Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The four-color Super Famicom mark (left) was used as part of the logo in the Japanese and PAL regions. The colors correspond to those of the ABXY buttons of the control pad in those regions. A different logo was used for the North American version (right), consisting of a striped background outlining four oval shapes.

Designed by Masayuki Uemura, the designer of the original Famicom, the Super Famicom was released in Japan on Wednesday, November 21, 1990, for ¥25,000 (equivalent to ¥27,804 in 2019). 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.[21] The system's release also gained the attention of the Yakuza, leading to a decision to ship the devices at night to avoid robbery.[22]

With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the Japanese console market.[23] Nintendo's success was partially due to the retention of most of its key third-party developers, including Capcom, Konami, Tecmo, Square, Koei, and Enix.[24]

Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for US$199 (equivalent to $373.54 in 2019). It began shipping in limited quantities on August 23, 1991,[lower-alpha 1][30] with an official nationwide release date of September 9, 1991.[31] The SNES was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992 for GB£150 (equivalent to £312.7 in 2019), [32] with a German release following a few weeks later.

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 SNES in Brazil, although PAL-M, uses the North American design.[33] Both the NES and SNES were released in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic, a joint venture between the toy company Estrela and consumer electronics company Gradiente.[34]

The SNES and Super Famicom launched with few games, but these games were well received in the marketplace. In Japan, only two games were initially available: Super Mario World and F-Zero.[35] (A third game, Bombuzal, was released during the launch week.[36]) In North America, Super Mario World launched as a bundle with the console; other launch games include F-Zero, Pilotwings (both of which demonstrate the console's Mode 7 pseudo-3D rendering capability), SimCity, and Gradius III.[37]

The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega resulted in what has been described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history,[38] in which Sega positioned the Genesis as the "cool" console, with games aimed at older audiences, and aggressive advertisements that occasionally attacked the competition.[39] Nintendo, however, scored an early public-relations advantage by securing the first console conversion of Capcom's arcade hit Street Fighter II for SNES, 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,[40] it only represented an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market in June 1992,[41] and neither console could maintain a definitive lead for several years. Donkey Kong Country is said to have helped establish the SNES's market prominence in the latter years of the 16-bit generation,[42][43][44][45] and for a time, maintain against the PlayStation and Saturn.[46] According to Nintendo, the company had sold more than 20 million SNES units in the U.S.[47] According to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on NPD sales data, the SNES outsold the Genesis in the U.S. market by 2 million units.[48]

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 (which licensed some games to Sega instead of producing them directly) and Square were the most notable holdouts.[49]

Nintendo continued to carefully review submitted games, scoring them on a 40-point scale and allocating marketing resources accordingly. Each region performed separate evaluations.[50] 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 (1992), a gory fighting game with huge splashes of blood and graphically violent fatality moves, was heavily censored by Nintendo.[lower-alpha 7] Because the Genesis version allowed for an uncensored version via cheat code,[51] it outsold the censored SNES version by a ratio of nearly three to one.[52]

U.S. Senators Herb Kohl and Joe Lieberman convened a Congressional hearing on December 9, 1993, to investigate the marketing of violent video games to children.[lower-alpha 8] 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 and the inclusion of ratings on all video games.[51][52] With these ratings in place, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed.[52]

While other companies were moving on to 32-bit systems, Rare and Nintendo proved that the SNES 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 sent a message that early 32-bit systems had little to offer over the SNES, and proved the market for the more advanced consoles of the near future.[53][54] According to TRSTS reports, two of the top five best-selling games in the U.S. for December 1996 are SNES games.[55]

In October 1997, Nintendo released a redesigned model of the SNES (the SNS-101 model referred to as "New-Style Super NES") in North America for US$99, with some units including the pack-in game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.[56][57] Like the earlier redesign of the NES (model NES-101), the new model is slimmer and lighter than its predecessor,[57] but it lacks S-Video and RGB output, and it is among the last major SNES-related releases in the region. A similarly redesigned Super Famicom Jr. was released in Japan at around the same time.[58] However, the redesign did not make it to Europe.

