--- title: Nintendo Super Nintendo Entertainment System categories: - Consoles params: name: Super Nintendo Entertainment System image: /media/museum/photos/snes_us_1s.jpg logo: /media/museum/logos/nintendo_snes_logo.gif company: /companies/nintendo company_name: Nintendo tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - videos photos: - title: US MODEL subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/snes_us_1.jpg - title: US MODEL - REAR subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/snes_us_rear.jpg - title: US MODEL - BELOW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/snes_us_below.jpg - title: SUPER FAMICOM BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/nintendo_superfamicom_box.jpg - title: PAL MODEL subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/nintendo_snes-pal_1.jpg hardware: - title: SUPER ADVANTAGE CONTROLLER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_superadvantage-controller.jpg - title: THIRD PARTY CONTROLLER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_controller-non-official.jpg - title: FIGHTER STICK SN subtitle: from Asciiware text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_asciiware-fight-stick.jpg - title: SUPER GAME BOY "CARTRIDGE" subtitle: '' text: This adaptater inserts into the SNES cartridge slot and enables Game Boy games to be played on a TV via the SNES. It even converts the 4 shades of grey into colours! image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_supergameboy.jpg - title: 'PIC #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_supergameboy-2.jpg - title: SUPER LINK subtitle: by BPS text: enables 4 controllers to be connected to one connector image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_bps-multitap.jpg - title: XBAND MODEM - BOX subtitle: from Catapult Entertainment Inc. text: |- Used to play some SNES games online! More info [here](http://snescentral.edgeemu.com/article.php?id=0067). image: /media/museum/hardware/nintendo_snes_xband-modem_box.jpg emulators: - title: Snes9x url: http://www.snes9x.com/ platform: Multiplatform text: One of the best SNES emulator available, if not the best. Available for many platforms - title: ZSnes url: http://www.zsnes.com/ platform: Multiplatform text: The other leading SNES emulator (Win, DOS & Linux) links: - title: generation-snes.net url: http://www.generation-snes.net/ text: SNES fan site (french) - title: Official SNES page from Nintendo url: http://www.nintendo.com/systemsclassic?type=snes text: Not much here, but official page - title: SNES Central url: http://snescentral.edgeemu.com/ text: Nice site with a lot of info - title: Wikipedia - SNES article url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snes text: Quite complete videos: - title: SNES - TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFDDDQw3z3k text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: Sears Super Nintendo - TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRUoFu4k8bU text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: SNES - UK TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRjVXIWZfeM text: 'Length: 1 min 05 s' - title: Super Nintendo Super Set - 1992 TV Commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnyOqxpKSmE text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: Nintendo SNES and Pepsi - TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIk37_Pc-00 text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: TV commercial starring Paul Rudd url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfloCZj9h5k text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Street Fighter II Turbo - Japanese TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUijz2162ZU text: 'Length: 28 s' - title: Starwing - TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJBV9jWUZw8 text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: Zelda - Japanese TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kle0vau26xQ text: 'Length: 1 min 11 s' - title: Final Fantasy III - US TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeYu8CvKW-g text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: Donkey Kong Country - TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTQj522ripc text: 'Length: 30 s' - title: Super Mario All Star - US TV commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5M9kHSZVgI text: 'Length: 29 s' comments: - author: Frank (Canada) date: Wednesday 16th February 2022 text: Wasn''t the N64 that Nintendo had a deal with Philips? Sounds really early 1991 for CD-Rom as it wasn''t even surpassing cassette sales yet as a music format. - author: Rob date: Wednesday 18th March 2015 text: there is another version released in the us only difference it didn''t have the eject button - author: TylerE (Pennsylvania US) date: Monday 10th December 2012 text: Acctually Kyle, I heard that most games from the SNES were programmed on an Apple $$GS. Its amazing just how things from two different worlds can be so similar. - author: Kyle Count (New Hampshire, USA) date: Sunday 14th October 2012 text: Actually, the SNES was very close in specs to the Apple IIgs. In fact, when you read the credits for Wolfenstein 3D for the SNES, it actually says "Programmed on an Apple IIgs". Interesting... - author: Raindance Rob (UK) date: Saturday 31st July 2010 text: these were actually on sale alot longer then 97 i remember seeing them on sale as recent as 2001 in Florida $ they were still on sale in San Diego too. - author: altXerror (Sarnia, ON. Canada) date: Sunday 2nd May 2010 text: |- here is what i know about the console: 1\. Strangely, if you have a N64 or Gamecube AV cable, you