Oliver Cragg/Android Authority
TL;DR
- The two developers behind one of the first SNES emulators have released a sequel.
- Super ZSNES is a GPU-powered SNES emulator that offers high resolution visuals, uncompressed audio for some games, and more.
- The app is available for Windows, Mac and Android.
ZSNES was a pioneering program in the 1990s, as it was one of the first major Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulators. We’ve seen a variety of SNES emulators since then, but the two developers behind ZSNES have just released Super ZSNES.
Super ZSNES is a brand new GPU-powered SNES emulator from the two developers behind ZSNES. The GPU-centric approach enables high-resolution Mode 7 visuals and a variety of custom, per-game visual enhancements through a so-called Super Enhancement Engine.
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The Super Enhancement Engine currently supports seven games and offers a ton of improvements. These changes include the addition of higher resolution views via the “Internal Drawing Program”, textures and normal maps, overclocking for select games with major slowdown, wide screen support, replacement of highly compressed audio in select games with uncompressed audio, and 3D height-map data for Mode 7 in select games.
For what it’s worth, the Super Enhancement Engine currently supports F-Zero, Gradius 3, Mega Man X, Super Castlevania 4, Super Ghouls & Ghosts, Super Mario World, and Super Metroid.
The Super ZSNES team also promises that it is not a vibe-coded emulator, adding that the app supports classic features like fast-forward/rewind and save states. You should also expect the classic ZSNES menu with cheat codes, save bookmarks, and falling snow. As far as future additions to the app, the team promises that it will implement bug fixes, more types of enhancements, netplay, and emulation of specialized chips like SuperFX and DSP1. Of course, SuperFX games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX didn’t work when I tried the Android version.
In any case, Super ZSNES is available for free on Windows and Mac, while the Android version is available for $4 on the Play Store. The Android version looks and runs pretty refined at this point, though I would have liked to see larger buttons and other touch-centric improvements. Again, we cannot achieve everything at once.
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