The Inevitable SNES Classic Mini Hack Is Well Underway

Of course. It's almost virtually the same as the NES mini.

I bought one to save as is, and one to hack.

Yes, I would love to add more games, just like my NES mini. I feel like Nintendo wants this to happen, otherwise they'd put better copyright protection or a smaller hard drive on it. Means more sales for them and less $ to share with 3rd parties.

Assuming it is safe to do so, I will hack the SNES mini. There are loads of games they missed out. But only when it is 100%, I dont have the funds to buy a new one should it mess up!

Nintendo is so frustrating at times. Why wouldn't they just release this system, but allow for future downloads of other SNES games? I'd pay $10 for DK2.

This is by far the best way to play SNES games (aside from original hardware), but Nintendo leaves its fans with no "legal" way to do it.

I wonder just how many roms we'll be able to add (theoretically). 🤔

I understand why there is no official means of adding more games - these are designed as low cost purchases, and an eShop service would have added unnecessarily to costs.
It's nice that further games may be added as the list of games has some omissions. However, in reality I don't think I will need to do this - it would be much more helpful if some wizard could find a way of adding more time to my life as I don't really have the spare time for all these games.

I know I'm strictly against hacking but does this really harm anyone? It's not like Nintendo can make any more money on the system then they already have. It would be different if they released another snes mini months from now with different games.

I'm not good at these kinda things nor do I have a computer to handle this so I'm good with the 21 games but can't frown on those that do add games as it seems like it's only Nintendo's fault.

@cowzRgreat
This is exactly why most of the world has been ok with emulation. I think plenty of people would be willing to pay money for classic titles, if they were available in high quality formats on a high quality service and at the right price. But Nintendo's only efforts so far (the lacklustre Virtual Console incarnations, and these plastic mini-toys) are disappointing.

I'm already polishing my list of games to add. Trying to keep it short so games don't get lost in the list, but I think it's gonna be somewhere around 60 - 80 games.

The games that are not in there are basically inexploited by Nintendo. I don't see no arm in playing them ! (tbh I'd be playing roms on PC if I couldn't add them on the mini)

Hopefully I'll be able to find a really simple way to add a shortcut command to return to the Home menu.

@Spoony_Tech
No one is getting harmed financially here IMO, so who cares. Btw, why are you "strictly against hacking"? Shouldn't you be judging on a case by case basis? Hacking is a pretty broad term, and doesn't always imply malicious things.

@delt75

That’s me. I have a US one and a European one on the way. I might try for a Japanese one just for the box art, but I’m in no dire need. Just gotta decide which one I wanna hack and which one I dont

And again, I really don't think having an "eShop" on the SNES Mini would be the right way to go; it totally defeats the simplistic, no-fuss, self-contained nature of going for this kind of retro system in the first place. What I might have done if I were Nintendo would be to make the cartridge slot actually work and allow consumers to insert additional mini carts in the future that would contain new 20-ish game compilations containing some more of the best SNES games. This would solve the problem of certain games not being on there from the get-go while still being in-keeping with what the SNES Mini is supposed to be in the first place, which is a system that avoids all the hassles, convolution, and future firmware/software deprecation issues of modern game consoles (the whole online accounts, digital software that's sort of time limited, credit cards required, navigating clumsy online stores, etc). That I would have loved to have seen. And, it technically would have allowed developers to release new SNES games for the system in 2017 and beyond too if they really wanted, which could have been very cool indeed.

I would do this, but I think I would only really want to add Chrono Trigger, Zombies Ate My Neighbors and maybe Aladdin. Maybe Turtles In Time too. Not enough to bother with it.

I think Nintendo probably did consider adding some kind of internet/eshop connectivity to these little systems, but it would have driven the price up, and they know average consumers would be content with what they gave them out of the box. I'm happy with the selection they've given us, so I can live with a few games being omitted,

I think "virgin" classic systems will be worth more in the long run to collectors.

@Gamecubed
I think Nintendo has always seen this as a collectible (which it is), rather than a gaming platform (which indeed it isn't). The lack of available units sort of confirms that I think.

@Tibob yeah, I probably should get on that myself. There are the obvious ones (DKC 2 and 3, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario All-Stars, TMNT Turtles in Time, Mega Man X2 and X3 - if the emulator can handle it) I’m gonna try to keep mine around 70-80 as well. Should be more than enough for the plug and play set up

Not having Chrono Trigger on this thing is a huge letdown (AND Kirby 3 IMHO.) That being, said I still love it to pieces!

