SNES Mini

[buntyman]

This is out this week so I'm making a new thread for it.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Misc-/Nintendo-Classic-Mini-Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System/Nintendo-Classic-Mini-Super-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-1238330.html

It looks fantastic and I can't wait to get stuck in. I've never played 14 of the games on this console so not really sure where to start but probably the highly rated Final Fantasy III. I never played the original Starfox either so the unreleased Starfox 2 doesn't have me particularly excited but I'm sure I'll get round to giving it a go.

Who else is getting one?

[Shay Chaise]

This'll be the shit, I reckon.

[Phil_A]

I've been veering between one of these or just buying a modded PAL/NTSC Snes from ebay - the price is about the same either way. I have already have a Super Everdrive flashcart which supports about 95% of games, however this doesn't include any with special chips - e.g. Mario Kart, Mario RPG, Yoshi's Island and the two Starfoxes.

Would it be worth the hassle acquiring a SNES Mini on that basis alone? Hmm.

[Replies From View]

lol the yanks have one that looks like shit!  Serves them right.

[Hello! Replies Hidden]

I've got three of them already pre-ordered from months back. Tesco, Toys R Us and Argos.

[I.D. Smith]

I've pre-ordered one too. I've actually been using SNES ROMS on and off over the years (I hacked my old PSP and filled it with ROMS) so playing the games again isn't as much of a novelty, sadly, but the prospect of actually handling a SNES joypad again is the part I'm most excited for. It's been so long since I held one, I might actually weep.

[Replies From View]

You can very easily buy an original SNES controller and an adapter that allows you to plug it into a USB slot.  The emulators recognise that set up.

Edit:  I should say I did this with my mac and much the same can be done with a PC.  Your PSP situation would probably be different.

[Phil_A]

If I remember rightly SNES emulation on the PSP is far from perfect(or at least it wasn't the last time I tried), so just playing these games on capable hardware would be a step up in any case.

[NoSleep]

You can also get a SNES cart that has an SD card slot that you can load with SNES ROMs if you already have a SNES. I think they're about £150, though; which is why I'm quite happy to stick to an emulator and a generic controller (or a PS1 controller via adaptor) for the meanwhile.

[NoSleep]

If I remember rightly SNES emulation on the PSP is far from perfect(or at least it wasn't the last time I tried), so just playing these games on capable hardware would be a step up in any case.

If it's anything like emulation of the SNES on a DS (using an Edge or R4 card), it's far from perfect (usually graphics issues because of the way several layers of graphics are used at once). There's a limited number of games that will run even close to successfully. Running NES games is far more successful (apart from Elite) on the DS.

[Phil_A]

If it's anything like emulation of the SNES on a DS (using an Edge or R4 card), it's far from perfect (usually graphics issues because of the way several layers of graphics are used at once). There's a limited number of games that will run even close to successfully. Running NES games is far more successful (apart from Elite) on the DS.

SNES emulation was always going to be a bit beyond the capabilities of a standard DS, sadly. As well as the layering issue, one of the main problems was the resolution was too low to display an entire SNES screen without chopping bits off. I did hear you can buy a flashcard that supposedly provides extra hardware resources specifically to support SNES emulation, but apparently this a bit of a rip-off and the emulation is still extremely poor.

SNES emulation on the PSP works in the sense that the majority games were playable, but with a few notable issues with sound and framerates. It just about works but is still a somewhat compromised experience.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Yep, I still think the PSP was a technological marvel that was just about able to do literally everything I had hoped it may, but retrospectively I was extremely forgiving wrt the quality of SNES emulation on the PSP. For the most part framerate issues were negligible, especially in the type of games I played (at the time I tended to blame faster paced games as just being outdated shit, as opposed to turn based RPGs being a lot less of an issue to emulate) but I'm pretty sure I made a point of never listening to the in game audio cos it was just a bit weird a lot of the time. GBA games had similar issues (but without the Super FX type weirdness).
Wouldn't have even considered the DS being capable of emulating SNES tbh, I assume it just plays GBA games direct though?

The step up from GB and NES to the next generation is pretty huge, Nintendo being able to drag SMB3 outta that machine gives a pretty skewed impression of how powerful it was.



SNES games might run better on newer PSPs too, they doubled the memory iirc?

[biggytitbo]

The PSP was a lovely thing, although hamstrung by Sony using it to try and push one of their stupid proprietary media formats. I don't know where the impresson came from that it was some kind of failure came from either, the PSP is one of the top selling games consoles of all time, PS2 aside it outsold everything at the time incuding the gameboy advance.

