Super Nintendo Entertainment System

History
The Super Nintendo Entertainment system, sometimes called Super NES or SNES, is the second Nintendo gaming console to be released outside Japan. The Super NES was quite far behind in release of the other 16-bit systems, because the NES was still enjoying great success even with the Sega Genesis and NEC Turbografx 16 on the market. The NES however, was loosing market share quick and Nintendo started developing the Super Famicom. A little known fact is that Nintendo actually wanted the original Famicom to be 16-bit, but it was too expensive at the time. When the Super Famicom was released, it grabbed about 80% of the market, leaving the Sega Genesis and the NEC Turbografx 16 in the dust. Because of shortages, and the fact that Nintendo was still earning a lot of money from the NES in the Europe and the United States, the Super Famicom was not released until September 1991 in the USA, and in April 1992 for Europe. Even though at launch, the Super Famicom dominated the Sega Genesis and the Turbografx 16, the SNES launch was a different story. During the delay of the Super NES, Sega had gained quite a bit of market share, and considering the way things were, it was a hard time for Nintendo to gain it back. Nintendo people stayed with Nintendo consoles, and Sega people stayed with their Genesis.

Near after launch, the Super NES enjoyed a good number of games, 1st and 3rd party. Companies felt loyal to Nintendo, because Nintendo kept most video game companies from bankruptcy after the great video game crash. During the Super NES though, was when Nintendo started gaining their so called "kiddy" image". Nintendo would not let  the Super NES version of Mortal Kombat have blood in it, while the Sega Genesis version did.

In 1993, the SuperFX chip was produced by Argonaut, which enabled the Super NES to show 3D graphics without modifying the console. The chip was placed in the cartridge. The first game to use this chip was Star Fox. This game was unique for its time, and sold quite well. This and other enhanced chips were what kept the Super NES alive during the 32-bit era till the release of the N64. In games such as Donkey Kong Country, they put a chip in that allowed higher resolution textures, which made the games look very good, almost as good as the 32-bit games coming out at the time.

SNES CD
Nintendo started developing a CD add-on for the Super NES in response of the Sega 32x and Sega CD. This was a collaboration between ironically, Nintendo, Sony and Phillips. The SNES CD almost made it to production, but Nintendo didn't like the loading times and ditched the project. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as it led to Nintendo's main rival of the next generation - the Sony Playstation. Phillips went on to make The add- on, called the CD- i which turned out to be a huge failure.

Technical Specifications

 * CPU: 16-bit Custom 65C816 running at 1.79, 2.68 or 3.58 MHz (changeable)
 * RAM: 1 Mbit (128 Kbyte)
 * Memory Cycle Time: 279 ms
 * Picture Proccessor Unit: 16-bit
 * Video RAM: 0.5 Mbit (64 Kbyte)
 * Resolution: 256x224, 512 x 448 pixels max hi res and interlaced modes
 * Colors Available: 32,768 colors
 * Max colors on screen: 256 colors
 * Max sprite size: 64 x 64 pixels
 * Max sprites: 128 (32 per line)
 * Min/Max Cart Size: 2 Mbit - 48 Mbit
 * Audio RAM: 512 Kbit
 * Sound chip: 8-bit Sony SPC700
 * Sound channels: 8, uses compressed wave samples
 * Controller Response: 16 ms
 * Pulse Code Modulator: 16-bit
 * Power Input: 120V AC, 60Hz, 17 Watts
 * Power Output: 10V DC, 850 mA (NTSC), 9V AC (PAL)

Launch Titles

 * Super Mario World
 * F-Zero
 * Pilotwings
 * Actraiser

Launch Window:
 * Simcity
 * Super Ghouls & Ghosts
 * Super Castlevania

Related

 * Super Famicom
 * Super Nintendo Entertainment System Games