Best SNES revision

Nice call on FFVI being a good way to see the vertical line. I had previously used Seiken Densetsu 2/Secret of Mana by riding Flammie after the rise of the Mana Fortress. In either case, SD2SNES does not have the problem to NEARLY the same degree - I can't tell the difference from the original cart on my 2/1/3 original Super Famicom (don't know if it's 1chip or not).

 

I have just tested my snes+powerpak setup and have noticed that stripe in the middle of the screen. It's even noticeable on the PowerPak menu, no need to load a rom. Using a PAL console with the original 1.3A psu (mobo is SNSP-CPU-02)

 

I have a very early SNES model. It was definitely manufactured before the cart change. I got it very close to launch maybe 2 months after USA launch. Im using a 19inch CRT Konka TV with RF connection. The SNES is the first console in the dasichain of RF BOXES. (warning a wall of text Below)

I am to getting interference when i use my super wild card DX2. when playing games i also notice the vertical line in the middle. The RF Interference that everyone describes is also present. I never used a ac adapter for the unit because i always have loaded games off my trusty parallel port ZIP 100. (if you want to load games from zip there is only 1 version of external zip drive that works with the SWC DX2). Games load off the Floppy great as well. The screen does flash a little when the floppy drive is reading the disk(yeah power draw).

On my setup i can determine most of the Rf Interference is coming from the parallel zip drive cable. if i turn on the snes and move the parallel zip cable around i can reduce or increase the interference. If i hold the cable with my hands the interference is minimal, but as soon as i let go the interference is back. I then wrapped the cable in aluminum Foil and now i get minimal interference. IT seems the Cable is picking up some kinda RF interference and transferring it in to the SNES Through the SWC. no matter the setup the Stripe in the Middle of the screen is always there. On My friends SNES the SWC will barely load a game off a floppy(but i use the zip drive so floppy don't matter).(He must have the Newer Revision as he got his a bit after me when we was kids). The same RF interference that's present on mine is present on his. If i place a cart on top of the SWC there is slightly more RFI then no cart on top. If i place the Power pack on the SWC i get 50% more RFI. If i turn on the SWC with out powering the Zip drive there is about 10% more IF then with it powered. also when playing some games most notably battle toads and Double dragon on SWC the RFI will sometimes be only 1/3 of the screen. This seems to depend on the type of music plaing in the game and whats displayed on the screen.
SO the RFI will vary sometimes.

BTW if your wondering the SWC wont boot the powerpack. it don't even read it.

Using my SNES Powerpack the vertical stripe is there only when loading a game from Compact flash to internal memory. After the game is loaded i dont even see the stripe.

I can also confirm the stripe with the 2 other SNES Copiers i have, The Super UFO 8 and the Gamedoctor SF7. The Super UFO and the Gamedoctor SF7 have worse interference and the vertical stripe is also present. With no ac adaptor the RFI is much less. i know that most of the RFI is do to the ac power adapter that you have to use with those units. These 2 units will not power the floppy drive using the internal SNES Power. The weird thing is the vertical stripe will be clear but everything else will be snowy.

If i take off the SWC and use a real cart there is relativity no interference. so these devices have to be generating the interference. I just wish i had a oscilloscope then i could determine the exact type of RFI and figure out its source. Not only does there seem to be a there a power ISSUE, but also a grounding issue perhaps. all the excess RFI generated by these devices seems to be feeding back in to the device. since the RFI somtimes varies with the sound output and graphic display it has to be some kind of feed back. The zip drives paralles cable seems to be acting as a large antenna that draws in externial RFI and also captures the radiating internal RFI and then sends it right back in to the SNES. The reason i think this is due to the Foil on the zip drive cable that blocks the external RFI. its basically acting like a Faraday cage.

I would love to test the Ever Drive and others but i dont have these devices... Yet.
I was also thinking,...?!!! there is a offical device similar to a our flash carts and thats the Super gameboy. The super gameboy is a snes cart with gameboy hardware in it. it also has to read GB carts. That should be a similar power drain the everdrive,sd2snes and powerpack. I have a Super gameboy so i can do a few tests with it. I do know for a fact that there was never a verticle stripe or RFI when i used it about 10 years ago. I have not really played with it using any of the copiers.

If yall want me to do any tests with the devices i have id be glad to help. I also have a second SNES that is a bit newer then mine. Same RFI and Stripe occurre on it. I with i had the SNES mini so i could test that. I also got to get one of them clone SNES consoles so i can test that. Id also love to test the SWC on a portable SNES clone like the supaboy and see what the heck it does. My bet is the SWC power drain will bust the portable. But if it did work i wonder if wed get the verticle Stripe?

 

Did you try FF3US on your PowerPak? I bet you'll see the vertical stripe during the intro, even with low RF quality.

 

Excellent information! I've run this across a couple of forums so far looking for any help I might find.

I have 4 model-1 SNES systems right now: SHVC-CPU-01, SNS-GPM-CPU-01, SNS-GPM-CPU-02, and the SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01. Now, this is concerning a couple of games and maybe even more. Pocky & Rocky and Super Ghouls and Ghosts are glitchy as hell on my SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01. Pocky & Rocky will flicker right when you turn it on and even sometimes freeze up when I get about 5 minutes or so into it. On SGaG, Arthur is very glitchy when he moves and the game all around is just a mess to play with the glitchy-ass graphics.

