Pajamas, Soggy Cornflakes, and the SNES

At some point in childhood I had the perfect gaming setup without knowing it was perfect: a CRT television with a slightly convex screen, a Super Nintendo, and no ambient awareness that games could look or sound better than they already did. The resolution was the resolution. The music was the music. Super Mario World was Super Mario World.

The Super Nt from Analogue is an attempt to recover that experience for anyone who still has a cartridge collection and no functioning hardware. It plays original Super Nintendo cartridges in HD, using FPGA emulation precise enough that the people who care about accuracy—and they care intensely—appear to be satisfied. It launched bundled with Super Turrican: Director’s Cut and Super Turrican 2, which is either generous or a reminder that not everyone still has a shoebox of cartridges under the bed.

I understand the impulse completely, even if I’m not sure the modern TV is the right vessel for it. Part of what made those games feel right was the slight blur of the CRT, the scanlines, the way colors bled into each other in a way that contemporary LCD sharpness turns into something almost aggressive. Playing Secret of Mana in HD is a different experience from playing Secret of Mana—better and worse simultaneously, in ways that are hard to explain without sounding like you’re complaining about picture quality being too good.

Still. The games themselves hold. The design, the music, the feel of the controller—none of that has aged. The Super Nt at around 160 euros is probably the cleanest way to run this hardware in a modern setup, and I find it hard to argue against anything that gets more people playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The pajamas and the soggy cornflakes you’ll have to source yourself.