SNES9X is a Super Nintendo emulator which was originally designed by Gary Henderson, Chad Kitching and Jerremy Koot. It is now being coded by a new, anonymous team. The Macintosh version of SNES9X is ported by John Stiles, and is available at http://emulation.net/ . The source code of the original UNIX version of SNES9X is available at http://www.snes9x.com/ .
Operation of SNES9X is pretty straightforward. Choose a game image to open with the File menu's "Open" command, then it should open up on your screen. The key layout is customizable, so feel free to set it however you feel comfortable. Pressing escape brings you back to the Macintosh; once there you can reset the game, resume playing, freeze game or open another cart from the File menu.
Many options are handled automatically by SNES9X. The frame-rate is auto-regulated to be as smooth as possible without permitting slowdown, sound is automatically configured, and identification of cart image type should normally be handled without user intervention. Additional options are listed in "Preferences" in case you want to experiment with different settings.
Special thanks PB1400c-san for providing the icons used in SNES9X, and to Victar Mas and CivMan for designing the icons in the Goodies folder.
How To Use NetPlay
First, both players must decide what game to play. Open it normally and then press escape or click the mouse to stop the game.
Then, one player must choose "Host" and the other should choose "Join." The host can choose the network type—AppleTalk or TCP/IP—and game name. The joining player should enter the Internet address (if TCP/IP) or choose the SNES game from the list (if AppleTalk). If there are no problems connecting, you should be able to play two-player games together until one of the players stops the game. The host plays as player 1 and the joining player is player 2.
If the network has problems, the game might hang up waiting for the other player to respond. If you're totally stuck, hold the mouse button down for a second or two and the game should terminate normally.
Notes:
- Get NetSprocket 1.1.1! Previous versions may work, but they're much, much less stable, and tend to have problems communicating (causing games to go mysteriously out of sync).
- NetPlay really wasn't really meant for games over the Internet—trying to play over the net will probably be extraordinarily slow. You can speed it up somewhat by choosing "Internet Lag Compensation" from the preferences, but this makes controls slightly sluggish. If you have a LAN (for example, college dorm), you should be in gaming heaven.
- NetPlay is limited to the speed of the slowest computer. If you play NetPlay with a slow computer against a fast computer, the game will run on both computers at the slow computer's pace.
- Running NetPlay through a router such as Internet Gateway might require special configuration to work properly. If the game doesn't start at all, you might have to reconfigure the router's port mappings.
Frequently Asked Questions
• Where can I get game files?!!?!? (or: Where can I get game [xxx]??)
- Not from me. If you own or have access to a SNES, game copier devices are very inexpensive--they attach to your SNES and copy games onto floppy disk, whereupon they can be used in your Mac. If you mail me about where to get games, you die (after I report you to the proper authorities).
• You never responded to my e-mail....?
- There are several reasons. The most common is that your e-mail address in your mail program is wrong, or your mail server rejected the message, and the mail bounced. This happens extremely frequently with aol.com addresses; if you are an America Online user I would have to suggest that you switch to a real ISP as soon as you can. Another reason would be that you asked a question that was already covered in this document--I get too many messages a day to repeat myself that much for a freeware product. Sorry. Lastly, I am known to be extremely tardy with e-mail when more important things (like exams, projects, and parties) arise. Sorry, that's just prioritizing.
• The controls aren't working properly.
- Ensure that the mouse isn't turned on. Controller 1 isn't available when the mouse is active.
• I turned on mouse support, now how do I get out of this game?
- When the mouse is on, clicking to return to Mac OS wouldn't make sense—so the escape key is used to return to the Mac OS.
• ROMs that worked in SNES9X 0.2.4 are failing in the new versions of SNES9X.
- Recent versions of SNES9X incorporate an improved method for detecting the ROM type from a file. However, some ROMs on the Internet have been corrupted in such a way as to fool the auto-detector, causing it to guess improperly about the ROM's interleaving or HiROM ability. Try changing the HiROM setting or interleave setting then reopening the ROM. (Hitting 'reset' won't reload the ROM for you; you actually need to reopen it from the File menu.)
