Topic: SNES Mini

I have one now.

It's pretty cool!

Walmart appears to be stocking stores, but you might want to call first. I was able to find a console in my local store, they had about six to eight of them in the cabinet for regular price, not those consoles Walmart sell online through third parties for a higher price. I was not actively looking for one; I just happen to be grocery shopping at Walmart and decided to check out the video games before I leave. Also, the customer service in the electronics department is absolute crap; making me wait 45 min. for an employee to open the cabinet, sheesh!

Just ordered one for myself from the UK store! Looking forward to having a sweet little replica of the very first console that I ever played - and having a wonderful nostalgia trip playing the very first game I ever played (Super Mario Kart) and (almost) all of the other gaming wonders from my childhood!

Make a GBA Classic next please Nintendo! (..I still have my original GameBoy and N64 - so no rush on those! )

EDIT: Received it today - HUGE smile on my face! ..oh man it's so, so cool!

Decided to make getting one of these top of my B'Day wishlist in Autumn. Never kept my SNES and regret selling it ever since. This is a convenient and cool way to fire up the nostalgia fibres.

I'd held off until now due to questioning whether I 'needed' it due to having both a Rasberry Pi (with RetroPie installed) and a (soft) Modded Wii on which I can already play SNES games.

However, having seen a few videos of the machine and speaking with some other folk on here I like the look of the system, the controllers and the UI etc.

Just have a few questions: due to practicality I may need to invest in a wireless control option as well as wired extension leads for the controllers. Can I ask if anyone has used wireless controllers with the SNES Mini and if there is any input lag? apologies if this has already been answered in this thread, I'm still reading through the older posts

Also, about adding extra games. How many extra games can the internal memory of the SNES Mini hold roughly? I know you can add extra storage via some form of workaround but I'm happy to 'limit' the amount of extra games I add by sticking to the available system memory. As undoubtedly cool as it would be to have every single SNES released game on this little console, reality is outside of admiring the titles on the menu, I'd never have time to play the vast majority of them. So working within the limits of the storage in-built, how many games have people managed to add?

Thinking maybe a Top 50 or Top 100 Snes games collection might be super-cool to have on the little SNES Mini and more manageable in terms of putting some time into the games for the lifetime I have it.

Ha! Ha! Now I'm thinking of what 79 other games I would pick to add to the 21 packed in titles. Be a fun little poll to do, lol!

Finally, can I ask if the borders/bezels, screen filters, save states that the SNES Mini has built in, work fully with any added games?

@Lroy the filters, saveatates, rewind feature and backgrounds all work with games added via hakchi2.
Recommendations for your added games: TMNTIV Turtles in Time, Killer Instinct, DKC2, DKC3, Knights of the Round, Carrier Aces, Wings 2, Zombies ate my Neighbors, Super Mario All Stars, STG Strike Gunner, EVO Search for Eden, Chrono Trigger, Final Fight Guy, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, Arkanoid Doh it Again, Bustamove, Pilotwings, Castlevania Dracula X, Megaman 7, X2, X3, NBA Jam, Doom, Pocky and Rocky, Pocky and Rocky 2, Harvest Moon, Sim City, T2 Arcade Game, Revolution X, Super Battleship, Desert Strike, Mortal Kombat, 2, 3, Super Battleship, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. what I added to mine at least

@Lroy I haven't tried the SNES Classic with anything other than the bundled controllers, so can't offer any insight into input lag etc - but I have done a little research on adding games etc...

Apparently you can install up to 300mb of games on the system (even remove the pre-installed ones if you wish) so you should be able to fit a good 100-or-so (depending on file sizes) to the console - the popular online 'hack' (easily found on Google) will automatically convert your roms in to the same file type as the games on the system, allowing for full functionality as I understand it (save states, filters, modes, 1P/2P labelling, box art icons etc) ..I'll probably give it a go in the next couple of days (hoping to add some of my childhood faves on to the system!) - I'll let you know how I get on

@NaviAndMii Just something to bear in mind. I was watching a YouTube video of someone who had added games to their SNES Mini. They had about 160 games and noticed that this then caused his device to crash when trying to use save states for some games.

