The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES or SNES) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released as the (SFC) in Japan on November 21, 1990, as the Super NES in North America on August 23, 1991, and internationally throughout 1992. It was Nintendo's second programmable home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). A fourth-generation console, the SNES primarily competed with the Sega Genesis in the console war, a fierce battle for market share in the United States and Europe.

Masayuki Uemura, a Nintendo engineer, designed the 16-bit SNES in response to the introduction of the Genesis and NEC's TurboGrafx-16. The SNES had advanced graphical and sound capabilities compared to its competitors, with features such as Mode 7 to simulate 3D perspective and eight-channel ADPCM audio. Its CPU was designed to accommodate ongoing technological innovations by allowing it to interface with enhancement chips, such as Super FX, integrated into game cartridges. Its controller built on the NES's with additional face buttons and two shoulder buttons. Nintendo released many accessories, including the Super Game Boy adapter to play Game Boy games and the Japan-exclusive Satellaview modem peripheral.

Nintendo released the SNES with Super Mario World (1990) as a pack-in game. It introduced the SNES relatively late in the fourth generation amidst intense competition with Sega, which positioned the Genesis as the preferable console for adolescents through aggressive youth marketing. Nonetheless, the SNES quickly became a success, helped by Nintendo's retention of key third-party developers such as Capcom, Enix, Konami, and Square. Over 1,700 SNES games were released, and Nintendo loosened its previously strict licensing requirements to better compete with Sega. The release of Donkey Kong Country (1994) helped maintain the SNES's popularity into the 32-bit era. Nintendo sold 49.1 million SNESs, making it the best selling fourth-generation home console.

Nintendo released a successor, the Nintendo 64, on June 23, 1996. It discontinued the SNES in 1999 and the Super Famicom on September 25, 2003. Video game journalists regard the SNES as one of the greatest consoles; its library includes acclaimed games such as The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991), EarthBound (1994), Final Fantasy VI (1994), Super Metroid (1994), Yoshi's Island (1995), and Kirby Super Star (1996). It remains popular among collectors and retro gamers, and via emulation with applications such as Snes9x and ZSNES. Nintendo has released emulated SNES games through the Virtual Console and Nintendo Classics services and the SNES Classic Edition dedicated console.

History

Background In order to compete with the popular Family Computer in Japan, NEC Home Electronics launched the PC Engine on October 30, 1987, and Sega followed suit with the Mega Drive on October 29, 1988. The two platforms were later launched in North America in August 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.Sheff (1993), pp. 353–356. "The Genesis continued to flounder through its first couple of years on the market, although Sega showed Sisyphean resolve.... [By mid-1991] Sega had established itself as the market leader of the next generation."

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 Nintendo's new system. 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; although Kutaragi was nearly fired, then-CEO Norio Ohga intervened in support of the project and gave him permission to complete it.

Development 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. In that same interview, Yamauchi pointed out that sales of the Famicom were slowly dropping ever since it hit its peak about two years earlier, and that if they continued supporting it, players would eventually "get bored" and move on in favor of better-quality games, which would be "a dangerous situation" for them. 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. A prototype was demonstrated to the Japanese press on November 21, 1988, and again on July 28, 1989, which only had 32 KB of work RAM. During the second demonstration, Nintendo also announced that they were forced to delay the release of the Super Famicom to the fall of 1990, as a result of problems such as a distinct lack of software for third-party developers and a global chip shortage – due to a new generation of semiconductor and chip technology that forced manufacturers to split production capacity, which also drove prices up considerably.

The final design of the Super Famicom unveiled at the second Shoshinkai show, which was held between August 28–29, 1990. This included late prototypes of Super Mario World and F-Zero. The demonstration garnered positive results by the public in terms of gameplay. It gained so much popularity that Nintendo received 1.5 million pre-orders for the Super Famicom from wholesalers, making them worried that launch day would get a little chaotic. To solve this, they encouraged retailers to install a reservation system when selling the console. On November 20, the day before launch, Nintendo loaded 100 trucks with boxes of Super Famicom consoles, alongside cartridges of F-Zero and Super Mario World early in the morning. In that same day, Nintendo executed "Operation: Midnight Shipping" by sending these orders late at night, in the hopes of warding off thieves.

Launch

Designed by Masayuki Uemura, the designer of the original Famicom, the Super Famicom was released in Japan on November 21, 1990, for .Kent (2001), pp. 422–431. It was an instant success. Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours. This gained the attention of the yakuza criminal organizations, so the devices were shipped at night to avoid robbery.Sheff (1993), pp. 360–361.

With the Super Famicom quickly outselling its rivals, Nintendo reasserted itself as the leader of the Japanese console market.Kent (2001), pp. 431–433. "Japan remained loyal to Nintendo, ignoring both Sega's Genesis and NEC's PC Engine (the Japanese name for TurboGrafx).... Unlike the Japanese launch in which Super Famicom had outsold both competitors combined in presales alone, Super NES would debut against an established product." 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.

Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a redesigned version of the Super Famicom, in North America for . It began shipping in limited quantities on August 23, 1991, with an official nationwide release date of September 9, 1991. The SNES was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in April 1992 for .

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 SNES in Brazil, although PAL-M, uses the North American design. Both the NES and SNES were released in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic, a joint venture between the toy company Estrela and consumer electronics company Gradiente.

The SNES and Super Famicom launched with few games, but these games were well received. In Japan, only two games were initially available: Super Mario World and F-Zero.Sheff (1993), p. 361. Bombuzal was released during the launch week. In North America, Super Mario World was launched as a bundle with the console; other launch games include F-Zero, Pilotwings (both of which demonstrate the console's Mode 7 pseudo-3D rendering), SimCity, and Gradius III.

Console wars

The rivalry between Nintendo and Sega was described as one of the most notable console wars in video game history,Kent (2001), p. 431. "Sonic was an immediate hit, and many consumers who had been loyally waiting for Super NES to arrive now decided to purchase Genesis.... The fiercest competition in the history of video games was about to begin." in which Sega positioned the Genesis as the "cool" console, with games aimed at older audiences, and aggressive advertisements that occasionally attacked the competition.Kent (2001), pp. 448–449. Nintendo scored an early public-relations advantage by securing the first console conversion of Capcom's arcade hit Street Fighter II for SNES, 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,Kent (2001), p. 433. it only represented an estimated 60% of the American 16-bit console market in June 1992, and neither console could maintain a definitive lead for several years. Donkey Kong Country is said to have helped establish the SNES's market prominence in the latter years of the 16-bit generation,Kent (2001), p. 496–497. "The late November release of Donkey Kong Country stood in stark contrast to the gloom and doom faced by the rest of the video game industry. After three holiday seasons of coming in second to Sega, Nintendo had the biggest game of the year. Sega still outperformed Nintendo in overall holiday sales, but the 500,000 copies of Donkey Kong Country that Nintendo sent out in its initial shipment were mostly sold in preorder, and the rest sold out in less than one week. It (Donkey Kong Country) established the SNES as the better 16-bit console and paved the way for Nintendo to win the waning years of the 16-bit generation." "Sega of America sold about 400,000 16-bit consoles in N. America last year, based on estimates extrapolated from NPD Group's Toy Retail Statistical Tracking Service. That compares with just over one million Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (SNES) sold by Nintendo of America." and for a time, maintain against the PlayStation and Saturn. According to Nintendo, the company had sold more than 20 million SNES units in the U.S. According to a 2014 Wedbush Securities report based on NPD sales data, the SNES outsold the Genesis in the U.S. market by units and gained its lead in the US/North American 16 bit market.

Changes in policy