The Super FX is a coprocessor on the Graphics Support Unit (GSU) added to select Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) video game cartridges, primarily to facilitate advanced 2D and 3D graphics. The Super FX chip was designed by Argonaut Games, who also co-developed the 3D space rail shooter video game Star Fox with Nintendo to demonstrate the additional polygon rendering capabilities that the chip had introduced to the SNES. [1]
The Super FX chip design team included engineers Ben Cheese, Rob Macaulay, and James Hakewill. [2] While in development, the Super FX chip was codenamed "Super Mario FX" [3] and "MARIO". "MARIO", a backronym for "Mathematical, Argonaut, Rotation, & Input/Output", is printed on the face of the final production chip. [4] The chip's name would lead to an urban legend that "Super Mario FX" was a video game in development for the SNES. [5]
Because of high manufacturing costs and increased development time, few Super FX based games were made compared to the rest of the SNES library. Due to these increased costs, Super FX games often retailed at a higher MSRP compared to other SNES games. [6]
According to Argonaut Games founder Jez San, Argonaut had initially intended to develop the Super FX chip for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The team programmed an NES version of the first-person combat flight simulator Starglider , which Argonaut had developed for the Atari ST and other home computers a few years earlier, and showed it to Nintendo in 1990. The prototype impressed the company, but they suggested that they develop games for the then-unreleased Super Famicom due to the NES's hardware becoming outdated in light of newer systems such as the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. Shortly after the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show held in Chicago, Illinois, Argonaut ported the NES version of Starglider to the Super Famicom, a process which took roughly one week according to San. [7]
The Super FX chip is used to render 3D polygons and to assist the SNES in rendering advanced 2D effects. This custom-made RISC processor is typically programmed to act like a graphics accelerator chip that draws polygons to a frame buffer in the RAM that sits adjacent to it. The data in this frame buffer is periodically transferred to the main video memory inside of the console using DMA in order to show up on the television display.
The first version of the chip, commonly referred to as simply "Super FX", is clocked with a 21.4 MHz signal, but an internal clock speed divider halves it to 10.7 MHz. Later on, the design was revised to become the Super FX GSU (Graphics Support Unit); this, unlike the first Super FX chip revision, is able to reach 21 MHz.
All versions of the Super FX chip are functionally compatible in terms of their instruction set. The differences arise in how they are packaged, their pinout, and their internal clock speed. As a result of changing the package when creating the GSU-2, more external pins were available and assigned for addressing. As a result, a larger amount of external ROM or RAM can be accessed.
Star Fox uses the chip for the rendering of hundreds of simultaneous 3D polygons. It uses scaled 2D bitmaps for lasers, asteroids, and other obstacles, but other objects such as ships are rendered with 3D polygons. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island uses the chip for 2D graphics effects like sprite scaling and stretching.
Game cartridges that contain a Super FX chip have additional contacts at the bottom of the cartridge that connect to the extra slots in the cartridge port that are not otherwise typically used. Therefore, Super FX games cannot be plugged into cartridge adapters which predate the release of Super FX games. This includes cheat devices, such as the Game Genie.
| Title | Release date | SuperFX version | Frequency | µArch | ROM size | Work RAM size | Save RAM size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Fox/Starwing [8] | February 1993 | Mario Chip [9] | 10.5 Mhz (21 Mhz / 2) [10] | 16 bit RISC CPU | 8 MBit | 256 KBit | None |
| Dirt Racer [11] | May 1995 | GSU-1 | 21 Mhz [10] | 4 MBit | 256 KBit | None | |
| Dirt Trax FX [12] | June 1995 | 4 MBit | 512 KBit | None | |||
| Stunt Race FX/Wild Trax [13] | May 1994 | 8 MBit | 512 KBit | 64 KBit | |||
| Vortex [14] | September 1994 | 4 MBit | 256 KBit | None | |||
| Voxel (demo)[ citation needed ] | 3 MBit | 512 KBit | None | ||||
| Doom [15] | September 1995 | GSU-2 | 16 MBit | 512 KBit | None | ||
| Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island [16] | August 1995 | GSU-2-SP1 | 16 MBit | 256 KBit | 64 KBit | ||
| Winter Gold [17] | November 1996 | GSU-2 | 16 MBit | 512 KBit | 64 KBit |
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania and 1993 in South America. In Japan, it is called the Super Famicom (SFC). In South Korea, it is called the Super Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. The system was released in Brazil on August 30, 1993, by Playtronic. Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent cartridges for one version from being used in other versions.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a 1995 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is the sequel follow-up to Super Mario World. The player controls Yoshi, a friendly dinosaur, on a quest to reunite baby Mario with his brother Luigi, who has been kidnapped by Kamek. As a Super Mario series platformer, Yoshi runs and jumps to reach the end of the level while solving puzzles and collecting items with Mario's help. The game has a hand-drawn aesthetic and was the first in the franchise to have Yoshi as its main character, where it introduces his signature flutter jump and egg spawning abilities.
Star Fox is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagonist Fox McCloud. Gameplay involves many adventures around the Lylat planetary system in the futuristic Arwing fighter aircraft, in other vehicles, and on foot. The original Star Fox (1993) is a forward-scrolling 3D rail shooter, but later games add more directional freedom.
