SNES Consoles Show Increased Speed Over Time with APU Frequency Boosting by Up to 182 Hz After 35 Years

Alan Cecil, known for his work as a security consultant and the mind behind TASBot, the Tool-Assisted Speedrun robot, recently shed light on an interesting phenomenon affecting the Super Nintendo consoles. It turns out that over time, these beloved classic gaming machines have picked up a bit of speed, thanks to a specific chip inside. A report from 404 Media dives into this, revealing that the Super Nintendo’s audio processing unit, the Sony SPC700 APU, was originally designed to function with a digital signal processing (DSP) rate of 32,000 Hz. However, back in 2007, developers working on SNES emulators discovered a curious quirk—these chips were running just above the expected rate at 32,040 Hz. To ensure games ran smoothly, emulators had to adopt this updated frequency.

The SPC700’s operations hinge on a ceramic resonator that hums at a frequency of 24,576 Hz. However, this little piece of tech is quite sensitive, meaning factors like heat and other environmental conditions can influence its performance.

In February, Cecil took to Bluesky via the TASBot account, proposing his theory and seeking input from the SNES community. The initial findings suggest a fascinating trend: as these consoles age, their SPC700 chips seem to operate at an even higher frequency. The peak frequency reported so far is 32,182 Hz. While this uptick is less than 1% above what was originally intended, it’s enough to potentially alter in-game audio and even disrupt the gameplay of certain titles.

Now, you might wonder, how does this impact gameplay? For the everyday player, especially those who mute their audio, it might not change a thing. But for speedrunners, precise timing is critical, and any variance in loading times — like the potential decrease caused by a quicker APU — can be game-changing. This is because when a stage ends and the screen goes dark, the console is busy preparing data for the next level, audio included. A swift APU could deliver this data faster than anticipated, shaving off precious seconds from the load time.

For the casual gamer, this might sound like a win, but it’s a different story for speedrunning communities and bots. Fortunately, human speedrunners might not feel the impact directly, but those relying on automation will need to be cautious. Cecil explains, “The full extent of its impact over a lengthy speedrun remains to be seen, but any increase in transfer speed between CPU and APU is significant.”

As for TASBot’s meticulously timed playthroughs, there could be implications if actions are thrown off by even a fraction of a second. Cecil continues to gather data, eager to see how these accelerations affect aging consoles. Understanding these shifts is crucial for accurately emulating consoles in the future and preserving the classic gaming experiences many of us hold dear to our hearts.