Super Nintendo

The incredible Nintendo entertainment system also known as Super NES, SNES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit video game console that was launched in 1990 by Nintendo in Japan, in 1991 in North America, in 1992 in Europe and Australia, and in South America in 1993.  In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system was known as the Super Famicom, officially adopting the abbreviated name of its predecessor, the Family Computer, or SFC for short. Nintendo's entertainment system is the second home console Nintendo made.  The machine had many advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared to other consoles on the market at the time.  In addition, the development of several chips incorporated into game circuit boards helped maintain its competitiveness within the market.

Related topics

Nintendo 64, Game Cube, Wii

What is the Super Nintendo?

Super Nintendo is a game console created by Nintendo. It was the successor to the Nintendo Entertainment System in America and Europe. This console was maintained for many years until it was discontinued in 1999 and replaced by the game console known as Wii.

History

In 1980, Nintendo was well established in the global video game market through its NES console which had important marketing policies and strategies.  In 1986, it had helped revitalize the U.S. industry after a financial crisis.

In 1987, Masayuki Uemura, who was the designer of the original Famicom, created what would become Nintendo’s new console, and Ken Kutaragi would also design an important part of the new system, the sound, a sound chip that was known as SPC700, work that was hidden because Ken was a Sony worker working secretly for Nintendo.

On November 21, 1987, the real prototype of the console known as the “Super Famicom Computer” was presented to the Japanese press.  They showed the graphical capabilities of rotation and scaling through a prototype game called DragonFly, which later became the precursor of the game Pilotwings.

The Super Famicom was launched in Japan on November 21, 1990 and was both, a success and a madness; the first 300,000 units were sold in hours and there was a social upheaval generated, so future releases of consoles could only be on weekends.

On August 23, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was launched in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992, and then in Germany.

Super Nintendo characteristics

The main characteristics of Super Nintendo were as follows:

• DMA and HDMA.
• Programmed IRQ.
• Parallel processing, I / O.
• Hardware multiplication and division.
• It had connectors for port, controller response, output port and for games.
• It had buttons for power (on), reset (restart the game), eject (extract the game) and to select the radio frequency channel.
• It had various sound effects such as voice panning, acoustic envelope, echo, noise generation and tone modulation.

Technical specifications

• Ricoh 5A22 processor, based on WDC W65C816 16-bit processor.4647
• Clock speed: 1.79, 2.68 MHz, or 3.58 MHz (NTSC); 4647 1.77 MHz, 2.66 MHz, or 3.55 MHz (PAL).
• RAM Memory: 128 KB.4647
• Sound Coprocessor: Sony SPC700 8-bit.4647
• Clock speed: 1.024 MHz
• File extension for emulation: .spc
• Boot Rom size: 64 bytes.
• Audio RAM: 512 Kb (64 KB)4647 (shared between the two chips).
• Digital sound processor: 16-bit S-DSP.4647
• It had 8,464 sound channels
• Its sound format was ADPCM, with compressed waves using the BBR compression algorithm.
• Sound quality of 32 kHz of 16 bits4647 in stereo.
• A memory cycle of 279 ns.
• 16-bit code pulse
• S-PPU1 and S-PPU2 circuits, 16-bit image processing units.

Connections and ports

• Port for seven-pin controllers on the front of the machine (2)
• Controller response: 16 milliseconds
• SNS A/V Multiout Audio/Video Output (1)
• Bay for external devices (1)
• CD input 10 V (1)
• A/V radio frequency output (1) which was later removed from the compact version of the Super Nintendo
• Game cartridge connector.

Super Nintendo models

The Super Nintendo models were as follows:

• Super Nintendo (EU). European Model. PAL.
• Super Nintendo (USA). American Model. NTSC.
• Super Nintendo Mini (USA). Revision of the American model that diminishes the dimensions and improves the design. NTSC.
• Super Famicom (JAP). Japanese model. NTSC.
• Super Famicon Jr. (JAP). Revision of the Japanese model that reduces the dimensions and improves the design. NTSC.

Cartridges

The cartridges were used as a storage medium for the games and their size is 32 Mbit due to the limits of the memory controllers.  Most of them provide the inclusion of an SRAM memory to store temporary game information, an additional working RAM, support coprocessors and other functional hardware for the system.

Accessories

The main accessories were created by second people and among them we mention:

• Game Boy converter so that games designed for Game Boy laptops can be played through the SNES.
• Super Scope, a wireless light gun.
• SNES Mouse: specifically created for Mario Paint, although it could also be used in Ocean’s Jurassic Park.
• Super Multitap: a multi-player adapter that expands the SNES controller ports to 16 simultaneous players for those games that do.
• Sufami Turbo: a cartridge-adapter used to run Game Boy games.
• Satellaview: a sat modem that was added to the Super Nintendo.

Super Nintendo featured games

The most outstanding games of the Super Nintendo are:

• Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Yoshiʼs Island
• Super Metroid
• Super Mario World
• Street Fighter II
• Donkey Kong Country
• Super Mario Kart
• Mega Man X
• Star Wing

Curiosities

Super Nintendo, Super Nes, Super Famicom or Super Comboy were the names of the console depending on where it was marketed at a given time.

The variations of the models for America and Japan are very marked, their physical form was different.

The most sold game was the Super Mario World with more than 20 million units, followed by Street Fighter II or Donkey Kong Country that reached the figures of more than 9 million units sold.

Donkey Kong Country was the first SNES game to have 3D graphics.