can use it on a SNES and it will work. The RF box From the NES will also work for the SNES The SNES had only one Unlicensed game released: Super Noah''s Ark 3d, which was published by wisdom tree in 1993. This game is direct clone of Wolfenstien, where you shoot goats with food to knock them out. The game used the same technology in the Game Genie and Action Replay Pro, to bypass the lockout Chip on system (essential connect a lichened game, Such as Super Mario World to it and the game will work) What Art Bielski is talking about, is an add on to the system call: Nes game Module. it would use the SNES CD-Rom add-on (the system need to have files to recognize the Nes Roms) and a cartridge port thing (i can''t explain it too well. since the SNES CD was Scrapped, So was the add-on, Only having 50 known prototypes made. I saw one on E-bay once, they were asking for about $5999.99 for it. - author: bluekatt (netherlands) date: Sunday 1st April 2007 text: |- and a few correction the clock speed is 2.68 and 3.58\ switching between slow and fast rom\ the snes wa spulled out of production in 1999\ frogger was released in 1998\ the last first party game was kirby's dream land 3 in 1997 - author: bluekatt (netherlands) date: Saturday 31st March 2007 text: |- The Snes shifted 49 million units in its life time. Against sega's effort of 35 million Megadrive\\Genesis units. Its cpu is a wdc 65c816 derivative clocked at 3.58 usually. It could be downclocked to 1.79 mhz.\ Some of the games had dedicated chips mounted on their pcb. ( Reflecting in the price. ) The most wel known of these is the superfx chip. A risc chip which ran at 10 mhz and helped the snes push out some impressive polygons for the time. In the games Starfox Vector and Stunt race fx. It was also used in the snes version of Doom.\ The machine was unable to produce more then 2 back ground planes but it was much stronger in scrolling and rotating sprites and planes then the genesis was. It also introduced rounded controllers six buttons and shoulder buttons. The japanese and european version are externally the same the cardridge shape si slightly different and even if it wasnt the games could not run anyway. The pal version was 17 % slower.\ In the end the snes did so wel because sgea dropped all support for their line up in favor of the saturn in 1995. Nintendo on the other hand kept supporting the snes till it was well and truly dead and the N64 had been established. The first game was supermario world in 1990\ the last game was frogger in 1997\ this classic system is rightfully still very wanted - author: Nate Arnold (Ohio, US) date: Tuesday 27th March 2007 text: |- It was a rumor, but, there is an actual system that is a hybrid CLONE of SNES/NES called FC Twin, it has 2 different slots and 2 different circuitries (one for the NES and the other for the SNES) check this website\ http://www.keepgaming.com/retro/M04094.htm?gclid=CJSIlt3NlYsCFR6AWAodwl6LUw\ I saw one in my local gaming shop and it was $70 New. - author: Art Bielski (Earth) date: Monday 26th March 2007 text: This console was also rumored to have a backwards compatible NES adaptor that was never released. This strengthened sales near the end of it's production life. related: - /museum/nintendo-super-famicom - /museum/nintendo-super-nintendo-entertainment-system-2 oc_id: 1226 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230529130516/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1226 date: '2023-05-29' --- Nintendo's follow up to the [NES](/museum/nintendo-nes/) arrived in 1990. Bundled with the classic Super Mario World the console proved to be very popular, but never had the same level of success in the States as the NES did. In fact, the SNES could only manage second place in the 16 bit era until the [Genesis](/museum/sega-genesis/) was discontinued. A similar situation occurred in Europe, where the SNES was competing with the [Mega Drive](/museum/sega-mega-drive/). Despite this, combined sales for the SNES/Super Famicom eventually reached almost 50 million units world-wide. The casing of the console came in two different versions. The American version of the SNES is pictured on the right, and at the time was described as looking like "a large breeze block", while the European version shared the sleeker design of the Japanese [Super Famicom](/museum/nintendo-super-famicom/). The cartridges echoed the console's designs, American cartridges being more square than their rounded Japanese and European counterparts. With around 750 games released in the United States and Europe, and many more Japanese only titles, owners certainly had plenty of choice. One of the biggest sales boosts came from a near arcade perfect version of Street Fighter II, released at the peak of the games popularity. Around the time of the Mega CD, Nintendo planned a CD-ROM add-on with the aid of Phillips and Sony. Artists impressions were published in magazines but the device was never manufactured. Phillips went on to create the CD-i while Sony's efforts would result in the PlayStation. A number of peripherals were released, most notably 1994's Super Game Boy. This allowed the use of the wide selection of Game Boy games, which could be displayed with colour borders. The games themselves could also be displayed in colour, and a number of four colour palettes were available to select from. By 1996 a new generation of consoles had begun. In an attempt to prolong the console's life, Nintendo of America launched a redesigned [SNES 2](/museum/nintendo-super-nintendo-entertainment-system-2/) in 1997, similar to what had previously been done with the NES 2. --- Contributors: Ste (text & info)