Gizmodo: Snes

Four-Foot SNES Controller Actually Works (For Shaquille O'Neal)

John Herrman — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Taking inspiration as well as construction cues from the massive NES controller table built in May, SCAD Inc., which I will charitably call a garage-based novelty enlargement collective, set out to build a giant-sized SNES controller, complete with functioning buttons. A few months later the build is complete, and it looks, well, huge.

The angular, simply-shaped NES controller lent itself well to humongonization, but the rounded sides and shoulder buttons made the SNES a formidable challenge to accurately build at such a large scale. The SCAD guys sure as hell pulled it off though, getting everything from the curvature of the L and R buttons to the fonts used on the control labels almost perfectly right. The body of the controller is cut from wood, and the buttons are connected directly to the guts of a standard SNES controller, preserving the now hilariously small-looking cable and connector. Matt LaBoone, the primary builder of the project, says that videos (hopefully including some gameplay action) are forthcoming. For now check out the full log of the building process at the SCAD Inc. site. [SCAD Inc.]

Revive Those Repressed Sega Genesis Memories With 16-bit Blaze Portable Game Player

Jack Loftus — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

If you weren't lucky enough to have an SNES back in the '90s, and were instead stuck with a Sega Megadrive (Genesis), the Blaze 16-bit handheld will bring a flood of those memories back to the surface and them some. The controller setup is even the same, complete with the Start button switching that made fighters like Street Fighter 2 impossible to play. Blaze is a fraction of the size of the original Genesis, and comes preloaded with 20 games. Some of them are actually pretty good.

The Blaze is loaded with Sonic and Knuckles, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Ecco the Dolphin, Alex Kidd - Enchanted Castle, Alien Storm Altered Beast, Arrow Flash, Crackdown, Decap Attack, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Ecco Junior, Flicky, Gain Ground, Jewel Master, Kid Chameleon, Sonic Spinball and Shadow Dancer. I said some. [Crowded Brain]

Homebrew SNES Emulation Hits the Wii

Chris Magor — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:53:20 EDT

SNES emulator SNES9X has been successfully ported to the Wii, allowing the core of original SNES fans, rapidly approaching middle-age as they are, to relive their gaming youths.

Information on the homebrew app is sketchy at the moment, but we do know that it features classic controller support and comes bundled with a whole swathe of other emulators for the Wii including: Genesis / Sega CD Emu, Master System / Game Gear Emu, PC Engine Emu, Rin Gameboy Channel, Emu Loader and Wii Paint. [DCEmu via Ubergizmo]

SNES Controller for Wii Unboxed, Looks Incredibly Authentic

Jason Chen — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Nintendo's just started shipping out these SNES controllers to their Club Nintendo members in Japan, and great googly moogly are these fantastic. Not only is it a similar greyish color, but the X Y B A face buttons are exactly the same color as before! What better way to play SNES games on the Wii emulator than with an actual SNES controller!

It's too bad that this is only for Club Nintendo members and only for Japan, but you can see more beautiful shots of the gamepad over at Inside Games. If you want to use your original NES or SNES controllers in the Wii, there's also the RetroZone controller adapters for $19 each. [Inside Games]

Super Genintari 4-in-1 Console Jams Nintendo, SEGA, and Atari

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Super Genintari is the latest mega-console mod by Richard DaLuz, a perfect cocktail of Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis and Super NES enclosed in a retro-'80s bronze acrylic case, "formed and shaped on a homemade stript heater." It connects to a TV using a single cable, running four games simultaneously, and probably cooks bread with the generated heat—like the video shows after the jump. We talked with Richard about his superconsole mod:

Jesús Díaz: Great mix and cool retro look. Are these regular motherboards you are using?
Richard DaLuz: The systems inside the Super Genintari aren't anything you have to special-order. They're all the same old systems myself and many others grew up with through the '80s/'90s and regularly find floating around at garage sales to this day.

I used the beloved old gray and white "toaster" NES board, a model 3 Sega Genesis, the smaller redesigned SNES and an Atari Flashback 2 for the 2600 portion, since it's much smaller and easier to work with than retrofitting the original board from the '70s. It's still official reworked Atari hardware and completely compatible as far as I know, so all is well. The basic rule was that if any of the systems couldn't play ANY game I threw at it, it was out. I tend to avoid the much smaller "pirate/clone" systems for this reason.

