video games was carried out, which led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board organization in 1994. The CERO and PEGI standards appeared later in the 2000s. Once established, Nintendo felt that policies on censoring titles were no longer as necessary.

The 32-bit era and beyond

While other companies were moving towards 32-bit system architectures (Sega's Sega Saturn, Sony's PlayStation, and Atari's Atari Jaguar), Rare and Nintendo demonstrated that the SNES was still a strong competitor in the game. the market. In November 1994, Rare released Donkey Kong Country, a platform game with 3D models and pre-rendered textures on SGI workstations. With its detailed graphics, smooth animation, and high-quality music, Donkey Kong Country rivaled the aesthetic quality of games being released on 32-bit CD-based consoles. In the last 45 days of 1994, the game sold 6,100,000 units, making it the fastest-selling game in history up to that date. This game sent the message that early 32-bit systems had little to offer over the SNES, and helped usher in more advanced consoles.

In October 1997, Nintendo re-released the console in a slimmer model (called the SNS-101 model), which was bundled with the video game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and is considered the latest model launched in the region. A similar model called the "Super Famicom Jr." would be released in 1998 in Japan. On November 27, 1997, Nintendo released its last title for the console: Kirby's Dream Land 3. And a year later, his last video game Frogger from 1998 was released. Finally, the production of the consoles would end in 1999 in North America and in 2003 in Japan.

With the existence of more powerful and advanced systems over the years, several titles were ported to later generation consoles and even to other types of systems, several of them began by means of emulation in operating systems of PC and later to other Nintendo consoles, the first of which was on the Game Boy Advance portable console and later on the Wii console in 2005 through the virtual console, currently it is also available on the Wii U and on the Nintendo 3DS.

On October 31, 2007, Nintendo of Japan announced that it would stop repairing Super Famicom consoles due to a growing shortage of necessary parts.

Hardware

The design of the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom was unusual for its time. It had a processor that was supposedly not (or did not seem) too powerful, relatively, for its time (actually more complex and less known) but quite efficient, aided by its own powerful chips for sound and video processing, also called chips support. This is common in today's gaming hardware, but it was new to game developers, and as a result, third-party games were technically poor quality. The developers got used to their system later in order to use it to its full capacity, proving that their CPU was capable of delivering good results.

The CPU or main processor of the console is a Ricoh 5A22, based on the 16-bit WDC W65C816 processor, which belongs to the architecture of the MOS Technology 6502 family of processors. It should be remembered that its CPU is a A modification of the WDC 65C816, it is a derivative of the 16-bit 65C816, and therefore has additional features than a normal WDC 65C816, which makes it a somewhat more complete CPU. This CPU has an 8-bit data bus and two address buses. The "A Bus" 24-bit is used for general access, while the "Bus B" 8-bit is used to access registers on media chips such as video and audio coprocessors. The WDC 65C816 (in this case the Ricoh 5A22) also supports an 8-channel DMA unit; an 8-bit parallel I/O port, a controller port interface circuit that allows serial and parallel access to controller data; a 16-bit multiplication and division unit; and circuitry for generating non-maskable V-blank interrupts and IRQ interrupts at computed screen positions. It has extremely low latency (something beneficial), since it only needs 1 wait cycle (8 MHz) to be able to operate externally, and it also needs very few cycles to efficiently execute its small set of instructions, it is very flexible and efficient. It runs at a variable clock speed ranging from 1.79, 2.68 MHz, or up to 3.58 MHz in NTSC regions and 1.77 MHz, 2.66 MHz, or 3.55 MHz in PAL regions. As video processing, the use of two separate closed circuits is used, the S-PPU1 and the S-PPU2, their operation is closely linked so they cannot Working separately from each other, it can generate a palette of 32,768 colors as well as different effects for graphics. The sound unit is employed by using the Sony SPC700 chip (also called Nintendo S-SMP) together with the eight-channel sound S-DSP chip, it can simultaneously or individually generate different sound effects such as echo or modulation. of tones, with a good result. The system contains respectively 128 KB of Ram used for main memory, 64 KB for video and 64 KB for sound.

The architecture of Super Nintendo allowed technological advances in video games, thanks to its architecture it could allow game cartridges to implement support chips, and many of the games needed fewer megabytes (more megabytes did not mean being superior, it could be because the console needed them or to add different extras). Thanks to its general architecture (the processor and co-processors) it resulted in, in most games, complex graphics and effects. Its CPU together with the support chips offered a very powerful and efficient console. The overall hardware of the Super Nintendo came to offer high-quality technology.

