It Was 30 Years Ago

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES for short, was released in North America on August 23rd, 1991. I was 12 at the time and didn’t have the money to buy the console on launch date. I was also pretty happy with my existing NES and Gameboy systems. Three years later in 1994 I managed to save up all my money to buy my own SNES. I remember it very well. It was summer vacation in 1994, and I was visiting family friends in Toronto. I bought SNES along with a Super Gameboy, from a Zeller’s at a nearby mall. To this date it’s still my favourite video game console. The Super NES was such a technological leap from the original NES, and miles ahead of the Gameboy. I bought the SNES and bundled it with the brand new Super Gameboy. Super Gameboy was essentially a SNES game cartridge shaped adapter that would let you insert Gameboy cartridges. You could then play your library of Gameboy games on a colour TV. This was a really cool technology for the time. Being able to play your handheld games on a TV wasn’t something you could do up until this point. But it that wasn’t the main reason I wanted to get the Super Nintendo.

Mortal KOMBAT 2 and the internet in 1994

During the summer of 1994, Mortal Kombat 2 was a really big success in the arcades. Arcades were everywhere at the time. Back then this would be the equivalent of today’s online gaming, but on a much smaller scale. You could play and interact with other players, but you had to physically be in a building that housed arcade console machines. The original Mortal Kombat had been released the previous year on home consoles and was massive success. You could play the game on the Sega Genesis, SNES, GameBoy and the Sega Game Gear. With the success of the first Mortal Kombat, there was huge anticipation for Mortal Kombat 2 being released on home consoles in the fall of 1994. After experiencing all the home versions of the original Mortal Kombat, I decided and predicted that the SNES version of Mortal Kombat 2 would be the most arcade accurate. The SNES version of Mortal Kombat had the best graphics and sound in my opinion. It struggled in the area of gameplay and overall controls, but it was still playable. So how did we do video game comparisons at the time without the of the internet? Our internet at the time was video game magazines. It was basically like looking at static webpages that would only get update once a month. GAMEPRO, Nintendo Power, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and list of less well known publishings would provide preview photos of all the upcoming home releases of Mortal Kombat 2. You could look at side by side photos and clearly see that the SNES version of MK2 looked superior. This was a big deal at the time. This was all during the 16-bit console war between the SNES and Sega Genesis. There will always be arguments about which system was better, but I always believed that the SNES was the superior console in all aspects.

‘Mortal FRIDAY’ SEPtember 9, 1994

Mortal Kombat 2 was officially released on ‘Mortal Friday’ September 9th 1994. I remember the day very well. There was a huge television ad campaign to promote the game. There were ads in every video game magazine. There were posters at video rental stores. You knew the game was going to be released. I pre-ordered my copy for SNES at a local video store. At the time a SNES game cartridge cost around $100 Canadian. Today that would be around $150 with inflation. That might sound crazy when you compare it to prices today, but you have to remember it was basically a small circuit board housed in plastic casing. That cost a lot more to produce compared to today’s digital downloads. I remember picking up the game at the store and then rushing home to try it out. And they nailed it! I was not disappointed. It captured that arcade game feeling and felt great to play. It did a great job to recreate the graphics and sounds that I was used to seeing and hearing in the arcade version leading up to this release. And for the first time Nintendo let Acclaim/Midway release the game with full gore and blood. The previous SNES home release of Mortal Kombat had been heavily censored. Instead of blood, characters would spray sweat, and most of the signature Fatalities had been altered or changed. I played Mortal Kombat 2 more than any game I had ever played. I learned all the character’s special moves, all the fatalities, and all of the hidden secrets. I was obsessed! Sequels to Mortal Kombat 2 were eventually released every few years, but to this day I still say this is the best arcade to home console port ever.

WHAT Happened to my SNES?

So years went by, I grew up and moved on, and my SNES found a home in a cardboard in my parents basement. It was only recently during a visit to my parents home that I discovered my original SNES still existed. I hadn’t thought of it in 20+ years and just assumed I had sold it at some point in the past. So my first question was, does it still work? I the same cardboard box I also found the original power supply brick and one original SNES controller. I fully expected everything to work OK, but I would need to find an audio/video cable to connect it to my modern day TV. Back in the 90’s we just used the supplied RF switching boxing that connected directly into the coax input on the back of your tv. And we used tube TVs back then. Giant flat panel screens were something you only saw in science fiction movies. I couldn’t have even imagined playing this game on a TV larger than a 27” tube. So I would need to figure out a way to connect the SNES to my current modern day TV.

CABLEs I USED TO CONNECT the SNES to MY TV

So after a quick search online, I managed to find a cable that was supposed to be compatible with the SNES. It is a composite cable that connects to the MULTI OUT port on the back of the SNES console. I had never used the multi out port back when I first bought the SNES. I didn’t even know what it was for. This wasn’t even an option for me at the time. Unless you had a fancy setup, you were plugging directly into your tube tv and getting mono audio. If you’re looking to buy the same a/v cable, I’ve included the link to Amazon. You will need a TV or receiver that accepts the red/white/yellow composite cables. Red and White are your stereo audio and the yellow provides the video signal. So I ordered the cables from Amazon and the package arrived a few days later in the mail. And then I realized somethings else.

MIXING the old tech WITH NEW

Once I had the multi out cables, I thought it would be a simple matter of connecting the cables to the back of my TV. Except for one issue, my TV doesn’t have composite inputs. The oldest connection it will accept is component cables (Red/Green/Blue). It’s safe to assume that most modern TVs don’t have composite inputs anymore. It’s just not a common requirement. They were commonly used for VCRs, camcorders, and lot of older audio/video devices in the 80s and 90s. Luckily I had a solution in place, but just didn’t realize it right away. My Pioneer AV receiver is equipped with almost every type of audio and video input/output you would need, including composite. So I was able to plug the multi out cables into the back of the Pioneer receiver, and then route the signal from HDMI out into my HDMI input signal on the TV.

DID IT all WORK?

The next thing I hadn’t tested yet was whether or not the SNES would power on properly with the original power supply. So I plugged the power supply into a wall outlet, connected it to the back of the console and tested it out. The power on switch on the SNES is a flat purple rectangle that slides back and forth. It clicks into place when you power it on and when you power it off. It got a nice red light, which means the power works fine! I expected everything to work, but sometimes weird things happen. This still didn’t mean that the audio and video connections would work, so now with the composite cables plugged into the Pioneer receiver, I configured the output to display on the proper output signal to my tv. Next I connected the multi out connector into the console port and once again powered on the SNES system. Success! Everything worked as expected and I was able to play Mortal Kombat 2 once again on my original SNES console. The SNES that sat in a box untouched for over 20 years, powered on and worked without issue.

If you’re wondering about the copy of Mortal Kombat 2 that I own, I recently purchased the cartridge again at a local video game store. I have another system called the Hyperkin Retron 5. It allows you to use various classic console cartridges inluding SNES, Genesis, NES, Gameboy. So this wasn’t the original MK2 cartridge that I bought back in 1994, but it really didn’t matter to me. I was just happy that it all works! I’ve also created a vlog of the whole setup and configuration on YouTube. So to see more about my experience, including a short demo of MK2 in action, check out my Youtube video below. You’ll see a more detailed setup, and how it looks on my LCD TV as well as through a giant 4K projector running on a 106” screen.