JD: You didn't have to do any modifications to the boards to make them fit?
RD: The only board I really had to do any "major" modification to was the NES, and that was just a simple A/V amplifier mod using parts that can easily be found at any Radioshack for pennies. Other than that, just a lot of tedious rewiring and soldering to relocate the cartridge connectors.

JD: You have any background in electronics?
RD: Believe it or not, very little! I took one class way back in high school that basically just taught me how to operate a soldering iron without burning myself and/or others. (I still can't even tell you what the hell Ohm's Law is without Googling it.) Other than that I have no official training. Just a lot of dinking around by myself, finding out what works and what doesn't. It's an area that I've been curious about since I was a kid and still have yet to pursue professionally. This should be inspiring news to anyone else that's interested in this kind of stuff.

JD: What was the final bill for this wonderconsole?
RD: Mmm. You'd have to shell out whatever the going rate is for the four different consoles, plus about $50 or so for the casing materials, adhesives, machine screws and whatnot. Easily a couple hundred bucks if you're starting with nothing. But that's assuming you already have access to the necessary tools you'd need. (Soldering/desoldering irons, screw drivers, clamps, wiring, etc.) I ended up spending much more than that considering how many changes I made along the way though and that's something you have to consider when you're doing this kind of work. Nothing ever goes according to plan and the ole' wallet ends up taking the hit.

JD: And for how long have you been working on it?
RD: As far as what it's cost me in time... my God, I don't even know where to begin. I've been working on this damn thing on and off since early 2002! Granted I've taken many "sanity breaks" for several months at a time during the process and changed many things along the way, but that's still a long freakin' time. It's hard to come up with a figure for the time I've put into this thing, but know this... I wouldn't allow myself to part with it for less that a few thousand. I'm pretty sure this thing literally has my blood in it somewhere!

According to Richard, the system is very easy to hook up. Just one A/V cable is needed and you don't have to depend on any external transformer: he put all the necessary power in the case itself. Playing with it is as easy as the video shows: just plug in, put the cartridges in, turn the Super Genintari on, and enjoy.

[Stupidfinger —thanks Jenn and Richard]

Coin-Op NES Requires Serious Magic Fingers

Mark Wilson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:20:00 EDT

While a slew of hotels feature sad, generic video game controllers ready to play whatever crappy IP-streaming games the chain may offer, many Japanese hotels were once stocked with these coin-op Famicom (NES) systems. A 100 yen coin would buy you 10-15 minutes of play, which is a pretty great deal compared to the mini bar or, uhh, "video on demand" services. To check out the Super Famicom (SNES), hit the jump.

With the more advanced Super Famicom, players only scored 5 minutes for 100 yen—or not quite long enough to meet Yoshi in Super Mario World. So the next time we stay at the Four Seasons, the concierge can anticipate our request (a coin-op SNES with an unlimited stack of quarters...along with our standard hooker suspended in a giant mold of green Jello). [Business Use Home Consoles via Kotaku]

SNES Emulator Running on a Cowon Q5W

Adam Frucci — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:30:00 EDT

This is a Cowon Q5W PMP that's been rigged to hook up to an original Playstation controller and run a SNES emulator. On the one hand, it's sweet to see SNES games being played on a PMP. On the other hand, this is a honking $550+ PMP, so you'd probably be pretty pissed if it didn't have the juice to do this. In any case, neat! I'll take SNES emulation anywhere and everywhere. [Anything But iPod via Ubergizmo]

snes4iphone v1.0.0 Tested (Verdict: Playable)

Eric Sheline — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:00:15 EST

ZodTTD's snes4iphone v1.0.0 was recently released and it works surprisingly well. After a few games of Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World it's obvious this emulator has come a long way. While in-game audio is still missing, background music plays fine. Gameplay is fairly smooth with frameskip enabled, and the emulator supports landscape and portrait display modes. Perhaps the best feature is the well implemented save system. Basically, you're not going to beat any crazy speed runs using snes4iphone, but it's a nice distraction for the bus. [ZodTTD via BGR]

The iPhone Gets an Unplayable SNES Emulator

Jason Chen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:20:37 EST

If, when the NES emulator was released for the iPhone, you thought "boy, I wish this was SNES instead" and not "boy, this is totally unplayable with a touchscreen and not a controller," then this pre-release SNES emulator should be awesome news for you. Otherwise, not so much. [zodttd]

Extremely Rare SNES CD Controller on eBay

Mark Wilson — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:20:12 EST

Before Sony made the PlayStation, they tried to team up with Nintendo. Together the companies would release an SNES CD add-on to compete with companies like Sega who were releasing CD-ROM upgrades of their own.