• SNES9X won't start; it wants "AppearanceLib."
- SNES9X is very reliant on the newest and coolest features of the Mac OS. Specifically, it uses the Appearance Manager, which improves the look and feel of the Mac OS interface, and Navigation Services, which finally updates the horrible file-open and file-save dialog boxes which have plagued the Mac OS since System 6. You can get both of these extensions from: http://emulation.net/snes/
• SNES9X won't start on my non-PowerPC Macintosh.
- SNES9X needs PowerPC. I don't want to hear any complaints about this, either--SNES9X doesn't even run well on early PowerPCs. 680x0 users, it's really time to upgrade.
• TV Mode is slower/choppier than Blocky mode.
- TV Mode actually runs a relatively complex filter over the entire picture to smooth edges and produce a slightly scanlined effect. This takes a lot of processor time, and works best on 604e's or G3s.
• RAVE Mode doesn't do anything, or it's slower/choppier than Blocky mode.
- RAVE Mode simply routes SNES9X video through whatever 3D acceleration hardware your Mac has—if your 3D hardware is poor (or nonexistant), RAVE mode will be very poor, or just disable itself automatically. RAVE mode is only useful if you have a nice 3D card. In my personal experience, I've found that a Voodoo 3Dfx card produces incredibly smooth video, and it's absolutely full-screen, but the framerate wasn't as good as I was hoping. Of course, your mileage may vary.
• What's the difference between High Quality and Low Quality video?
- Low Quality video disables several of SNES9X's features that slow down graphics—transparency effects and mid-screen color changes are not supported. However, it provides extremely impressive speed. Note that several titles don't work correctly in Low Quality mode—including the bundled "Test Cartridge" ROM.
• Should I start compiling a SNES9X compatibility list and mail it to you?
- No. The team is normally well aware of what games work and what games don't. The problem is not identifying bugs but solving them ;) If you have a specific issue that you think we might have missed, though, feel free to ask.
• Pilot Wings/Super Mario RPG/DOOM/Starfox/Mega Man X2/Mega Man X3/[xxx] doesn't run, or has weird glitches!
- These games, and several more, all used custom graphics chips or hardware coprocessors. Many of them were unique, none of them were documented. The most prevalent was the SuperFX, but several companies like Capcom developed their own chipsets. Of these chips, the only two which are understood are the DSP chip and SuperFX, and the implementation is still buggy--the only SuperFX game which is really playable is Yoshi's Island, and the DSP-utilizing Super Mario Kart still has lots of bugs. Future versions promise more accurate SuperFX emulation.
• How do I pass level [xxx] in this game?
- I'm not the Nintendo Helpline! Ask someone else! Seriously, I'm the wrong person to ask; I haven't really played my way through that many games.
• It runs all slow and choppy!
- Try using low quality video. Transparency, while an impressive effect, still requires very fast hardware to appreciate fully. Also, sound support (especially in stereo) will slow down SNES9X. If it's still too slow for you, just upgrade your Mac. SNES9X is already quite optimized code; don't expect future versions to get much faster.
• Older versions of SNES9X ran faster than this one on my Mac! Why??
- They also had more bugs, supported fewer games, couldn't run SuperFX/DSP games, couldn't do transparencies, couldn't use stereo sound, couldn't use RAVE or TV Mode, etc. As SNES9X improves, its complexity also increases. We do offer options to reduce emulation accuracy for extra speed—i.e., low quality video and monaural sound.
• Game [xxx] used to work in version [xxx] and now it doesn't work (or works worse)!
- Sorry. Usually stuff like that is patched up and nailed down pretty quickly, but as we fix bugs, sometimes new ones crop up in their place.
• If I give it more memory, how much faster will it go?
- It will not get faster at all. However, if you reduce the memory, it might crash.
• Game [xxx] doesn't work!
- Sorry. We do our best to ensure compatibility.
• How do you pronounce '9X'?
- It's a mystery. The two best candidates are 'ninety-X' and 'nine-X'.
• What will SNES9X be called next year?
- Dunno—if you have any cool ideas, let me know.
