Fans of game consoles from the golden era of TV game appliances have been in for a treat over the past couple of years as a slew of official reboots of the stars of the past have reached the market. These so-called “classic” consoles closely follow the styling of the originals, but under the hood they pack modern hardware running an emulator to play a selection of games from ROM. Even better, with a bit of hacking they can run more than just the supplied emulator, people have managed to use them to emulate completely different consoles. Even then, it’s unexpected to find that a PlayStation emulator on a Super Nintendo Classic runs PlayStation games better than the same emulator built in to Sony’s own PlayStation Classic console.
The feat from [8 Bit Flashback] is achieved despite both machines having near-identical hardware specifications based upon the Allwinner R16 system-on-chip. The Nintendo provides smoother action and more responsive controls, making for a far superior gaming experience. How is this achieved? The most significant difference is that the SNES Classic had the RetroArch front end installed upon it, which may have lent some optimisations and tweaks to make the system more efficient.
Readers with an eye for unusual consoles may remember another Nintendo/Sony hybrid, the ill-fated early-1990s prototype SNES with a CD-ROM which was the first machine to bear the name “PlayStation” (or “Play Station” as it was sometimes styled, leading Sony marketeers to be hot on writers using a space between the words a few years later).
Via /r/nottheonion.
I’m guessing that the Nintendo version isn’t slowed-down by a root kit.
Wow, that is a lot of speed difference, and the graphics look better on the SNES Classic. It’s like BleemCast playing PS1 games on a Dreamcast.
Hey SEGA, where’s the Dreamcast Classic?
That would be awesome! I loved that console.
I hate to say it but I hope there isn’t one. reason being they would likely have AtGames make it and they’ve the previous Sega consoles by them kinda suck.
Bleemcast comparison video coming soon.8bit was here
To be fair, Mega Man 2 sounded and looked terrible on the NES classic.
“people have managed to use them to emulator completely different consoles”
emulator should be emulate
Slight error in the summary above, because it’s even worse …
According to the video, the Sony Classic has the better hardware
SNES Classic: Allwinner R16 quad-core Cortex-A7 1.2 GHz, 128 MB RAM
Sony Classic: [MediaTek MT8167A] quad-core Cortex-A53 1.5 GHz, 1GB RAM
The NES/SNES Classics had 256MB. Still a huge difference in available RAM though.
Actually, a better title would be “years of open source dynamic recompiler outperform closed source sony developed emulator”
Not super surprising, as the ARM dynamic recompiler for PSX is amazing piece of tech. But took quite long to get really stable.
It wouldn’t be a better title, because Sony also used an open-source emulator.
And the SNES mini is using the *same* emulator core (PCSX ReArmed), but through Retroarch.
Possibilities:
– The ARM core on PS min is clocked lower
– Sony made a less efficient front-end than Retroarch
– Driver differences.
Sony didn’t develop the emulator. They used open source PCSX Rearmed.
its the same emu, I am guessing the main difference is in disabling 50-60Hz conversion stupid sony classic is doing
It would be interesting to put the settings from Sony’s system into the emulator on the SNES Classic, and compare.
did you pay any attention to this article and attached video at all?
I don’t understand the words you wrote.
It’s amazing they did such a poor job of this. Between the high availability of these powerful SoC boards and open source emulators/frontends, this should have been a walk in the park for Sony.
I also asked myself “what were they thinking”?
That only collectors which never actually use the thing buy the PS classic?
A $30 setup with a Pi and free software gives five times better results.
Poor.
Isn’t comparing directly the hardware of the SNES with the Playstation a little unfair since many enhancement in SNES came from the cartridges themselves?
For example, for Star Fox, its cartridge came with the “Super FX” chip which was used to render 3D polygons plus help with the rendering of advanced 2D effects.
Plus, there were some other chips included as show in this wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_chips
Did you even read the article? This isn’t about old hardware in any shape or form. This is just “SoC #1 sold by Nintendo with one copy of PCSX outperforms SoC #2 sold by Sony with a different copy of PCSX”
Also, the prototype Playstation (note lowercase “s”) [b]was[/b] a SNES and Sony’s PlayStation was from the subsequent generation.
I m enjoying Nintendo 2DS I can play 2DS DS 3DS download YouTube all on 1 hand held game and Nintendo has better games their not about killing people and robing people and showing kid how to do that what game has that is Sony ps1 ps2 ps3 ps4 I feel that their not for kids any age will stick my Nintendo games I feel safer I’m 55 yes old
Silly blogger…. I thought everybody knew that “Ninten-do” what Sony don’t. :D
25 is barely enough to do the SNES justice, there are other awesome games on there that could make the list more than some of the titles you had on there, games like Pilotwings, Sim City, ActRaiser 1+2, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Lufia 1+2, Demon’s Crest, Secret of Evermore, Skyblazer, The Firemen, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Stunt Race FX, Breath of Fire 1+2, Dragon View, Zombies ate my neighbors, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Killer Instinct, Lost Vikings 1+2, Shadowrun… So many good memories…