v0.7

CHANGELOG

v0.7 fixes tearing in scrolling games and adds the SPC7110 (Far East of Eden Zero, Momotarou Dentetsu Happy, Super Power League 4) and S-DD1 (Street Fighter Alpha 2, Star Ocean) cartridges.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

Warning

The optional 504 MHz overclock in the settings menu is not advised. Leave it off.

It gains very little — the bottleneck is PSRAM bandwidth, not the CPU clock, so most games run at essentially the same speed as at the default 378 MHz. It raises the core voltage, makes the chip run considerably hotter, and can overheat, destabilise or permanently damage the RP2350 and the board it is on. It is off by default and exists for experimenting only. Enabling it is entirely at your own risk; the author accepts no responsibility for any damage.

v0.7

Far East of Eden Zero and the other SPC7110 games

A few Japanese cartridges use Hudson's SPC7110 chip. They were refused at load time until now. They play:

• Far East of Eden Zero (Tengai Makyou Zero) — the Japanese original and the English fan translation
• Momotarou Dentetsu Happy
• Super Power League 4

Worth knowing:

• The first start runs a self-test built into the cartridge (SPC7110 CHECK PROGRAM). Press A, wait for it to finish and reset the game (Select + Start → Reset game), then do the same with B. After that the game starts normally. Do not hold a button down during the reset.
• The clock in Far East of Eden Zero only runs while you play. The board has no clock of its own, so the game asks for the date and time once, and the in-game calendar falls behind while the board is off.
• The English translation is copied to flash first. At 7 MB it does not fit in memory, so after you confirm it is copied into the board's flash. That takes a few minutes, once. This needs a board with 16 MB of flash, such as the Adafruit Fruit Jam or the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2; the Adafruit Feather RP2350 has only 8 MB and cannot run it. On the Murmulator M2 it depends on the board fitted.

See SPC7110 in the README for more.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Star Ocean

These two games use Nintendo's S-DD1 chip, which unpacks their graphics while the game runs. They were refused at load time until now. They play:

• Street Fighter Alpha 2
• Star Ocean (Japan)

Fixes

• No more tearing in scrolling games. Side-scrollers such as Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country could show jagged, stair-stepped edges and cut-up sprites while the screen scrolled. The picture is now updated in step with the display.
• A button used in the menu no longer reaches the game. Choosing an item in the in-game menu could pass that same button press straight through to the game.
• B works straight away on the AliExpress SNES USB controller. It used to do nothing until Y had been pressed once.
• No more dots in the picture on the Adafruit Fruit Jam and Feather RP2350. Some TVs and monitors showed small dots or short dotted lines.
• The Overclock setting always matches the speed the board runs at. It could show ON while the board ran at the normal speed, or OFF while the board was still overclocked. On the Murmulator M2 and Feather RP2350, saving any setting no longer restarts the board.

Other changes

• The controller test screen is left by holding Select + Up instead of Select + Start, which some 8BitDo wireless controllers keep for themselves.
• SA-1 games skip more frames. With frame skipping on, games such as Super Mario RPG and Kirby Super Star now draw one frame in three, as Super FX games do, instead of every other frame.
• The frame rate display shows two more values: R, how often the picture has had to resynchronise with the display since start-up, and F, how many frames are skipped after each one drawn.
• All settings return to their defaults once after updating to this version.
• New setting: Video Clock Fix (Pimoroni Pico Plus 2, PicoNES PCB and Murmulator M2). Turn it on if your TV or monitor shows small dots or lines in the picture. A USB controller can then no longer be used; use a NES, SNES or Wii controller instead. See Video Clock Fix in the README.

v0.6

What's new

• Overscan fix in menu. A new setting for TVs that cut off the edges of the screen. It leaves the top and bottom rows of the menus blank, and optionally the first and last columns as well. The change is shown right away in the settings menu.
• More options on one page in the settings menu. The color palette is now only shown while one of the menu color options is selected, which leaves room for more options on screen.
• Quicker saving in the settings menu. Press SELECT on any setting to jump straight to the SAVE/CANCEL/DEFAULT row.

Fixes

• Controller test screen shows the controller outline and the list of controllers correctly again.

v0.5

One new feature and two fixes: games can now be copied to the SD card over USB, SA-1 timing is corrected, and the 504 MHz overclock applies again. The shared menu and support code (pico_shared) is updated as well. Everything listed under v0.4 and earlier still applies, and upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Copy games over USB

Adding a game used to mean powering the board down, digging the microSD card out, finding a card reader and putting it all back. USB drive mode removes that: it hands the card to a computer as an ordinary USB drive while the board stays where it is.

Press Select in the ROM browser, choose USB drive mode, and connect the board's USB port to a computer. The card appears as a removable drive. Copy or delete files, then eject the drive on the computer; the emulator returns to the ROM browser with the new list of games already read in. B leaves the screen too, and if no computer turns up within twenty seconds it closes by itself.

Worth knowing:

• It is offered in the ROM browser only.
• Eject the drive on the computer before leaving, as with any USB stick.
• Controllers on a GPIO port, or on a second USB port, keep working while the card is mounted.
• A board with only one USB port needs it for the computer, which powers the board through it, so use a gamepad on the GPIO port there.

SA-1 games

A few cartridges carry a second, faster processor of their own: the SA-1, used by Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and a handful of others. The emulator was not keeping it properly in step with the rest of the console, and Super Mario RPG could freeze during battles as a result.

The timing is now right. Super Mario RPG plays through its battles, and the other games with this chip benefit from the same fix. Games run just as fast as before.

This fix was contributed by Amy (@zZmiz) in pull request #4 — thank you.

Fixes

• The 504 MHz overclock applies again. Switching it on in the settings menu rebooted the board as it should, but the board came back at the usual 378 MHz and the setting looked as though it had been ignored. Broken since v0.4. The advice in the warning at the top of this page has not changed, though: leave it off.
• PSRAM is recognised reliably at start-up. The check that identifies the PSRAM chip could pick up a stale byte and not recognise it, and a board that reports no PSRAM refuses to start, since this emulator cannot run without it.

