Happy Birthday SFC - 20 this weekend!

[Max P.]

Raise a glass on Sunday to the SFC - 20 years young!

The best console of all time from the most golden age of gaming, Nintendo at their most creative and brilliant and host to SMW, Zelda's best and the untouchable version of Mario Kart.

The hype of SFII, inventiveness of Miyamoto and the best gaming mag in Super Play, imports and no internet, they were truly the best years of console gaming.

Happy birthday little grey lump of joy...

[Wil]

It's hard to believe that it's been so long since I was paying hand over fist to Advance Console Entertainment in London for an SFC, SMW, F-Zero and Bombuzal! I'd then continue to pay them vast sums on a regular basis each time a new batch of stuff came in. Expensive but a top, and exciting, time.

[Soundwave]

I remember the day when my mate got his SFC my dad picked it up for him from an import shop in Wood Green, London by where my dad was working at the time & it felt like the longest wait in the world from finishing school until my dad got in from work.

Then the race home to my mates was the fastest we'd ever done to get back to his to fire up UN Squadron for the first time & my jaw hit the floor.
Amazing game & still one of my best shooters of all times.

Then came the agonizing wait for the UK release of the SNES as I wasnt savy/rich enough to import at that time so had to make do with the odd session round my mates house.

This little grey box of wizadry is still far & away my greatest console of all time & I wouldnt ever part with it.

So many classics that still get regularly play time today...

Super Star Wars series games
Castlevania IV
Contra III
Axelay
Adventures of Batman & Robin
Batman Returns
Unirally
Pilot Wings
Area 88
Turtles in Time
Etc. Etc.

As we all know the list is almost endless but everything is a gem & it still amazes me to this day.

I really should get a proper SFC or at least Mod my Pal unit, almost criminal that I'm still playing with Borders & at 50hz

Thanks for reminding me that it's been so long since it was released, I feel a marathon SNES sesh is due this weekend to mark the milestone

Neil

[Baseley09]

I'm not a big Super Famicom fan, though I did nearly buy one early on only for Advance Console Entertainment to run out of stock close to xmas so I opted for PC Engine instead, the rest is history......

But my cousin got one close to launch, id never seen or heard of a console running over RGB, his folks rented him a 21" Phillips just to use it on, he had Super Mario World & Goeman.....id never had quite an assault on the senses, to say I was blwon away was an understatement.

The glamor faded badly when everyone started getting 50hz pal models with SF2 in super toho scope widescreen borderville.



Golden Fighter is still cool though.

Contra III is lame....because of the fluffy bullets, super nintendo all over right there.

[Vince]

I'll definietly be playing on mine this week, mainly as it gets regular use due to me setting it up for myself and my son to play on. I've been trying to teach him to play Mario and the SFC is perfect as it doesn't have too many buttons, whereas he gets confused by a 360 controller.

Its a great console though, loads of good games and I'm certain there are a number of hidden gems on the system too. Its also great that its so reliable, 20 years old and going strong, I'm sure all modern systems will be in landfill in 20 years time.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

All my remaining SFC gear is at my folks, but I'll be giving it some GBA SFC love this weekend.

Super Mario World
Yoshi's Island
Final Fantasy IV
Tales of Phantasia
Goemon 1&2
Final Fight

Some of the best games on the system right there.

[gamelife]

wow, can't believe its been 20 years. the sfc just brings back so many memories for me. the buzz around school at the time and reading mags like mean machines was awesome : ). my mate bought an import not long after the jap release along with smw and f-zero. i was blown away at the time. still have my sfc set up in the bedroom which i frequently play, i actually played through castlevania 4 just the other night.

easily my fav system of all time and the greatest time for gaming : )

[J0e Musashi]

I bought mine pretty much as soon as it came out from Shekana, which was without doubt the greatest SFC store of all time. They had stock of any game you wanted to buy at any given time as though they were domestic releases. I had an RGB capable TV so I never needed a PAL booster. I never got into SMW until months later, but I played F-Zero to death.

Final Fight was what I really wanted though. It was pretty sweet to have it indoors even though it never had Guy or a 2-player mode.

My Mom bought Bombuzal simply because we used to play it on C64.

Getting SF2 was probably my greatest gaming achievement. Pretty much paid for itself from the 50p I'd charge kids to come and play it.

Probably my best time for gaming, but I think the PlayStation has a better lineup of games, and the PS2 even moreso.

[Pavey]

Got mine the day after the Japanese launch from Shekhana TCR. ?480 for the machine, SMW and F-Zero ?90 each.

16 at the time, never spent so much money in one go.

[Colin]

Got mine the day after the Japanese launch from Shekhana TCR. £480 for the machine, SMW and F-Zero £90 each.

16 at the time, never spent so much money in one go.

Holy crap! I don't remember them being that expensive on import!!!!

I'm pretty sure I bought mine, with final fight, for £329. I can't remember how far in to the release schedule final fight was though? Was it in the first wave of games? I remember walking in to a little shop in Dunfermline and seeing pilotwings for the first time. Forget the game, just the way 'pilotwings' was written on the title screen seemed like the most beautiful thing i'd ever seen!

The PCE, MD, SFC era was the best period of gaming ever.

[J0e Musashi]

SFC's were £600 in ACE on launch IIRC.

[Colin]

How far in was final fight J0e? That was what made me buy one.

[thegreathopper]

My first Snes was a US machine, There used to be an import game shop in Bath that used to sell them for ?100 with a scart lead.

[Max P.]

£600?? blimey! Bought mine from Colin at Megaware and still to this day I remember him convincing me to get it with SMW as I told him I didn't like 'platform games' that much...! Is Shekana still around? I can remember many firsts on visits to that shop including the first Playstation with RR and the N64 with Mario 64.

Biggest memory for me is the true hype and excitement that surrounded SFII - with no internet then each snippet of news in C&VG/Mean Machines or Super Play each month just made the anticipation grow to a frenzy. Also remember the Star Fox hype - still the most expensive game I've ever bought - something like £80 on import in the launch week.

[Colin]

I wasn't suckered in by SFC SFII, but did pay £90 for the PCE version.