The Super Nintendo Classic and Hacking Chrono Trigger onto the SNES Mini

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I am

your sometimes host, longtime collaborator, Michael

Powers. I am joined this week by your all, all

the time host, Steve Megatron Phillips. Yo. We

are continuing to roll right along here with

the new format. Hope you guys are enjoying it

If you're not let us know in the comments and

please Send us stories that you would like us

news stories that you would like us to cover

Because you know that we like to keep this train

rolling and we'd like to talk about what you

want us to talk about We'll share our opinions.

So let us know on Facebook Twitter However, you

want to do it. Just let us know what it is you

want You think would be interesting for us to

talk about in geekdom So on that note I just

want to There was a little device that came out

back in September Some people were able to get

one some people weren't I don't recall if we

were ever able to actually record a podcast about

it Steve But it was the Super Nintendo classic.

Yeah, I remember us talking vaguely about it

I just don't remember us actually getting to

talk about it. I I remember talking about the

NES mini A year ago, I was talking about what

we liked and what we didn't like, and I think

we had TFG1 Mike on that podcast too, I think.

I could be wrong on that one. So a year went

by and Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Mini.

I was lucky enough, I don't even remember how

I did it. Oh, that's right. I just kept hitting

refresh on the target homepage when they were

doing the pre -orders. And somehow I got in,

I got one, okay? And I, you know, the Super Nintendo

for me, that is, the NES is cool, don't get me

wrong, was never a Genesis guy, but the Super

Nintendo for me is like where my love for gaming

like really took hold. All the games I remember

fondly. Growing up and playing like in my you

know as a kid in my teenage years and whatnot

all of those come from the Super Nintendo and

The the games that they included with the NES

with the with the Super NES this time around

That it is not a bad lineup there. It's it It

had almost every single game. I remember fondly

growing up with the exception of one. I'll talk

about that in a little bit. I knew immediately

I had to have one because the Super NES was my

system. I told my wife when the NES came out,

I said, if they do a Super NES one, that's the

one that we have to bend over backwards to get.

Long story short, obviously, I got one. I've

made my wife play it more than I've played it,

because she never had any experience with it.

Really? Yeah. Her first game system was a PlayStation.

Wow. So she missed out on... SNES is so cool.