An easier SNES-to-NES adapter cable

The GPIO controller ports on the PicoNES PCB and on a breadboard build use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol, so plugging in a real SNES pad needs a small adapter cable. Making one used to start with cutting the connector off a controller or an extension cable.

There is now a less destructive route: buy a bare 7-pin SNES connector (the 180 degree version) and 3D print a cap for it. The model is in this repository as assets/SNES Controller Port Cap.stl, designed by Gavin Knight (@DynaMight1124) — thank you. See snestonescontroller.md for the wiring and the rest of the build.

Other changes

• The bottom of the settings menu has a fixed order: Controller test, Enter BOOTSEL mode and USB drive mode, in that order, after the settings themselves.
• The project has moved to the PicoPlus-devel organisation, along with the sister emulators and the shared code. Nothing needs to be done about it: existing links, clones and bookmarks keep working, as GitHub forwards them to the new address.

v0.4

A maintenance release. It brings the shared menu and support code up to date; the emulator itself is unchanged. Upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Fixes

• DVI-only monitors show a picture again. With Display Mode set to DVI, some older screens that accept DVI but not HDMI stayed black. They work again.
• Steadier start-up. The board lets its power settle before switching to the higher clock speed.

v0.3

Updates the shared menu and support code (pico_shared). ...

v0.6

CHANGELOG

v0.6 adds an overscan fix for the menus, for TVs that cut off the edges of the screen, and fits more options on one page of the settings menu.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

Warning

The optional 504 MHz overclock in the settings menu is not advised. Leave it off.

It gains very little — the bottleneck is PSRAM bandwidth, not the CPU clock, so most games run at essentially the same speed as at the default 378 MHz. It raises the core voltage, makes the chip run considerably hotter, and can overheat, destabilise or permanently damage the RP2350 and the board it is on. It is off by default and exists for experimenting only. Enabling it is entirely at your own risk; the author accepts no responsibility for any damage.

v0.6

What's new

• Overscan fix in menu. A new setting for TVs that cut off the edges of the screen. It leaves the top and bottom rows of the menus blank, and optionally the first and last columns as well. The change is shown right away in the settings menu.
• More options on one page in the settings menu. The color palette is now only shown while one of the menu color options is selected, which leaves room for more options on screen.
• Quicker saving in the settings menu. Press SELECT on any setting to jump straight to the SAVE/CANCEL/DEFAULT row.

Fixes

• Controller test screen shows the controller outline and the list of controllers correctly again.

v0.5

One new feature and two fixes: games can now be copied to the SD card over USB, SA-1 timing is corrected, and the 504 MHz overclock applies again. The shared menu and support code (pico_shared) is updated as well. Everything listed under v0.4 and earlier still applies, and upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Copy games over USB

Adding a game used to mean powering the board down, digging the microSD card out, finding a card reader and putting it all back. USB drive mode removes that: it hands the card to a computer as an ordinary USB drive while the board stays where it is.

Press Select in the ROM browser, choose USB drive mode, and connect the board's USB port to a computer. The card appears as a removable drive. Copy or delete files, then eject the drive on the computer; the emulator returns to the ROM browser with the new list of games already read in. B leaves the screen too, and if no computer turns up within twenty seconds it closes by itself.

Worth knowing:

• It is offered in the ROM browser only.
• Eject the drive on the computer before leaving, as with any USB stick.
• Controllers on a GPIO port, or on a second USB port, keep working while the card is mounted.
• A board with only one USB port needs it for the computer, which powers the board through it, so use a gamepad on the GPIO port there.

SA-1 games

A few cartridges carry a second, faster processor of their own: the SA-1, used by Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and a handful of others. The emulator was not keeping it properly in step with the rest of the console, and Super Mario RPG could freeze during battles as a result.

The timing is now right. Super Mario RPG plays through its battles, and the other games with this chip benefit from the same fix. Games run just as fast as before.

This fix was contributed by Amy (@zZmiz) in pull request #4 — thank you.

Fixes

• The 504 MHz overclock applies again. Switching it on in the settings menu rebooted the board as it should, but the board came back at the usual 378 MHz and the setting looked as though it had been ignored. Broken since v0.4. The advice in the warning at the top of this page has not changed, though: leave it off.
• PSRAM is recognised reliably at start-up. The check that identifies the PSRAM chip could pick up a stale byte and not recognise it, and a board that reports no PSRAM refuses to start, since this emulator cannot run without it.

An easier SNES-to-NES adapter cable

The GPIO controller ports on the PicoNES PCB and on a breadboard build use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol, so plugging in a real SNES pad needs a small adapter cable. Making one used to start with cutting the connector off a controller or an extension cable.

There is now a less destructive route: buy a bare 7-pin SNES connector (the 180 degree version) and 3D print a cap for it. The model is in this repository as assets/SNES Controller Port Cap.stl, designed by Gavin Knight (@DynaMight1124) — thank you. See snestonescontroller.md for the wiring and the rest of the build.

Other changes

• The bottom of the settings menu has a fixed order: Controller test, Enter BOOTSEL mode and USB drive mode, in that order, after the settings themselves.
• The project has moved to the PicoPlus-devel organisation, along with the sister emulators and the shared code. Nothing needs to be done about it: existing links, clones and bookmarks keep working, as GitHub forwards them to the new address.

v0.4

A maintenance release. It brings the shared menu and support code up to date; the emulator itself is unchanged. Upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Fixes

• DVI-only monitors show a picture again. With Display Mode set to DVI, some older screens that accept DVI but not HDMI stayed black. They work again.
• Steadier start-up. The board lets its power settle before switching to the higher clock speed.

v0.3

Updates the shared menu and support code (pico_shared). The emulator core is unchanged. Everything listed under v0.2 and v0.1 still applies.

Recently played games

The menu keeps a list of the last 20 games started, most recent first. It is opened with X in the ROM browser, or with the Recently played entry at the top of the settings menu. That entry is present only when the settings menu is opened from the ROM browser, not from a running game; it is the route for pads without an X button, such as a NES pad on the GPIO port.

