I recently downloaded a couple of games from the Nintendo Virtual Console store for my Wii. I was
disappointed by the fact that their aspect ratios had been altered so that they were not effective
emulators of the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo games I had played. The Super Mario Bros. 3 game even had a glitch that would turn the far right side of the screen green.
This inspired me to find a better way to enjoy my retro games. That’s when I remember a period in 8th grade when my friends and I discovered Emulators and ROMs. Emulators allow you to create a classic video game console (Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega, etc.) on your computer. ROMs are the game files that you can play on the emulators.
For this discussion I’ll focus on how I setup a Super Nintendo emulator on my home theatre computer, the same basic steps can be used to setup an emulator for any other system as well. I chose www.coolrom.com as my source for both emulators and ROMs because of their huge database. They have emulators for Atari all the way up through the original Xbox. On the Cool ROM site you just place your cursor over Emulators and chose whichever system you want. For Super Nintendo they have four emulators ranked by popularity, after reading several reviews I determined that Snes9x was the emulator I wanted to use. Click on the “Download Now” link. Once you’ve completed the downloaded and extracted the files out of the .zip file. Try to double click snes9x.exe if you get this error you will need to install the latest version of Microsoft Direct X.
The latest version of DirectX can be found here (as of this writing): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/
download/details.aspx?id=35
Once your DirectX is up to date go back to http://www.coolrom.com/roms/snes/ and pick up the games you want to play.
When you open your first game you may notice that the aspect ratio is funky, for some reason the
Snes9x emulator defaults to a 7:8 aspect ratio instead of the original 4:3 ratio. If you click Video ->
Display Configuration the box below will pop up:
The settings above are the ones I’ve found most useful. For “Output Method” Direct 3D doesn’t work on my wife’s computer so I use DirectDraw without issue. You can play with the Output Image Processing to get some different effects, personally I found them somewhat distracting and settled on just leaving it set as none. For “Fullscreen Display Settings” you’ll want to match your computers settings. If you don’t know your settings and you are running Windows 7 or 8 right click on your desktop and click Screen Resolution, that will give you the ratio and the advanced settings will tell you if it is at 59 or 60hz. If you have multiple monitors set the fullscreen settings to match whichever monitor you will be playing the emulator on.
I also advise that you check the Joypad settings under Input -> Input Configuration, this will tell you what keyboard buttons are set to perform the Super Nintendo controller functions. Below are the default settings:
Since very few people have played Super Nintendo using a keyboard you may find it preferable to
hookup a gamepad to your computer and play like old times. Here are several options for accomplishing this goal:
1. For purists with soldering skills this project allows you to covert your old SNES controller into
one you can use with your computer/Xbox 360/PS3: http://lifehacker.com/5973071/turn-an-
snes-gamepad-into-a-usb-game-controller-you-can-use-with-your-pc-xbox-360-or-ps3
2. There are also cheap knock offs (but be warned you may get what you pay for): http://
www.amazon.com/Classic-USB-Super-Nintendo-Controller-PC/dp/B002JAU20W
3. Logitech has some good quality and reasonably priced game pads:
a. Wired: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-940-000110-Gamepad-F310/dp/
B003VAHYQY/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1359241905&sr=1-
3&keywords=Logitech+Joypad
b. Wireless: http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-940-000117-Wireless-Gamepad-F710/dp/
B0041RR0TW/ref=pd_sim_vg_7
4. Wired Xbox or Xbox 360 controller, you can search the web for the correct driver that turns your
wired controller into a game pad for your PC.
5. Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for PC: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-
Xbox-Wireless-Controller-Windows/dp/B004QRKWKQ/ref=sr_1_2?
s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359242056&sr=1-2&keywords=xbox+360+controller+for+pc
Option 5 is what I went for, it is the exact same controller as the ones you buy for the Xbox 360 except it comes with a wireless adapter for your computer. The reason I went for this expensive option was that I wanted to be able to play multiplayer games without having to buy additional controllers, since I already had two Xbox 360 controllers I just have to sync them with my computer instead of my Xbox 360 and voilà I have two controllers to play Super Nintendo games on. Unfortunately Microsoft no longer sells the wireless adapter separately so you either have to purchase an additional controller or buy one of the third party wireless adapters that seem to have mixed reviews.
How to get your game pad to work in Snes9x:
1. Install the game pad (using software/drivers provided by the manufacturer)
2. Make sure your controller is plugged in (wired) or turned on (wireless)
3. Open the Input Configuration screen in Snes9x
4. Use your mouse to click in the “Up” filed, the background of the cell will turn green
5. Use the button on your game pad that you want to use as the up button, once it is recognized
you will automatically be moved to the next button
6. Continue until you have mapped all the desired buttons
7. Hit “OK” and enjoy playing your games with a joy pad!
Legal Disclaimer: You are legally allowed to have a backup copy of any game you own so you should only download games that you already own. Nintendo has taken the position that even if you own their game already you shouldn’t download the ROM, this has never gone to court and if you are simply playing a copy of a game you already own they would not be able to claim any legal damages. Aside from the used game market the only way to legally get original copies of these game is through the virtual console stores, in the case of Super Nintendo there are 92 games available on the virtual console and 1,503 games available on www.coolrom.com
I hope you enjoyed this article. Between this and free DVR article hopefully you see that cutting cable doesn’t mean cutting out tons of entertainment. Please let me know what experiences you have with this emulator and others. Also let me know if you have suggestions for other free or cheap ways to entertain myself and others!
