Is the Super Nintendo Actually…Super?

The Super Nintendo's performance is mysteriously increasing over time, sparking curiosity and speculation.

The Super Nintendo is actually running FASTER as time goes on and no one knows why.

As time goes on, electronic devices tend to break down and become less reliable. This is something we see often, whether it be from computer chips deteriorating to things as common as a smartphone’s battery life deteriorating, but the Super Nintendo seems to be undergoing some sort of an anti-aging phenomenon and it relies on its audio chip. This was discovered by Security consultant and TASBot administrator Alan Cecil.

A report from 404 Media states that the classic gaming console features a Sony SPC700 APU (audio processing unit) with a digital signal processing (DSP) rate of 32,000 Hz. However, in 2007, SNES emulator programmers discovered that the chips actually ran slightly faster at 32,040 Hz, requiring them to adjust the value to prevent certain games from malfunctioning.

The SPC700 uses a very sensitive ceramic resonator which could cause it to run at differing rates depending on environmental factors (although it is still an unknown phenomenon). 

In late February, Cecil shared his theory on Bluesky through the TASBot account, requesting data from SNES users. Preliminary results indicate a clear trend: as the SNES consoles age, the SPC700 chip appears to run faster. So far, the highest recorded frequency is 32,182 Hz—an increase of less than 1% from the original 32,000 Hz—but still enough to impact in-game audio and potentially cause issues in some titles.

Historic Speed-running records could be affected

Although this (strange) performance of the SPC700 doesn’t affect the game’s speed directly (because it affects audio only), it still can affect how long it takes to complete a game resulting in quicker run times. This is because in between black screens and load times the CPU must have all the information gathered in order to load the next segment (or level). If the SPC700 can deliver this audio information to the CPU faster, this would result in slightly quicker load times. 

At this moment, the time saved in speed runs is negligible, but we’ll have to wait and see how much faster (if faster at all) this chip will run in the future. No one knows why this is happening and no one knows if it will continue to happen. All we know is that we see a trend of this chip running faster and faster as time goes on.