In the list, A starts the highlighted game, Select removes an entry after a confirmation, Start shows its metadata and box art, and B closes the list. Entries are added automatically when a game is started; starting a game already in the list moves it to the top. The list closes after a minute without input.

The list is stored as plain text in /recent_SNES.txt in the root of the SD card, one game per line. It survives a reboot and can be read, edited or deleted on a PC. A missing or damaged file is treated as an empty list; no other settings are affected. Each emulator running under pico-bootLoader keeps its own list. An entry whose ROM is no longer on the card is reported as missing instead of started, and can be removed with Select.

See Recently played games in the README.

Overclocking

The 504 MHz overclock option is now documented as not advised; see the warning above and the Overclocking section in the README. The default clock of 378 MHz is unchanged.

The PicoNES PCB

Unchanged since v0.2: design v2.6 is required, and the gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release as before. The README chapter describing it is now called Custom PCB and lists the applicable design in a table; the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro remain not applicable to this emulator, since they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM.

Other changes

• Menu, SNES pad on the GPIO port: the four face buttons are now read by label instead of positionally, so A chooses, B goes back and X opens the recently played list, as on USB and Wii Classic pads. NES pads are unchanged.
• Controller test screen: reports the detected pad type (NES or SNES) for a pad on the GPIO port and names its buttons accordingly, and shows the raw port word.
• Fixed the settings menu discarding its result after a screen opened from it was closed, which made starting a game from the recently played list return to the browser without effect, and the controller test start the screensaver on exit.
• Fixed "Reset to defaults" carrying over a stale value of the obsolete standalone scanline toggle instead of restoring the off state.
• Reduced stack use in the menu: the ROM browser no longer keeps a 592-byte FIL on the 3 KB core 0 stack.

v0.2

Everything listed under v0.1 still applies — the features and the known limitations. This release adds MSU-1 soundtrack support, can be started from the pico-bootLoader boot menu, and documents the PicoNES PCB.

MSU-1 soundtracks

MSU-1 is the homebrew expansion chip used by the CD-quality soundtrack patches that exist for many games — Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Aladdin and others. Those patches now play their music.

Give each MSU-1 game its own subfolder on the SD card, and ...

v0.5

CHANGELOG

v0.5 adds USB drive mode: plug the board into a computer and the SD card shows up as a USB drive, so games can be added without taking the card out. It also fixes the SA-1 chip, so Super Mario RPG no longer freezes during battles, and the 504 MHz overclock, which had been quietly doing nothing since v0.4.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

Warning

The optional 504 MHz overclock in the settings menu is not advised. Leave it off.

It gains very little — the bottleneck is PSRAM bandwidth, not the CPU clock, so most games run at essentially the same speed as at the default 378 MHz. It raises the core voltage, makes the chip run considerably hotter, and can overheat, destabilise or permanently damage the RP2350 and the board it is on. It is off by default and exists for experimenting only. Enabling it is entirely at your own risk; the author accepts no responsibility for any damage.

v0.5

One new feature and two fixes: games can now be copied to the SD card over USB, SA-1 timing is corrected, and the 504 MHz overclock applies again. The shared menu and support code (pico_shared) is updated as well. Everything listed under v0.4 and earlier still applies, and upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Copy games over USB

Adding a game used to mean powering the board down, digging the microSD card out, finding a card reader and putting it all back. USB drive mode removes that: it hands the card to a computer as an ordinary USB drive while the board stays where it is.

Press Select in the ROM browser, choose USB drive mode, and connect the board's USB port to a computer. The card appears as a removable drive. Copy or delete files, then eject the drive on the computer; the emulator returns to the ROM browser with the new list of games already read in. B leaves the screen too, and if no computer turns up within twenty seconds it closes by itself.

Worth knowing:

• It is offered in the ROM browser only.
• Eject the drive on the computer before leaving, as with any USB stick.
• Controllers on a GPIO port, or on a second USB port, keep working while the card is mounted.
• A board with only one USB port needs it for the computer, which powers the board through it, so use a gamepad on the GPIO port there.

SA-1 games

A few cartridges carry a second, faster processor of their own: the SA-1, used by Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3 and a handful of others. The emulator was not keeping it properly in step with the rest of the console, and Super Mario RPG could freeze during battles as a result.

The timing is now right. Super Mario RPG plays through its battles, and the other games with this chip benefit from the same fix. Games run just as fast as before.

This fix was contributed by Amy (@zZmiz) in pull request #4 — thank you.

Fixes

• The 504 MHz overclock applies again. Switching it on in the settings menu rebooted the board as it should, but the board came back at the usual 378 MHz and the setting looked as though it had been ignored. Broken since v0.4. The advice in the warning at the top of this page has not changed, though: leave it off.
• PSRAM is recognised reliably at start-up. The check that identifies the PSRAM chip could pick up a stale byte and not recognise it, and a board that reports no PSRAM refuses to start, since this emulator cannot run without it.

An easier SNES-to-NES adapter cable

The GPIO controller ports on the PicoNES PCB and on a breadboard build use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol, so plugging in a real SNES pad needs a small adapter cable. Making one used to start with cutting the connector off a controller or an extension cable.

There is now a less destructive route: buy a bare 7-pin SNES connector (the 180 degree version) and 3D print a cap for it. The model is in this repository as assets/SNES Controller Port Cap.stl, designed by Gavin Knight (@DynaMight1124) — thank you. See snestonescontroller.md for the wiring and the rest of the build.

Other changes

• The bottom of the settings menu has a fixed order: Controller test, Enter BOOTSEL mode and USB drive mode, in that order, after the settings themselves.
• The project has moved to the PicoPlus-devel organisation, along with the sister emulators and the shared code. Nothing needs to be done about it: existing links, clones and bookmarks keep working, as GitHub forwards them to the new address.

v0.4

A maintenance release. It brings the shared menu and support code up to date; the emulator itself is unchanged. Upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Fixes

• DVI-only monitors show a picture again. With Display Mode set to DVI, some older screens that accept DVI but not HDMI stayed black. They work again.
• Steadier start-up. The board lets its power settle before switching to the higher clock speed.

v0.3

Updates the shared menu and support code (pico_shared). The emulator core is unchanged. Everything listed under v0.2 and v0.1 still applies.