She missed out on the entire foundation of a

cornerstone of gaming, if you will. But I've

got her playing earthbound She's which I've never

played. I just wanted her to play it because

she likes role -playing games and she likes Pokemon

I felt that earth bounds Aesthetic its art style

is very close to Pokemon From that top -down

you're playing as a kid you know like it i'm

not saying i'm just saying like aesthetically

they look they look similar to each other um

so she started playing that she seemed to enjoy

it but she didn't want to play it when i wasn't

around and obviously my job doesn't allow me

to play a lot of games so that kind of went by

the wayside um she has played a little bit of

super mario world um but she gave up on that

after she got her first game over game over screen

So it's it's a little bit of touch and go here

But do you have any fond memories of a super

Nintendo? Man, I remember going over to my friend's

house because at the time my dad had bought us

a 486 DX4 100 computer AMD system like way back

Yeah, then right over my head man. It dates me

doesn't it? Anyways, it was pretty Pentium The

I Had a friend across the street Point I mentioned

about the computer thing is because we weren't

allowed to have a game system because we had

a PC Went over to a friend's house because he

had a SNES and we used to hang out like at school

and then after school I'd go over there and we'd

play some Like Aladdin remember the old SNES

Aladdin game Yep, that was pretty much one of

the games that I got kind of hooked on the system

with and then I believe there was There was a

couple of Batman games I'd played and There was

there was some other game that I just can't remember

the name of it right now, but Can't even describe

it there was I remember Street Fighter 2 Okay,

but a variety of those type of games They were

based off of properties that were either another

game or a TV series or a film from being a kid

and everything Ninja Turtles and whatnot. So

I used to go play a lot of that when I'd go over

there and I just remember I loved the controller

like the the way that it played it it was so

much nicer than when I played my cousin Sega

Genesis. Which I've owned. Funny thing is I've

owned an SNES in one time as well as a Sega Genesis

and a variety of other Nintendo systems. But

the SNES always was pretty well off even for

the time with getting into the disc based systems

coming along. Yeah, they there was a lot of games

like towards the end there that they just they

push that system to its absolute limits with

like, you know games like Star Fox Megaman X

to like yes Before it went PlayStation. I used

to play all the Mario Mario games as well on

the SNES but yeah, yeah, no, I like I said that

that's the system that I grew up with and I I

Just I absolutely love it and they could you

know true true to form, you know it I've played

the Super Nintendo games like with an emulator

like with using like a PlayStation controller

or like a Xbox controller on my computer But

there's nothing like playing a Super Nintendo

game with a Super Nintendo controller I used

to have a SNES controller that you could plug

into the computer and it was like with the old

Game ports on the back of the system back before

USB existed And I had to, like, kind of program

it in the control panel and all that fun stuff.

But yeah, I used to play my emulators doing that

as well and a lot of Dragon Ball Z games and

other properties because I used to do the whole

emulator thing. I had a whole emulator website

to play. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that was one

of my early websites after I started a Dragon

Ball Z site. Yeah, that's a long time ago. But

anyways, I think I still have those emulators

somewhere, which is funny, but But yeah, I used

to have the controller and the controller was

so there was one of the things about Nintendo

is a lot of their earlier controllers from like

the SNES and the the GameCube were probably my

two favorite controllers that I've ever used

I think I'm the only person on the planet that

likes the N64 controller. I did like the N64

controller because you had that one stick in

the middle that kind of made it so that you could

kind of hold it wherever. Yep. And it shortened

the distance between your hands. Yep. So I did

like that. I just thought I was the only weird

one that didn't mind it as much as people complained

about it. So, you know, I said that the library

on the Super Nintendo Classic You know, it was

pretty good. Well, for that for that time. Well,

right. But I'm saying like the Super Nintendo

classic, the mini, like the collection of games

that they give you is actually is pretty good.

There isn't anything that I would remove. And

I rack my brain since I got it in September,

like like the only there's only one game that

I can think of that it's missing, like for me

personally, that is missing. And it's the one

game. that I love. It's the one game that always

goes in my number one video spot of all time.

And I still have my original cartridge from 1995.

I have a Super Famicom cartridge of the same

game that's still in the box. Wow. I have the

obviously I have the Nintendo DS version of the

same game. I've bought this game many times over.

and that is Chrono Trigger. Okay, same guy that

did Dragon Ball Z aesthetics. Yep, yes. Chrono

Trigger probably needs no introduction among

the geeks that might listen to this, but it was

done by a dream team. You had all the best...

JRPG composer, the best character design, you

know, and story and mechanics. And they all came

together and they made this wonderful RPG, which

up to this point, I never never got the point

of it. Like I watched my cousin play Super Final

Fantasy three or Final Fantasy six for the hardcore

guys. But I didn't understand the appeal of it.

It wasn't until I was shown Chrono Trigger and

its time traveling mechanics. That I absolutely

fell in love with the game like it is Probably

it is my favorite game of all time like there

is no there is no number There's there's Chrono

Trigger, and then there's everything else and

that was the one game that was missing and I

I read online that there was a way that to to

hack the NES mini and Thus the super NES mini

because they are tech. They are the exact same

machine They just have a different shell I'm

90 % certain that I could load NES ROMs on to

the Super NES Mini and they'll play. It's literally

the same board inside and they just put a different

shell, they put the Super NES shell on the outside

of it. So that being said, I was excited at the

possibility of adding Chrono Trigger to my SNES

mini because I tried to get my wife to play play

it on the DS But she said that she couldn't get

into it because she was playing it on a DS But

this is also my wife and for some reason she

can play Pokemon games just fine So anyways,

I thought if I can get it on this system I can

get it on the TV and maybe she can enjoy it that

way so I Didn't one of the first articles I read

with regards to hacking the NES or the SNES Mini,

literally started off with there is a chance

of bricking your device. Okay. Interesting. And

for me, that is the brightest red warning flag

to not do something. I mean, I've bricked an

iPhone to the point where I had to get it replaced.