Technical specifications

Central Process Unit
Processor Ricoh 5A22, based on the 16-bit WDC W65C816 processor. Watch speed: 1.79, 2.68 MHz, or 3.58 MHz (NTSC); 1.77 MHz, 2.66 MHz or 3.55 MHz (PAL). Main RAM: 128 KB. Additional features: DMA and HDMA. IRQ programme. Parallel processing I/O. Multiplication and hardware division.
Sound
Sound coprocessor: 8-bit Sony SPC700. Watch speed: 1.024 MHz. File extension for emulation: .spc Starting Rom size: 64 bytes. RAM: 512 Kb (64 KB) (shared between the two chips).
Digital sound processor: 16-bit S-DSP. Sound channels: 8. Sound format: ADPCM uses compressed wave-shaped samples using the BBR compression algorithm. Sound quality: 32 kHz 16-bit stereo. Memory Cycle Time: 279 ns. Sound effects: Panning of voices, acoustic envelope, echo, noise generation and tone modulation. Code pulse modulator: 16 bits.
Video
Circuits S-PPU1 and S-PPU2, 16-bit image processing units. Palette: 32 768 Colours. Colors on screen: 256. According to graphic mode: example, 241 in mode 1 or 256 in mode 7, without counting sub-blending. Resolution: 256x224 to 512x448. Most games use 256x224 pixels; there were programming tricks to get 512x448, but under conditions more limited than the 256x224 mode so it was used very rarely. Maximum sprites on screen: 128 (32 per line). Maximum number of sprites pixels in a scanline: 256. The image generator has a software error which was disposed of the nearest sprites instead of the farthest if a scanline exceeded the limit. Most common display modes: Mode 1 pixel text to pixel (16 colors per tile; 3 layers scroll) text affine mapped, mode 7 (256 colors per tile; a rotation/scalation layer). RAM: 64 Kb.
Food
Food sources vary depending on the models released in different markets. Input transformer in European and Australian models: 230 V AC, 50 Hz, 17 W. Input transformer in American models: 120 V AC, 60 Hz, 17 W. Input transformer in the Brazilian model: 120/220 V AC, 60 Hz, 12 W. Input transformer in Japanese models: 100 V AC, 50/60 Hz, 17 W, 18 VA. Input transformer in the South Korean model: 110/220 V AC, 60 Hz, 18 VA. Output transformer: 9 V AC 1.3 A for European and Australian versions. Output transformer: 10 V DC, 850 mA and negative polarity for Japanese, American and South Korean versions. Output transformer: 9.3 V DC, 850 mA and negative polarity for the Brazilian version. Female DC Connector 9.5 mm (length), 5.5 mm (outside diameter) and 2.5 mm (inner diameter) for PAL versions. Female DC Connector 9.5 mm (length), 5.5 mm (outside diameter) and 2.1 mm (inner diameter) for Japanese NTSC. 9.5 mm male DC connector (length) with central inner pin for American and South Korean consoles.
Controllers and connectors
The console has the following connectors: Port for seven pin controllers on the front of the machine (2). Driver's answer: 16 ms. Audio/video output port Nintendo A/V Multi Out (1) (some models included a protective cap for this port). Bay for external devices (1) (ExT port located at the base of the console). AC 9 V input by 5.5 mm male DC connector (inner diameter) and 2.5 mm (central pin diameter) for PALs (1). DC 10 V input by 5.5 mm male DC connector (inner diameter) and 2.1 mm (central pin diameter) for Japanese NTSC (1). DC 10 V input by female DC connector for American and South Korean versions (1). A/V radiofrequency output (RF) (1) (eliminated in compact versions, in some versions of the SNSN-001(KOR) model and in the SNSP-001A(FRA) model). Connector or slot for game cartridges.
Buttons
The console has the following buttons: Button POWER on and off by horizontal pulsation. Button RESET retouchable to restart the game. Button EJECT retouchable for the extraction of a cartridge with the off console (eliminated in the Jr versions). Output radiofrequency channel selector between two different frequencies available (eliminated in Jr. versions, in some versions of the SNSN-001(KOR) model and in the PAL consoles SNSP-001A(FRA), SNSP-001A(UKV) and SNSP-001A(AUS) models).

