Topic: The Super FX

Yes, countless people have asked for them on VC, and many said Nintendo just doesn't want to support it.
But I have to wonder if many people remember Nintendo didn't make the Super FX chip, though it was certainly popularized by Nintendo games.
Argonaut made the chip. Could there be some sort of legal problem? It seems Argonaut's game development has been dead for years, though there spin-off company ARM is still in business (making the CPUs for the DS, among others).

I doubt that's the problem considering Nintendo still owned the tech (I think so anyway)

I don't think the Super FX Chip is the issue. Since VC games aren't actual cartridges, Nintendo could easily work around the FX Chip. I'm not an expert, but I assume there wouldn't be any legal trouble as long as it wasn't an actual chip.

FX Chip games tend to be poorly emulated. Thats likely the reason.

The reason Super FX isn't emulated for VC is pure laziness. That is all.

Very good point. Sadly, now that I think about it, Nintendo is probably too wrapped up in the Wii U and 3DS to even put forth the effort to emulate the FX Chip. Still, it could happen at some point. But if they do it, they better not pull some stunt where you can only download the games with a Wii U. There's no excuse for that.

I'm pretty sure there's some Snes game on VC that uses the FX chip. I think it's Super Mario kart or Kirby's Dream land 3. I'm not sure it was super FX but those games used special chips of some kind. Mario RPG and Kirby's Superstar also had special chips.

Neither one of them use the Super FX chip. Super Mario Kart uses the DSP-1 chip while Dreamland 3 uses the SA-1 chip.

Ah that's right my mistake. Still if those chips could be emulated why not super FX?

Because Nintendo doesn't feel like putting in any effort into emulating them. Or at least that's all I can think of.

Yes it's just laziness - nothing more. My now ancient phone runs StarWing perfectly so a Wii is going to have no trouble.

As for the FX Chip itself - it's legal to emulate any hardware, which is why console emulation of any machine is legal but the software is not. If they wanted Sony could emulate the FX chip but it's be pointless as they wouldn't be allowed to get StarWing to run on it.

I want to clarify my last post as it does sound overly harsh when I reread it.

The Wii lacking Super FX emulation IS laziness, but it is ALSO most likely due to the fact that it wouldn't be cost effective for Nintendo to spend the time and effort to get the handful of SFX titles to work properly on the Wii. I imagine the vast majority of Wii Shop customers aren't hardcore into VC since Nintendo has moved away from releasing lots of VC with the launch of WiiWare.

Some might ask, how do I know it is pure laziness on Nintendo's part...well, there are already released emulators capable of running SFX games perfectly on the Wii available through unofficial channels. I've seen videos of it being done.