I've bricked my first Mac, but I was able to

fix it, thankfully, to the guys at the Apple

help desk. But I generally try, anything that

says brick, I stay away from it. It's one of

the reasons why I never jail -broke an iPhone,

okay? Just not worth the hassle. So I told myself,

and I told Ali, I said, my wife, I said, if we

can find another SNES Mini, I want to buy it

to hack it Okay, I want because like I didn't

want to brick it The one that I had and and not

be able to find one ever again Well, not only

that then you if you've been playing it you lose

your steam games, right and in in You know with

the NES mini like my fears were based off of

what the end with the SNE were based off of the

end NES mini being scarce right like You never

saw one in the wild. People just ended up with

them somehow. It was kind of like trying to find

a Mewtwo in the game. Yeah, and they ended up

being like $300 on Amazon and eBay, right? So

I got my hands on an SNES Mini at cost or, you

know, at the MSRP. So I was like, I'm not wrecking

this one unless I can get another one. So yesterday,

thankfully, because I live in a metropolitan

area that isn't being run into the ground We

have access to prime now And they put up on Twitter

they said we have SNES classics in stock at these

locations and it was Columbus, Ohio, so I Saw

the tweet like an hour later. I was like, oh,

there's no way they have them But I went online

and they did and I bought one So I set out to

try to hack it Hacking anything is really easy

to do from a Windows standpoint. Yeah, okay Because

everybody writes things for Windows Well, not

only that but You can access a lot of areas that

you may not necessarily see on a Mac kind of

stuff, right? So I set out to I didn't want to

install Windows So I was like, okay, what can

I do to not have to install Windows? So I install

the virtual box And I found a legal 90 -day copy

of Was it called like win 10 edge? Or something

like that like it's Windows 10 edge. I don't

know. It's one of their crazy versions, but I

have it for 90 days So I installed that and I'm

following these instructions on how to do this

from a max I've got it on the virtual box. I've

got Windows installed. I plug the the mini and

I follow all the instructions But it won't load

any games So I don't know that it's actually

working, but my computer says it is and I think

part of the problem Was because I was running

it in a virtual box The system reboots after

you do the hack Right and the virtual box no

longer recognizes. What's hooked up to the USB

So unless you tell it that it needs to be reconnected

to the USB So there's this weird like handshake

where something doesn't actually finish So then

I was like I filled with it some more tried it

a couple different ways I tried it from my work

computer, which is a Windows machine, but it's

a corporate. It's a work computer. So I can't

install The hacking program. Yeah, it's just

the the semantic thing they have on there just

immediately deletes the file So I was like, okay

and I wasn't gonna do anything I was gonna wait

until I went home use my parents Windows computer

and then I set up to install Windows using Boot

Camp on my Mac. Like I physically installed a

copy of Windows on my Mac. Just to put one game

on my SNES Mini. And I am constantly blown away

at how long it takes to install Windows. Maybe

it's just that hardware because I've never had

it take very long on an actual, like, do you

have a solid state drive? No, I have a hybrid

drug. Oh, well, this should have still installed

fast But I you know, I I did it on uh, it just

it feels like it takes a long time when you're

waiting for something Like you're like you just

got to do this one thing, but it took me like

For Like a little under four hours Like to get

it like to get everything like kind of up and

running to where it was usable Because one, I

was... I borrowed a copy of Windows 7 from the

internet. And the first one that I borrowed didn't

install properly. So I had to uninstall it, find

another copy to borrow, and install that one.