Recently played games

The menu keeps a list of the last 20 games started, most recent first. It is opened with X in the ROM browser, or with the Recently played entry at the top of the settings menu. That entry is present only when the settings menu is opened from the ROM browser, not from a running game; it is the route for pads without an X button, such as a NES pad on the GPIO port.

In the list, A starts the highlighted game, Select removes an entry after a confirmation, Start shows its metadata and box art, and B closes the list. Entries are added automatically when a game is started; starting a game already in the list moves it to the top. The list closes after a minute without input.

The list is stored as plain text in /recent_SNES.txt in the root of the SD card, one game per line. It survives a reboot and can be read, edited or deleted on a PC. A missing or damaged file is treated as an empty list; no other settings are affected. Each emulator running under pico-bootLoader keeps its own list. An entry whose ROM is no longer on the card is reported as missing instead of started, and can be removed with Select.

See Recently played games in the README.

Overclocking

The 504 MHz overclock option is now documented as not advised; see the warning above and the Overclocking section in the README. The default clock of 378 MHz is unchanged.

The PicoNES PCB

Unchanged since v0.2: design v2.6 is required, and the gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release as before. The README chapter describing it is now called Custom PCB and lists the applicable design in a table; the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro remain not applicable to this emulator, since they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM.

Other changes

• Menu, SNES pad on the GPIO port: the four face buttons are now read by label instead of positionally, so A chooses, B goes back and X opens the recently played list, as on USB and Wii Classic pads. NES pads are unchanged.
• Controller test screen: reports the detected pad type (NES or SNES) for a pad on the GPIO port and names its buttons accordingly, and shows the raw port word.
• Fixed the settings menu discarding its result after a screen opened from it was closed, which made starting a game from the recently played list return to the browser without effect, and the controller test start the screensaver on exit.
• Fixed "Reset to defaults" carrying over a stale value of the obsolete standalone scanline toggle instead of restoring the off state.
• Reduced stack use in the menu: the ROM browser no longer keeps a 592-byte FIL on the 3 KB core 0 stack.

v0.2

Everything listed under v0.1 still applies — the features and the known limitations. This release adds MSU-1 soundtrack support, can be started from the pico-bootLoader boot menu, and documents the PicoNES PCB.

MSU-1 soundtracks

MSU-1 is the homebrew expansion chip used by the CD-quality soundtrack patches that exist for many games — Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Aladdin and others. Those patches now play their music.

Give each MSU-1 game its own subfolder on the SD card, and put the patched ROM, its .msu file and its -<n>.pcm tracks in it, all sharing the same base name. A pack carries dozens of tracks, so keeping it in a folder of its own is the difference between a tidy card and an unusable one:

/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.sfc
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.msu
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-1.pcm
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-2.pcm   ...

Nothing else needs to be configured — the emulator picks the pack up when it loads the ROM.

Worth knowing:

• **The ...

v0.4

CHANGELOG

v0.4 is a maintenance release. It updates the shared menu and support code, fixing a black screen on DVI-only monitors and making start-up steadier. The emulator core is unchanged.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

Warning

The optional 504 MHz overclock in the settings menu is not advised. Leave it off.

It gains very little — the bottleneck is PSRAM bandwidth, not the CPU clock, so most games run at essentially the same speed as at the default 378 MHz. It raises the core voltage, makes the chip run considerably hotter, and can overheat, destabilise or permanently damage the RP2350 and the board it is on. It is off by default and exists for experimenting only. Enabling it is entirely at your own risk; the author accepts no responsibility for any damage.

v0.4

A maintenance release. It brings the shared menu and support code up to date; the emulator itself is unchanged. Upgrading is only a matter of flashing the new .uf2 — your settings, saves and save states on the SD card are untouched.

Fixes

• DVI-only monitors show a picture again. With Display Mode set to DVI, some older screens that accept DVI but not HDMI stayed black. They work again.
• Steadier start-up. The board lets its power settle before switching to the higher clock speed.

v0.3

Updates the shared menu and support code (pico_shared). The emulator core is unchanged. Everything listed under v0.2 and v0.1 still applies.

Recently played games

The menu keeps a list of the last 20 games started, most recent first. It is opened with X in the ROM browser, or with the Recently played entry at the top of the settings menu. That entry is present only when the settings menu is opened from the ROM browser, not from a running game; it is the route for pads without an X button, such as a NES pad on the GPIO port.

In the list, A starts the highlighted game, Select removes an entry after a confirmation, Start shows its metadata and box art, and B closes the list. Entries are added automatically when a game is started; starting a game already in the list moves it to the top. The list closes after a minute without input.

The list is stored as plain text in /recent_SNES.txt in the root of the SD card, one game per line. It survives a reboot and can be read, edited or deleted on a PC. A missing or damaged file is treated as an empty list; no other settings are affected. Each emulator running under pico-bootLoader keeps its own list. An entry whose ROM is no longer on the card is reported as missing instead of started, and can be removed with Select.

See Recently played games in the README.

Overclocking

The 504 MHz overclock option is now documented as not advised; see the warning above and the Overclocking section in the README. The default clock of 378 MHz is unchanged.

The PicoNES PCB

Unchanged since v0.2: design v2.6 is required, and the gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release as before. The README chapter describing it is now called Custom PCB and lists the applicable design in a table; the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro remain not applicable to this emulator, since they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM.