Version History
• 1.2.3:
- SuperFX code is working better than ever before! Many games work better now—in particular, StarFox seems to be 100% now! However, the SuperFX emulation is incredibly processor-intensive—it'll probably be too choppy to be fun on anything less than an iMac.
- Native PKZip-compressed ROM support was removed from the Mac port because the new PKZip code used by SNES9X turned out to be very, very old and crusty—CodeWarrior refused to even compile it! (The decompression code used old-style K&R C prototypes.) Honestly I'm not sure SNES9X ever opened ZIPs properly anyway, so this might be no loss. At any rate, GZ-compressed ROMs are still supported 100%, and will continue to be supported in the future.
- This version is returning to MrCpp for much of its code generation needs, because CodeWarrior Pro 5, while an improvement, still generates slower code on average. (Unfortunately, MrCpp is more finicky and refuses to compile some parts of SNES9X properly.) This should improve framerates in some games.
• 1.2.2:
- SuperFX code is currently broken; this will be corrected in a later release, but the demand for this version was too high to push it back any further.
- Implemented SA-1 support, which was required for Mario RPG, Kirby Superstar, Paradius 3, etc. (Currently, the only SA-1 game with a known good dump is Mario RPG.)
- Mario Kart's rear-view mirror display fixed.
- Fixed Mode 7 rendering code to correct a glitch on the Final Fantasy V intro screen.
- Added horizontal offset per tile support in the offset per tile modes 2 and 6, and switchable horizontal/vertical offset in mode 4. Fixes Chrono Trigger in several places and Mario All Stars title screens.
- Altered ROM load code to ignore corrupt ROM map type byte in ROM header, preventing the code erroneously detecting what it thinks are interleaved ROMs. Fixes EEK! The cat, Formation Soccer, the corrupt copy of Donkey Kong Country, etc.
- Now recompiled almost entirely with CodeWarrior Pro 5 instead of a mixture of CW Pro 3 and MrCpp. The one exception is cpuops.cpp, which due to compiler bugs can only be built in MrCpp with optimizations off. I'm not entirely sure how the speed will be affected by this; hopefully it will be as fast as before.
• 1.1.9:
- The graphics code has been largely rewritten in preparation for OpenGL acceleration. This resulted in several games being fixed (i.e., sprite layering in Chrono Trigger) as well as very noticable speedups in many games.
- Sound code has been updated as well, fixing long-standing bugs in several games.
- Compatibility on the whole has significantly improved. Games by Human (i.e. Super Fire Pro Wrestling) should now work, ActRaiser 2 no longer has color problems, etc.
• 1.1.8a:
- SNES9X 1.1.8 was released with some debugging code turned on; this made 1.1.8 noticably slower for some users. This release fixes the problem.
- Some users also report that the sound is choppy; this is a side-effect of the new sound code, which smooths out problems with sound conflicting with Virtual Memory. This only happens when your computer isn't able to emulate a title at full speed. To solve it, try reducing the processor load (use single size, low quality video, lower sound quality, suspend background tasks, etc.)
• 1.1.8:
- Graphics and sound code have been significantly reworked! The sound code is much better in a lot of games, although a few odd problems are also audible in a small subset of games. Also, should be slightly faster now.
- Virtual memory no longer needs to be turned off for good sound emulation!
- Several games that crashed before now work properly.
- InputSprocket support has been improved dramatically.
- RAVE Mode is less glitchy now, with no seams between panels or odd pixels on the edge of the screen. (A future version is likely to incorporate support for 32-bit RAVE graphics, in order to take advantage of the new Rage 128 chipset.)
- (Gil Pedersen) A few bugs in the Game Genie handler were fixed.
• 1.1.6:
- The timing for the SPC700 sound chip was finally revised, so the "SPC700 Timing" option is now unnecessary. This change also helped several previously non-working games; a notable example is BSZelda, which seems to work perfectly now.
- Fixed a case where "Force LoROM" didn't work properly. Now Formation Soccer will play if LoROM is forced—previously it wouldn't start.
- Super Mario Kart works perfectly now!! Actually, it also worked perfectly in 1.1.5, but I didn't know it because the Super Mario Kart ROMs that most people find on the Internet are corrupt! (I had a bad dump as well.) If you're still experiencing problems with it (such as coins/question-mark items not working, crashing into nonexistent walls, and occasional game lockups), you have a bad ROM.
