The Bit Wars were an intriguing time in gaming, particularly in the era of one-upmanship between the Super NES and the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. While there could be arguments over sound chips, BLAST processing etc, we also saw special enhancement chips produced that'd go within the game cartridges to improve performance or make certain new techniques possible. Individual games could be standard bearers with these enhancements, something we don't see in the modern era.
One example with the SNES was the SA1 chip, which gave boosts in areas like clock speed, faster RAM and more. Perhaps the most famous example of a game using this chip was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, though the enhancements skipped the PAL territory (Europe / Australia and New Zealand) at the time. Basically, the chip made games run better.
There's been some buzz in the retro community over the weekend as details and footage have been shared of an SA1 Demonstration Program, which runs off an extremely rare cartridge demo board that features the chip. One of the boards made a rare appearance on eBay (where else?) and a kind benefactor with some money to spare picked it up for Vitor Vilela, who creates software and hardware mods and specialises in the SA1 chip. For example they've produced 'SA-1' enhanced versions of some SNES games to show how, theoretically, the chip would have made some classics run with less slowdown and faster loading.
The board's demos have been successfully dumped, giving a look at how Nintendo created a couple of primitive tech showcases to show what the chip could do; you can see them below, but be aware the second half involves a fair bit of nausea-inducing spinning sprites.
If you want a detailed technical breakdown, this Patreon post is well worth a read.
Fascinating stuff, it's certainly an intriguing part of Nintendo's history in the 16-bit era.
[source patreon.com]
Comments 27
Any chance of a Switch port?
Interesting to see this type of stuff
Those demos are giving me a headache.
If only Nintendo hadn't attempted to incorporate NES backwards compatibility into the SNES in the first place (before they abandoned it too late into development), they could have used a different/better CPU, and not have had to deal with ROM timings and such
It's a really cool find, and adds just a little bit more insight into Nintendo's development practices and such back then.
What ever happened to demos and demo disks it sad that you know what to expect and how it will play
i didn't read a single word of the article but sonic adventure 1 on snes? crazy stuff
But when will they put themes and folders on the SNES???
@Vivid_viking my uncle works as an insider at Nintendo, and he says it'll be in the next SNES Online update in response to everyone who complained about the prior lineup.
I'm dying to have this as a screensaver.
Good to see the patreonage attached to this, it should make it a quicker take down.
@dew12333 putting aside the fact that they definitively not profiting off of this specific post as it's available to anyone, the idea nintendo cares that much about something this inane is hilarious
interesting. the second demo showed some real promise as it looked like it could create areas very similar to the "bonus" stage in Sonic the Hedgehog, where the room spun around and Sonic bounced off of the walls trying to find the Chaos Gem. It's a shame Nintendo really didn't really do to much with this chip set. (edited note: I was under the impression that my Hyperkin Retron 5 ( Hyper Beach model (yes the one that looks like cotton candy, or so my daughter thinks) ) had an image Filter that was an Sa1 filter because it is labeled as 2xSaI <----- That "I" is a roman numeral 1, so therefore I was reading it as Sa1. I have been corrected so therefore I have corrected my post. Please excuse my stupidity. Though I will admit the Image Filters that are on the Hyperkin Retron 5 do have some amazing effects on the graphics and the way the are displayed. If you have an HR-5 do yourself a favor and play around with these settings. Out of the ones there I do prefer the one labeled as 2xSaI <----with that being a Roman 1.
oh, not Sonic Adventure 1... still cool, though
The screenshot reminds me of the NES port of Millipede.
@thomaswhitehead (to be read in nerdiest voice possible) I believe you mean Blast Processing.
@nhSnork Well in all fairness it does look more fun than what they have been releasing on Switch online recently.
I love that the program is counting the number of objects in hexadecimal, that’s a nice touch.
NINJA HEXIDECIMAL COUNTER APPROVED
@ThomasBW84 I think Kirby Super Star (Kirby's Fun Pak, a reference to Nintendo's term for cartridge) was the only SA1 game to reach PAL territories.
Not certain though.
Just looking at the screenshot reminds me of Millipede, one of the games Iwata ported to the Famicom in anticipation of the Atari-branded North American Famicom that never happened.
@Vivid_viking indeed. Who needs previously unlocalized anime action rarities when you can watch a spinning Bowser?
@KingMike It wouldn't surprise me, it was a bit rough being a PAL gamer in the '90s (though pre-internet, I didn't realise it as a kid)
@jrpacman Haha, as a Mega Drive kid I should have got that right. I'll punish myself with a playthrough of Sonic 2 (actually that's a reward, but I'll do it anyway)
@Bearzilla823 I have a Retron 5, where are the SA-1 options?
@Axelay71 Sorry I have been reading the setting wrong. In Image Filters when you go into settings (before you go into a game) there are a few options under this heading one of them reads as 2xSaI <--- but that "I" looks like a roman numeral 1. So I have been reading wrong, my bad. Though I will say if you play around with these particular Image Filters you will a vast improvement in the game. I will edit my post.
@Bearzilla823 no worries didn't think there was, I was thinking I missed something. I do have a gradius 3 cartridge with an SA-1 chip inside it runs perfectly no slow down at all. And the Retron plays it spot on. Shame the Retron doesn't have this feature built in.
Did anyone else think SA1 stood for Sonic Advance 1 before seeing the screenshot?
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