Nintendo ceased the production of the SNES in North America in 1999,[7] about two years after releasing Kirby's Dream Land 3 (its final first-party game in the US) on November 27, 1997, and a year after releasing Frogger (its final third-party game in the US). In Japan, Nintendo continued production of both the Family Computer and the Super Famicom until September 25, 2003,[6] and new games were produced until the year 2000, ending with the release of Metal Slader Glory Director's Cut on November 29, 2000.[59]

Many popular SNES games were ported to the Game Boy Advance, which has similar video capabilities. In 2005, Nintendo announced that SNES games would be made available for download via the Wii's Virtual Console service.[60] 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.[61] On March 3, 2016, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would bring SNES games to the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL (and later the New Nintendo 2DS XL) via its eShop download service.[62] At the Nintendo Direct event on September 4, 2019, Nintendo announced that it would be bringing select SNES games to the Nintendo Switch Online platform.[63][64]

The 16-bit design of the SNES[65] 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.[66]

The CPU 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.[67]

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 also supports an 8-channel DMA unit; an 8-bit parallel I/O port a controller port interface circuits allowing serial and parallel 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.[67]

Early revisions of the 5A22 used in SHVC boards are prone to spontaneous failure; this can produce a variety of symptoms including graphics glitches during Mode 7 operation, a black screen on power-on, or inability to read the controllers properly.[68] The first revision 5A22 also had a fatal bug in the DMA controller that could cause games to crash when running; this was corrected in subsequent revisions.[69]

The console contains 128 KB of general-purpose RAM, which is separate from the RAM dedicated to the video and audio subsystems.

The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) consists of two separate but closely tied IC packages. It contains 64 KB of SRAM for storing video data, 544 bytes of object attribute memory (OAM) for storing sprite data, and 256 × 15 bits of color generator RAM (CGRAM) for storing palette data. This CGRAM allows the console to display up to 256 colors, chosen from the 15-bit RGB color space, for a total of 32,768 possible colors. The PPU is clocked by the same signal as the CPU and generates a pixel every two or four cycles.[65] Eight video modes are available to the programmer:

• Mode 0: 4 layers, all using 4-color palettes. Each BG uses its section of the SNES palette. Up to 96 colors can be displayed on the backgrounds, 24 colors per layer.
• Mode 1: 3 layers, two using 16-color palettes and one using 4-color palettes. Up to 120 colors can be displayed by the first two layers and 24 colors by the third layer.
• Mode 2: 2 layers, both using 16-color palettes. Each tile can be individually scrolled. Up to 120 colors can be displayed on the screen.
• Mode 3: 2 layers, one using the full 256-color palette and one using 16-color palettes. The 256-color layer can also directly specify colors from an 11-bit (RGB443) colorspace. Up to 256 colors are displayed by the first layer and 120 colors by the second layer.
• Mode 4: 2 layers, one using the full 256-color palette and one using 4-color palettes. The 256-color layer can directly specify colors, and each tile can be individually scrolled. Up to 256 colors are displayed by the first layer and 24 colors by the second layer.
• Mode 5: 2 layers, one using 16-color palettes and one using 4-color palettes. Tile decoding is altered to facilitate the use of the 512-width and interlaced resolutions. Up to 120 colors are displayed by the first layer and 24 colors by the second layer.
• Mode 6: 1 layer, using 16-color palettes. Tile decoding is as in Mode 5, and each tile can be individually scrolled. Up to 120 colors can be displayed on screen.
• Mode 7: 1 layer of 128×128 tiles of size 8×8 from a set of 256, which may be interpreted as a 256-color one-plane layer or a 128-color two-plane layer. The layer may be rotated and scaled using matrix transformations. A programming technique called HDMA can be used to change the matrix parameters for each scanline to generate perspective effects.