Temptation, Darling !
Wear your Horse Glasses against that Temptation.
Keep stay away from illegal hacking.

I always wondered why Nintendo didnt put an eShop built into both this one and the NES mini, i think they missed a massive trick there. Then they would not have so much grief about Virtual Console because they could just say, just buy the console to run them

I will never understand hacking and potentially bricking these collectible consoles. If you want to play a ROM just emulate it on your computer and if the controller is a big deal to you buy an adapter...

@Alikan Yes, I'm sure Nintendo is jumping for joy over the idea of people adding games to their consoles via hacking.

Seems Nintendo did and didn't do something for security. Not wanting to cost them a penny more than it was already nothing on hardware. Instead the convert the header or file format of the ROMS on deck and therefore you can't just hakchi2 straight copied games off the internet and make it work. Obviously it'll get figured out if it's a day, week or maybe a month as I doubt Nintendo put a lot of thought into it either.

@gblock
I've been watching "Snes drunk" videos, here's what I have collected :

• Sports games :

Extra Innings
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
Tecmo Superbowl (3?)
Sterling Sharp NTM
Hit The Ice
NHL 96
Super Tennis
NBA Jam TE
NBA Give 'n Go
Kirby's dream course
Irem Skins Game

• Puzzle games :

Kirby's avalanche
Tetris & Dr.Mario
Hebereke Popoitto
Tetris Attack
On the ball
Yoshi's Cookie
Columns
Pac Attack
Tetris Battle Gaiden
Wario's Woods
Q*Bert
Uniracer
Super Pang
Bomberman

• Others :

Addams family values
Puggzley's Scavenger Hunt
True Lies
Indiana Jones' greatest adventures
Star Wars (trilogy)
Jurassic Park
Zombies ate my neighbors
Battletoads / DD
Sunset Riders
Seiken Densetsu 3
Chrono Trigger

• About all Disney games

@Fandabidozi That would depend on two things: the size of the ROMs (SNES ROMs vary between 1 - 3 MB) and how big the internal memory is.

In the NES Mini, there was 300MB freely available to put games on, and that could hold 500 to 1000 games, but that is also because NES games are much smaller.

With SNES games, you could probably add around a 100 more, on top of the 21 already installed. That is, assuming that the storage space inside the SNES Mini is the same as in the NES Mini, and chances are that it is, since they didn't need that much more space for the official batch of games and they used the same board as well.

Guess we'll find out the actual numbers soon enough, once the hack is done...

@marnelljm
Isn't it very convenient to have all your games in one tiny console ? Okay the risk is a little scary, but the reward very tempting !

Good.

Don't get me wrong, I love most of the games the SNES Classic has, but there are definitely a few I want that are missing.

Can't wait. Looking forward to adding Seiken Densetsu 3, Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers, Actraiser, and Treasure Hunter G.

@Tibob

Oh NBA Jam 2K17 (updates roster hack of Tournament Edition) is definitely going on

Once I actually sit down and look at the game list, it’ll be easy for me to narrow down

Nintendo were clearly a bit snookered with this dilemma - eshop too expensive to add and if you include an SD card reader where do the ROMs come from - so leaving the system hackable to those who want to is a reasonable compromise.

Does Chrono Trigger's special sound chip emulation work? Because, if not, putting Chrono Trigger on there is not worth it. Note Nintendo put special software modules into this thing for all the special chips in the various games, and since Chrono Trigger happens to also have a special chip that they probably didn't include a module for... yeah, it's probably not much better than the broken experience you would get playing it on any other emulator (I have still never seen an emulator that could run Chrono Trigger 1:1).

I plan on hacking it right away...if I can ever get one.

Nintendo didn't even bother to put any security measures.

I will patiently wait to see what cam be done! Although I already own the original, 21 games is too skimpy. Here's hoping they can figure out how to get the whole SNES library in there for starters! 👍👍

@ThanosReXXX
Awesome! Thats better than I thought it would be.
I'm making a list thats at 150 games atm. Decisions, decisions.
There's also in game saves and Mini saves to take into account.

Hopefully they'll add a button combination to return to the menu with the controller.

@Fandabidozi I'm not sure, but I think saves are stored somewhere else: if I understood the NES hack videos correctly, then truly ALL of the 300MB is available for ROMs.

@Fandabidozi If the storage capacity is indeed the same as in the NES Mini, adding 150 games is probably going to be a serious stretch, though, since that would likely add up to more than 300MB.

You'd better slim down that list to a 100 games max. Then at least you'll be sure that they'll fit.

