Japanese Secrets!

Early(1988)Super Famicom Demos

The Super Famicom was demonstrated to the Japanese press in late 1988 (2 years before its proper release), and so Famicom Tsushin Magazine published a special report in their December 23, 1988 issue. The following images were taken from this special report. (I'm sorry about the quality of the pics, but a digital camera is all I've got.) Click on the thumbnails to see some large pictures!

The early SFC in all its glory.

"Finally, an appearance!!"
The SFC is announced before over 200 members of the press. Its capabilities are compared with those of the PC-Engine and Megadrive.

"The SFC is completely incompatible with the Famicom!!"
The page explains how the SFC has no backwards-compatibility with the old Famicom. The SFC will, however, have an A/V input on the back which will accept the A/V signals of the "Famicom Adaptor", the redesigned Famicom with A/V outputs.

"Super Famicom, the ultimate machine!!"
The SFC uses a special multi-out connector for its video, and also the Famicom video when the "Famicom" switch is set to the left.

"The Famicom Adaptor, for Famicom games only!!"
This redesigned Famicom uses the SFC controllers.

Reactions from the Famicom software industry. NEC, Sega, and other developers/makers give their comments(?) on the SFC's introduction.

More reactions, and a prediction from one writer.

"SFC's graphic functions are thoroughly dissected."
Colours and resolutions are discussed, as well as background layers and scrolling capabilities.

Sprite size has been increased, as well as video effects implemented, such as mosaic, fade-in, and fade-out.

Scaling, rotation are shown. "Because it is done by the hardware, it moves fast, fast, fast!!"

A recap of the SFC's graphics power.

"The SFC's sound is also powerful!!"
This page lists the sound capabilities: 8-channel samples, stereo, DSP effects, and clear sound through AV connectors and "VCCI" noise reduction (whatever that is.)

Other hardware capabilities are explained: VCCI, H-DMA, ROM addressing.

"Expected types of games you'll be able to play!!"
The Famitsu staff speculate at the types of games the SFC will be able to run, such as those with lots of scaling/rotation, high-quality images, video effects, mathematical caluclations (such as simulations)...

...audio that rivals CD-ROM, games that speak and use 8-channel sampled sound, large scale RPGs up to 12 Megabytes, and new types of controllers and control methods.

That's all, folks!

A close up of a (surely brain-addled) Shigeru Miyamoto explaining the SFC hardware.

And here's a close-up of the early controller. Interestingly, the buttons are labeled A,B,C,D (and concave); and the shoulder buttons E and F. A,B are also rotated clockwise 90° from the release version. The E,F shoulder buttons appear far more rounded than in the released controller.

Other interesting things from this report:
The SFC's Work RAM was set at a puny 8 Kilobytes! (To be upped before release, of course.) The sound hardware is said to be "2 Custom LSI chips" Perhaps this meant the sampled audio unit as well as the DSP.
The "Famicom Adaptor" that went unreleased in its current form was still labeled "Family Computer", so it is not by any means an adaptor that sits on top of the SFC.
The legendary picture of a "16-bit Adventure of Link" is shown here. It's likely just a still showing the SFC's graphics tile addressing capabilities, alongside the digitization and colour demonstration still pictures on the same page.
Here were the reactions from software companies at the time: (Compare this to their reactions to the NEC SuperGrafx!)

Maker	Comment
Taito	As new media, it is as expected. The performance of the machine seems great, so I want to make games that cannot lose.
Tecmo	It seems to be a high-performance machine. I want to see what kind of software is made.
Namco	I think it has advanced functions. It seems to be made for transplants from business-use (arcade?) machines.
Data East	It looks like a good machine. I want to try out Mario 4 and Zelda 3 as soon as possible.
ASCII	It is the next-generation home video game machine. We'll think hard about how to make use of a 4-button joystick.
Square	I am beyond anticipation. The forecast of 3 million sets sold per year does not seem like a dream. I absolutely want to make something for it.
Hudson	Although I've heard that it is a great machine, I still can't comment until I've seen the actual thing.
IREM	Rotation and scaling functions are good. The abundance of colours is another strong feature.
Capcom	I took notice of the rotation and scaling functions. It can do more than I had imagined. We're surely starting from 4 Megabit games.
Nichibutsu	Under influence from the SFC, I expect that the whole game industry will be revitalized.
Sunsoft	If the machine as announced will be released at a low price, it will be amazing.
Enix	If all the functions of the machine can be mastered, we'll make great software, I think... But games makers will likely be exhausted doing so.
Bandai	I think that it is a machine with wonderful functions.
Jaleco	I want especially to note the inclusion of rotation and scaling functions.
Toshiba EMI	I took notice of the scrolling functions and sound chip. I wonder whether software will follow. But the price is a problem, isn't it?

