Snes9x

Certain video games are timeless, regardless of the platform they were released on. There are numerous games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) that serve as a great example, and if you want to relive the good old days, you can do it with emulation software like Snes9x. This application lets you load and play SNES games on your Windows-powered computer, and it provides you with some useful tools, which enable you to do certain things that were not possible back then. With the extra features it has to offer, you could finally beat that impossible game you were struggling with when you were young.

The application is compatible with all modern Windows platforms, and you can just extract it from a ZIP archive and run it, without installing anything on your system. Usually, emulators don't have any prerequisites, which you need to have installed, but Snes9x will ask for DirectX9 if you want sounds through XAudio2, which may be a bit complicated on modern operating systems.

Snes9x comes with a compact user interface, which doesn't display much more than a black screen. It doesn't come with any ROMs, so you will have to figure out where to find them yourself. If you have a ROM, you can load it through a standard browsing option and the game will start right away. You can use the buttons on your keyboard to select a game mode or number of players, start it, and control your character.

You can set the interface to full-screen mode to enjoy your games more comfortably. Additionally, if you find them too hard, you can take advantage of a few interesting features. For example, you can save and load your game at any time, so you can retry that difficult jump or hard-to-beat boss as many times as you want, without having to restart the whole game. You can also turn to a few hacks, to change the SperFX and CPU clock speed and make other fine adjustments to gain an advantage. What's more, the software comes with dedicated cheating tools, which help you find cheats online, based on the loaded game.

If you have an old SNES joypad laying around, as well as an adapter to connect it to your computer, then you can use it to play your games on Snes9x since it provides support for a wide range of controllers. What's more, the application comes with Netplay capabilities, which gives you the possibility of playing games with your friends over the Internet.

Not only does Snes9x let you relive the glory days of 16-bit graphics, but it also gives you possibilities you didn't have back then.