Even though the package is great value there are so many essential games that are missing. There are three solution that Nintendo could have implemented:

a) physical add-on with more games (like a small cartridge),
b) include more SNES games in the hardware, even if it slightly increases the cost because of third-party licenses or
c) build in a cheap WiFi chip or Ethernet port to connect to an existent eShop (3DS/Wii U/Switch) to download more games without relying on exclusive servers.

But the only solution seems to be:
d) wait until somebody (a hacker) teaches you how to hack your SNES Classic.

I don't want to hack mine but I wish Nintendo had put the ability to download new games to it. It should have had a Virtual Console for just SNES games on it, and the NES Classic should have had a VC for just NES games. I think that would be an awesome way of extending the life of the systems and it would allow them a new spin on the Virtual Console service.

Excellent. The collection isn't complete without Donkey Kong Country 2 and Tetris Attack

Nintendo is well aware of the nature of ROMs and emulation of their classic games. It's been around for 20+ years now. I think at the end of the day, instead of adding to the cost of the device by allowing cartridges or online downloads to them, both Classics were devised to tickle the nostalgia bone of older gamers as well as those of collectors and the "tech dumb" casual market.

All they really cared about was getting your $60-$80 up front and then what you did with the device afterward was your choice. They knew they weren't going to be able to stop hackers very easily from eventually loading every NES/SNES ROM onto the device even with firmware updates, so all they wanted was the initial money for the keys and people could use the device for target practice afterward for all they really care.

@XerBlade Haven't you heard of the emulator BSNES/Higan?!

@Tibob:
@Incognito_D:

Tetris Attack is available on the Japanese Mini, as Panel De Pon, that was altered to an extent, & become TA here in the "West". Nintendo gave Japan our version of the game, via their Satelaview SNes add-on, call it "Yoshi's De Pon", or something similar. Tetris Attack became Pokemon Puzzle League(N64), then the series was continued on Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, & the DSi Shop, all without any series theme. The Tetris co. has since stated that they regret allowing Nintendo to use the Tetris name on the game, since it has little to do with Tetris. Just a little history.

@Kalmaro coulda used a smaller hard drive and nipped the problem in the bud if they cared. Not saying they're enthusiastic about it, but they did nothing to prevent it.

I just "hack" my retro consoles with RGB/VGA or YPbPr connections... the results are stellar.

https://youtu.be/bH_rGyTY57g

@delt75 I'm thinking of doing the same, in case I do happen to brick mine, which I have heard tends to happen.

The 21 games that come with are fantastic, but they are seriously missing some greats like Chrono Trigger, Turtles in Time, the last 2 DK Country games, a sports game like NBA Jam or perhaps Tecmo Bowl, Earthworm Jim, and Actraiser, just to name a handful.

And any of these could have replaced Kirby's Dream Course or Supee Ghouls and Ghosts and I don't think anyone would have minded.

@Mattiac Yes, but I also have played the real Chrono Trigger something like a billion and a half times, so even if it's a slight bit off from 1:1, even if the casual player won't notice it, I definitely will.

I dunno how quick I'd be to hack one. I wonder if each game has its own emulator, like how I understand the Wii/3DS/WiiU VC was done. Furthermore, the emulators are what - high, or low-level? I'm assuming high, since, in theory, using low-level emulators would be more resource-intensive, specifically storage capacity.

I don't like to hack consoles. Exception being Gameshark on N64, & even then, I almost lost my console by bricking it from normal boot-up/hard power-on.

@Anti-Matter
I'm with you, bro.

@Capt_N They regret cause not only was it a misuse of Tetris but that the creator receive nothing from the game. The name was only use to market but all contents belong to Nintendo. Honestly though Nintendo could had simply released the game without calling it Tetris Attack and it would still sell, it could easily had been called Yoshi's Panel and become a sequel to Yoshi's Egg (called Yoshi for the NES and Game Boy) and Yoshi's Cookie, two Yoshi puzzle games that came before this.

If anyone is to blame, it's Square Enix, for being so adamant in their IP licensing fee bull crap.

Good news. I bought a modded NES Classic earlier in the year. It has 91 games. While this and my Switch have given me hours of good times, I don't have the money or the time for another system.

But IF I were interested in a SNES Classic, I would wait for the entire gaming library to be available. Costly if you can't mod it yourself, but at least you can play any game at any time instead of just 21.

As someone who didn't see any reason on that games list to buy the thing, I think it's slightly cooler now. But I still have a working SNES and if I wanted to go ROM wild, I could just set up a Pi. Still, this is a good enough option if you don't want to fuss with Pi and you don't want to pay collector's premiums for SNES games.

