Video: SNES runs beautifully on N900, makes our hearts flutter
By Darren Murph 
posted September 30th 2009 9:53AM
posted September 30th 2009 9:53AM
[Thanks, Sathish]
posted September 30th 2009 9:53AM
Nintendo SNES 1st-gen
Nintendo Wii console
Nintendo Wii Remote controller
Nokia Maemo 5
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I know the blinking red dot is from the camcorder, but I couldn't help thinking it looked like HAL was watching this over his shoulder. (Maybe, thinking, "M'eh running an snes emulator but can it destroy humans!?" or not.)
is the guy playing a robot? robotic laser eyeballs.
If only the d-pad were on the left and there were shoulder buttons...
Too bad there's no official US carrier supporting this phone.
A Nintendo phone (rumored back in the day with a strange patent) could be really great. They are not the best with UI development, though, which is a major factor in phones. Just a dream...
Hold up, a freaking phone, playing freaking mario, controlled by a freaking wii-mote, connected to his freaking tv?!? That can only spell win!!! Can't wait for mame with wii classic controller support!
Yes the N900 rocks.
It's speculated that a PSX emulator is also in the cards -- the hardware is capable of handling it. Also, NEW, mame, Game boy advance, Genesis, Game-gear, and ScummVM emulators are available for the N810 so there's a HUGE likelihood that they'll be ported to the N900 (some are being ported now). I wouldn't be surprised if an N64 emulator is just around the corner; I think the hardware can handle it.
For those interested in the discussion, or even joining the development effort, visit: http://talk.maemo.org
A few other things:
* You can fit a CRAP load of roms in the built in 32G (even a few full ISOs). But please purchase your content!
* The system is open, so you don't have to worry about these apps being 'approved.' You have full control
* Mauku is an open twitter/jaiku client that is being ported
* Yes the N900 will have push email, via modest (IMAP-idle, I believe -- the N800/N810 had this)
* It's little known that the N900 has a IR transmitter, so you can use it as a remote to control your TV/VCR/Tivo.
* The N900 has a built in FM transmitter to play music over your cars stereo
* Quake 3 has been ported and reportedly runs at full speed.
This phone really is like a computer in your pocket.
Oh my god, I just came. I cannot wait for this phone.
Does anyone have any recommendations for an AT&T subscriber? I want 3G :( any word of a device with the AT&T bands?
Now get it to run MarioKart64 and I'll get one in a heartbeat :D
i want this phone
just 21 and a half months until my contranct runs out, can't wait :\
could this run on my n97 =(
GRRR. My ipaq 2210 ran most SNES games flawlessly at full speed *IN 2003* (using MorphGear). WHY, oh why, are phones only now catching up to what PDAs could do six years ago? (I had it overclocked, I believe I used xCPUScaler or something like that) So frustrating. At least Maemo will be open -- say what you want about WinMo, but it's the best mobile OS i've ever used ... not because the OS itself rocks, but because it's completely open (in terms of being able to run anything you want), the development tools are free and easy to use, and it's very hackable. After using S60 and iPhone OS, I'm *so sick* of crippled & locked down mobile OSs. I also appreciate Maemo because it makes porting desktop apps to mobile extremely easy -- WinMo used to have this advantage, back when it shared most of its GUI widgets with the desktop, but it looks like microsoft will be caving on this point in future releases. Personally, I'll take easy ports of fully-featured desktop apps over finger usability any day of the week ... (check out http://madabar.com/exailemaemo/ ... practically a direct port)
In fairness, that SNES emulator was developed on the N800, which came out back in January '07. So they're not _quite_ as far behind as they seem -- the N900 can surely do things that would bring your iPaq (or my Axim) to it's knees.
OTOH, the N800 and N810 essentially _were_ modern-day PDAs running Linux, so even if the N900 is well ahead of PDAs, it still is one of the first to really come out ahead. I agree that it's coming late, but at least it's here now.
I would like to believe that because it is Linux-based with root access someone will get KDE or GNOME to run on it, especially if Maemo gets ported to x86
my n97 runs snes and gba perfectly fine. wats the big deal about this? engadget u want me to make u a video of me playing pokemon emerald whilst on the fone to my gf?
And I thought LJP for Palm OS 5 was cool... wiimote in was there long ago... but TV out?! Whoa.
I was really expecting this to be out for the pre a month ago.
I'd love to get this phone, but then i know the Bates 1000, i mean N1000 will probably come out a few months(weeks?, days?) later.
How about using the built-in accelerometer to turn the phone itself into a direction-sensing controller?? (i.e. tilt forwards to accelerate, tilt left/right for direction etc.)
Totally getting this phone. Usually when I upgrade I compulsively get the best phone going. Slightly contradicted myself getting a Blackberry 8320 rather than the iPhone last summer, but boy am I glad since the 3GS came out. I would have been screwing otherwise.
So it's approaching end of contract time and the N900 just knocked the iPhone off the top of the pile for me, and purely because of the SNES emulator. Actually scratch that, it's down to Maemo. Too exciting - too many possibilites. I can finally cut my PSP, BB and iPod down into one device.
The VGBA emulator can use the accelerometer for up/down/left/right. Apparently works well on Sonic :-)