Snes9x

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Snes9x
Windows GUI of the Snes9x emulator
Developed by	Snes9x Team
Latest release	1.51 / April 30, 2007
OS	Cross-platform
Genre	Console emulator
License	Snes9x License
Website	http://www.snes9x.com/

Snes9x is a popular cross-platform emulator for the SNES. Initially the collaborative effort of Gary Henderson of snes96 fame and Jerremy Koot of snes97 fame, Snes9x was later maintained by Brad Jorsch and continues to be maintained by a small group of contributors.

Snes9x has several capabilities which its Super Famicom and Super Nintendo counterparts did not have; it can "smooth" the appearance of the screen through a variety of anti-aliasing schemes, and can be configured to have a better quality of sound output than the original console systems. In addition, it can create screenshots of games, it can "save" the game at any point by recording the game state, and it can capture sound files, saving them as SPC700 sound format files which can be played back by an external player or a specialized Winamp plugin, such as Alpha-II SPC player. Also included is a built-in Game Genie, which allows users to enter cheat codes for their games, and the ability to record tool-assisted speedruns. Unlike ZSNES, Snes9x is written in portable C++, and can easily be compiled and run on non-x86 architectures.

Although the source code of Snes9x is freely available, users are allowed to use it for non-commercial purposes only. Thus, Snes9x is not considered open source.

1 Current status of emulation
2 Reception
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Current status of emulation

The latest full version of Snes9x is version 1.51, released on April 30, 2007.

Snes9x was the first SNES emulator to emulate the SDD-1 chip used in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Star Ocean, and the first to emulate the SPC700 well enough to enable sound in SNES games (previous emulators had no sound).

Snes9x has been ported to many platforms including game consoles like the Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.