The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) / Super Famicom
"It was the holidays of 1984 in Japan, the NES was still selling very well throughout the year with new ports of Fix-It Felix Jr., Q-Bert, Jr. Pac Man, and Sinistar were selling very well. Nintendo's recent manga book called Sūpākomikkutaimu (Super Comic Time in English) was selling very well and received very well by critics too. A new division called Dynamo Pictures was formed as a movie and television creating division of Nintendo to create media based on Osamu Tezuka's and Nintendo's properties. Everything was good and it got even better in Christmas 1984 where many Japanese kids everywhere would open up their presents to see that the Next generation of Nintendo consoles had arrived. Bringing the power from the arcades into the arcade along with unique experiences that the arcade couldn't do like Super Mario Bros. as people were playing the Super Famicom with Super Mario Bros and the fantastic port of Donkey Kong, many say a specific phase that was said in the promotional material for, "Now you're playing with power; SUPER POWER!"
The Super Famicom (Codename "Mario") released in 1984 in Japan and 1985 everywhere else as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; it was an absolute smash hit worldwide and the undisputed champion of the Third Generation of Home Consoles having a 70% percent share worldwide. there were many reasons for the consoles massive success; the first reason that the competition in home consoles was mostly gone and the ones that lived like Atari was not doing to well at all, so when Nintendo Announced their Next generation consoles in 1983, Atari scrambled to create a next generation home console to compete with the Nintendo that ended with the Atari 7800 being created that did not live up to expectations. Sega also was developing their next generation console shortly before the Super Famicom was first shown off and it went into high gear after it was shown off, but by the time Sega released the master system it was almost a year after the Super Famicom Released and then released a fair bit later in America and Europe; Sega's 8-bit console fate was sealed by launch and lost to Nintendo badly. the second reason that the Super Famicom was successful was Nintendo made developers signed contracts that if a developer makes a game for the SNES, they can only make games for the SNES, this made the SNES a monopoly and really the only option if you want to have a successful game during the 8-bit era; by 1988, the U.S. and Japanese Government forced Nintendo with the help of hefty fines to stop this practice entirely to stop any sort of monopolies from happening in the gaming but the damage was already done and Nintendo dominated this generation with pretty much no competition. The third reason that the super Famicom succeeded was with the seal of quality, ESRB, and lockout chips making the amount of shovelware decreased by a large portion for a long time until the end of the SNES life. a smaller reason but a good reason that it did well was ROB made early SNES look more like a toy than a game console and this vital for the early American success of the SNES. and the final reason that it successful was the games on the system were generally the best and highest quality games of the third generation like the Megaman games, Castlevania, Legend of Zelda 1 & 2, the Super Mario Bros, Trilogy, Double Dragon and much more that made this system such a smash hit.
the SNES however could not live forever as by the late 80's, the times were changing as the next generation of the consoles were showing like the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and the NEC PC-Engine. This started to take share away from the SNES and Nintendo knew that they needed a new console to compete with the influx of 16-bit consoles coming out. in 1989 and 1990; Nintendo released the Ultra Famicom/UNES (will be important for later) and Nintendo was slowly drawing support away from the SNES but do it very slowly as the SNES/Super Famicom was discontinued in 1995 in Japan and America and 1996 in Europe as Nintendo kept giving the SNES games up till late 1994 to give poorer customers something to do with the SNES.
The legacy of the SNES was invaluable to the revitalization of gaming, marking the end of the video game crash of 1983, and making the gaming industry even bigger than ever before. It was the first time that Backwards compatibility was available on a Nintendo platform as the SNES/Super Famicom can play all NES/Famicom games plus accessories out of the box. It was the first time that Nintendo's gaming division started splitting into different divisions to focus on RnD, Technologies, Games, Controllers, and many more for specific games. It also created many of Nintendo's Biggest IPs (all the same IPs as the ones that were introduced on the NES IOTL), good games based on all of Nintendo's Manga rights, and cemented Mario as Nintendo's biggest IP. Here are the specs.
SPECS:
Release Date | November 1984 (JP)
March 1985 (NA)
October 1985 (EU) |
Lifespan | November 1984 - August 1995 (JP)
March 1985 - July 1995 (NA)
October 1985 - March 1996 (EU) |
Amount Sold | around 70 million (by 1996) |
Cost | around $199 at launch (top loader model costed $99 at launch) |
Developers | Nintendo, Intel, MOS Technology, Ricoh |
Manufacturers | Nintendo and Intel |
CPU | MOS 6506 (8 Bit, 1.79 MHz)
Intel 8065 (8 bit, 2 MHz) for backwards compatibility |
|
VDP | Mario chip (8/16 bit, 1.5 MHz) |
RAM | 16 kB base RAM
64 kB/256 kB with add-ons |
Media | Cartridge: (up to 64 kB; much more with bank switching, biggest game got up to 2MB)
Floppy Disk (add-on): (256 kB per side, 512 kB on both sides)
Laserdisc (add-on): (LV-ROM; 500 MB per side; 1 GB on a single disc) |
Graphic Modes | Bitmap and Tile Graphics |
Sprites | 4 to 32 sprites (4 to 16 colors) 8 on each scanline; 64 (2 colors) |
Color Palate | up to 256 colors (some techniques can push up to 380) |
Resolution | 240 x 160 (some techniques got the resolution higher) |
Sound Chip | Ricoh AY3 (6 PSG and FM channels; similar capabilities to OTL NES sound chip and the C64 SID chip with FM support)
Ricoh AY1: additional 2 PSG and FM channels (Add-on)
Laserdisc audio: (Add-on) |
Other Features | can do some scrolling, mix of C64 and NES OTL capabilities wise |
Add-ons | Famicom/NES Disk System: (1986)
Famicom BASIC: (1986)
Famimodem: (1988)
Famicom/NES Laserdisc module: (1988) |
Controllers | same as OTL |
Backwards Compatibility | NES (Fully backwards compatible with games, add-ons, and accessories) |
Amount of Games Released | over 1400 officially licensed (1996) much more unlicensed and bootlegs |
A large list of the upcoming chapters for the TL:
Next: How RCA Survived ITTL (In Detail)
Upcoming:
- Super Mario Bros. video game (1984)
- The Sega Master System and Atari 7800 (1984 & (1985)
- Nintendo System 2 Arcade hardware (1985)
- Nintendo Namco Polygonizer (1985)
- Nintendo Power and Super Comic Time (1985)
- Nintendo Dynamo Pictures (1985)
- Super NES/Famicom Disk System, Famicom BASIC, Famimodem, and Laserdisc System (add-ons)
- Some New Video game companies that exist ITTL by 1988
- Crash Bandicoot (1986; Atari 5200 & 7800)
- Atari's and Sega's New Arcade Hardware at this point (1986)
- Warner Bros and Nintendo Partnership (1985)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (1988)
- Sega Amiga 1000 and Sega's other Computers (1980's)
- The Super Mario Bros Movie; Warner Bros and Dynamo Pictures (1988)
- Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 ITTL (1987 and 1989)
- Nintendo TV shows by 1989
- Nintendo Arcade Neptune Platform (1988)
edit: changed the specs of the SNES with the Laserdiscs.