It's also adorable, so there's that too.

Thank you NintendoLife, for informing me about the existence of a process to hack a SNES Mini, which I had no idea about before. Now I will proceed to do my own research and do exactly that which you all advocate against, thanks to the information relayed. My actions have changed because you reported on this issue. (J/K!)

I do think this is good to balance out the lineup, honestly. Having both Super Castlevania IV and Super Ghouls N' Ghosts was redundant, one of them should have been a Quintet title (probably Actraiser) or even SimCity (in case anyone didn't know, Nintendo Power actually rated it higher than Super Mario World back in the day...) Contra III should have been replaced with one of the many Shmup titles of the time, and Kirby's Dream Course maybe should have been replaced with a sports or puzzle title. Killer Instinct instead of Street Fighter II Turbo would have been interesting, but Rare probably prevents that now... In any case, there's 9 platformers in there. I realize it was an iconic genre for the 4th console generation, but taking out other influential genres seems unfair.

@electrolite77 I.E. Virtual Console is going to die... 💀⌛ 😭

@Nookingtons Happened to plenty of people with the NES Classic and they bricked it. How about you do some research buddy.

Will get this for the coolness factor....will stick to my Wii for all my emulation needs. Why bother spending 80 for 23 games when you can spend a little over 50 buying a wii and sd card and have THOUSANDS?

Did Nintendo leave a message inside the system again like the NES Mini? Like maybe a "please consider buying from the Virtual Console" with the release date of the Switch VC? XD

Walked past CEX today- already £150 for a SNES mini.

They retained the UI! I didn't investigate thoroughly into NES Mini hacks, but from what I recall the hack available did not utilize the UI Nintendo developed. I was planning on trying my hand at this very thing after I receive mine. Good to know it'll be available in time. My delivery is due Thursday, so I'm hoping progress is made quickly!

@XerBlade ChronoTrigger does not have any special hardware onboard (no "special audio chip"), all the audio is done with the SNES' stock audio hardware.

There are four chips on the Chrono Trigger PCB: a mask rom chip, a 64 kilobit SRAM chip, a memory address decoder chip, and a CIC (security) chip. None of these do anything for audio.

Yes,I am satisfied with the 21 games and no I don't want to illegally download more.

"we don't advocate the use of unofficial ROMs for the system"

Then why post an article promoting it any chance you get?

21 games wasn’t enough. They’re all great games, but as this was the main system of my childhood, I instantly feel the void of games like ActRaiser, SimCity, PilotWings, Final Fight, Final Fantasy 2, Chrono Trigger, Demon’s Crest, Gradius 3, Castlevania Dracula X, more Mega Man X and Donkey Kong Country, SNES Wario’s Woods... it should at least have had 10 more games. However, the ones they chose were all great, and its nice to finally play the real Starfox 2... and die miserably on hard mode. Lol

An extra nine games to "complete" it? Easy!

Sim City, Harvest Moon, Tetris Attack, Super Mario All Stars, Kirby's Avalanche, E.V.O.: Search for Eden, Final Fantasy 2... Uh... Maybe DKC2?... And... That Chrono Trigger everyone talks about. There.

I absolutely love my SNES mini, but just like the NES mini a fair few games I will likely never play. (Kirby looking at you) So I'm quite happy with what's on there, as is. Although no Stunt Race FX is unforgivable. 😑😠😜

Maybe one day after I get bored with the included games I plan on actually playing (probably around half the list) I'll add some of the biggest omissions like CT, DKC2&3 and FFIV/V

I guess I'll add Super Star Wars.

As is, the library is very good, but it just needs a crowning jewel like Chrono Trigger, the cherry on top.

Outside of a little bit of audio differences, the two games I hear that seem to have changes off the top of my head are Contra 3 with the bomb effect and Yoshi's Island in the Fuzzy levels where when you touch one, the background disappears for a second.

If this is due to altered ROMs in the classic, could the original ROMs replace them for the more authentic feel?

@Discostew Still better emulation than the Snes VC

NHL 94, Final Fight, MK 1-3, NBA Jam, Beavis and Butthead, TMNT T.I.T, Barts Nightmare, Virtual Bart

There were messages written in the code that implied they knew this was going to happen. They left enough space to do this kind of thing. They have your $100 (Canadian) I'm not saying they're encouraging it, but I doubt that they care.

To each their own. I am leaving the system as it came, I got it as a collector. I can play every other game on my RasperiPi

@Discostew I think it has to do with seizure inducing flashes.

