Super Nintendo

The incredible Nintendo entertainment system also known as Super NES , SNES or Super Nintendo , is a video game console that has 16 bits and that was released 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 became known as the Super Famicom , officially adopting the shortened name of its predecessor, the Family Computer , or SFC for short. . Nintendo’s entertainment system is the second home consolethat Nintendo made. The machine featured many advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared to other consoles that were on the market at the time. In addition, the development of a variety of chips embedded in gaming circuit boards helped to maintain its competitiveness within the market.

History

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

In 1987, Masayuki Uemura , who was the designer of the original Famicom, created what would become the new Nintendo console, and Ken Kutaragi would also design an important part in the new system, the sound, a sound chip that became known as the SPC700. , work that was hidden because Ken was a Sony employee 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 demonstrated the graphical capabilities of rotation and scaling through a prototype game called DragonFly , which later became the precursor to the Pilotwings video game .

The Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990 and was both a success and a madness; the first 300,000 units were sold within hours and a social disruption ensued , so future console releases could only be on weekends

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

Features of the Super Nintendo

The main characteristics of the Super Nintendo were the following:

• DMA and HDMA.
• IRQ programmed .
• Parallel I / O processing .
• Hardware multiplication and division .
• It had connectors for port, controller response, output port, and for games.
• It had buttons for power (ignition), 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 Pitch Modulation.

Technical specifications

• Ricoh 5A22 processor , based on the 16-bit WDC W65C816 processor. 46 47
• Clock speed : 1.79, 2.68 MHz, or 3.58 MHz (NTSC); 46 47 1.77 MHz, 2.66 MHz or 3.55 MHz (PAL).
• Main RAM : 128 KB. 46 47
• Coprocessor of sound : Sony SPC700 8 bits.46 47
• Clock speed : 1,024 MHz.
• File extension for emulation : .spc
• Boot Rom size : 64 bytes.
• Audio RAM : 512 Kb (64 KB) 46 47 (shared between the two chips).
• Digital processor of sound : S-DSP 16 bits.46 47
• It had 8,464 channels of sound
• Its sound format was ADPCM , with waves compressed using the BBR compression algorithm.
• Quality sound from 32 kHz to 16 bits46 47 in stereo.
• A memory cycle of 279 ns.
• 16-bit code pulse modulator .
• Circuits S-S-PPU2 PPU1 and units of image processing 16 bits.

Connections and ports

• Seven-pin driver port on front of machine (2)
• Controller Response : 16 Milliseconds
• Audio / Video Output SNS A / V Multiout (1)
• External device bay (1)
• DC 10 V input (1)
• Radio frequency A / V output (1) which was later removed on the compact version of the Super Nintendo
• Connector for cartridges game

Super Nintendo Models

The models of the Super Nintendo were the following:

• Super Nintendo (EU). European model. PAL.
• Super Nintendo (USA). American model. NTSC.
• Super Nintendo Mini (USA). Revision of the American model that reduces 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 the 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 for storing time information of the games, a memory RAM of additional work , coprocessors support 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 the Game Boy handheld can be played via the SNES.
• Super Scope , a cordless light gun.
• SNES mouse : specifically created for Mario Paint, although it could also be used in Ocean’s Jurassic Park.
• Super Multitap: a multiplayer adapter that expands the SNES controller ports up to the number of 16 simultaneous players for those games that do.
• Sufami Turbo : a cartridge-adapter used to run Game Boy-sized games.
• Satellaview : a satmodem that was added to the Super Nintendo.

Featured Super Nintendo games

The most prominent 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 best-selling game was 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 feature 3D graphics .