Needless to say, the system never existed...to the public. But gamers can still capture a price of history through an eBay auction is going on now for this SNES CD developer unit controller. Even if you don't plan on plunking down $3,000 to have this as your own, you can still appreciate it as a precursor to the modern PlayStation controller. Luckily Sony ditched the idea of six buttons and flipped this upside down design, because I can't imagine reaching those bottom buttons without dislocating my thumbs. Here's another shot:

Happy bidding. [ebay via gamesniped]

Wooden SNES Gives Us An Erection (wait, did we screw up that joke?)

Mark Wilson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:45:50 EST

Benjamin Heckendorn is an unquestionable talent, but talent thrives with competition. That's why we hope he notices this fantastic portable wooden SNES system. Its screen grabbed from the PSOne portable add-on, an SNES and speakers (along with optional mic jack) have been crammed into this completely custom wooden case—look at those buttons...so, so, so hot. Our fantasy device would use a slightly bigger screen, but like our wives say, beggars can't be choosers. Hit the jump for decent video of the mod in action.

[techeblog]

Homemade Metroid Arcade Cabinet: Bravo!

Sean Fallon — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:35:04 EST

Amazing things can happen when you combine passion with talent. This homemade Metroid arcade cabinet is definitely a case in point. Unfortunately his talents do not extend into the world of directing, so the video is not quite what it could be. Still, the cool artwork, lighting effects, and controller ports for the NES, SNES, N64 and USB are easily discernible. If you ask me, the best part is the illuminated Mother Brain displayed behind plexiglass. Very impressive indeed. [WiiFanboy via Joystiq]

Paul "Boner Jams" Rudd is a Huge SNES Fan

Jason Chen — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:30:55 EDT

Anyone else remember this ad for the Super Nintendo from the early '90s? It features Paul Rudd, better known as the "Boner Jams" guy from 40 Year Old Virgin, or the dude they jammed in on the last season of Friends, or the guy from Knocked Up, or the guy you've seen in a bunch of parts all over the place. He jams the cartridge in much harder than the manual indicates is proper, but plays the hell out of a bunch of games as his buddies all watch behind a chain-link fence. Oh, how we envied Paul Rudd. [Game Videos via Joystiq]

Super Famicom/PlayStation Prototype?

Jason Chen — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:37:31 EDT

For those of you with short memories, Sony and Nintendo were working together in the mid '90s on a CD-based Nintendo console when negotiations fell apart and both Japanese companies went their separate ways. Sony with the PlayStation and Nintendo with the N64—and we all know what happened since.

This console posted on game-rave is supposedly a prototype of the PlayStation/Super Famicom unit. They claim it's real, but whether or not Sony and Nintendo actually got to the point where they made prototypes is unclear. Still, this seems like an interesting box and gives us a chance to stroll down memory lane. Ahh, look, there's the house of noogies to your right. – Jason Chen

Game Rave

Nintendo Wii SNES Mod

Jason Chen — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:00:18 EDT

Those of you who are still unable to grab your own Nintendo Wii despite the Best Buy and Circuit City sales this past weekend can rest easy. This SNES Wii modder didn't ruin a new Wii in order to shove the guts of an SNES inside. He created an entirely new replica case and shoved the guts inside.

We especially enjoy the front-loading cartridges and the blue LEDs, but the mod as a whole is pretty good. Why pay for virtual console games when you can play the originals you already have? – Jason Chen

Project Page [KotomiBlog via Nintendo Wii Fanboy via Technabob via Slashgear]

DIY Wireless Retro NES, SNES for the Wii

Travis Hudson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:45:15 EST

If playing some of the classics on your Wii virtual arcade with the very un-retro Wiimote isn't fitting your fancy, then this mod might be for you. Mark Feldman put together a decent tutorial to convert the classic NES or SNES controllers to work with the Nintendo Wii, wirelessly. Remember your roots, kids. Like most mods, some electronics know-how is needed for this project. –Travis Hudson

Mod Information Page [Via Hack A Day]

WTF Alert: SNES Outselling PS3 and 360 on Amazon.com

www.gizmodo.com — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:07:02 EST

Amidst the usual video game champions on Amazon's Best Sellers List: Video Games, you might find something out of the ordinary. If you head south to around number 17, you'll see what I mean.