@InsideTheTardis The Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy effect is more distracting; on the real Snes, it's merely a mosaic/tile effect, but on this, a BG layer is temporarily disabled, but flashes pink. If anything, it's a bug. The Contra 3 flash bomb was toned down, so was Secret of Mana's cannon firing sequence.

This is exactly the reason I'm so fed up with Nintendo being so slow about VC releases! In just one week he can get heaven knows how many games loaded and tested in no time at all.

I'd love to be able to add more but due to Licencing issues I doubt Nintendo would ever be able to sell the games I would want via virtual console.

They never sold them on the Wii or Wii U so I wouldn't expect that to change now.

Of course I'm not satisfied with just 21. I still haven't read any official explanation about why the SNES Mini comes with so few games and costs more than the NES Mini.

Anyway, I'm going to add a couple dozen games, as I did with the NES Mini.

And I think this hacking shouldn't even be considered illegal, because the company that owns the system doesn't offer a way to purchase the games in order to play them on the console. VC on Wii U or New 3DS is obviously not the same.

If these devices actually had an eshop for their titles, they'd actually be worth the hype and I would actually want one.

Well done! Buhaha

@Mart1ndo You don't get my point. Why less games? Just why? The NES Mini was criticized for having only 30 games without the possibility of adding more and their answer is releasing the SNES Mini with even less. The pricing is not absolutely outrageous, but the fact is you get less games and pay more. Don't take the extra controller into account and that makes 70 euros/dollars/pounds. For 9 less games.

The higher monetary value isn't a valid point when we talk about roms. And the fact that SNES is regarded as a better console either. The price doesn't depend on the popularity of the console. As if NES wasn't synonym of "video game system" in its time.

@retro_player_22: Yoshi, & Yoshi's Cookie are good games, in my opinion. I totally agree with you about how it didn't need the Tetris name. & Alexey Pajitnov should have gotten credit, as well as license fees for the name.

Adding ROMS is cool and all, but these hackers need to work on the missing functionality of the games already available.

NES Classic has Gauntlet but is limited to only 2 players. Hackers, please address this.
SNES Classic has Secret of Mana, lacking third player support. Hackers, again, this problem needs your assistance!

@Ogre you're going from talking about software modding which everyone can do by connecting their devices to a computer Vs hardware modding where people would need to physically alter their NES/SNES mini to allow more controllers (or build an unofficial multitap) AND software mod the SNES/NES mini to support extra players.

For the handful of people who want to play secret of mana 3 player? Not worth it

@Hikingguy There is the small (pun intended) problem that the console is smaller than the original game cartridges released for the SNES...

@Mart1ndo I see you are understanding me less and less.

Of course I don't think things from the past should be free. For God's sake, I bought an NES Mini and this time the SNES Mini too, although many people I know keep laughing at me because they do play old games for free with their Raspberries. I love retro games and pay for them. I'm paying for roms, and I'm not complaining about that. I'm asking why SNES games should be more expensive than NES ones if they're roms and not cartridges on store's shelves anymore? Even then the price difference wasn't that big.

I'm just saying that comparing NES Mini and SNES Mini, the 20 euro difference is due to the controller and... what else? Because it has 9 less games. I don't care what people pay for Wii controllers, the NES Mini extra controller's price was 10 euro, so I'm willing to consider the SNES Mini without the controller would have a price tag of 70. Still 10 euro difference but 9 less games.

If you still don't understand that my complain is about the SNES Mini being SLIGHTLY overpriced, and keep thinking I'm entitled and consider old games crap, although I bought both mini consoles happily and I've been playing video games since the 80s and now still buy retro consoles -even if things such as Virtual Console exist-, fine. Think what you want.

@Mart1ndo Well, I'm glad we could finally understand each other. I too believe that Nintendo knows how to milk their products, but I fall again and again, because I just love all they do, which doesn't mean I can't see when they're wrong or unfair.

@ouenben
Except I'm not. Every system ever has had controller adapters. Including SNES Classic. Buy one Wiimote to SNES adapter and a multitap. You're ready for the multiplayer hacks now!

The message from Nintendo inside the snes for the hackers said something like unplug your self from today and go back and enjoy the nineties. This was basically a nod from Nintendo for fans to do what we needed to do to complete the library. Of course they cannot tell us on record because of the legal ramifications on their part. Nintendo has been fighting piracy forever and they finally found a way to cash in on it. If we're going to download roms then they will make the money on the emulator which they made tons of cash on. 3rd parties no longer make money on their games especially if Nintendo no longer releases them for current consoles and discontinues their virtual console on previous systems.