[hewantstolurkatad]

The PSP was a lovely thing, although hamstrung by Sony using it to try and push one of their stupid proprietary media formats. I don't know where the impresson came from that it was some kind of failure came from either, the PSP is one of the top selling games consoles of all time, PS2 aside it outsold everything at the time incuding the gameboy advance.

It sold very well itself (not as well as the DS, Wii and original gameboy though, iirc?) but Sony didn't sell enough of their own games for it to be an unqualified success considering the cost of the machine itself.

From about two years in onwards piracy became widespread in the west too, it seemed like just about every developer for it got badly burnt on their last release. Square didn't even bother releasing FF: Type 0 outside of Japan.

[NoSleep]

Wouldn't have even considered the DS being capable of emulating SNES tbh, I assume it just plays GBA games direct though?

The DS has quite a big homebrew scene (dependent on loading them via SD cards to R4 or Edge cartridges) that wrote new apps (I still use a nice IRC client on the DS on occasions) and of course emulators, so it's possible to play arcade games, snes, nes, gb, genesis, etc; all to varying degrees of success. None of this, of course, was planned by Nintendo, so they made sure the later handhelds were more difficult (impossible?) to use in this way. Actual ROMS of DS games play perfectly on these carts.

[Hello! Replies Hidden]

I'm also looking forward to holding a genuine SNES pad again. The last time I completed Mario World, Super Metroid or Link to the Past it was using a DualShock controller and using the bluetooth connection on my Mac.

[madhair60]

Not sure why people are fetishising one of the very worst control pads of all time.

[Hello! Replies Hidden]

Not sure why people are fetishising one of the very worst control pads of all time.

You're one of them people who used an Atari stick with his Mega Drive.

[Phil_A]

Wouldn't have even considered the DS being capable of emulating SNES tbh, I assume it just plays GBA games direct though?

I believe the GBA stuff ran completely independent of the DS. If you wanted to play GBA games from a flash card on a DS, you had to get one that supported the GBA, because even if you put those roms on a DS flash card there was no way of accessing them in that mode, due to the separate hardware.

[madhair60]

You're one of them people who used an Atari stick with his Mega Drive.

Nah, I used a Mega Drive pad with my Master System.

[MojoJojo]

I believe the GBA stuff ran completely independent of the DS. If you wanted to play GBA games from a flash card on a DS, you had to get one that supported the GBA, because even if you put those roms on a DS flash card there was no way of accessing them in that mode, due to the separate hardware.

Yes - although as I recall, none of the GBA flash cards worked on the DS as Nintendo changed the interface to stop them working.

[Phil_A]

Yes - although as I recall, none of the GBA flash cards worked on the DS as Nintendo changed the interface to stop them working.

Hmm, my EZ Flash 4 always worked with no trouble on the DS. Could be it was blocked on later revisions of the hardware?

[Replies From View]

So when are these coming back into the Amazon store at a reasonable price, then?

[Replies From View]

Nah, I used a Mega Drive pad with my Master System.

So what did you use with your Mega Drive.

An Atari stick, that's what.  Stop telling fibs.

[madhair60]

So what did you use with your Mega Drive.

An Atari stick, that's what.  Stop telling fibs.

I didn't have one. I was poor.

[buntyman]

These nintendo-made things are always going to be more reliable and nicer to play than emulator configurations, albeit with fewer games available. The mini snes will have a nice, simple interface with and easy save game feature and £70 is a bargain for all that official nintendo hardware which I'm sure will hold its value if you wanted to sell it on after playing all the best games.

[I.D. Smith]

You can very easily buy an original SNES controller and an adapter that allows you to plug it into a USB slot.  The emulators recognise that set up.

Edit:  I should say I did this with my mac and much the same can be done with a PC.  Your PSP situation would probably be different.

Fair dos, never thought of this. Thanks for the tip!

And yeah, the PSP emulation was a bit dodgy at points. It's been years since I used it for that, but I recall it going a bit wonky when trying to do anything Mode 7 related.

[Hello! Replies Hidden]

Tesco saying it might be delivered today fingers crossed. I'm happy with the line up of games generally. If I could have picked one I'm sad to see missing it would've been Super Soccer. It's included on the Japanese but not European or USA Mini. Not sure what games we're getting instead.

[NoSleep]

Why is Donald Trump the goalie?

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Why is Donald Trump the goalie?

...and is this where his obsession with building a wall comes from? Mexico has some great free-kick takers.