The Super Nintendo Entertainment
system or SNES as its more commonly known is probably one of the best
consoles ever made. There are hundreds of quality games available
- ranging from arcade conversions such as Street Fighter 2 to RPG games
such as Zelda Link to the Past, Secret of Mana and Breath of Fire.
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Super Famicom
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November 21, 1990 (Japan) |
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Known as the Super Famicom in Japan, the system is basically the same
as the UK version except that it runs at 60Hz and has territorial
lockout. Controllers have smaller leads and have super Famicom written
on them. It cost 32,000 yen when released and came with 2 controllers
and Super Mario World.
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SNES US
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September 1991 (USA) |
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Released in the US with
a new case design. Games came on different shaped carts to the Famicom
version being more rectangular. Also later released as a slimmer version,
bit like a small UK shape but basically the same hardware with the
Rf output removed.
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SNES UK
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June 1992 (Europe) |
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Not released in Europe
until 1992 the European version came in the same style case as the
Famicom. Games available at release included Super Mario world 3 and
F-Zero. PAL consoles play games approx 16% slower than an NTSC one,
with larger black borders at the top and bottom of the screen. We
can supply or fit PAL systems with a switch to allow them to play
like a US console at full-speed and in full-screen.
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SNES 101
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New Style American SNES |
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The new slimline version,
only released in the US and Japan. Much smaller than the original
system. Has the Rf output removed and came supplied with the Composite
cable instead. Yoshis Island boxed set shown here. There are also
several versions released without the power supply included in the
box.
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SNES Specs
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CPU
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Type: 65816 16-bit: 2.68
/ 3.58 Mhz
16-bit Picture Processing Unit
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MEMORY
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RAM: 1 Mbit (128 Kbyte)
Video RAM: 0.5 Mbit (64 Kbyte)
Cart Size's: 2 Mbit - 48 Mbit
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DISPLAY
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Max Resolution: 512 x
448 pixels
Colors: 32,768 colors Max Colors at Once: 256
Max Sprite Size: 64 x 64 pixels
Max Sprites: 128 sprites
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VIDEO OUTPUT
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A PAL SNES can output
RF, RGB, and S-Video.
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SOUND
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Sound Chip: 8-bit Sony
SPC700 Sound Channels: 8
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POWER (UK only)
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Input 230/240V~50Hz...17W
Output 9V...1.3A Model No: NES-002(GBR)
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FEATURES
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Mode 7
2 Controller ports
Some games contain additional Chips to enhace the games. Mario Kart
for instance contains a DSP. Other Titles such as Star Fox contain
the FX chip to help with processing those 3D graphics.
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SNES Regional Protection
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Physical Lockout
US systems use different shaped carts, these have square edges and
will not fit European or JAP systems. European SNES carts won't fit
US consoles either due to 2 small tabs which correspond to grooves
on the bottom of carts (a similar method was used on the N64).
Lockout Chips
Control Decks having a security chip in the Deck and a counterpart
in every game cassette. The device is called CIC, games attempt to
communicate with the corresponding chip in the system before they
will run.
Speed Check / PAL protection
Later SNES games contain a code to check for a 60Hz or 50Hz display.
The NTSC TV system displays 30 frames of video per second (60Hz). The PAL system
displays 25 (50Hz). Games often display the following message
if used in a system running at the wrong speed. "THIS GAME PAK
IS NOT DESIGNED FOR YOUR SUPER FAMICOM OR SUPER NES."
Voltage Change
Later versions of the SNES seem to output a lower voltage to the cart
slot, as far as we know this was done to try and hamper the use of
disk copying devices which drew power from the snes to work. That
said we have never had one that didnt work, any one else?
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SNES Enhancement Chips DSP and FX/FX 2
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An interesting feature
of many SNES games is that they used special enhancement chips to enable
more powerful games to be played.
SNES DSP CHIP
Used in many games like Pilotwings, and Super Mario Kart to provide
more realistic 3D graphics effects by doing some of the data processing
on the chip rather than the snes iteself. There is also a DSP2 chip.
SNES Super FX/FX 2
Used in games using 3D polygon effects, such as Star Fox and
Vortex. A Super FX 2 chip is a faster version of the FX chip, and
is used in Doom, Dirt Trax FX, and Stunt Race FX. The FX chip makes
use of the extra twin 8 pin connectors, which can be found to the
left and right of the main cartridge contacts on FX games.
C4
Designed by Capcom this is a graphics chip, used to create transparent
graphics effects in Mega Man X2 and X3.
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SNES Accessories
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Fantastic design and quality
meant the Official SNES Controllers were one of the systems main advantages
with 6 buttons compared to the 3 on a standard MegaDrive controller.
Loads of third party snes controllers were made which added auto-fire
etc.
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With only 2 controller
ports, the SNES required a multitap to allow up to 6 players at once.
Games which support this include Bomberman and Secret of Mana.
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The Super Scope was the
SNES systems light gun, never really did very well as there were
only a few games that supported it and those were quite poor. Yoshi's
Safari being one of the best.
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Game Genie Cheat Cart
from Code Masters. Allows games to be changed by entering
cheat codes.
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Official Nintendo two
button mouse, that plugs into controller 1 or controller 2 on your
SNES. Only a handful of games were mouse compatible such as Mario
Paint and Might & Magic III.
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Stereo A/V Cable with
Scart Connector, better quality than the standard RF lead the PAL
systems came supplied with.
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The Satelliview was only
realeased in Japan and allows the SNES to connect to a special satellite
channel called "St GIGA". Games and demos could be downloaded
at particular times to a BS-X Special Broadcast Cassette containing
1 megabit of flash ram.
Games included BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 (Nintendo) and Excite Bike Bum
Bum Mario Battle (Nintendo).
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There are loads of different
converters available for playing import games on the SNES. The Action
replay ones also contain cheat functions to allow game parameters
to be changed. Usually work by plugging 2 games in, one for the region
console you are using and the other for the import game you want to
play.
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SNES Manual
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Save the zip file to your PC and then use windows to extract the files.
Get the full user manual in English. Sorry, no other languages available at the moment.
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SNES Games
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There are loads high quality
SNES games; the fact that so many were remade for the game boy
advance shows just how good they were. The SNES emulation is also
very popular with several good emulators such as zsnes.
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Super
Probotector Alien rebels (aka Contra III US) has to be one of the best games of the
era and the GBA version in 2002 was also a best
seller. Another Konami classic.
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Super
Mario Kart, one of the best games ever made. Mode 7 courses and
superb handling make this a joy to play. Also another Gameboy update
available but no feather powerup :-(
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Outrageously expensive
when released the SNES version of Street Fighter Two was very close
to the arcade original. New versions of this are still being made
today on the likes of PS2 and GC.
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