Super Nintendo SNES9XW Emulator

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 Super Nintendo Games and Accessories

The Super Nintendo was released in November 21, 1990 in Japan, and it was released in the United States of America on August 23, 1991. It was a long anticipated 16 bit video game console for the Nintendo, because 16 bit video games had been released by NEC and Sega two years earlier. NEC released the Turbografx-16 in North America in August 29, 1989, and Sega Enterprises released the Genesis in August 14, 1989. By 1989, the Nintendo Entertainment System was totally outclassed by 16 bit video games consoles, and 16 bit computer systems. The era of 16 bit computing had arrived as early as 1987 with the release of the Commodore Amiga 500. The NES was outdated; however, games were developed and sold for it until 1995 in North America. In Japan, the NES was not discontinued until 2003. The NES had quite a long service life.

The Super Nintendo retailed for about $199 + tax in late 1991, and I got my hands on one in 1992. I bought it at a electronics store called Good Guys, they were quite a large electronic retail chain back in the 1990s, but they don’t exist anymore. The first game I bought for it was Final Fight, and it was a Double Dragon style beat em type of game. It was originally a arcade title ported to the Super Nintendo, and the SNES version was very much like the arcade version. The SNES had very good graphics for a 16 bit video game console. The games were expensive, because they were on ROM cartridges. Final Fight cost about $59.99 + tax when I bought it back in late 1992 and that was a lot of money back then. As for the technical specifications for the system.

Super Nintendo Hardware Specs

Type of Hardware	Specs
CPU/Processor	65C816 Custom processor@3.58 mhzs
RAM/Memory	128 kilobytes
Max Colors on Scrn	256 colors
Total Colors	32,768
Max Resolution	512 x 448
Max Sprites	128 64 pixels by 64 pixels
Sound Chip	Sony SPC700 8 bit with 64 kbs
Cartridge Capacity	2 to 48 megabits or 250 kbs to 6000 kbs

The SNES games could be as large as PC games, because a SNES ROM cartridge could store up to 6 megabytes worth of data. As the time, most PC games were anywhere from 2 megabytes to 8 megabytes. Back in those days, ROM and RAM memory were expensive. The good thing about using cartridges is that you can add some hardware into the cartridge to enhance the game. This was done in games, like Star Fox came with a FX Chip which was embedded in the game cartridge. This greatly enhanced 3d games, and it was the first 3d accelerator chip in the world. It was kind of like a math co-processor chip, because 3d games required a lot more computing power. The SNES had a pretty long service life from 1991 to 1999 in North America, and Late 1990 to 2003 in S.Korea and Japan. SNES games were still being sold even when the Nintendo 64 came out in Sept 1996 in North America.

The first SNES emulator came out in October 14, 1997, and it was called the ZSNES. It came out in MS-DOS format first, but a Windows version was also released later. SNES9X was another emulator released around April 15, 1999, and it was a pretty stable SNES emulator. It would run a lot of SNES games without a lot of problems, but like all emulators some games didn’t run well or run at all. Most modern computers wouldn’t have any problems running these emulators. You can download the Snes9x emulator at Link, and you can download ZSNES at their website Link It is a good thing we can still play these old games.

I made some videos on tutorials about the SNES9X emulator and game play related to the SNES emulator

1. Snes9xw Super Nintendo Emulator Quick Tutorial

2a. UN Squadron 1991 SNES Mission 1 to Mission 6

2b. SimCity SNES Playthrough

2c. Mechwarrior 1993 SNES

2d. Tetris SNES 1991

2e. Wolfenstein 3d 1993 for the SNES

2f. Super Castlevania IV 1991 SNES

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