SNES Games for the PC

Emulators

• Emulators are computer programs that act like another program. They simulate the hardware on gaming consoles, such as the SNES. There are several SNES emulators available on the Internet, including Snes9x and ZSNES. Download the emulator to the computer and run the software to play SNES games. Emulators do not require the actual SNES console or cartridge games to work. To play games with an SNES emulator, they must be downloaded to the computer. Emulators do not come with games installed.

ROMs

• To play a SNES game with an emulator, the game must be downloaded to the computer. The files that contain the games are called Read Only Memory (ROMs). The game cartridges used to play games on the SNES contained ROM chips with all the data for the game. The ROM chips are extracted from the cartridges and saved to a computer. These extracted files are then made available online for download and use with SNES emulators. Download the SNES game ROMs and extract them to an emulator folder. Load the emulator, choose the game and play.

Available Games

• Several websites, such as ROM World and Cool ROM, do all the work by extracting ROMs and making them available for download online. There are many ROMs available for action, puzzle, RPG, racing and sports games. Some examples of downloadable SNES ROMs include Super Baseball, Tetris 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Killer Instinct and Tales of Phantasia. All SNES ROM games are free to download. Since it is illegal to make a profit off of someone else's work, websites must provide the ROMs for free.

Warning

• Not all SNES ROMs are legal to download. Many games and game characters are copyrighted. Some of these include Mario, Zelda, Kirby and Pac-Man. Nearly all SNES games are still under copyright and are not in the public domain. There is a lot of debate, and several court cases, about the legality of emulators and ROMs. It is illegal, according to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), to copy the BIOS of games and consoles. Some emulators, but not all, have been found guilty of verbatim copying. Always be careful when downloading SNES ROMs.

Alternatives

• It is possible to play some SNES games online without having to download an emulator or ROMs. Some websites, such as Super Nintendo Classics, have flash game remakes of classic SNES games. Some games include Street Fighter, Super Mario World and Donkey Kong. These are not the actual SNES games but similar versions of them. Other websites, such as Snessy, have original SNES games available to play in the browser. They require Java to play but are not downloaded to the computer.