Yoshi's Safari is a 1993 light gun shooter developed and published by Nintendo for its Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is the only Mario franchise game to feature first-person shooter gameplay and requires the SNES's Super Scope light gun. As Mario and his pet dinosaur Yoshi, the player embarks on a quest to save the kingdom of Jewelry Land from Bowser and his Koopalings, who have kidnapped its rulers and stolen 12 gems. The game features 12 levels in which the player shoots enemies like Goombas and Koopas, and collects power-ups and coins. At the end of each level, the player engages in a boss fight with an enemy, a Koopaling, or Bowser. Nintendo commissioned its R&D1 department to develop Yoshi's Safari in response to the waning popularity of the Super Scope. Yoshi's Safari was the first Super Scope title to use the SNES's Mode 7 graphics mode, and the future of the peripheral depended on the game's performance.
Star Fox, known as Starwing in PAL regions, is a rail shooter video game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software, and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The first entry in the Star Fox series, the story follows Fox McCloud and the rest of the Star Fox team defending their homeworld of Corneria against the invading forces of Andross.
Star Fox 2 is a rail shooter game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software and published by Nintendo. Developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), it was completed in 1995 but did not see an official release until 2017 on the Super NES Classic Edition.
Argonaut Games PLC was a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game Star Fox and its supporting Super FX chip, and for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and the Starglider series. The company was liquidated in late 2004, and ceased to exist in early 2007.
Jeremy Elliott "Jez" San OBE is an English game programmer and entrepreneur who founded Argonaut Software as a teenager in the 1980s. He is best known for the 1986 Atari ST game Starglider and helping to design the Super FX chip used in Star Fox for the Super NES.
Stunt Race FX, known in Japan as Wild Trax, is a racing video game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second game to use the 3D-centric Super FX powered GSU-1.
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a platform game developed by Argonaut Software, published by Fox Interactive and distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in North America and Electronic Arts internationally for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Taking place in the fictional setting of the Gobbo Valley, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos follows a young crocodile named Croc, who sets out to rescue a group of furry creatures known as Gobbos from the evil magician Baron Dante.
FX Fighter is a series of video games developed by Argonaut Software and published by GTE Entertainment. The two games in the series are FX Fighter (1995) for DOS CD-ROM and FX Fighter Turbo (1996) for Windows 95.
Starglider is a 3D video game published in 1986 by Rainbird. It was developed by Jez San under his company name Argonaut Software. The game is a fast-moving, first-person combat flight simulator, rendered with colourful wireframe vector graphics inspired by San's love of the 1983 Atari coin-op Star Wars.
X is a 1992 space combat simulation video game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Software and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in Japan. The player assumes the role of the VIXIV starship as it must protect the planet Tetamus II from a mysterious race of aliens. Gameplay involves completing missions assigned by the "Training Academy Coach", ranging from protecting bases from enemy fire or delivering cargo to a certain area.
The Retro Duo is a handheld game console developed by Retro-Bit and distributed by Innex, Inc. It plays game cartridges for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It plays North American, European and Japanese games and has the highest compatibility of any other clone system. S-video is compatible when playing SNES games. The console is not licensed by Nintendo and it's not fully compatible with every game released for the two game systems, but the majority of games function properly. While it has only been released in Canada and the United States, it can still be used in Europe and Japan with a power plug adapter. The console is compatible with official and third party SNES controllers.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game Pak is the system's default ROM cartridge medium. It is called Game Pak in most Western regions, and Cassette in Japan and parts of Latin America. While the Super NES can address 128 Megabits, only 117.75 Megabits are actually available for cartridge use. A fairly normal mapping can easily address up to 95 Megabit of ROM data with 8 Megabits of battery-backed RAM. However, most available memory access controllers only support mappings of up to 32 Megabits. The largest games released contain 48 Megabits of ROM data, while the smallest games contain 2 Megabits.
The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pre-installed, including the first official release of Star Fox 2. It was released in North America and Europe on September 29, 2017.
Giles Goddard is an English video game programmer. He was one of the first Western employees at Nintendo, programming the Mario face in Super Mario 64, and working on titles such as Star Fox, 1080° Snowboarding, and Steel Diver. In 2002, he founded Vitei, a video game developer based in Kyoto, Japan, and is CEO.
Winter Gold is a 1996 winter sports video game developed by Funcom and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In the game, players participate in six winter sports disciplines across four distinct olympic venues. Its gameplay focuses on time trials in three playable modes, using a main five-button configuration. The 3D visuals are powered by the Super FX2 chip, an enhancement of Argonaut Software's Super FX processor previously used in Doom and Yoshi's Island.
We did most of the technology back in England with a relatively large engineering/tech team, which comprised of Carl Graham and Pete Warnes on the software-based 3D technology and Ben Cheese, Rob Macaulay and James Hakewill working on the hardware side of things
SNES Central: @dylancuthbert I'm researching unreleased SNES games, was a game called "Super Mario FX" ever in development?
Dylan Cuthbert: @snescentral no, that was the internal code name for the FX chip"
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