The SFC Demonstration in 1989

Here are some more big pics that show some early demonstrations of the Super Famicom's power. These pictures appeared in the September 1, 1989 issue of Famicom Tsushin. These images come from a press meeting on July 28, 1989, a mere 16 months before the Super Famicom went on sale.

These are quite amazing for their history! Some quick info from the pictures:
The headline of the article says "Super Famicom will not be released for at least another year!" The second image shows an older SFC design, with A,B,Y,X buttons, but in a different arrangement. Start and Select are also in a different orientation. The right side of the page shows the "mode 7" demo, scroll demo, sprite demo, colour, mosaic demo, and "sound" as the captions say.
The next pages have some great images of an early Super Mario World, and what turned into Pilotwings. I don't know about you, but I think a game where you play a dragonfly with guns and missiles would have been much more fun than a straight flight simulator...

And now, for those of you following at home, here is a timeline of the Super Famicom's progress as followed (rumoured?) by the Japanese press:

Date	Publication	Contents
9/9/1987	Kyoto Shinbun	"16-bit Super Famicom. Compatible with the Famicom"
9/15/1987	Yomiuri Shinbun	"Software/Games are already under development. Price set at under ¥20,000."
11/23/1987	B-Young Age	"Old Family Computer is taken as a trade-in."
1/18/1988	Nikkei Computer	"The CPU will be 65C816. Improved graphics & sound."
Jan. 1988	A Club (Hong Kong)	"The system will accept 2 types of disks, cartridges." (This seems to be pure conjecture.)
Jun. 1988	Sendenkaigi (Advertisement meeting)	"Development is going smoothly."
7/29/1988	Famicom Tsushin	"Super Famicom will come out within the year!?"
12/23/1988	Famicom Tsushin	"Super Famicom is finally demonstrated. Release planned for July 1989."
7/28/1989	Nintendo trade meeting	"Super Famicom will not be released for at least another year!"
...	...	...
11/21/1990		Super Famicom is -- finally -- released!

Here are some more pics from around the same time:

This is the first time I've ever seen the old title screen to Super Mario World! Well, it's good that they changed it, since this seriously lacks colours... I can count maybe just 10 colours or so. It does have a nice Japanese "parchment" feel to it. It's interesting to note that the island in the title screen is the same as the "world" that you walk on in the map. It's an interesting mushroom-shaped world, though it's disappointingly small for a world if you ask me.

(Click on the left pic for a larger version)
These pics were taken from "Family Computer Magazine", the main rival to Famitsu, in their August 18, 1989 issue. The pics are from the same show that Famitsu attended, obviously, but they have much larger pictures and close-ups of the SFC hardware. Even though the SFC would go through a few cosmetic changes, it is clear to me now that the hardware was basically finished by mid-1989, and that Nintendo sat on the SFC for over a year. They probably did this to let other software developers finish their games, but another reason was that the 8-bit Famicom was still selling like wildfire, and so they feared releasing the SFC too early would have killed hardware sales of a still-successful system. (Bah, at the very least, they could have spent that year upgrading the CPU speed!)

(Click on image for a close-up)

Here are the technical specs of the prototype SFC, circa mid-1989...

•Performance: PROTOTYPE SPECS, REMEMBER!
1. CPU (16-bit CPU)
memory space	14 Mbyte maximum addressable
system clock	1.79Mhz, 2.68Mhz, 3.58Mhz automatically switchable
work RAM	256Kbit (32Kbyte) standard PROTOTYPE SPECS!
2. PPU (Super Famicom TV interface LSI)
BG layer	modes: 8 modes layers: maximum 4 layers resolution: noninterlace: 256(512)x448 interlace: 512x448 colour capability: max 256 colours (8bit/dot) character size: 8x8, 16x16 palette: 2,048 colours out of 32,768 colour maximum. (depending on BG mode) additional functions: rotation, enlarging, shrinking, column and line partial scrolling
animation layer	sprites: max. 128 on-screen, 280 pixels (35 8x8 sprites) per scanline character size: 8x8, 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 in 4 arrangements, individually selectable palette: 128 colours out of 32,768 colour maximum, 16 colours per character
additional	V-RAM: 64Kbyte standard special effects: window, mosaic, screen addition/subtraction (transparency), fixed colour addition/subtraction, brightness adjustment
3. APU (Super Famicom Sampler Stereo Audio Chip)
audio source	waveform operation (ADSR?), PCM, noise, etc. in 8 individual channels
additional	effects (digital echo) available
•I/O (input-output):
cassette connector	62-pin (CPU address bus, data bus, PPU address bus, etc.)
expansion connector	20-pin (programmable I/O, external latch, sound input, etc.)
controller 1,2	5-pin
A/V output	12-pin (R,G,B, video, Y,C, sync, sound L/R, etc.)
AC adaptor	same type as Famicom
RF output	TV channel 1 or 2
•System Dimensions: W 200mm x D 242mm x H 72mm
•Weight: 1160 grams
•Optional Parts:
AC adaptor	same as the Famicom's
RF switch	same as the Famicom's
controller	Super Famicom-specific (sold separately)
stereo cable	Super Famicom-specific (sold separately)
S-Video cable	Super Famicom-specific (sold separately)
RGB cable	Super Famicom-specific (sold separately)