Console case and its regional differences

Like its predecessor console, the console has differences in its case design, particularly in the American release where it has a totally different design to its Japanese, European, Australian and South Korean counterparts. The design for its North American version was elaborated by the industrial design company Lance Barr and was made in order to avoid placing food and drinks or any type of object on the base of the console, something that had happened with its predecessor console NES. The most noticeable changes in the console are the following:

Original Japanese version model SHVC-001 (1990-1998)	American version models: SNS-001 SNSM-001 (BRA) (1991-1997)	PAL version models: SNSP-001A(FRG) SNSP-001A(UKV) SNSP-001A(ITA) SNSP-001A(FRA) SNSP-001A(SCN) SNSP-001A(AUS) (1992-1998)	South Korean version HGM-3000(SNSN-001) (1992-2003)	American version "Jr." SNS-101 model (1997-1999)	Jr. Japanese version model SHVC-101 (1998-2003)

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  Official logo used in the Japanese version.
  Japanese version: The Super Famicom features a rounded white design with a base at the top of the grey color, contains the four-color console logo: green, blue, red and yellow located at the top right of the console, which also represents the four A-B-X-Y command or system control buttons. The length of the cables used for the system is the shortest compared to the other versions. Although all the Super Famicom are of the same quality, Nintendo made two independent productions: the consoles manufactured in Japan, whose serial numbers start with the letter "S", and those manufactured in China, whose serial numbers start with the letters "SM". The video system used by this console is the NTSC, variant NTSC-J.

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  Two commands showing their simple differences in design; on top: SHVC-005 model command for design Super Famicom, below: SNS-005 model command for Super NES American.
  American version: The Super Nintendo console is the one that presents a design totally different from the other versions, the base of the housing presents with a curved surface in the slot area of the cartridge, this in order to avoid placing any element or object on the console that might cause some decomposture as liquids or foods, the colors of the buttons of the ignition and restart housing are purple, the switch to remove the cartridges is of color. In the meantime, in control the A-B buttons are purple with a convex relief and the X-Y buttons are lavender. Like the housing, the American cartridges present a difference in design, which generates a physical incompatibility for the cartridges of the Japanese, PAL and South Korean versions, although it can be solved by using adapters or by making a modification in the cartridge slot. From the American version there is the SNSM-001(BRA) model designed for the Brazilian market and produced in Manaus by the Playtronic company. This Brazilian model was the only SNES model manufactured outside Japan. From the SNS-001 model there are two versions, the SNS-USA and the SNS-US/CAN sold in the US market. The video system used by this console is the NTSC, variant NTSC-M.

• Japanese and American Jr. Version: versions June of the console are redishes in smaller size and weight. Both the American and Japanese version presents the same design, only differentiated in the size and shape of the port slot or connector where the cartridges are inserted and in the color used for the housing buttons and the controls for their respective regions. Although popularly the American version is known as "Jr.", "Mini" or "SNES 2", this version is considered by Nintendo as one more SNES with a new design and model, being officially referenced as the "New-Style Super NES", while the Japanese version was officially nominated as the "Super Fmicam Jr.". This model was never released in PAL version.

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  Original Handle, SNSP-005, for Super Nintendo PAL, whose buttons use the same colors as in the versions Super Famicom, Super Famicom Jr. and Hyunday Super Comboy.
  PAL version: Although this version presents a design equal to its Japanese counterpart, it is designed for PAL televisions, a different form of similar video transmission used in most European countries and Australia. Because of this difference in the type of video signal, the console uses a regional block to prevent the use of cartridges from the American, Japanese and South Korean regions that use the NTSC video transmission protocol. The PAL version has more models, with little differences between them in the design. The Italian model SNSP-001A(ITA) has two versions: the SNSP-ITA and the (CE)SNSP-ITA; the French model SNSP-001A(FRA) has two versions: the SNSP-FRA and the SNSP-FRA-1; the UK model SNSP-001A(UKV) has two versions: the SNSP-UKV and the (CE) The SNSP-001A(SCN) model was sold in the Nordic countries and the SNSP-001A(AUS) in Australia. The SNSP-001A(FRG) model has different versions, depending on the country where it was sold (version indicated in the label of the console base) and the year of production, having been sold the SNSP-ESP version in Spain, the SNSP-NOE in Germany, the SNSP-FRG in Austria and other countries in northern Europe, the SNSP-HOL in the Netherlands, the SN All the consoles produced since the end of 1994 onwards had the new revisions of plates that include what have been sold to call the "consoles 1CHIP", which emit a clearer and more quality video signal than the previous consoles whose plates are not "1CHIP". Unlike the consoles with the NTSC system, the Super Nintendo PAL does not emit the signal of composite synchronism (pin 3 of the Multi Out port) and can only use, for the RGB signal, the synchronisms of the composite video signal or S-Video, which makes the image contain some noise and not as sharp as it could be seen in the NTSC versions.