He then removed about 40-odd games and realised he now had a single save state working for each game. Cut to the chase, be mindful of how many games you install as each game technically needs 4 save state slots to use and these can be as big as 2mb each. So that's 8mb before you even factor in the size of the game Rom file size.

I'm not sure if an 'optimum' number of games has been hit upon to safely keep you within range of having all four states still will enough space to work - very, very rough guess work maybe 50?

I think you have like 300mb to play with for additional games and their accompanying save slot requirements.

Anyway, let me know how you get on. There seems to be three variants of the software needed for the 'hack'. Be cool to exchange notes on the process and maybe compare our list of 50 games/100 we intend to install, lol!

EDIT: Interesting to note, it seems the NES Mini or adding NES games isn't as 'afflicted' in this way as the game sizes and the Save states take up far less space. So you could in theory have an NES Mini with well over a 100 games and the save state slots would all still have enough space.

Btw: you can pre-order the NES mini for 69.99 and the controller for 12.99 on amazon.de

@Lroy Good info We didn't really have all that many games when we were kids, so I was just thinking of adding the ones I can remember from my youth (at least to begin with) ..my brother had a SNES which came bundled with Super Mario All Stars, so I was thinking of adding that - and I have fond memories of playing (off the top of my head) Harvest Moon, Sim City 2000, Aladdin, Lion King, California Games, Paperboy and Lemmings too, so I'll probably look to put those on it as well (purely out of nostalgia!) - then perhaps padding it out with a few other classics of the era (eg. I've always heard good things about Chrono Trigger, so I'd be keen to give that a go - and others of that kind of calibre )

Overall, I feel that the included of selection of games has been well curated - there's a nice variety there, with most bases covered (RPG's, platformers, racers, metroidvania's etc) - but if I could perhaps plug the gaps and trigger a few old memories by (easily) adding a handful of games to it, it'll just make it even better! (..I'd definitely welcome any suggestions/recommendations for other 'must play' games of the era too - particularly if they're a bit different to what's already included )

What are people's opinions on the best image setting (or how to achieve the best image quality) to use with the Snes Mini: 4:3 or Pixel Perfect or CRT? Also, curious as to your own set-ups. e.g. are you connecting yours to the big LCD telly in the front room? Or using a smaller screen elsewhere in the house? Just toying with ideas of how I envisage using my own Snes Mini when I get it. Cheers!

@Lroy I play 4:3 when I have it hooked up to the main 65in TV to show off to my wife and friends. Its normally in my mancave with a 32in LCD on CRT filter when its just me nostalgically playing.

To those who have added games, I had a couple of questions. I have a Macbook, as opposed a PC. I know that it can be done, but have any of you used a Macbook to do it? If so, how much of a challenge was it for you? I tried to do it, a couple of weeks ago (with a tutorial), and I must have missed a step.

I don't know about the whole Mac thing in general, since I have a PC...I figured it would be the same...?

Just another quick query: how are people powering the Snes Mini Classic? Noticed Nintendo are doing their usual recent dumb move of NOT including a plug for European Snes Mini consoles. Are you plugging the USB lead straight into your TV? Any issues with power to the unit via this method? Or is it a case of paying the £10.99 and getting Nintendo's USB Power Plug thingy from their website?

Back to the 'adding games' bit. Have folks added NES games too as I have read the SNES Mini is actually a little better at emulation level than the NES Mini. So thinking instead of getting separate Mini NES it might just be 'better' gameplay wise to add any NES games I want to play to this SNES Mini. For those that have done this, what have you found the sweet spot to be storage wise. Say 40 Snes/20 NES? Again, my query relates back to my previous post regarding reports that the SNES Mini Classic runs into problems if too many games are added as the paltry 300mb you have to play with are quickly eaten into by the required save state space for each added game.

