User:CascadeUrbanite/sandbox/Super Nintendo Entertainment System

This sandbox page is intended for drafting major revisions to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System article, which I feel is in somewhat poor shape considering its high importance to the video games WikiProject. I will likely draft by sections to avoid feature creep and implement the work from this page into the article incrementally; I would like to improve it such that it can at least pass a good article nomination and eliminate the need for redundant articles on items/topics related to it.

Technical specifications
The 16-bit design of the Super NES incorporates graphics and sound co-processors that perform tiling and simulated 3D effects, a palette of 32,768 colors, and 8-channel ADPCM audio. These base platform features, plus the ability to dramatically extend them all through substantial chip upgrades inside of each cartridge, represent a leap over the 8-bit NES generation and some significant advantages over 16-bit competitors such as the Genesis.

CPU and RAM
The central processing unit (CPU) is a Ricoh 5A22 microprocessor, which is a second source derivative of the 16-bit WDC 65C816; the latter itself is a descendant of the 8-bit MOS Technology 6502, of which a Ricoh variant was used in the NES/Famicom. In NTSC regions, the CPU's nominal clock rate is 3.58 MHz, but it can slow down to either 2.68 MHz or 1.79 MHz depending on the cartridge configuration.

The console contains 128KB of work random-access memory (RAM), 64KB of video RAM, and 64KB of audio RAM.

Video and Audio
The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) consists of two closely tied integrated circuit packages: the PPU1, which handles sprite background and transformation data; and the PPU2, which handles special effects. The console can display up to 256 colors simultaneously from a palette of 32,768. Its video output displays at resolutions from 256×224 to 512×448 pixels.

The console's S-SMP sound chip, produced by Sony, includes an 8-bit SPC700 CPU and a digital signal processor (DSP); it supports up to 8 sound channels with 4-bit (compressed from 16-bit) adaptive differential pulse-code modulation (ADPCM), offering a sampling rate of 32 kHz.

For audiovisual output, the back of the console features an RF modulator and a proprietary "Multi Out" port, the latter of which supports composite video, S-Video, and RGB video as well as monaural and stereophonic sound; it was later incorporated into Nintendo's two successive home consoles, the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube. The console also features an expansion port on its bottom to connect to supported peripherals.

Games
The console's best-selling game is Super Mario World (1990), the initial pack-in game, with 20.6 million copies. Cumulative software sales for the console totaled 379.06 million units upon its discontinuation in 2003.

1757 Super NES games were officially released: 717 in North America (plus 4 championship cartridges), 521 in Europe, 1,448 in Japan, 231 on Satellaview, and 13 on Sufami Turbo. Many Super NES games developed by Nintendo's first-party and second-party studios are considered some of the greatest video games of all time, with notable titles such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991), EarthBound (1994), Super Metroid (1994), and Yoshi's Island (1995).

The console initially launched with two games: Super Mario World and F-Zero (1995); the latter's use of Mode 7, a graphical mode that allows the application of scaling and warping effects on one background layer to produce a pseudo-3D environment, was noted as a major advantage over its contemporaries.

Late in the console's lifespan, Nintendo partnered with Rare to produce games based on the latter's pre-rendered 3D computer-generated imagery (CGI) process using Silicon Graphics workstations. The first product of this partnership was Donkey Kong Country, which released in 1994 to critical acclaim for its visuals, considered unprecedented for the console and on par with those of next-generation 32-bit consoles at the time; it received sequels in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995) and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996). The former two, along with a 1995 port of Killer Instinct, are credited with helping the console stave off competition from next-generation consoles while Nintendo focused on developing its answer to them with the Nintendo 64.

Many Super NES games have been rereleased several times, including on the Virtual Console, Super NES Classic Edition, and the classic games service on Nintendo Switch Online. All Game Boy games are playable with the Super Game Boy add-on. Many Super NES emulators have been produced. Mode 7 is a graphics mode that can simulate simple 3D effects.

Enhancement chips
As part of the overall plan for the Super NES, rather than include an expensive CPU that would still become obsolete in a few years, the hardware designers made it easy to interface special coprocessor chips to the console, just like the MMC chips used for most NES games. This is most often characterized by 16 additional pins on the cartridge card edge.

The Super FX is a RISC CPU designed to perform functions that the main CPU can not feasibly do. The chip is primarily used to create 3D game worlds made with polygons, texture mapping and light source shading. The chip can also be used to enhance 2D games.

The Nintendo fixed-point digital signal processor (DSP) chip allowed for fast vector-based calculations, bitmap conversions, both 2D and 3D coordinate transformations, and other functions. Four revisions of the chip exist, each physically identical but with different microcode. The DSP-1 version, including the later 1A and 1B bug fix revisions, is used most often; the DSP-2, DSP-3, and DSP-4 are used in only one game each.

Similar to the 5A22 CPU in the console, the SA-1 chip contains a 65C816 processor core clocked at 10 MHz, a memory mapper, DMA, decompression and bitplane conversion circuitry, several programmable timers, and CIC region lockout functionality.

In Japan, games could be downloaded cheaper than standard cartridges, from Nintendo Power kiosks onto special cartridges containing flash memory and a MegaChips MX15001TFC chip. The chip manages communication with the kiosks to download ROM images and has an initial menu to select a game. Some were published both in cartridge and download form, and others were download only. The service closed on February 8, 2007.

Many cartridges contain other enhancement chips, most of which were created for use by a single company in a few games. Developers heavily relied on enhancement chips late in the console's life as more powerful consoles arrived on the market; 1995 saw more games use such chips than the previous years of the console on the market combined, with a port of Doom as a notable example.