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  Console handle Hyundai Super Comboy with the buttons of the same color as the Japanese and PAL versions, although with text in Korean.
  South Korean version: for distribution and sale in the South Korean market, Nintendo gave its license to the South Korean company Hyundai Electronics. Because of this, the name of the console adopts in this country the official name of Hyundai Super Comboy, although the name "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" is also included in the console, indicating the version of it in the official console box and under the text "Korean Version", which makes this model another version of SNES. As for the design of the housing, this version has the same as the PAL and Super Famicom models, and uses the NTSC video signal, being this version fully compatible with the Super Famicom games. It also highlights the use of the same DC connector as the American SNES models and the Korean text of the console buttons in some of the versions. The first models of the console have the SNSN-001(KOR) code, while the later ones were labeled as HGM-3000(SNSN-001).

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  Consoles SNES with the problem of color change caused by the oxidation of plastic.
  Oxidation in the housing components: Some consoles both the original Super Famicom and the original SNES share an industrial error in the design of the components used for the ABS plastic of the housing, since it is susceptible to oxidation caused by contact with oxygen, this problem was more noticeable if the console was exposed for a long time in the weather, the cause was probably to an incorrect mix of the stabilizing additives or flame retardants. In short, the plastic color of the housing changes yellow by oxidation. Color can sometimes be restored with UV light and a hydrogen peroxide solution.

• Regional block: the console uses both physical and hardware locks to prevent the use of cartridges that are not corresponding to the console region. The cartridge design in the American version is different from the Japanese, PAL and South Korean versions, so it employs a physical impediment that makes the cartridge of another region not completely inserted into the slot. You can only play with Japanese cartridges in an American console if you break the security lock that was detected in the cartridge insert gates. On the other hand, in the PAL version the console uses the use of a locking circuit that prevents the use of American and Japanese cartridges, although the same can be solved by modifications to the video chips and in the closing circuit of the console. However, this modification of the video circuits can have unforeseen results in the screen resolution and the game speed, as this can be more accelerated. The regional blockage can be deactivated by the modification of the closing circuit, although this modification could be detected in the most current title cartridges, so it was necessary to use a switch to avoid, again, that inconvenience.

Game cartridge

Comparative view of cartridge design for their respective regions; top: system cartridge SNES American, below: cartridge for the system Super Famicom, whose design is identical to that of the systems Hyundai Super Comboy and SNES PAL. The bottom cartridge also shows the optional pins for the use of chips or support coprocessors.

Cartridges are the game storage medium used for the console. The default size in the cartridges is 32 Mbit due to the access limits of the memory controllers. There are games like Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean that manage to use 48 Mbit of data on the cartridges.

Most of the cartridges offer other types of benefits such as the inclusion of an SRAM memory to store temporary information regarding the games, plus additional working RAM, support coprocessors and other functional hardware for the system.

Support Chips

Some games made use of special chips inside the cartridges in order to increase the power of the machine in different aspects:

• CX4: Improve the use of wheatnometric transparencies and calculations. Created by Capcom and used exclusively in Megaman X2 and Megaman X3.
• DSP1: Improvements in Mode 7 and vector calculation. Used in games like Super Mario Kart.
• DSP2: Scale of graphics. Duplicate the speed of the SNES. Exclusive Dungeon Master.
• DSP3: Decompression of graphics. Exclusive SD Gundam GX.
• DSP4: Circuit drawing. Exclusive Top Gear 3000.
• SA1: Data compressor 1:4. Increases SNES speed to 10 MHz. Used in games like Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3 and in cartridges-adaptators SD Gundam G-Next.
• S-DD1: Graphics compression. Exclusive Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Capcom) and Star Ocean (Enix in the pre-Square-Enix era).
• SPC7110: Improvement in algorithms. Designed by Epson and Used in 4 games:
  • Far East of Eden Zero
  • Far East of Eden Zero - Shounen Jump no Shou
  • Momotarou Dentetsu Happy
  • Super Power League 4
• Super FX: Vector calculations. Speed increase SNES up to 10.5 MHz. Used in Star Fox (Star Wing in Europe), Dirt Trax, Stunt Race FX and Vortex.
• Super FX 2: SNES speed increase to 21 MHz. Used in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Winter Gold, Doom and the canceled Star Fox 2.
• Seta DSP: These chips are created by Seta Corp. to improve IA capacity. Used in 3 games according to the chip:
  • ST-10: F1 Roc 2
  • ST-11: Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi
  • ST-18: Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi II
• OBC-1: Sprite handling. Exclusive Metal, sequel Battle Clash.
• S-RTC: A chip that shows the clock in real time. Exclusive Daikaijuu Monogatari II.