It appears that everyone's old video game flame known as the SNES is outselling Sony's Playstation 3 on Amazon.com. Wonder why? Here's my take:

People aren't that interested in PS3s.
Virtual Console games are giving people major cases of nostalgia.
People are so frantic for the Wii that they'll get their hands on the closest thing.
Someone is throwing a Mario Kart tourney and ordered a metric ton of units.
Hell has frozen over.

In all seriousness though, this probably has more to do with the fact that there are ten times as many used, yellow-tinted SNES consoles floating around, but still an interesting sight nevertheless. – Alexander Yoon

Note: The list has been updated, and the PS3 has dropped to number 20, now behind Guitar Hero II and Oblivion.

Note pt. deux: The SNES/FC Twin monster is on its way to cracking the top ten and is hot on the tails of the Xbox 360. If it gets up there, then we officially live in Upside-Down Land.

Note pt. three: Welcome to Upside-Down Land.

Video Games [via NeoGAF Forums]

FC Twin: SNES/NES Hybrid Console

Adam Frucci — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:00:00 EST

While this might not be as cool as it would have been a few years ago, what with the Wii Virtual Console and emulation all the rage these days, I still think I would have don't pretty much anything to have one of these things in the early 90s. Who am I kidding, I'd love one today. It's called the FC Twin, and it's a console that plays both SNES and NES games.

The FC Twin isn't even a hack… apparently it just started being manufactured at the end of last year after the patents for both the NES and SNES expired. You can even buy one on Amazon for $45! My mind has been blown. –Adam Frucci

Hybrid NES/SNES Console [TechEBlog]

Play VC Games On the Wii With the Original Controllers

www.gizmodo.com — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:22:51 EST

The Wii Classic Controller is nice and all, but it's still not exactly the same as the original NES and SNES controllers you grew up covering with prepubescent palmsweat. If you want to play those somewhat-overpriced Virtual Console games with the same controllers you played the original games with, snag these adapters that plug into the Wii's Gamecube controller ports.

There's one for the NES controller and one for the SNES controller; both cost $19, both come out early next year, and both provide classic gaming without thumbsticks than an 8-bit Mario wouldn't know what to do with. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Uncrate]

Ainol V100 MP3 Player Emulates NES, SNES and Sega Genesis

Jason Chen — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 20:34:33 EDT

The Ainol V100 isn't just an MP3 and video player with a gorgeous 2.5-inch QVGA screen, it emulates old school NES and Sega games as well. Inside its brushed metal body, there's a ADI Blackfin processor running at 400MHz which plays back NES ROMS, SNES ROMS and Sega Genesis ROMS along with MP3s, WMAs, FLAC and AVIs. Of course getting those ROMS through backdoor channels isn't too hard, but they're of questionable legality.

We're not sure how SNES games will be played with only four buttons, but thems the breaks. There's also only 512MB of space on the drive, which makes us suspect things are kind of tight over at Ainol.

In conclusion, we know all want Ainol, but we can't have Ainol—it's only available in China. – Jason Chen

Ainol Website [Ainol via Gizmologia via Oh Gizmo]

L33T SNES Console Mod

johnb — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:02:07 EDT

This might be a little outdated, what with the uncrackable XBox 360 out there, but it reminds us of the time we tried to hack our PS2 using the old "knife in the DVD slot" trick and broke it. This hack lets you overclock your SNES, which results in Link's face being scattered across the screen like a highway accident. It obviously requires some experience in "electronics" and "not screwing up your SNES," but it seems worth a try.

Overclock your Super Nintendo (NEW!) [99-gtp]

SNES Reigns Supreme

Travis Hudson — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 15:24:29 EDT

Sal Cangeloso (best last name ever) over at XYZ Computing has drawn up a nice essay regarding the modern state of gaming and how the SNES impacted it. According to Sal, the SNES was the peak of console gaming. It is a nice read, especially for nostalgic purposes. Check it out, yo.

SNES- As Good As It s Going to Get [XYZ Computing]