Other changes

• Menu, SNES pad on the GPIO port: the four face buttons are now read by label instead of positionally, so A chooses, B goes back and X opens the recently played list, as on USB and Wii Classic pads. NES pads are unchanged.
• Controller test screen: reports the detected pad type (NES or SNES) for a pad on the GPIO port and names its buttons accordingly, and shows the raw port word.
• Fixed the settings menu discarding its result after a screen opened from it was closed, which made starting a game from the recently played list return to the browser without effect, and the controller test start the screensaver on exit.
• Fixed "Reset to defaults" carrying over a stale value of the obsolete standalone scanline toggle instead of restoring the off state.
• Reduced stack use in the menu: the ROM browser no longer keeps a 592-byte FIL on the 3 KB core 0 stack.

v0.2

Everything listed under v0.1 still applies — the features and the known limitations. This release adds MSU-1 soundtrack support, can be started from the pico-bootLoader boot menu, and documents the PicoNES PCB.

MSU-1 soundtracks

MSU-1 is the homebrew expansion chip used by the CD-quality soundtrack patches that exist for many games — Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Aladdin and others. Those patches now play their music.

Give each MSU-1 game its own subfolder on the SD card, and put the patched ROM, its .msu file and its -<n>.pcm tracks in it, all sharing the same base name. A pack carries dozens of tracks, so keeping it in a folder of its own is the difference between a tidy card and an unusable one:

/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.sfc
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.msu
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-1.pcm
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-2.pcm   ...

Nothing else needs to be configured — the emulator picks the pack up when it loads the ROM.

Worth knowing:

• The music is streamed from the SD card while you play. It is the only thing that reads the card during a game, so a slow or worn card can cost frame rate or make the music stutter. A decent card is the fix.
• Packs with video (the "Deluxe" ones) are heavier. Zelda's intro movie streams its video through the card as well, which drops that sequence to about 40 fps. The music itself stays clean, and ordinary music-only packs are far cheaper.
• ROMs without a pack are unaffected — nothing extra is loaded and the card is not touched.
• MSU-1 packs are large, often several GB, so plan card space accordingly.

See the MSU-1 section in the README for the details.

Starting from the bootloader

pico-snesPlus can now be launched from pico-bootLoader, a boot menu for RP2350 boards that keeps several emulators (and a Doom port) on one SD card. At power-on you pick one from an on-screen menu; the bootloader flashes it and starts it, and a reset or power cycle always returns to the menu — no reconnecting the board to a PC to switch systems. From inside the emulator, Select + Start → Return to emulator selection goes back.

The bootloader ships its own copy of this emulator in the SD-card archive on its releases page, so nothing here needs to be downloaded for that. If you do not use the bootloader, nothing changes: flash the .uf2 for your board as before.

The PicoNES PCB

The README has a PicoNES PCB chapter covering the community PCB design that turns the HW_CONFIG 2 breadboard build into a finished little console: the parts it needs, how the board is mounted, which binary to flash and the matching 3D-printed case. The gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release.

PCB design v2.6 is what makes this work. The design gained through-holes, so a Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 fitted with male headers can be plugged in instead of soldering a board flat. That matters more here than in the sister projects: this emulator needs PSRAM, so the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 is the only board on that PCB that can run it at all. On v2.1 and older designs the board has to lie flat, which the SP/CE connector on its back prevents — an older PicoNES board built around a Pico 2 cannot be reused for pico-snesPlus. That is why v2.1 is no longer offered here: it is not suitable for this emulator. No separate binary is needed: flash the same picosnesPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2 as the breadboard build. When the board is mounted on headers, print the latest top cover from Thingiverse; the older ones assume a board soldered flat and leave no room for the USB cable.

The two smaller designs from pico-infonesPlus, the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro, are not usable with this emulator either — they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM — so their gerbers are not attached.

The GPIO controller ports on the PCB (and on a breadboard build) use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol and clock all 16 bits, so a real SNES pad maps 1:1. snestonescontroller.md describes the SNES-to-NES adapter cable you need to make for it.

Other changes

• The README opens with the list of hardware configurations it runs on, so you no longer have to scroll to find out whether your board is supported. Each entry links to Supported hardware for the binary, and to the PCB design where one applies.
• The PCB design files moved to the shared pico_shared repository, and the stale PCB/ copy was removed from this one — it still advertised a gerber it did not contain.
• Fixed object file extension handling in the CMake configuration.
• MSU-1 support was developed with the help of Anthropic Claude, like the rest of the port.

v0.1

First publ...

v0.3

CHANGELOG

v0.3 adds a Recently played list of the last 20 games, opened with X in the ROM browser. A SNES pad on the GPIO controller port is now read by button label in the menu, the controller test screen names its buttons per detected pad type, and several settings-menu bugs are fixed. The emulator core is unchanged.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

Warning

The optional 504 MHz overclock in the settings menu is not advised. Leave it off.

It gains very little — the bottleneck is PSRAM bandwidth, not the CPU clock, so most games run at essentially the same speed as at the default 378 MHz. It raises the core voltage, makes the chip run considerably hotter, and can overheat, destabilise or permanently damage the RP2350 and the board it is on. It is off by default and exists for experimenting only. Enabling it is entirely at your own risk; the author accepts no responsibility for any damage.

v0.3

Updates the shared menu and support code (pico_shared). The emulator core is unchanged. Everything listed under v0.2 and v0.1 still applies.

Recently played games

The menu keeps a list of the last 20 games started, most recent first. It is opened with X in the ROM browser, or with the Recently played entry at the top of the settings menu. That entry is present only when the settings menu is opened from the ROM browser, not from a running game; it is the route for pads without an X button, such as a NES pad on the GPIO port.

In the list, A starts the highlighted game, Select removes an entry after a confirmation, Start shows its metadata and box art, and B closes the list. Entries are added automatically when a game is started; starting a game already in the list moves it to the top. The list closes after a minute without input.

The list is stored as plain text in /recent_SNES.txt in the root of the SD card, one game per line. It survives a reboot and can be read, edited or deleted on a PC. A missing or damaged file is treated as an empty list; no other settings are affected. Each emulator running under pico-bootLoader keeps its own list. An entry whose ROM is no longer on the card is reported as missing instead of started, and can be removed with Select.

See Recently played games in the README.

Overclocking

The 504 MHz overclock option is now documented as not advised; see the warning above and the Overclocking section in the README. The default clock of 378 MHz is unchanged.