Peripherals

Photo of the only known prototype of the SNES-based PlayStation.

During the life of the SNES, Nintendo contracted with two different companies, Sony and Philips, to develop a CD-ROM based peripheral for the console to compete with the Sega CD. Although Sony produced a prototype SNES-CD console, Nintendo's agreements with Sony and Philips were cancelled, and Philips obtained the rights to release a series of games based on Nintendo franchises (Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda) for its console. multimedia CD-i (see also: Hotel Mario, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure); and Sony went on to develop its own console based on its initial dealings with Nintendo, the PlayStation.

Accessories

During its commercialization period, a number of accessories were released, most of them were manufactured by third-party companies to use as add-ons in certain console titles, other companies would develop other types of accessories that modified certain aspects operating on the console without a license from Nintendo. The most outstanding accessories of the console are the following:

La Super Game Boy allows to play titles of the Game Boy laptop through the SNES.

• Game Boy Converter, Super Game Boy: allows Game Boy laptop games to be played by SNES or Super Famicom, also allowing color to the games
• Super Scope: a wireless light gun similar to a bazooka
• SNES mouse: created specifically for the game of creativity called Mario Paint, although it could also be used in Jurassic Park Ocean and other games.
• Super Multitap: a multiplayer adapter licensed by Konami (originally Hudson Soft), similar to NES accessory, NES Four Score and NES Satellite. Expand the SNES controller ports to the number of 16 simultaneous players for those games that support it (However, this large number requires several Multitaps to be connected to each other). There was also a Super Multitap 2, but it did not work on PAL and American consoles, in addition to Multitaps created by third parties.
• Sufami Turbo: a cartridge-adaptator created by Bandai, which serves to run Game Boy-size games created for this Nipple Land Adapter
• Satellaview: a satmodem added to the Nintendo Super Nintendo console that was released only in Japan
• Various adapters to allow to play Japanese or American titles or cartridges in European consoles (PAL)

EXT Port

The Satellaview device works in conjunction with the Super Famicom.

The bottom of the console has a connection called "EXT". A peripheral called the Satellaview was released in Japan that used this expansion port. It is a satellite modem with which players could compete online with other users thanks to the frequency provided by St.GIGA's satellite radio broadcasts. Usually, the games available for download through this peripheral were remakes or sequels of Nintendo games, such as Zelda no Densetsu (adaptation of the first NES Zelda), Zelda no Densetsu Kodai no Sekiban (sequel to A Link to the Past), F-Zero Grand Prix 2, etc.

Cheat Devices

Third party cheat devices released for the SNES allowed players to modify game data and allowed things like infinite lives, energy, etc. All cheat devices were made by third party companies and none were licensed or supported by Nintendo.

• Pro Action Replay 2
• Game Genie

Software

The Japanese launch catalog in 1990 of the Super Famicom was made up of: Super Mario World and F-Zero. In America, in 1991, five titles: Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings, Gradius III and SimCity.

Sales

40 games have surpassed one million units sold worldwide, some only exclusive to Japan or North America, with Super Mario World being the best seller with 20,000,000 in the three main markets. The top ten best-selling games were:

• Super Mario World (20 000 000)
• Donkey Kong Country (8 000 000)
• Super Mario Kart (8 000 000)
• Street Fighter II (6 300 000)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (4 610 000)
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (4 370 000 approximately, 2 210 000 in Japan, 2 160 000 in the US. (United States)
• Street Fighter II Turbo (4 100,000)
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (4 000 000)
• Dragon Quest VI (3 200 000 in Japan)
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (2 890 000 approximately, 1 770 000 in Japan, 1 120 in the United States)

Legacy

SNES Classic

On June 26, 2017, Nintendo announced that, like its predecessor the Nintendo Entertainment System, the console would be released, in November 2017, in a miniature version and with 20 pre-installed games plus one never released: StarFox 2. This new console, called the "Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System" in Europe, "Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom" in Japan and "Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition" in America, it has an exterior design the same as the Super Nintendo but smaller in size, although the hardware architecture is totally different from the original version and works through emulator software. This Nintendo Classic Mini includes 9 games specifically identified for multiplayer mode and two other unidentified ones in which this facet can be unlocked.