Although the games and gaming culture of modern times have largely evolved, we might often feel like tasting a bit of nostalgia with the old-fashioned class SNES games from the 90s decades.
Since the gaming infrastructure and technologies have changed a lot since then, the SNES consoles have been put out of fashion as well as the market.
It might be a pretty difficult task to find some of these, although it is not impossible. And we are here to help you with that.
A Nintendo sponsored system for game development for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is the Super NES Emulator SE.
The design was done by Intelligent Systems and was sold to the licensed houses of Nintendo development.
A large metal box of rectangular size is a device with 18 inches of height, 12 inches wide, and 13 inches deep.
It is painted in grey color and carries the mark, “Emulator SE” at the front. There are two controller ports at the bottom which are the standard controller ports of Super NES.
The rear of the device has two 50-pin SCSI interfaces that are designed to connect to a PC running MS-DOS. One of these ports has a terminator.
The port labeled “Multi-Out’’ is deployed at the rear of the device. That is the same as the Multi-out port on a normal Super NES control deck. There is an 8 position DIP switch below that.
About Emulators
While Nintendo is particularly protective of the games on its platforms, emulators have always existed in the questionable legal territory.
That being said, emulators are legal in most countries.
Although there are other regulations and legal aspects that need to be considered regarding downloading a game to play on an emulator or even distributing an emulator.
While several games that can be played on an emulator are not being sold, there are several others that can be enjoyed through an emulator on the Nintendo platform.
Also see: Best Disord Bots
There are a few channels officially recognized for the distribution of emulators.
Nintendo authorities although they do not go after individuals downloading emulators, it does mark people who put up games for downloading.
In this article, we have put up a complete and comprehensive SNES EMulator buying guide for you, that does not only help you know about the best features and functions of the top SNES emulators in the market but also helps you decide which one can be the most suitable for you based on your requirements and preferences.
We have taken expert recommendations and user reviews into account to consider the best SNES emulators and have formulated this list that contains the best products in the market right now. Here’s a list of the top SNES emulators currently available in the market.
Top 8 Best SNES Emulators
RetroArch
It is a frontend for emulators, media players, and game engines. Classic games can be run on a wide range of computers through it and consoles through the slick graphical interface.
Settings are unified in such a way that configuration can be done once and for all. Original game discs (CDs) can be done through RetroArch.
It also provides you with additional features like next-frame response times, blind accessibility features, rewinding, shaders, netplay, machine translation, runs ahead, and many more.
It is an open-source, free, and cross-platform front end for game engines, emulators, media players, video games, and other applications.
It is the reference implementation of the libretto API which is designed to be lightweight, portable, fast, and without dependencies. The product is licensed under the GNU GPLv3.
It runs programs that are converted into dynamic libraries called libretro cores. Several user interfaces are used such as a command-like interface, some Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is optimized for gamepads, several inputs, audio and video drivers coupled up with other sophisticated features like audio filters, dynamic rate control, netplay, multi-pass shaders, gameplay, cheats, rewinding, etc. RetroArch is ported to many platforms.
It can also run on several PC operating systems like Windows, macOS, Linux, home consoles like PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, etc. handheld consoles like PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, etc. on smartphones like Android, iOS, etc., single-board computers like Raspberry Pi, ODROID, etc. and even on web browsers by using the Emscripten compiler.
RetroArch is applauded for the number of games and systems it has the capacity to play under a single interface.
It is criticized for the difficulty in the configuration for the excessive number of options available to its users. It is also praised for the extensive number of features available to its users.
The overlays can be customized for android smartphones. It is also applauded for the expandability of the libretro cores it supports, compatibility with varied Bluetooth controllers peripherals and USB, addition to the free usage of the app without any ad.
RetroArch’s ‘Input Lag Compensation’ mode is “arguably the biggest improvement to the experience the retro gaming community has yet seen”, as stated by Tyler Loch, while writing for Arts Technica.
RetroArch Features:
Its major features are:
- Advanced GPU shader support – A multi-pass post-processing shader pipeline that allows efficient usage of image scaling algorithms, emulation of complex CRT, NTSC video artifacts, and other effects
- Dynamic Rate Control which synchronizes video and audio while smoothing out timing imperfections
- FFmpeg recording – Built-in support for lossless video recording using FFmpeg’s libavcodec;
- Gamepad abstraction layer called Retropad
- Gamepad auto-configuration – No input is needed from the user after plugging gamepads in
- Peer-to-peer netplay that uses a rollback technique similar to GGPO
- Audio DSP plugins like an equalizer, reverb, and other effects;
- Advanced savestate features – Automatic save state loading, disabling SRAM overwriting, etc.
- Frame-by-frame gameplay rewinding;
- Button overlays for touchscreen devices like smartphones;
- Thumbnails of the game box art
- Low input and audio lag options;
- Automatically build categorized playlists by scanning directories for games/ROMs;
- Multiple interfaces including CLI, XMB (optimized for gamepads), GLUI/MaterialUI (optimized for touch devices), and RGUI (available everywhere);
- Game ROM scanner – Automatically constructs playlists by comparing the hash sums of a directory’s files against databases of hash sums of known good game copies
- Libretro database of cores, games, cheats, etc
- OpenGL and Vulkan API support.