The PicoNES PCB

Unchanged since v0.2: design v2.6 is required, and the gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release as before. The README chapter describing it is now called Custom PCB and lists the applicable design in a table; the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro remain not applicable to this emulator, since they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM.

Other changes

• Menu, SNES pad on the GPIO port: the four face buttons are now read by label instead of positionally, so A chooses, B goes back and X opens the recently played list, as on USB and Wii Classic pads. NES pads are unchanged.
• Controller test screen: reports the detected pad type (NES or SNES) for a pad on the GPIO port and names its buttons accordingly, and shows the raw port word.
• Fixed the settings menu discarding its result after a screen opened from it was closed, which made starting a game from the recently played list return to the browser without effect, and the controller test start the screensaver on exit.
• Fixed "Reset to defaults" carrying over a stale value of the obsolete standalone scanline toggle instead of restoring the off state.
• Reduced stack use in the menu: the ROM browser no longer keeps a 592-byte FIL on the 3 KB core 0 stack.

v0.2

Everything listed under v0.1 still applies — the features and the known limitations. This release adds MSU-1 soundtrack support, can be started from the pico-bootLoader boot menu, and documents the PicoNES PCB.

MSU-1 soundtracks

MSU-1 is the homebrew expansion chip used by the CD-quality soundtrack patches that exist for many games — Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Aladdin and others. Those patches now play their music.

Give each MSU-1 game its own subfolder on the SD card, and put the patched ROM, its .msu file and its -<n>.pcm tracks in it, all sharing the same base name. A pack carries dozens of tracks, so keeping it in a folder of its own is the difference between a tidy card and an unusable one:

/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.sfc
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.msu
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-1.pcm
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-2.pcm   ...

Nothing else needs to be configured — the emulator picks the pack up when it loads the ROM.

Worth knowing:

• The music is streamed from the SD card while you play. It is the only thing that reads the card during a game, so a slow or worn card can cost frame rate or make the music stutter. A decent card is the fix.
• Packs with video (the "Deluxe" ones) are heavier. Zelda's intro movie streams its video through the card as well, which drops that sequence to about 40 fps. The music itself stays clean, and ordinary music-only packs are far cheaper.
• ROMs without a pack are unaffected — nothing extra is loaded and the card is not touched.
• MSU-1 packs are large, often several GB, so plan card space accordingly.

See the MSU-1 section in the README for the details.

Starting from the bootloader

pico-snesPlus can now be launched from pico-bootLoader, a boot menu for RP2350 boards that keeps several emulators (and a Doom port) on one SD card. At power-on you pick one from an on-screen menu; the bootloader flashes it and starts it, and a reset or power cycle always returns to the menu — no reconnecting the board to a PC to switch systems. From inside the emulator, Select + Start → Return to emulator selection goes back.

The bootloader ships its own copy of this emulator in the SD-card archive on its releases page, so nothing here needs to be downloaded for that. If you do not use the bootloader, nothing changes: flash the .uf2 for your board as before.

The PicoNES PCB

The README has a PicoNES PCB chapter covering the community PCB design that turns the HW_CONFIG 2 breadboard build into a finished little console: the parts it needs, how the board is mounted, which binary to flash and the matching 3D-printed case. The gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release.

PCB design v2.6 is what makes this work. The design gained through-holes, so a Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 fitted with male headers can be plugged in instead of soldering a board flat. That matters more here than in the sister projects: this emulator needs PSRAM, so the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 is the only board on that PCB that can run it at all. On v2.1 and older designs the board has to lie flat, which the SP/CE connector on its back prevents — an older PicoNES board built around a Pico 2 cannot be reused for pico-snesPlus. That is why v2.1 is no longer offered here: it is not suitable for this emulator. No separate binary is needed: flash the same picosnesPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2 as the breadboard build. When the board is mounted on headers, print the latest top cover from Thingiverse; the older ones assume a board soldered flat and leave no room for the USB cable.

The two smaller designs from pico-infonesPlus, the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro, are not usable with this emulator either — they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM — so their gerbers are not attached.

The GPIO controller ports on the PCB (and on a breadboard build) use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol and clock all 16 bits, so a real SNES pad maps 1:1. snestonescontroller.md describes the SNES-to-NES adapter cable you need to make for it.

Other changes

• The README opens with the list of hardware configurations it runs on, so you no longer have to scroll to find out whether your board is supported. Each entry links to Supported hardware for the binary, and to the PCB design where one applies.
• The PCB design files moved to the shared pico_shared repository, and the stale PCB/ copy was removed from this one — it still advertised a gerber it did not contain.
• Fixed object file extension handling in the CMake configuration.
• MSU-1 support was developed with the help of Anthropic Claude, like the rest of the port.

v0.1

First public release. There will be bugs. Please register an issue when you encounter one.

Important

This version is not perfect. The emulator pushes the RP2350 to its limits: occasional screen artifacts can appear, especially in scrolling levels, and sound is not always flawless. Performance can also vary from game to game. Expect rough edges.

Features

Cartridge ROMs

• SNES...

v0.2

CHANGELOG

Release notes for pico-snesPlus. Newest release first.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

v0.2

Everything listed under v0.1 still applies — the features and the known limitations. This release adds MSU-1 soundtrack support, can be started from the pico-bootLoader boot menu, and documents the PicoNES PCB.

MSU-1 soundtracks

MSU-1 is the homebrew expansion chip used by the CD-quality soundtrack patches that exist for many games — Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Aladdin and others. Those patches now play their music.

Give each MSU-1 game its own subfolder on the SD card, and put the patched ROM, its .msu file and its -<n>.pcm tracks in it, all sharing the same base name. A pack carries dozens of tracks, so keeping it in a folder of its own is the difference between a tidy card and an unusable one:

/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.sfc
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu.msu
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-1.pcm
/roms/SNES/Zelda MSU-1/alttp_msu-2.pcm   ...

Nothing else needs to be configured — the emulator picks the pack up when it loads the ROM.

