I just noticed this with two of my consoles. One button has the Eject button silk screened in white while the other one is embossed. Anyone have an idea as to why this is?
What would be considered cheap, as the white one is the actual one on the box image? I would think this would be the first style.
Try checking the serial numbers. Whatever is earlier was probably slightly more expensive to produce. Although it's possible they changed it later because one or the other method or both changed in cost. Being that it's something so relatively minor I would imagine they went with whatever was cheaper to save alot of money over the course of thousands/millions of units. Honestly I'm not sure what you mean exactly by silk screened vs embossed but I'm just guessing what would make the most business sense.
I assume you mean the USA model (though maybe they did the same on the PAL consoles as well?) http://www.kickingdesigns.com/diversions/stock-photos/video-game-consoles/images/nintendo-snes.png Silkscreened text http://images.wikia.com/casemod/images/4/41/SNES-00.jpg Molded text I do remember the molded perhaps being on the models without the separate SHVC box (sound hardware) (so sound was built on the motherboard - these feel quite a bit lighter in your hands. I would definitely think it would be cheaper to make a new mold with the text on it, as the silkscreen process would require another machine to be set up and running (electricity) to finish that part. Also, these parts would need relocating from the mold to the printing machine (if it wasn't immediate and close-by and automated), and possibly an employee to place the parts in the correct orientation for the machine to accept.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for the info as it was something I just noticed and was curious about. The Assembler community does it again.:clap: I was looking at selling a complete boxed system and wanted to get an idea of what the difference is. If it just boils down to aesthetics then I definitely like the silk screened version better.
I think the silk screen is the earlier model...it'd be more expensive to do that than to just have the piece molded.
The very first production run (September 1991) definitely had silk screened buttons. I know, because I remember my parents remarking how "cheap and toy-like" the SNES looked compared to the Sega Genesis that I sold to a friend. I was a bit paranoid that the silk screened text would 'rub off' over time. As a kid I liked my things to look new, so I guess that was a natural concern for me.
I used to have one with a molded text and it was one of the later ones packed in with Killer Instinct. I usually see yellowed SNES's that have silk screened text and non-yellowed/less-yellowed SNES's that have molded text.
The silkscreen version covers the first years of the snes. The molded version is the redesigned model that came later in the production. If you pick up both versions in your hands, you'll notice the redesign is a bit lighter in weight. It was all in an effort to cut costs. The later model is popular in the custom hand held community because the motherboard is actually smaller.
