D4rkDragon
Lemon Dragon
Towns Folk
Hello everybody !
I'm here to talk you about a forgotten, Japan-only, add-on for the SNES, or the Super Famicom (for the Japan).
It is the Satellaview. There's a lot of chance that the title doesn't make you think about anything.
It's normal, because the Satellaview (or also named BS-X) was released in 1995 in Japan for ~$150.
The add-on came with an 8M Rewritable Memory Pack (to download demos/magazines/games), and its cables. The SNES directly tuned to the St. GIGA satellite when the Satellaview cartridge was inserted.
The system was quite simple; it was an add-on that you would plug under the Super Nintendo, and with the cartridge shipped with, you could play BS-X games during broadcast times (Each broadcast lasted between 30 minutes to 4 hours), and there were games that were cut in 4 parts: each part playable each week.
I'm here to talk you about a forgotten, Japan-only, add-on for the SNES, or the Super Famicom (for the Japan).
It is the Satellaview. There's a lot of chance that the title doesn't make you think about anything.
It's normal, because the Satellaview (or also named BS-X) was released in 1995 in Japan for ~$150.
The add-on came with an 8M Rewritable Memory Pack (to download demos/magazines/games), and its cables. The SNES directly tuned to the St. GIGA satellite when the Satellaview cartridge was inserted.
The system was quite simple; it was an add-on that you would plug under the Super Nintendo, and with the cartridge shipped with, you could play BS-X games during broadcast times (Each broadcast lasted between 30 minutes to 4 hours), and there were games that were cut in 4 parts: each part playable each week.
Interestingly, there are many titles who are worth looking at, because some of the games were exclusive to the BS-X such as a The Legend of Zelda game, a Fire Emblem game, and a revamped version of Excitebike with Mario characters.
As of 2000, Nintendo stopped broadcasting BS-X games, and in 2007, the satellite was totally removed.
While it was a commercial failure, it was a major technological advance, as it was the "ancestor" of the online gaming services, like the Nintendo Network, the Xbox Live or even the Playstation Network.
There's also a rumour saying that Microsoft actually helped Nintendo to make the online service.
Actually, if you're interested, there's ways to play the Satellaview games, but, it'll require you to be familiar with Japanese.
> What do you think of it ? Do you think that it inspired the online gaming we have now ? Do you think it was a good idea ?
Another thing that was interesting is the SoundLink system used by the Satellaview. All the BS-X Zelda games, as well as many others used this system, where a narrator broadcast the game's story through the St. GIGA satellite.
As of 2000, Nintendo stopped broadcasting BS-X games, and in 2007, the satellite was totally removed.
While it was a commercial failure, it was a major technological advance, as it was the "ancestor" of the online gaming services, like the Nintendo Network, the Xbox Live or even the Playstation Network.
There's also a rumour saying that Microsoft actually helped Nintendo to make the online service.
Actually, if you're interested, there's ways to play the Satellaview games, but, it'll require you to be familiar with Japanese.
> What do you think of it ? Do you think that it inspired the online gaming we have now ? Do you think it was a good idea ?
) but more Cable TV like. It's a subscription service for the Super Famicom.