So it looks like the SFC was pretty much shippable then. The only big differences I can see between these specs and that of the released version is much less main RAM. The release SFC has 128Kbytes of RAM, a very large increase. Most games don't use such a whopping amount of RAM, except for SlowROM games to run their code in at 3.58Mhz. So, perhaps Nintendo added the RAM in to get that speed boost.

Hmm... 2048 colours at once in the BG???!?!? (A technically-savvy friend has pointed out that this is the SFC's "direct colour mode" which displays 256-colour tiles, but with a lower single bit of colour selectable from the palette memory (256x8) for each tile. In other words, a mostly useless colour mode.)

Here are some more pics of an early Super Mario World. It looked very much like a 16-bit version of SMB3 back then, what with the note blocks, coins, square question blocks, and raccoon-Mario power-up. No sign of Yoshi whatsoever.

These pics, and the ones that appeared in other magazines, are usually identical. That means that Nintendo probably distributed slides or photographs to various magazines at the time. Only some of the images taken by magazines at the SFC show were from live video (or more likely videotape, given their blurriness.)

Here's an early title screen (?) of Dragonfly, what would become Pilotwings. Pretty boring, but I like the look of that '0' in the title... a level select, perhaps?

Return to Main Page!


The early SFC in all its glory.	"Finally, an appearance!!" The SFC is announced before over 200 members of the press. Its capabilities are compared with those of the PC-Engine and Megadrive.	"The SFC is completely incompatible with the Famicom!!" The page explains how the SFC has no backwards-compatibility with the old Famicom. The SFC will, however, have an A/V input on the back which will accept the A/V signals of the "Famicom Adaptor", the redesigned Famicom with A/V outputs.	"Super Famicom, the ultimate machine!!" The SFC uses a special multi-out connector for its video, and also the Famicom video when the "Famicom" switch is set to the left.	"The Famicom Adaptor, for Famicom games only!!" This redesigned Famicom uses the SFC controllers.	Reactions from the Famicom software industry. NEC, Sega, and other developers/makers give their comments(?) on the SFC's introduction.

More reactions, and a prediction from one writer.	"SFC's graphic functions are thoroughly dissected." Colours and resolutions are discussed, as well as background layers and scrolling capabilities.	Sprite size has been increased, as well as video effects implemented, such as mosaic, fade-in, and fade-out.	Scaling, rotation are shown. "Because it is done by the hardware, it moves fast, fast, fast!!"	A recap of the SFC's graphics power.	"The SFC's sound is also powerful!!" This page lists the sound capabilities: 8-channel samples, stereo, DSP effects, and clear sound through AV connectors and "VCCI" noise reduction (whatever that is.)

Other hardware capabilities are explained: VCCI, H-DMA, ROM addressing.	"Expected types of games you'll be able to play!!" The Famitsu staff speculate at the types of games the SFC will be able to run, such as those with lots of scaling/rotation, high-quality images, video effects, mathematical caluclations (such as simulations)...	...audio that rivals CD-ROM, games that speak and use 8-channel sampled sound, large scale RPGs up to 12 Megabytes, and new types of controllers and control methods.	That's all, folks!	A close up of a (surely brain-addled) Shigeru Miyamoto explaining the SFC hardware.	And here's a close-up of the early controller. Interestingly, the buttons are labeled A,B,C,D (and concave); and the shoulder buttons E and F. A,B are also rotated clockwise 90° from the release version. The E,F shoulder buttons appear far more rounded than in the released controller.