Your NES classic can run the SNES Mini games, and (probably) vice versa
The SNES Mini is not officially out yet, but multiple people, including hackers, have managed to get their hands on Nintendo’s hot device (or, in some cases, its firmware) ahead of time.
The most exciting discovery so far is that the hardware of the SNES Mini is very, very close to that of the NES Mini. As a matter of fact, except for a few differences, they run on identical hardware.
Minor updates to the popular NES Mini hacking tool hackchi2 have allowed hacker madmonkey1907 to run the SNES Mini firmware on a NES Mini. (Update: madmonkey1907 has stated he did not use Hackchi2 to do this.)
You read that right, it is possible to run those SNES games and the full SNES Mini firmware on your existing NES Mini. And it should be pretty much doable now, assuming you know where to get the SNES Mini dump (which we won’t link to here for obvious reasons).
There is no reason to believe the opposite wouldn’t be doable (running the NES Mini firmware and games on an SNES Mini), although the few public attempts to do it so far have failed. Obviously, with so few people who actually have the hardware in their hands, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before this becomes possible.
In general I feel this is great news, simply because Nintendo have made these devices pretty hard to acquire. So those of us who did not manage to get a NES Classic (or conversely those who could not grab an SNES but already have the NES classic), will have opportunities to play the games from the other console if they want to.
At a personal level, I’m excited with the idea of buying a Mini Super Famicom here in Japan, and put the US or EU rom onto it. Not that I don’t like the idea of playing the games in Japanese, but the list of EU/US games appeal more to my own nostalgia.
ClusterM is already busy working on hackchi2 to ensure it will work for SNES Mini users as soon as possible. With a large community from the NES classic being able to jump from day 1 into the internals of a very similar device, there’s no question that modding the SNES mini will be doable very early. Some people are already talking of the possibility to dual boot the two firmwares on a single device, and more exciting mods.
Last but not least, ClusterM revealed that Nintendo have left a nice message for tinkerers inside the SNES classic. What a nice gesture!
Enjoy this Mini,
Disconnect from the present, and
Go back to the nineties.
Of course, for many of us, the biggest challenge will be to actually find a place that sells the SNES Mini…
For those wanting to know more on the progress of SNES Mini hacking, this thread on reddit has been pretty good on details.
Doesn’t the NES have less buttons, though? Would you be able to play SNES games with that controller?
Good question
This is why you use the Wii Classic Controller. That’s what I use with Retroarch on my NES Classic.
Here’s a list of compatible controllers for the NES classic:
http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17341/p/966
I’d be surprised if there wasn’t something similar for the snes as these all have the right amount of buttons.
the controller port appears to be the same so you could get your hands on a SNES mini controller, official or 3rd party, and play on the NES mini
Or a Wii classic/pro controller
You can just use a Wii Classic controller.
The NES and SNES Minis use the port on the bottom of a Wii Remote to connect their controllers; you should be able to use any Wii Classic Controller with either system, as well as use the Minis’ controllers on a Wii.
My SNES mini has been marked posted with tracking from EBgames (Australian games too subsidiary)
Nice and all but…I still fail to see which market these devices are aimed to.
Running emulators even on the go have never been easier, and cheaper, than today.
Considering the popularity of mini-nes, are retrogamers just collection-freaks today ? (oh god, I almost forget about amiibos…)
People who want smaller collectible versions of old and good Nintendo consoles from the 8bit and 16bit era and have the money and patience to find and buy one.
I would be all over it if they at least tried to emulate real hardware (actual hardware or at least an FPGA of some kind. These are not ” good Nintendo consoles ” they are overpriced raspberry PI’s.
IIRC one of the original targets was casuals who were either buying gifts for others or wanted some nostalgia.
Remember, people still buy the atgames systems despite their notoriously bad emulation.
Thanks.
So in a nutshell, collectors and gifts.
I wonder what would become of Nintendo without the nostalgia bait.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to enjoy their first party games but, let’s face it, they milk their franchises till they run dry, wait a few years, rince and repeat (metroid, are you there ?).
I know i could download the roms for “free”, but i want to pay Nintendo for making great Games and for the joy i had.
After the NES Classic was hacked and dumped I expected Nintendo to lock down any successor a lot more. But it almost sounds like Nintendo doesn’t mind people hacking these devices. Are they just happy to be making money from IP that is now essentially Public Domain? (just look at how easy it is to find massive dumps of console games from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s)
Call me cynical but that screenshot of that message could SO easily be faked. Cool if it is real though
I thought you moved to the US. Or was it the other way around?
I moved back
I didn’t know I used hakchi2
Well, now you know.
Seriously though, I’m more than happy to correct the mistake and add some details in the article, would you mind providing details?
This is pretty cool information to have and thank you Wololo.
I still wouldn’t trade my PSTV-w/ext.hdd/dualshock4 for either or both of those fine toys.
Hard to beat PSTV, don’t knock it if you’ve never seen/tried it.
PSTV is utter *** in my opinion, i gave mine away to my friend, it not even worth charging for it. Utter trash plastic box (IMO)
Whatever. Haha.
I highly doubt you even had Henkaku on it.
Talk is cheap. I smell fear and Nintendo fanboy-ism.
The Vita scene is alive and well. I highly expect it to remain that way after the hype of these linux based emulators w/Nintendo seal has long passed too.
Enso was on it actually with 32gig using sd2vita. I am not a fanboy of Nintendo. Good for you for loving the Vita….this doesn’t mean I have to like it aswellb……I smell a butthurt vita fanboy
thats my vita i ment. the pstv has enso and obviously usb mass storage…..anyways doesnt matter, I would rather play proper console games on my tv instead of badly upscaled jagged vita games on it
Whatever.
Throw yourself in the dumpster while you’re at it.
How about you go and try kill yourself to get yourself off the net since can’t handle other people having a different opinion
What a good memorize since I was teenager. Now, we have NES Classic Mini (Europe) and now we are waiting for SNES Classic Mini (Europe) to ship it to us between Oct 10-13. No, we will not sell them ever and never will. Cherish and collector! 😀 Can’t wait!