Worth knowing:

• The music is streamed from the SD card while you play. It is the only thing that reads the card during a game, so a slow or worn card can cost frame rate or make the music stutter. A decent card is the fix.
• Packs with video (the "Deluxe" ones) are heavier. Zelda's intro movie streams its video through the card as well, which drops that sequence to about 40 fps. The music itself stays clean, and ordinary music-only packs are far cheaper.
• ROMs without a pack are unaffected — nothing extra is loaded and the card is not touched.
• MSU-1 packs are large, often several GB, so plan card space accordingly.

See the MSU-1 section in the README for the details.

Starting from the bootloader

pico-snesPlus can now be launched from pico-bootLoader, a boot menu for RP2350 boards that keeps several emulators (and a Doom port) on one SD card. At power-on you pick one from an on-screen menu; the bootloader flashes it and starts it, and a reset or power cycle always returns to the menu — no reconnecting the board to a PC to switch systems. From inside the emulator, Select + Start → Return to emulator selection goes back.

The bootloader ships its own copy of this emulator in the SD-card archive on its releases page, so nothing here needs to be downloaded for that. If you do not use the bootloader, nothing changes: flash the .uf2 for your board as before.

The PicoNES PCB

The README has a PicoNES PCB chapter covering the community PCB design that turns the HW_CONFIG 2 breadboard build into a finished little console: the parts it needs, how the board is mounted, which binary to flash and the matching 3D-printed case. The gerber archive pico_nesPCB_v2.6.zip is attached to this release.

PCB design v2.6 is what makes this work. The design gained through-holes, so a Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 fitted with male headers can be plugged in instead of soldering a board flat. That matters more here than in the sister projects: this emulator needs PSRAM, so the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 is the only board on that PCB that can run it at all. On v2.1 and older designs the board has to lie flat, which the SP/CE connector on its back prevents — an older PicoNES board built around a Pico 2 cannot be reused for pico-snesPlus. That is why v2.1 is no longer offered here: it is not suitable for this emulator. No separate binary is needed: flash the same picosnesPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2 as the breadboard build. When the board is mounted on headers, print the latest top cover from Thingiverse; the older ones assume a board soldered flat and leave no room for the USB cable.

The two smaller designs from pico-infonesPlus, the PicoNES Mini and PicoNES Micro, are not usable with this emulator either — they are built around Waveshare boards without PSRAM — so their gerbers are not attached.

The GPIO controller ports on the PCB (and on a breadboard build) use NES connectors but speak the SNES protocol and clock all 16 bits, so a real SNES pad maps 1:1. snestonescontroller.md describes the SNES-to-NES adapter cable you need to make for it.

Other changes

• The README opens with the list of hardware configurations it runs on, so you no longer have to scroll to find out whether your board is supported. Each entry links to Supported hardware for the binary, and to the PCB design where one applies.
• The PCB design files moved to the shared pico_shared repository, and the stale PCB/ copy was removed from this one — it still advertised a gerber it did not contain.
• Fixed object file extension handling in the CMake configuration.
• MSU-1 support was developed with the help of Anthropic Claude, like the rest of the port.

v0.1

First public release. There will be bugs. Please register an issue when you encounter one.

Important

This version is not perfect. The emulator pushes the RP2350 to its limits: occasional screen artifacts can appear, especially in scrolling levels, and sound is not always flawless. Performance can also vary from game to game. Expect rough edges.

Features

Cartridge ROMs

• SNES ROMs (.smc / .sfc) are loaded directly from the SD card through an on-screen menu. Subdirectories are supported.
• Games generally run at full speed (60 fps).

Expansion chips

Many SNES cartridges carry an extra chip that the console itself does not have. These are emulated:

• DSP-1 to DSP-4 — Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings, Top Gear 3000.
• Super FX — Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, Stunt Race FX.
• C4 — Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3.
• SA-1 — Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3.
• OBC1 — Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge.
• S-RTC — Dai Kaijuu Monogatari II.

Super FX speed depends on how hard the game leans on the chip: Yoshi's Island plays well, while Star Fox renders correctly but runs at about half speed.

Star Ocean, Street Fighter Alpha 2 (S-DD1) and Far East of Eden Zero (SPC7110) use chips that are not supported; these games are refused with a message when you try to load them.

Battery saves

• In-game saves that a cartridge writes to its battery-backed memory are stored on the SD card under /SAVES/SNES/.
• The save is written when you quit a game to the menu (Select + Start → Quit game), so quit to the menu before powering off to keep your progress. There are no save states.

Display

• HDMI video output.
• 8:7 and 1:1 screen modes, optional scanlines, and an on-screen FPS overlay.
• On the Adafruit Fruit Jam the NeoPixel LEDs can act as a VU meter.

Audio

• Sound is played over HDMI, the audio jack, or an external I²S DAC, depending on the board.

Controllers

• USB controllers, including Xbox / XInput (and 8BitDo in X-mode), Sony DualShock 4 / DualSense, the AliExpress SNES USB pad, PlayStation Classic, and USB keyboards.
• Directly wired NES / SNES gamepads, and the Wii Classic / SNES-Classic-mini pad over I²C.
• Two-player play with a second USB controller.
• SNES Mouse: plug in any USB mouse and it becomes a SNES Mouse in controller port 1 — Mario Paint is fully playable, no configuration needed. While the mouse is connected it takes the place of player 1's pad, just like the real peripheral; unplug it and the pad is player 1 again. See the README for details.
• A controller test screen in the settings menu shows which button the emulator receives for each press.

Overclocking

• The RP2350 runs at 378 MHz by default, which is stable across the tested games.
• An optional 504 MHz overclock can be enabled in the settings menu on HW_CONFIG 2 and 8 (Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 breadboard and Adafruit Fruit Jam); it is not offered on the Murmulator M2 or the Feather RP2350. It can cause instability and rarely improves speed, so it is off by default.

