SNES: The Pretty Hate Machine
It was 1991, it was a time where you had Nirvana blaring in your CD player, Jolt cola as the best cola to drink for late night gaming, and you were arguing with your brother on who would fight Gannon in Zelda: Link to the Past. Besides Link to the Past, there was numerous games that made the SNES hugely popular like; Super Mario World, the Final Fantasy series, and of course my personal favorite, Chrono Trigger.

So what was it all about?

The Super Nintendo was a 16-bit system that hit households between 1990 and 1993 in North America, Europe, and Asia. With its CPU called the Ricoh 5A22, its input clocks in at about 21.47727 MHz/ Bus: 3.58 MHz (1.79 MHz). It had 8 and 24-bit address buses along with an 8-bit data bus. Plus it featured new hardware like; Multiplication and division features, Timed IRQ, Parallel I/O processing, and finally DMA and HDMA. Though even with all these features to the system there was one game that showed the full potential of the system especially its “Mode 7” feature, and that was Pilotwings.

Shifting into Mode7

Mode7 was a rendering feature that started on the SNES, it describes texture mapping graphics that allows the background layer to be rotated and/or scaled. Not only was Mode7 used on Pilotwings but also on SNES titles such as Final Fantasy VI, F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Tales of Phantasia,  and Super Castlevania IV . Basically, Mode7 was the beginning of the 3D revolution. Many gamers after a while started to despise the SNES because they were exposed to 3D technology in certain games while most of the SNES games were just side scrolling action. There are also gamers even to this day who still love it because of its quirky nostalgia. Essentially, SNES is a take it or leave it type of machine just like any other popular console.

SNES: The Illegal Comeback

After a 16 year hiatus, the SNES returns but in a so called illegal way known to many gamers and game hackers called "Emulation". The SNES has many emulators that run on the average PC. Using these emulators, one is able to load a certain file called "Roms" which is basically a computer file that contains the copy of the data from a cartridge or CD/DVD disc. Though this maybe a better and cheaper way of being able to relive those nostalgic feelings, it is illegal by law to keep the files on your computer after 24 hours if you don't own the original cartridge. Personally, I play these on my computer and I still enjoy them like I did back then. Of course you're probably wondering if I have the cartidges. Well, thats for me to know and you to find out.

SNES: The Legal Comeback

These days when we talk about the SNES we often mention emulators and roms in the same sentence or subject. Besides downloading this on your computer and not getting caught by the feds, you do have a second option. If you're a Wii owner then you already know. If you're planning on buying a Wii and you don't know, well here it is. All the games from all different systems from the 90's except PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64, you can download it on the Wii. Exciting? Yes. But as the saying goes; "There is no such thing as a free lunch," which means that the points you're earning playing your Wii games or from the Wii Points Cards you buy at the store, you can pick certain games from certain systems. So practically even though you have to pay it seems to be the simplest but safest way to obtain these retro games.

Legends never grow old and they never die

The SNES, basically the Big Brother to the NES changed the world. If it wasn't for the SNES we wouldn't be able to enjoy Final Fantasy, Final Fight, Street Fighter 2, and of course the Mega Man X games. Also our console choices would have been slim and it would have been boring. So if you feel nostalgic and miss fighting Bowser in Super Mario World or Magus in Chrono Trigger, then go in your attic and dust off that old gaming system and relive the memory of gaming in the early 90's or maybe download it off of your Wii Network.