Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Super Famicom — The Japanese *Super Famicom* with a single controller. The PAL version of the SNES used a very similar design.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly called "SNES", "Super NES" or "Super Nintendo", is a 16-bit home video game system that was released by Nintendo in North America on August 23, 1991 and in Europe on July 3, 1992. Its original version is the Super Family Computer, known as "SFC" or "Super Famicom", released in Japan on November 21, 1990.

Features[]

SNES-USA — The original model of the North American *Super NES* with its single controller, which sports a boxy design unlike the Japanese/European version.

The Super Famicom/SNES is claimed as a revolutionary system at its time due to its significant leap of higher quality games, new ways of graphical design, and overall gameplay. It has a rival by Sega called the Mega Drive/Genesis, released in 1988 (Japan)/1989 (U.S.), which competition proved to be especially fierce in North America.

The Super Famicom/SNES is the successor for the Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System, respectively, released in 1983 (Japan) and 1985 (U.S.). Just like the previous system, it uses ROM cartridges^[1] and wired controllers^[2] to play games. However, the console does not have backwards compatibility^[3]; It is not able to run Famicom/NES games, respectively, without the use of unofficial third-party adapters.

Nintendo also used region lockout^[4], to prevent game cartridges from outside regions to work in a current region system, by employing hardware and physical incompatibilities. However, these incompatibilities could be circumvented by adapters and modifications^[5] to the consoles.

The console's successor is the Nintendo 64, released in 1996.