The audio subsystem is called the S-SMP, which is a dedicated single chip consisting of an 8-bit CPU, a 16-bit DSP, and 64 KB of SRAM. It is designed and produced by Sony[70] 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 producing stereo sound, composed from 8 voices generated using 8 bit audio samples and various effects such as echo.[71]

Nintendo employed several types of regional lockout, including both physical and hardware incompatibilities.

A cartridge shape comparison
Top: North American design
Bottom: Japanese and PAL region design.

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The bottom cartridge also illustrates the optional pins used by enhancement chips such as the Super FX 3D chip.

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 use of various adapters, or through modification of the console.[72][73]

Internally, a regional lockout chip (CIC) 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 later became common to install a switch to reconnect the lockout chip as needed.[74]

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. Additionally, PAL's higher resolution results in letterboxing of the output image.[72] 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 SNES 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.[75]

All versions of the SNES are predominantly gray, of slightly different shades. The original North American version, designed by Nintendo of America industrial designer Lance Barr[76] (who previously redesigned the Famicom to become the NES[77]), 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 had happened with the flat surfaced NES.[76] The Japanese and European versions are more rounded, with darker gray accents and buttons. The North American New-Style Super NES (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 SNES 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) can output composite video, S-Video and RGB signals, as well as RF with an external RF modulator.[78][79] 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;[80] the redesigned models output composite video only, requiring an external modulator for RF.[81]

Yellowing of console plastic with age

The ABS plastic used in the casing of some older SNES and Super Famicom consoles is particularly susceptible to oxidization with exposure to air, likely due to an incorrect mixture of the stabilizing or flame retarding additives. 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.[82] 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.[83]

The Nintendo Super System is an arcade system for retail preview of 11 particular SNES games in the United States, similar to the PlayChoice-10 for NES games. It consists of slightly modified SNES hardware with a menu interface and 25-inch monitor, that allows gameplay for a certain amount of time depending on game credits.[84][85] Manufacturing of this model was discontinued in 1992.[86][87]

SNES games are distributed on ROM cartridges, officially referred to as Game Pak in most Western regions,[88] and as Cassette (カセット, Kasetto) in Japan and parts of Latin America.[89] Though the SNES can address 128 Mbit,[lower-alpha 9] 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) contain 48 Mbit of ROM data,[90][91] 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 of the console.

Like the NES before it, the SNES has retained a long-lived fan base. It has continued to thrive on the second-hand market, emulators, and remakes. The SNES has taken the same revival path as the NES.

Emulation projects began with the initial release of VSMC in 1994, and Super Pasofami became the first working SNES emulator in 1996.[115] During that time, two competing emulation projects—Snes96 and Snes97—merged to form Snes9x.[104] In 1997, SNES enthusiasts began programming an emulator named ZSNES.[116] In 2004, higan began development as bsnes, in an effort to emulate the system as closely as possible.

Nintendo of America took the same stance against the distribution of SNES ROM image files and the use of emulators as it did with the NES, insisting that they represented flagrant software piracy.[117] Proponents of SNES emulation cite discontinued production of the SNES constituting abandonware status, the right of the owner of the respective game to make a personal backup via devices such as the Retrode, space shifting for private use, the desire to develop homebrew games for the system, the frailty of SNES ROM cartridges and consoles, and the lack of certain foreign imports. Nintendo designed a hobbyist development system for the SNES, but never released it.[118]

Emulation of the SNES is also available on platforms such as Android,[119] and iOS,[120][121] the Nintendo DS line,[122] the Gizmondo,[123] the Dingoo and the GP2X by GamePark Holdings,[124] as well as PDAs.[125] Individual games have been included with emulators on some GameCube discs, and Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii marks the introduction of officially sanctioned general SNES emulation.

A dedicated mini-console, the Super NES Classic Edition, was released in September 2017 after the NES Classic Edition. The emulation-based system, which is physically modeled after the North American and European versions of the SNES in their respective regions, is bundled with two SNES-style controllers and comes preloaded with 21 games, including the previously unreleased Star Fox 2.[126]