• 1.1.5:
- Tracked down a bug in SNES9X which has existed since 0.9.5—both the CodeWarrior compiler and MrC compiler were generating bad code for the 65816 core, causing weird graphic glitches in Donkey Kong Country, Breath of Fire, Secret of Evermore, Metroid 3, and other games. Unfortunately, the only solution involved turning off all compiler optimizations for the 65816 core, meaning that this version might be noticably slower than before. Fortunately, on my computer, the speed hit seems negligible compared to the benefit of fixing several popular games.
- Rewrote part of the Mac sound drivers; this could potentially help computers that were locking up after opening SNES9X.
- Tales of Phantasia is now working.
- The SNES9X sound engine has been recoded; it should be faster now. Some games seem to be improved, but a few sound worse. Your mileage may vary.
- Mario Kart is less screwed up now; items don't fly around the screen as spastically as before.
- Mode 7 graphics are slightly faster.
- Some miscellaneous SuperFX fixes that help Winter Gold work a little better (still pretty far from 100%).
- (Gil Pedersen) Regardless of the preference setting, SRAMs and freeze files will automatically be stored in the application directory if the game being played is on a locked volume, such as CD-ROM.
- (Gil Pedersen) The Open dialog, when using Navigation Services, now allows you to change the interleaving and HiROM settings directly.
• 1.1.2:
- A bug which caused "Reset" to screw up the controls has been fixed.
- NetPlay has been added! This utilizes Apple's NetSprocket extension. Please read the directions at the top of this file for details. Please note that NetPlay will probably not run at full speed over the Internet, even on fast connections—you need very, very fast ping times for NetPlay to work well.
- Begun adding Balloon Help. Currently it only works on the checkboxes in the preferences dialog.
• 1.1.1.1:
- InputSprocket support has returned! However, it is disabled by default. You can activate it in the preferences.
- Mario Kart works! (Well, it works as well as on the PC version.) This is entirely thanks to the efforts of Eric Hustvedt, who found a bug in the original code which chose to manifest itself on the Macintosh.
- There is now an option to save SRAMs and freeze files in the same folder as SNES9X! This is extremely helpful if you choose to store your ROMs on a CD-R or other read-only media.
- The Defrost menu now looks different than the Freeze menu, in order to avoid confusion.
- Work on NetPlay has begun but it's not even close to working yet. Currently, it just brings up a dialog to the effect of "under construction." Hopefully I'll make more progress in the next few weeks.
• 1.1.1:
- Various optimizations in video.
- Sound code from the original SNES9X 1.1.1 was not used because it contained some truly terrible echo effects; the sound is the same as from version 1.0.9.
- Removed InputSprocket since way more users were complaining about it than enjoying it. (It's still in the source, but commented out, if anyone is interested in it.)
- Allowed Freeze and Defrost to be remapped in the Keyboard Layout dialog; due to user feedback, the defaults were moved from F and D to F1 and F15 (to prevent wiping out data by inadvertently pressing the wrong key).
- Returned the ability to hide/show graphics layers with the F1 through F5 keys. Note that F1's default functionality is now "Freeze Game", and this causes a conflict—so if you want to use the hide/show feature on the top layer, you'll need to change the "freeze" key to something else in the Keyboard Layout dialog.
- Mario Kart still doesn't work right. Ongoing investigation has failed to produce a fix. The source code is still available on emulation.net if anyone else wants to look into this.
• 1.0.9a:
- Added support for Apple's InputSprocket! (If InputSprocket is not installed, SNES9X reverts to the usual keyboard layout dialog.)
- Fixed several bugs in RAVE mode! Now ATI cards and software RAVE work fine. Newer ATI chipsets seem to work great in RAVE mode, too!
• 1.0.9:
- Added stereo sound support! The preferences dialog now allows you to select between 22kHz sound or 44kHz sound, and between mono and stereo. Stereo sound is computation-intensive, so it can be helpful to disable it.
