The SNES Emulation War of 1997 | MVG

In 1997 a war had started to see who could develop the best Super Nintendo emulator. In this episode we take a look back at early SNES emulation and how it become what it is today.

Sources/Credits/Links:

► Axelay Soundtrack OST #01 "Axelay Title Theme" Taro Kudo

Social Media Links :

#SNES #EarlyEmulation #War

[nicolasrolke]

Zsnes was the first emulator I used on PC. Back then it was simply unbelievable to run the entire SNES catalogue of games on your computer. I would spend hours starting random games that sounded fun with a friend and discovering the unknown library of games. Simply unforgettable.

[MasterChibi]

God I remember playing Yoshi's Island in college in the computer lab and having the *entire* computer lab eyeing me playing it. I had headphones on and then suddenly find out everyone's cheering for me to finish each level, wonderful memories.

[phtevenstevin]

The gui for zsnes brings back the feels. It felt like magic to be able to load so many games as a little kid - my brother had set it all up and dang, it was so cool. That was my first time having save states. Good times.

[RedDwarf]

And now we are spoiled with emulation with all the great people behind these emulators. A big thank you from me for them all.

[GamingRobioto]

ZSNES was where it started for me. I'll never forget the sheer joy I had when I finally got Final Fantasy IV, V and VI working. Being in the UK meant there was no easy way to play these games, which in a nutshell sums up why emulation is a good thing

[jessie]

Yeah I remember playing a lot of RPGs on early SNES emulators and having to toggle layers off and on at certain points due to the lack of transparency. Also remember finding it nice when toggling layers also revealed all the secret passages.

[adam.wascholl]

I remember waking up on Christmas in those early years and they released an update that allowed for transparency effects. This meant you could play a game with smoke, mist, or rain without having to turn off that layer.

This was my favorite present that year.

[SireSquish]

ZSnes holds a lot of nostalgia for me - with each successive release, the accuracy of Chrono Trigger got better and better, and seeing that I'd never played on real hardware, each improvement was like a quality update for the game itself.

[EightPieceBox]

It's crazy that emulation has been around long enough to get nostalgic about it. I tried most of these, but I was into arcade emulation more than anything else. The early days of MAME were amazing because there would be a batch of new games every week. I learned about a lot of games I never saw before.

[TheKrazyKat]

It's always fascinating to me hearing about software development in the 90s and how C was considered a "slow, high-level language".

[Dslite]

I remember talking to one of my neighbor's teenagers in 2007 about how I wanted to play EarthBound but had trouble finding a copy. He responded by showing me a 'free way' to play it on PC through an emulator and burned a CD for me containing SNES9x, EarthBound and a few other roms.

My grandma later got me a copy of EarthBound for Christmas '07 but I'll never how happy I was to play it on PC.

[OliNorwell]

This really made me feel old, I remember reading the emulation news sites on a daily basis through those years, great times and a great video summary

[boocmtaco]

That ZSNES UI… It’s how i played Chrono Trigger back in college. Good memories

[SirVG]

I remember using ZSNES back in the late 90s when I was in college. Gave me a chance to play games I couldn't get otherwise, like Chrono Trigger. Getting the bad ending while in a giant room, by yourself, in the middle of the night was creepy as hell.

[Lossenhyando]

ZSNES was such a good Emulator - great video as always!

Would love to see one about NO$GMB

[jerryg]

Ah yes, the Zsnes days. Loved every minute of it

[johnsimon]

Still get a kick out of those screen names - “The Brain” “The Teacher” those are old school 80’s BBS handles like “The Mentor” or “The Jolly Roger”

[titanderp]

Learning about emulation history never ceases to amaze me.

[matthewjohnson]

Zsnes almost utter lack of input latency was fantastic

[RAMChYLD]

I was there, Gandalf. I was there 24 years ago.