- Achievement tracking – Integration with the RetroAchievements service to unlock trophies and badges.
It can run any libretro core. Although it is available on many platforms its availability is varied from platform to platform.
SNES9x
Snes9x is a SNES emulator that is written in C++ with official ports for DOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, AmigaOS 4, macOS, MorphOS, Xbox, PSP, PS3, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, iOS, and Android.
Both Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 have an unofficial port named Snes8x. The development of Snes9x began in July 1997 by Snes96’s Gary Henderson and Snes97’s Jerremy Koot who merged their emulators to create Snes9x.
Snes was one of the first to emulate most SNES enhancement chips at some level. In version 1.53, it added support for Cg shaders.
Version 1.55 added support for the MSU-1 enhanced chip found on the SD2SNES. The emulator PocketSNES for Pocket PCs is based on Snes9X.
There is also an unofficial Snes9x port compiled with Emscripten which runs inside a web browser.
The source code of Snes9x is publicly available but it cannot be used for commercial purposes. The license prevents it from doing so.
Snes9x is a freeware, portable Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator. With this, most games designed for the SNES and Super Famicom Nintendo game systems can be played on your PC or Workstation. That also includes some real gems that were only ever released in Japan.
Snes9x is made with the work of over three years worth of part-time hacking, coding, recoding, and debugging.
The product comes with three assembler CPU emulation cores on the i386 Linux and Windows ports and has been coded in C++. Multiple ports of Snes9x are available in recent times.
It is not connected or affiliated with any company. The opinions of the Snes9x team do not correspond to or reflect the views of many companies.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is the most powerful 16-bit console. The SNES used an extremely powerful graphics coprocessor that is capable of generating real-time effects like scaling and transparency.
The SNES9X offers amazing emulation quality and performance better than any other SNES emulator which is available today. This version supports TV Mode, GZ-compressed ROMs, and mouse input.
SNES9X Features:
The new features are for Android are:-
- Android version updated to 1.5.42
- Add an option that automatically increases audio buffer size when required such as routing audio over Bluetooth
- Fix possible crashes in the new audio code
- Fix max ROM size check
BizHawk
BizHawk is an open-source multi-system emulator, as well as a libretro frontend which is designed mainly for the production of Tool-Assisted Speedruns (TAS).
It is written in C# and needs NET Framework 4.0 (in 1.X releases) or NET Framework 4.6.1 (in 2.X releases) to run.
BizHawk focuses primarily on core accuracy and power user tools that are still easy-to-use emulators for casual gaming.
BizHawk Features:
The main features include:-
- Full-screen support
- Controller and hotkey mapping
- Joypad support (for both controller and hotkeys)
- Auto/rapid-fire controls
- Basic re-recording and rerecording
- “Bullet-proof” rerecording
- Frame/lag/re-recording counters
- Input display
- Auto-hold
- Alpha version of “TAStudio”
- RAM watching/poking tools
- RAM searching
- Lua scripting
- Rewind
- Libretro support (1.11.4 onwards)
BizHawk provides good features for casual gamers such as full screen, and joypad support in addition to full rerecording and debugging tools for all system cores proving to be the first choice among TASers (Tool-Assisted Speedrunners).
The common functions of Bizhawk are:
- Format, integrity, and region detection for game images
- 10 save slots with hotkeys and infinite named savestates
- Speed control, including rewinding and frame stepping
- Memory view/search/edit in all emulated hardware components
- Input recording (making TAS movies)
- Screenshotting and recording audio + video to file
- Firmware management
- Input, framerate, and more in a HUD over the game
- Emulated controllers via a comprehensive input mapper
- Lua control over core and frontend (Windows only)
- Hotkey bindings to control the UI
ZSNES
ZSNES is a free software Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator which is written mostly in x86 assembly having official ports for Linux, DOS, Mac OS X, Windows, and also an unofficial port for Xbox.
ZSNES was first developed on 3 July 1997 with the release of the first version on 14 October 1997, for DOS.
From then, official ports have access to Windows and Linux. The emulator was made a free software under the GPL license on 2 April 2001.
In spite of the fact that an announcement was made by adventure_of_link stating that “ZSNES is NOT dead, it’s still in development” which was made on the ZSNES board after its original developers zsKnight and _Demo_ departed, development has slowed down drastically after its last version (1.51 released on 24 January 2007).
Most of the development efforts were focused to increase the emulator’s portability through rewriting assembly code in C and C++ including a new GUI using Qt.
ZSNES is famous as it was among the first to emulate most SNES enhancement chips at some level until version 1.50, ZSNES featured netplay through TCP/IP or UDP.
It is not possible to port ZSNES to devices using RISC processors due to being written in low-level assembly language for x86 processors.