- Fixed PAL speeds! Now ROMs that run in PAL mode won't go too fast.
- Added RAVE video support! This will route video through your 3D card for a super-smooth, totally full-screen picture. This works pretty well on 3Dfx.
- DSP support slightly improved. The current DSP code works much better on UNIX than on Macintosh—this is being actively investigated, so stay tuned. (Neither works perfectly, but at least on UNIX, the Mario Kart track looks somewhat correct.)
- SuperFX emulation has been improved to the point where Yoshi's Island is close to perfect, and Dirt Trax FX is playable.
- A fix was implemented for several color effects, which makes Chrono Trigger and Illusion of Gaia look nicer.
- New cartridge icons (which look closer to American SNES cartridges) courtesy of PB1400c.
• 1.0.7a:
- Added multi-freeze support. Up to twelve states can be saved for each game, along with preview thumbnails.
- Very small bug fixed with Music Box mode—now it should be about 1% more stable. (Though it always worked fine for me before...)
- Taking screenshots now works better, especially with high-resolution screens. Previous versions could sometimes have screenshots that looked squished.
• 1.0.7:
- Support for 5:1 SPC700 ratio. Only one ROM (Empire Strikes Back) needs it, but hey, why not.
- Option to allow background tasks to keep running while SNES9X plays. Slows down the gameplay a bit, but allows stuff like downloads to keep going.
- Music Box mode added. This lets SNES music and sound effects continue while SNES9X is in the background. Very nice if you enjoy a music track from a SNES game, and would like to keep it running while doing other stuff. (Note: don't try running Music Box mode if your Mac doesn't run SNES9X at full speed. It's interrupt-driven, and if your Mac can't keep up with the music at 100% speed, it will slow your entire system--mouse pointer and all--to a crawl.)
- Fixed a bug with the keyboard layout dialog (hitting "default" caused all kinds of problems).
- Fixed a bug where dialogs wouldn't disappear if a game was double-clicked in the Finder while the dialog was already showing.
• 1.0.6:
- "Alternate SPC700 timing" selection added. This allows many games to run that, previously, would lock up if sound emulation was enabled (including Breath of Fire 2).
- New icons, thanks to PB1400c-san. Rebuild your desktop to see them.
- More changes to clip-window emulation (seems perfect now).
• 1.0.5:
- Preliminary work begun on the DSP chip (used by Mario Kart, Pilotwings and Top Gear 3000). So far, there isn't enough emulated to make these games work properly though.
- Bug in the SPC700 fixed, causing Terranigma to work properly.
- Several bugs in mosaic/tiling effect have been fixed (helping Pocky & Rocky, Cotton 100%).
- PAL games now always play music at the proper speed.
- Small fixes to clip-window emulation.
• 1.0.1:
- Mouse support has been added! Games like Mario Paint, Mario & Wario, Tokimeki Memorial and Lemmings 2 now support clicking and dragging. To use mouse button 2, use the keyboard and press any SNES control pad action key. (Note that controller 1 will be unavailable while the mouse is in use.)
- TV mode has been added! This is a new way to render the screen, making it look more like viewing SNES on a real television, with blurred edges and slight scanlining. After playing in TV mode for a while, I have found that blocky graphics look really ugly. However, to really appreciate this mode, you'll need a fast processor.
- Freeze and defrost now work during gameplay; just press cmd-F or cmd-D.
- Support for compressed games is now available—you can run a GZ compressor like MacGZip on ROMs in order to save disk space. This compression support also means that freeze files have shrunk massively, from over 400K to around 100K.
- Preferences dialog has been reworked in order to demonstrate the currently selected video mode.
• 1.0:
- SNES9X has grown up to version 1.0!
- Games which use high-resolution graphics now work properly. (A few special cases are not handled yet—causing minor inaccuracies in a few games such as Tokimeki Memorial—but the vast majority of games work fine.)
- Mosaic effect coupled with screen addition or color addition now works properly.
- Transparency effects in color windows are more accurate (but not quite perfect yet).
- Sound code speed-ups included.
- More Game Genie codes ought to work properly now.
- Controller 2 used to have both Y and X mapped to the same button; fixed.
