Welcome to our page dedicated to Super Nintendo reverse engineering! The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES, was a popular gaming console released by Nintendo in 1990. If you’re interested in learning more about the technical aspects of this console and how it works, you’ve come to the right place.
On this page, we’ve compiled a list of links to other pages that cover various topics related to Super Nintendo reverse engineering. Whether you’re interested in understanding the hardware architecture of the console, analyzing game code, or exploring the many mods and hacks that have been created by enthusiasts over the years, you’ll find a wealth of resources and information on the pages we’ve linked to.
So grab your SNES controller, and get ready to dive into the exciting world of Super Nintendo reverse engineering!
Every three years Near created an excellent article on the current status of Super Nintento Emulation, the last version is from 2019, it covers both bsnes and higen.
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SNES Emulation Status 2019
The latest status of Super Nintendo emulation, including new and upcoming features for bsnes and higen
If you’re interested in reverse engineering software for the Super Nintendo gaming console, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of the hardware that powers it. By comprehending the inner workings of the Super Nintendo hardware, you can better understand how the software interacts with the hardware and how you can potentially modify or enhance it.
This segment of our guide will provide you with detailed information and resources on the hardware of the Super Nintendo, including retail, prototype, and development hardware.
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SNES (Super Famicom) Development Kit Hardware
For more information about the **Super Nintendo** development hardware check out this post
For an in-depth look at the SNES Retail hardware architecture check out the excellent post by Copetti.org:
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Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) Architecture - A Practical Analysis
Copetti.org has an excellent tear down of the SNES Hardware and how it works
In 1993 Nintendo introduced an in-flight entertainment system called the Gateway, this system allowed passengers to play SNES games for about 4 USD an hour.
The Journalist Ernie Smith has written an excellent article on his site which you can access at Will the In-Flight Entertainment System Survive COVID-19? and also tweeted out the Nintendo Power article which talks about it:
Remember when you could play Super NES games on a plane? That was awesome. Nintendo Power, circa Feb. '94: pic.twitter.com/iKm6mLB8Us
— Ernie Smith (@ShortFormErnie) February 24, 2017
Also if you prefer video-based content the youtuber Top Hat Gaming Man has created an excellent video on the subject:
## Satellaview The Satellaview was a satelite add on for the Super Famicom only ever released in Japan on the 24th April 1995. It allowed users to download games, virtual magazines and listen to radio broadcasts.
The sad thing about the Satellaview is due to the nature of the technology most of the content has been lost to time and has only been partially preserved by finding old recordings on people’s Satellaview cartridges. Some content was broadcast but never downloaded, or soon overwritten with newer content so there is no other way to obtain the data.
In 2020 Luigiblood did a presentation to the AirGap2020 conference about Satellaview Reverse Engineering which can be watched below:
The Satellaview has little Memory Packs with only 1MB (8 MegaBit) of flash storage space that would slot into the BSX Satellaview cartridges, it was a cartridge that had a smaller cartirdge slot on top. Note that there was one other game that supported these Memory Packs, it was a game creator called RPG Maker.
The SNES wouldn’t be as fondly remembered today if it didn’t have its huge library of both first-party and third party games. This section will look at some of those games for those of you looking for inspiration for a new reversing project.
As soon as the Game Boy Advance (GBA) was annonced people were describing it as a portable Super Nintendo, Nintendo themselves contribute to this message by re-releasing many of their SNES games for the platform. In total 48 SNES games were released on the GBA, most from Nintendo themselves but third party publishers got on board too.
The GBA is a completely different beast from the SNES in terms of architecture and with most SNES games written in pure 6502 assembly it wasn’t possible to just do a straight port. Most of the games needed to be re-written from scratch to support the new portable console. During this process a lot of changes were made to fit the much smaller non-backlit screen of the GBA, such as increasing the sprite size and brightening the contrast.
The Youtuber CaptRobau has an excellent video showing off the graphical differences between all 48 games that were remade for the GBA:
For anyone interested in how Sound works on the SNES you should watch SNES Audio System Overview from Retro Game Mechanics Explained on Youtube:
Excellent video by Displaced Gamers on how to edit SRAM saves for a Link to the Past on Super Nintendo, this is not actually ROM Hacking as the ROM is exactly the same, it is only the SRAM that is modified.