Commercial gaming consoles did not generally use x86 processors (except the famous exception of the original Xbox) before the eighth generation, with the consequent release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2013.
John NESS
John NESS is an NES/SNES emulator for android 6.0+. This app does not work without our own game files. This app is optimized for newer Android.
John NESS Features:
- Original NES/SNES engine
- Cheats
- High-quality rendering
- Search game files in SDCard & Internal Storage
- Virtual On-screen keypad
- Save States (with previews)
- Fully customizable layout
- Customizable keys
- Turbo buttons
- Screenshot
- Fast forward / slow down (x0.25 – x16)
- Bluetooth/MOGA controller support
- Dropbox support (requires John DataSync)
John NESS brings us fast and simple emulation that automatically detects the game ROMs that might be on our device so that we can load them.
It provides us with a user interface that emulates the controls of the video console but on screen.
Therefore, the gaming experience is more or less similar to playing on the original machine, a smaller screen being the only disadvantage.
These are the main functions of this emulator:
- The SNES’ original graphical engine.
- High compatibility with ROMs.
- Function to insert hacks and cheats.
- High-quality rendering.
- Automatically search on your SD card in your internal storage.
- On-screen fully customizable virtual keyboard.
- Support for ZIP files.
- Function to take screenshots.
- Possibility to speed up games.
- Option to save games.
- Compatible with external gamepads.
Higan
Higan is an emulator for numerous video game consoles, which includes Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
It was originally called BSNES that was later reused for a new emulator by the same developer; the emulator is notable for its attempt to emulate the original hardware as accurately as possible through low-level, cycle-accurate emulation and for the historical preservation efforts of the SNES platform.
The supported systems are Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy, SG- 1000 and SG-3000, Game Gear, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-16 and SuperGrafx, MSX and MSX2, Neo Geo Pocket (color), ColecoVision, and WonderSwan (color).
The Higan project has played a major role in the field of SNES emulation with a number of original achievements in its emulation and in reverse engineering developments such as the organization of funds, and expertise for decapping the SNES’s enhancement chips and hardware.
OpenEmu
OpenEmu is an open-source multi-system game emulator made especially for macOS. It provides a plugin interface in order to emulate various consoles’ hardware, such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Genesis, and many others.
The developers can add new cores to the base system for the architecture without having any need to account for specific macOS APIs.
December 23, 2013, saw the release of version 1.0 after a lengthy period of beta testing. There also has been a release of various incremental updates that had plans to incorporate support for more consoles in future releases.
Many of these in-development cores can be downloaded in an optional “experimental” cores build that contains support for arcade systems using MAME.
Nestopia UE
Nestopia is an excellent NES Emulator that has very high accuracy. Most games can be played without any trouble.
Nestopia has features like netplay and texture scaling It has been the most popular NES Emulator for a long while. The original developer stopped the development of Nestopia in 2008.
Also, another developer joined the work on it, as “Nestopia UE” (Undead Edition). Nestopia can also be found as Libretro core (for RetroArch).
While Nestopia holds up a good reputation in regards to its age, these days we find emulators that have higher accuracy and a friendlier interface, like Mesen.
The SNES Emulator was designed to be used with several software applications that are made for MS-DOS that allowed us to program games for the Super NES, compile them, upload them to the Emulator SE and run the game.
It was followed by the PC to monitor the status of the game, and be used for debugging. There is no public availability of any copy of the software to drive the Emulator SE.
There is also powering the unit that illuminates the front light in red, and the unit outputs a black NTSC video signal and an audio signal without the software.
The exact production of the number of units is still unknown. The five units are still present at the hands of the collectors and there is also an existence of another five units.
Final Words
That brings us to the end of our list of the best SNES emulators available. SNES emulators are available for a variety of platforms including Windows, Android as well as iOS.
These SNES emulators can come in real handy in playing those old-fashioned 90s decades games like Super Mario or Donkey Kong, which otherwise can be an almost impossible task, considering the fact that the SNES games have all been way behind times, and are hence not available.
And even if they are available, finding a suitable platform for making these run properly can be very difficult. SNES emulators are a perfect solution for such cases.
Above we have mentioned the best choices you can make while choosing a SNES emulator to play one of those old classic games.
That being said, the world of video games is ever-transforming and highly dynamic. There are constant new releases and updates of various genres of games across the world.
An emulator is an extremely useful or handy device to enjoy most of these since a huge portion of the games on Super Nintendo or SNES, are not available worldwide and in several major locations.
Some are even not translated into English, while some others are not ld in the United States.
Even if you get to have a copy of a certain game, a lack of proper and efficient equipment leads to the malfunctioning of the game, where it may not run properly.
Emulators or SNES emulators are the perfect options for such instances. If you have been looking for ways to enjoy your favorite classic SNES game, these best SNES emulators available in the market can be the ideal solution for you and might just be the thing you were looking for!
So what are you waiting for?
Go ahead, and get on gaming, that favorite old classic SNES game, that you might have played in your childhood or teenage years.
