Snes 16 Bit
Jamey Saldana
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo,[b] Super NES or SNES,[c] is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea,[16] 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania and 1993 in South America. In Japan, it is called the Super Famicom (SFC).[d] In South Korea, it is called the Super Comboy[e] and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics.[17] The system was released in Brazil on August 30, 1993,[16][18] by Playtronic. Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent cartridges for one version from being used in other versions.
The Super NES is Nintendo's second programmable home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other systems at the time, like the Sega Genesis. It was designed to accommodate the ongoing development of a variety of enhancement chips integrated into game cartridges to be more competitive into the next generation.
The Super NES received largely positive reviews and was a global success, becoming the best selling console of the 16-bit era after launching relatively late and facing intense competition from Sega's Genesis console in North America and Europe. Overlapping the NES's 61.9 million unit sales, the Super NES remained popular well into the 32-bit era, with 49.1 million units sold worldwide by the time it was discontinued in 2003. It continues to be popular among collectors and retro gamers, with new homebrew games and Nintendo's emulated rereleases, such as on the Virtual Console, the Super NES Classic Edition, Nintendo Switch Online; as well as several non-console emulators which operate on a desktop computer or mobile device, such as Snes9x.
To compete with the popular Family Computer in Japan, NEC Home Electronics launched the PC Engine in 1987, and Sega followed suit with the Mega Drive in 1988. The two platforms were later launched in North America in 1989 as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Sega Genesis respectively. Both systems were built on 16-bit architectures and offered improved graphics and sound over the 8-bit NES. It took several years for Sega's system to become successful.[19] Nintendo executives were in no rush to design a new system, but they reconsidered when they began to see their dominance in the market slipping.[20] Bill Mensch, the co-creator of the 8-bit MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor and founder of the Western Design Center (WDC), gave Ricoh the exclusive right to supply 8-bit and 16-bit WDC microprocessors for the new system.[21] Meanwhile, Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi reached an agreement with Nintendo to design the console's sound chip without notifying his supervisors, who were enraged when they discovered the project; though Kutaragi was nearly fired, then-CEO Norio Ohga intervened in support of the project and gave him permission to complete it.[22]
On September 9, 1987, then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi revealed the development of the Super Famicom in the newspaper Kyoto Shimbun. On August 30, 1988, in an interview with TOUCH Magazine, Yamauchi announced the development of Super Mario Bros. 4, Dragon Quest V, three original games, and he projected sales of 3 million units of the upcoming console. Famicom Hissyoubon magazine speculated that Yamauchi's early announcement was probably made to forestall Christmas shopping for the PC Engine, and relayed Enix's clarification that it was waiting on sales figures to select either PC Engine or Super Famicom for its next Dragon Quest game. The magazine and Enix both expressed a strong interest in networking as a standard platform feature.[23][24] The console was demonstrated to the Japanese press on November 21, 1988, and again on July 28, 1989.[25][26]
Designed by Masayuki Uemura, the designer of the original Famicom, the Super Famicom was released in Japan on Wednesday, November 21, 1990, for 25,000 (equivalent to 27,804 in 2019). It was an instant success. Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours, and the resulting social disturbance led the Japanese government to ask video game manufacturers to schedule future console releases on weekends.[27] This gained the attention of the yakuza criminal organizations, so the devices were shipped at night to avoid robbery.[28]
With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the Japanese console market.[29] Nintendo's success was partially due to the retention of most of its key third-party developers, including Capcom, Konami, Tecmo, Square, Koei, and Enix.[30]
Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for US$199 (equivalent to $450 in 2023). It began shipping in limited quantities on August 23, 1991,[a][36] with an official nationwide release date of September 9, 1991.[37] The Super NES was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992 for 150 (equivalent to 390 in 2023).[38]
Most of the PAL region versions of the console use the Japanese Super Famicom design, except for labeling and the length of the joypad leads. The Playtronic Super NES in Brazil, although PAL-M, uses the North American design.[39] Both the NES and Super NES were released in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic, a joint venture between the toy company Estrela and consumer electronics company Gradiente.[40]
The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega was described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history,[44] in which Sega positioned the Genesis as the "cool" console, with games aimed at older audiences, and aggressive advertisements that occasionally attacked the competition.[45] Nintendo scored an early public-relations advantage by securing the first console conversion of Capcom's arcade hit Street Fighter II for Super NES, which took more than a year to make the transition to the Genesis. Though the Genesis had a two-year lead to launch time, a much larger library of games, and a lower price point,[46] it only represented an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market in June 1992,[47] and neither console could maintain a definitive lead for several years. Donkey Kong Country is said to have helped establish the Super NES's market prominence in the latter years of the 16-bit generation,[48][49][50][51] and for a time, maintain against the PlayStation and Saturn.[52] According to Nintendo, the company had sold more than 20 million Super NES units in the U.S.[53] According to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on NPD sales data, the Super NES outsold the Genesis in the U.S. market by 1.5 million units.[54]
Nintendo continued to carefully review submitted games, scoring them on a 40-point scale and allocating marketing resources accordingly. Each region performed separate evaluations.[56] Nintendo of America also maintained a policy that, among other things, limited the amount of violence in the games on its systems. The surprise arcade hit Mortal Kombat (1992), a gory fighting game with huge splashes of blood and graphically violent fatality moves, was heavily censored by Nintendo.[f] Because the Genesis version allowed for an uncensored version via cheat code,[57] it outsold the censored Super NES version by a ratio of nearly three to one.[58]
U.S. Senators Herb Kohl and Joe Lieberman convened a Congressional hearing on December 9, 1993, to investigate the marketing of violent video games to children.[g] Though Nintendo took the high ground with moderate success, the hearings led to the creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board and the inclusion of ratings on all video games.[57][58] With these ratings in place, Nintendo decided its censorship policies were no longer needed.[58]
While other companies were moving on to 32-bit systems, Rare and Nintendo proved that the Super NES was still a strong contender in the market. In November 1994, Rare released Donkey Kong Country, a platform game featuring 3D models and textures pre-rendered on Silicon Graphics workstations. With its detailed graphics, fluid animation, and high-quality music, Donkey Kong Country rivals the aesthetic quality of games that were being released on newer 32-bit CD-based consoles. In the last 45 days of 1994, 6.1 million copies were sold, making it the fastest-selling video game in history to that date. This game conveyed that early 32-bit systems had little to offer over the Super NES, and proved the market for the more advanced consoles of the near future.[59][60] According to TRSTS reports, two of the top five bestselling games in the U.S. for December 1996 are Super NES games.[61]
In October 1997, Nintendo released a redesigned model of the Super NES (the SNS-101 model referred to as "New-Style Super NES") in North America for US$99 (equivalent to $200 in 2023), with some units including the pack-in game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.[62][63] Like the earlier New-Style NES (model NES-101), this is slimmer and lighter than its predecessor,[63] but it lacks S-Video and RGB output, and it is among the last major Super NES-related releases in the region. A similarly redesigned Super Famicom Jr. was released in Japan at around the same time.[64] The redesign stayed out of Europe.
Nintendo ceased production of the Super NES in North America in 1999,[7] about two years after releasing Kirby's Dream Land 3 (its final first-party game in the US) on November 27, 1997, and one year after releasing Frogger (its final third-party game in the US) in 1998. In Japan, Nintendo continued production of both the Family Computer and the Super Famicom until September 25, 2003,[9] and new games were produced until the year 2000, ending with the release of Metal Slader Glory Director's Cut on November 29, 2000.[65]
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