@Lroy TV. No issues.

@gcunit What TV you got out of interest? I'm likely to use a Sony Bravia LCD. Or does any TV less than say 5/6 years old fair a decent chance of having no issues powering the device? Also how warm does the SNES Mini get? Presumably it doesn't have a fan inside? Just curious as my Rasberry Pi housed inside a little case without a fan gets really quite hot from couple of hours use.

@Lroy I use a Logik TV from Currys. But I'd be confident that any TV on the market with a USB port will power it. I dunno about heat, never touched it during use, and my mini hasn't had much playtime yet.

@gcunit Cool, look forward to hearing more about your 'career' on another thread here we frequent 😉 I'm up to 140hrs played. Still feel as though I have barely touched the game. Only learnt one skill move in all those hours, lol!

For those interested, some additional info:

The unit can either be powered by your TV, provided you have a USB port on there, or by simply adding a plug to it, so you can stick it into a wall socket, which is actually what I did.

As for the whole "how many games can I add" thing: besides the 21 already on there, you could easily make it a round 180 without worries about save slots or having enough space left. The latest hakchi2 has an extra function that clears up some more space and besides that, not all games need save slots, seeing as some are arcade games/games you only play in short bursts anyways, so ONLY if you want to exclusively install games that need save slots, would you need to take the extra 8MB per game into account, because it is indeed 2MB per save slot.

Concerning the controllers: I use extension cables for the controllers myself, and these can be bought from just about any web shop or game store. I have no idea about wireless controllers, but I'm not interested in them, because I want the experience to be as authentic as possible, so no wireless for me. And the hack also contains a default button combo to reset the console, so no need to worry about having to "walk over to the console" to reset it...

As for the filter: my favorite, even on the living room TV (42" Full HD plasma), is the one with the scanlines.

In my opinion, one of the best and easiest to follow tutorials, is done by 8 bit Flashback. He also shows how to install RetroArch, which will allow you to have more compatibility with ROMs that usually wouldn't work because they are either incompatible with the built-in emulator or because they are from another region, and it also allows you to install a host of other emulators, such as NES, Sega 8 and 16 bit, Game Boy and so on.

And you can even choose remove all of the original games, since the hack makes a backup of them on your PC, so you can either keep them save there or put them on a USB stick. I personally kept the originals on there and simply added others, but some of you might not like some of the original games, so if you want to, you can choose to remove either some or all of the originals and replace them with your own favorites.

I also haven't had any game crash on me yet, except for some games not working initially, which brings up an error screen, but after I installed RetroArch and made that the default SNES emulator for those games that didn't work with the standard, built-in emulator, I got all of them to work perfectly in the end. And everything is included: box art, save states, different kinds of menus, all selectable from the menu of the hack program.

I've done the hack several times now, each time either adding/exchanging games or features, and it still works like a charm, so if you follow these tutorials to the letter, then literally nothing can go wrong.

DEMO Add 200 + games SUPER EASY! to Super Nintendo Classic Edition!

Install RetroArch on your Super Nintendo Classic Edition

He even has a video that shows him adding 300 games on a stock system without extra USB dongle:
Add 300+ Games NOW! To your Super Nintendo Classic Edition But I wouldn't recommend it, but it is interesting nonetheless, and in all of his videos, he gives lots of tips and advice. Also, be sure to check the details underneath the videos on their YouTube page, for up to date versions of the hakchi2 and RetroArch programs, and even in the comments sections underneath the videos, there's more than enough good info to find.

[removed]

As for heat coming from the system itself: I've played it for hours on end several times and it never got excessively hot. Don't know how they did that, but apparently they either isolated it well enough, or it has some kind of passive heat dissipation built-in.

Well, that's all for now. Just reply to my post if any of you have any other questions.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the detailed information/links and sharing your own experiences with the SNES Mini Classic 👍