--- 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 forum_thread: 1193 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' 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)