Known limitations

• Occasional screen artifacts and imperfect sound. Glitches can show up, especially in scrolling levels, and audio is not always flawless. The emulator pushes the RP2350 to its limits, so performance also varies per game.
• Frame skipping is on by default (every other frame; one frame in three for Super FX games). Turn it off in the settings menu to render every frame for smoother motion; many games still hold full speed, but some slow down, so try it per game.
• Demanding Super FX games such as Star Fox run below full speed.
• The SETA (ST010 / ST011) and BS-X chips are not implemented and, unlike S-DD1 and SPC7110, are not detected — those games load but misbehave.
• The SNES hi-res modes 5 and 6 (512 pixels wide, used by very few games — e.g. the Donkey Kong Country "Nintendo presents" intro screen) are rendered at half horizontal resolution, so fine hi-res text can look thin or ragged.
• Development and testing take place mainly on the Adafruit Fruit Jam; the other supported boards still need testing.

Use of AI

The port of the Snes9x core to the RP2350, the coprocessor work (Super FX, DSP, SA-1, C4, OBC1, S-RTC), and the performance and stabilit...

v0.1

CHANGELOG

First public release of pico-snesPlus.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration are at the end of this page.

See the Supported hardware and SD card setup sections in the README for how to install and wire up your board.

Important

An RP2350 board with 8 MB PSRAM is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1), and RP2350 boards without PSRAM, are not supported.

v0.1

First public release. There will be bugs. Please register an issue when you encounter one.

Important

This version is not perfect. The emulator pushes the RP2350 to its limits: occasional screen artifacts can appear, especially in scrolling levels, and sound is not always flawless. Performance can also vary from game to game. Expect rough edges.

Features

Cartridge ROMs

• SNES ROMs (.smc / .sfc) are loaded directly from the SD card through an on-screen menu. Subdirectories are supported.
• Games generally run at full speed (60 fps).

Expansion chips

Many SNES cartridges carry an extra chip that the console itself does not have. These are emulated:

• DSP-1 to DSP-4 — Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings, Top Gear 3000.
• Super FX — Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, Stunt Race FX.
• C4 — Mega Man X2, Mega Man X3.
• SA-1 — Super Mario RPG, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3.
• OBC1 — Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge.
• S-RTC — Dai Kaijuu Monogatari II.

Super FX speed depends on how hard the game leans on the chip: Yoshi's Island plays well, while Star Fox renders correctly but runs at about half speed.

Star Ocean, Street Fighter Alpha 2 (S-DD1) and Far East of Eden Zero (SPC7110) use chips that are not supported; these games are refused with a message when you try to load them.

Battery saves

• In-game saves that a cartridge writes to its battery-backed memory are stored on the SD card under /SAVES/SNES/.
• The save is written when you quit a game to the menu (Select + Start → Quit game), so quit to the menu before powering off to keep your progress. There are no save states.

Display

• HDMI video output.
• 8:7 and 1:1 screen modes, optional scanlines, and an on-screen FPS overlay.
• On the Adafruit Fruit Jam the NeoPixel LEDs can act as a VU meter.

Audio

• Sound is played over HDMI, the audio jack, or an external I²S DAC, depending on the board.

Controllers

• USB controllers, including Xbox / XInput (and 8BitDo in X-mode), Sony DualShock 4 / DualSense, the AliExpress SNES USB pad, PlayStation Classic, and USB keyboards.
• Directly wired NES / SNES gamepads, and the Wii Classic / SNES-Classic-mini pad over I²C.
• Two-player play with a second USB controller.
• SNES Mouse: plug in any USB mouse and it becomes a SNES Mouse in controller port 1 — Mario Paint is fully playable, no configuration needed. While the mouse is connected it takes the place of player 1's pad, just like the real peripheral; unplug it and the pad is player 1 again. See the README for details.
• A controller test screen in the settings menu shows which button the emulator receives for each press.

Overclocking

• The RP2350 runs at 378 MHz by default, which is stable across the tested games.
• An optional 504 MHz overclock can be enabled in the settings menu on HW_CONFIG 2 and 8 (Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 breadboard and Adafruit Fruit Jam); it is not offered on the Murmulator M2 or the Feather RP2350. It can cause instability and rarely improves speed, so it is off by default.

Known limitations

• Occasional screen artifacts and imperfect sound. Glitches can show up, especially in scrolling levels, and audio is not always flawless. The emulator pushes the RP2350 to its limits, so performance also varies per game.
• Frame skipping is on by default (every other frame; one frame in three for Super FX games). Turn it off in the settings menu to render every frame for smoother motion; many games still hold full speed, but some slow down, so try it per game.
• Demanding Super FX games such as Star Fox run below full speed.
• The SETA (ST010 / ST011) and BS-X chips are not implemented and, unlike S-DD1 and SPC7110, are not detected — those games load but misbehave.
• The SNES hi-res modes 5 and 6 (512 pixels wide, used by very few games — e.g. the Donkey Kong Country "Nintendo presents" intro screen) are rendered at half horizontal resolution, so fine hi-res text can look thin or ragged.
• Development and testing take place mainly on the Adafruit Fruit Jam; the other supported boards still need testing.

Use of AI

The port of the Snes9x core to the RP2350, the coprocessor work (Super FX, DSP, SA-1, C4, OBC1, S-RTC), and the performance and stability tuning were developed with the help of Anthropic Claude (Opus 4.7, Opus 4.8 and Fable).

Downloads by configuration

Only the four RP2350 + PSRAM configurations below are supported. For board-by-board wiring and which UF2 file to flash, see the Supported hardware section in the README.

HW_CONFIG	Board	Binary
2	Breadboard with Pimoroni Pico Plus 2	pico_snesPlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2
8	Adafruit Fruit Jam	pico_snesPlus_AdafruitFruitJam_arm_piousb.uf2
13	Murmulator M2	pico_snesPlus_MurmulatorM2_arm.uf2
14	Adafruit Feather RP2350 with TLV320DAC3100	pico_snesPlus_AdafruitFeatherRP2350_TLV320DAC3100_arm_piousb.uf2

Other downloads

• Metadata: SNESMetadata.zip

Extract the zip file to the root folder of the SD card. Select a game in the menu and press START to show more information and box art. Works for most official released games. The screensaver shows floating random cover art.