Luckily that one worked. But the end of the long

story short is like once, if you have Windows,

It is less than five minutes to hack and install

whatever games you want on the SNES Mini. That's

nice. And the app that they made is pretty bullet

- excuse me, is pretty bulletproof. Like the

step one is making a dump of the of the ROM that

is installed. Like it they actually the instructions

say back this like click do this back it up email

it to yourself so you have a copy of it because

this is how you fix it. if something goes wrong.

And to be honest with you, I am amazed that I

did not break the thing or lose any data, like

trying to force it to work from a Mac side of

things. It's just so weird that I couldn't get

it to work. But yeah, that's a little strange.

As soon as I got it on the Windows thing, but

I also installed Windows on my old Mac. Like

I was I was getting ready to like. Install Windows

on both of my Macs and see which one could install

it faster But I wanted to just use Windows 7

and my new Mac will only take Windows 8 or higher

Interesting and so I was like I am not familiar

with either one of those So I don't want that

But I did leave the partition on the Windows

partition on my old computer. So now I can play

PC games Hey, there is a bonus to that Yeah,

I mean it wasn't it wasn't like completely bad

and it's it's just it's like I said it feels

like it takes a long time when you're when you're

just like there's just something really quick

that you want to do and You know, it wasn't like

I sat there and stared at the whole time like

my wife and I were watching TV shows with YouTube

while I was installing but it just Feels like

it was going really slow. And I also think there's

something wrong with the Mac that I installed

it on Like it's it's it's on its way out I think

the fans in it died. Oh wow like a year ago.

Luckily, I can replace them. I just have to find

them online. So on that note, I'm just going

to put this out there. I know we don't have very

many people that listen right now, but this might

get you to comment. I have a spare Super Nintendo

Mini in my possession, still in the box. I am

not a scalper. I will sell it to somebody for

$80 plus the cost of shipping. But it's got to

go to a good home. And if I find out you scalped

it, I'll never sell you anything ever again.

So there. So with that in mind, you can let us

know what you guys think of the SNES Mini. Like

I said, this news is really late, but we haven't

really had a chance to talk about it until now.

And the reason we're talking about it now is

because I finally hacked mine. But just real

quick, the hacking app is really slick. So you

have to go and find the ROM yourself. But once

you do and you put it in there, it goes and pulls

like basically the IMDB information for the game.

So it goes and gets the date. And then there's

literally a button that says Google search. And

it does a Google image search for the artwork.

So it loads into the dashboard on the SNES Mini

like it's a proper game, like it was supposed

to be there from the beginning, which. For me

is totally awesome. The hack doesn't change anything

about the way that the SNES mini works Which

I think is like the greatest thing Like I think

those are the greatest things when you don't

like you you add functionality without Making

it noticeable that you added functionality Totally

because sometimes when you hack these things

or you jailbreak them or whatever you end up

making them look completely different Right,

and they kind of look a little janky. Mm -hmm

I'm glad that they didn't The guy that made this

app didn't do that, so awesome on you. So yeah,

that's my thoughts on the Super Nintendo as a

whole. I gushed a little bit about Chrono Trigger

there and my adventures in hacking it. My brother

-in -law keeps suggesting other games that I

should probably load on there, but the games

he's mentioned, I'm just kind of like, I have

no love for those games. I might add the rest

of the Mega Man X games on there. Oh, that would

be awesome. And the Donkey Kong Country games

on there. Because they only put Mega Man X and

Donkey Kong Country. They should have put all

the Mega Man X that they have on SNES. Which

is three, right? Yeah, up to three. Yeah, so

let us know what you think of the SNES Mini.

If you have one, if you want one, if you're trying

to get one for the holidays. You can let us know

on Facebook or on the website or on Twitter.

You can hashtag this one altered hack You can

follow me on Twitter my handle is at booth ninja

81 and you're Steve had SCP 21 Until next week

or next time next time next time Get altered

get geeky with the altered