When I play these 2 games on any of the other variants I own, there are no problems whatsoever. Both games are play smoothly and no freezing up. Is anyone else having these problems on their SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01 when they play these 2 games? If you don't know and don't mind, check them out on your SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01 (if you're sure you have this variant) and see if they are just as glitchy. Reading through different threads here and on other gaming forums, the SNES variant one would prefer to own (other than the SNES 2/Jr) is the SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01. I have thoroughly cleaned the games' contacts and all of my systems' pin connectors. And it also should be noted than I'm using the cartridges and not a Powerpak/Everdrive.

I'd like to rectify this problem because I love my SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01. It's minty as hell and has barely been used. I guess if it came down to it, I could switch out the MOBO for a GPM-CPU-01 or GPM-CPU-02. But like I said, I'd rather not and fix this one if it's fixable.

edit: All other games, as far as I've seen, play just fine on my SNS-1CHIP-CPU-01. I have around 150 games and have played a little to quite a bit of each one, but these 2 happen to be a couple of my favorites.

Any help would be appreciative.

 

I got a modded to have component output original SNES off ebay.



This is vivid option on the trinitron.

Even on standard it looks blueish. Its like they picked colors that just didn't wanna play nice. Banding all over and the vertical bar but faint.

 

Ah man. That's disappointing... Component is supposed to have glorious purity, very little edge bleed or glow effect. The emulator reference pic I found might help.

 

Very interesting topic!
Right now i have 3 versions of the original ( big ) snes. The other day I was playing DK country on my new tv and noticed the vertical bar for the first time. And suddenly, I could not unsee it. On DK country the bar is quite apparent in the darker mine levels.

I tried my two other Snes and one of them i could not see the bar! ( using composite )

I started looking the issue up and read this whole thread. I then got a S-video cable.
With the s-video cable i can see the bar even on the 'good' snes but its much fainter than the other two. For now it is my new main snes console.
I know its an older model as it has the sound on a separate shielded board inside and its quite heavy.
I find it interesting that one of my console has a significantly fainter bar then the two others. I used the same power supply and same AV cable on all 3 consoles.

I will check the mobo revision of my 3 consoles and other stuff for the database.

I also ordered FFIII so ill test with this game once i have it.

 

A few more cam shots. Better cause I didn't handheld shoot and had some ambient lighting to balance things out.

Super Castlevania IV I turned the TV to VIVID to show as much color as possible and a real test of small differences. On standard room would need to be black and then I'd have exposure problems.

 

Turning on processing (vivid etc) is a bad idea. Its messing with the original brightness, colour, etc

 

SNES

SN: UN12785454

MoBo: SHVC-CPU-01
1990

U7: BA6595F 139 139

 

I've had a SNS-CPU-RGB-01 SNES for awhile and it looked great via S-Video. Once I got an RGB setup, it was a completely different story. The output was just plain disappointing. I wanted to see exactly how different each SNES version was, so I got my hands on a few different versions: My original SNS-CPU-RGB-01, a SHVC-CPU-01 and one of the coveted 1CHIP versions. The difference was instantly noticeable...the 1CHIP was sooooo much better than the other two. It's hard to capture the difference via pictures, but I did my best. Also, I took all the shots in one night and the rig never moved. All aspect of the shots were identical: camera, settings, tripod, cables, game cartridge...EVERYTHING.

http://i.imgur.com/PhKDi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AAjTh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lhYFR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2A78F.jpg

One more thing to mention is the infamous vertical line. The line was completely different with each model. Here's the differences:

SNS-CPU-RGB-01 - Bright, prominent, annoying.

SNS-CPU-1CHIP-01 - Dim, still noticeable if you point it out, not very annoying.

SHVC-CPU-01 - Almost non-existent. Definitely the dimmest of the three.

I'm very curious though...is there a big difference between the 1CHIP and the SNES Mini? Can anyone post pictures of the differences? If not, I plan on getting my hands on one soon to try the mod myself.

 

Just got a new SNES that apparently does not have the Vertical bar. Or at least its so faint i cannot see it.
I tested it with FF III via S-video and seriously... I can't see the bar on this one.
My 3 other Snes have it and its very apparent with FF III + S-video.
I do not know what model it is right now, I do not have my gamebits right now so i cant open it already.
I bought this one for cheap as untested unit. It was different from my other 3 SNES, The eject letters are molded instead of printed and the plastic part of the cartridge connector is Black.

Ill open it up soon to check the mobo version, ill post screenies as well.

 

Might be a 1CHIP-02. I have one and it's vertical bar is the faintest of all my SNES's and is only visible on FF3 when I max out my tv's brightness. Is the serial number UN318 or higher?

 

I got a good deal on a SNES Mini, so I modded it and answered my own question. While there is a HUGE difference between SNES 1 models, I could not see a difference between the mini and the 1CHIP. See for yourselves and let me know what you think:

http://i.imgur.com/HyQ8s.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qU6Ue.jpg

 

The picture quality between the two will be indentical since the mini uses the same "1-chip" ppu

 

Yes! Its a UN321xxx... I ''Think'' I can see some artifacts of the bar in the FFIII intro screen if i look real hard but compared to my other machines the bar is nonexistent. It seems however that for some reason i felt that the sound was not as good. But i only tried it for a short while, it may just be my imagination and i was getting a bit tired, now the snes is in a box. Im actually building a small computer right now that will have the purpose of capturing audio and video from consoles. I will do a proper comparison later when i receive the last parts.

 

Oh wow that's a pretty high serial, it might even be a 1chip-03...what's the rest of the serial?

According to this spreadsheet the 1chip-03 starts somewhere between UN320 and UN321: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AvE57-VbN9_HdEpkUUR0U1hzMHFWVWw3VXhORHFIanc&output=html

 

UN321415774 ( Ill open it up tonight )

 

That's higher than the confirmed 1chip-03 serial of UN321167468.