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Information about Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES or SNES) is a video game
console designed and built by Nintendo in the 1990s. It is the sucessor to
the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States and Europe. It was
the major rival of Sega Megadrive/Sega Genesis.

The original Super Famicom was released November 21, 1990 in Japan.
The United States Version was released September 1, 1991 in the U.S. with a
starting price of $200.
The PAL version was released in the United Kingdom for £150 in April 1992.
Its German release came a few weeks later.

The European console was similar to the Japanese Super Famicom.

An SNES redesign came out in 1997 for $99.99 in the United States to get the
last few sales from people still interested in the 16-Bit market. The RF
Ports and expansion ports did not come with the version; Hopes of an SNES-CD
died, and the resources helped make the Playstation.

Specifications:

   * CPU side
        o CPU: WDC 65C816 16 bit processor running at 1.79, 2.68 MHz, or
          3.58 MHz (Changeable), with 128 KiB of RAM
   * Sound side
        o Sound CPU: Sony SPC700 running at 4.1 MHz, with 64 KiB of RAM
        o Main sound Chip: 8-channel DSP with hardware decompression similar
          to ADPCM
        o Memory Cycle Time: 279 Minutes
        o Cartridge Size Specifications: 2Megabits - 48 Megabits
        o Audio RAM: 512 KB
        o Sound Chip: 8-Bit Sony SPC700, PC file name extension: .SPC
        o Sound Channels: 8, Uses compressed wave samples
        o Pulse Code Modulator: 16-Bit
   * Video side
        o Picture Processor Unit: 16-Bit
        o Palette: 32,768 Colors
        o Texture and map RAM: 64 KiB
        o Onscreen colors: 241 in mode 1 or 256 in mode 7, not counting
          sum-blending
        o Resolution: Most games used 256x224 pixels; there were tricks to
          get 512x448 but these were rarely used.
        o Maximum onscreen sprites: 128 (32 per line)
        o Maximum number of sprite pixels on one scanline: 256. The picture
          generator had a bug such that it would drop the frontmost sprites
          instead of the rearmost sprites if a scanline exceeded the limit.
        o Most common display modes: Pixel-to-pixel text mode 1 (16 colors
          per tile; 3 scrolling layers) and affine mapped text mode 7 (256
          colors per tile; one rotating/scaling layer)
   * Power-Supply
        o Power Input: 120V AC, 60 Hz, 17 Watts
        o Power Output: 10V DC, 850 mA (NTSC), 9V AC (PAL)
   * Controller Response: 16 Milliseconds
   * 2 seven-pin controller ports in the front of the machine

On the back of marginally superior technical capabilities over its main
competitor, the Sega Genesis/Sega Megadrive, many beautifully designed and
illustrated games, Nintendo's family-friendly image, and the popularity of
icon game characters including Super Mario, the Super NES was popular
throughout the world throughout the early- to mid-1990s, though in the
United States the Genesis was marginally more successful. The SNES played a
game of catchup and won. Nintendo had twice as many sales for its console,
and the SNES library was larger.

Some Super NES games are enhanced remakes of Famicom/NES games. An example
of an enhanced remake is Super Mario All Stars, and another is Ninja Gaiden Trilogy.

The Super NES was superseded by the Nintendo 64. Many of the successful
games for the system are being revived in the Game Boy Advance, which has
remarkably similar capabilities.

The SNES has been considered by many to have the best RPGs, such as Final
Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. The most popular Super NES emulator is called
ZSNES. Infringing ROM dumps of Super NES Game Paks are actually getting
easier to find, now that the Super NES is long out of production in North
America since 1998. Like its predecessor the NES, the Super NES has a
continued interest among its fans, continuing to thrive on a huge secondhand
market and proliferate ROM images. There has been a larger demand for a
secondhand market and emulation for the interest SNES than for that of the NES.

SNES after 1999

The SNES was in popular decline from 1996 to 1999, with the Sony Playstation
and Nintendo 64 eating away at its marketing share. However, even though the
Super NES was discontinued in North America and Europe in 1999, like the
NES, it left the mark of many million cartridges and more than the NES did.
The second hand market was burgeoning on the SNES as it did on the NES.
Around this time, many gamers began to rediscover the SNES.

Simultaneously, programmers who are SNES enthusiasts created an emulator
called ZSNES. The same emulation programming has been done with the SNES as
it has been with the NES. In 1998, ZSNES was released. One year later, ZSNES
got its rival, SNES9X. Nintendo had the same stance against SNES emulation
as it had on NES emulation.

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