HT Games
History
Nintendo designed the SNES as the successor to the company̵7;s wildly popular Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly referred to as the NES. Nintendo released the SNES in order to compete with other 16-bit systems on the market, namely Sega̵7;s Genesis and NEC̵7;s TurboGrafx-16. Nintendo released the SNES -- also referred to as Super Nintendo and Super NES in the U.S., and as the Super Famicom in Japan -- in 1990, and continued to sell the system in North America until 1999.
Identification
The SNES is a 16-bit console. It features a customized Nintendo 5A22 processor clocked at 3.58 megahertz and built around a 65c816 core. The SNES has 128 kilobytes of RAM, 24-bit and 8-bit address buses, an 8-bit data bus, timed IRQ, DMA, HDMA and parallel input and output processing. Unlike the disc-based systems common today, the SNES uses proprietary game cartridges housed in rigid plastic enclosures. In the U.S., the system came bundled with a pair of controllers, all necessary cables and adapters and a copy of the "Super Mario World" game.
Video and Audio Specifications
The SNES displays up to 32,768 colors, though a maximum of 256 colors are shown onscreen at any one time. The SNES supports up to 128 sprites and a maximum of four background planes. Nintendo equipped the SNES with two IC packages, 64 kilobytes of SRAM, 544 bytes of OAM and 512 bytes of CGRAM. The system supports progressive video output resolutions up to 512 by 239 pixels, and interlaced video output resolutions up to 512 by 478 pixels. Nintendo subsequently introduced a number of enhancement chips that game developers could build into the game cartridges themselves, expanding the SNES̵7;s video-processing capabilities. The SNES uses a Sony SPC700 audio processor. It outputs 16-bit stereo sound and features frequency scaling, ADSR envelope control, echo and noise generation. Its sound capabilities vastly exceeded those of its competition.
Game Development and Additional Information
With the original NES, third-party game developers had to sign exclusivity contracts forbidding them to develop versions of NES games for other gaming consoles. With the SNES, Nintendo discontinued this practice. The absence of this agreement allowed a wealth of new titles to be developed for the SNES that had already been developed for systems like Sega Genesis. As a result, what quickly set the SNES apart from its competition was its wide selection of games. Some of the more popular games for the SNES, many of which are still well-known today, include "Mortal Kombat," "Super Mario World," "Donkey Kong Country," "F-Zero" and "Street Fighter." As a testament to the popularity of the SNES and its library of gaming titles, it's worth noting that a vibrant computer-based SNES emulation community still exists as of the date of publication.