Aging SNES Consoles Show Speed Boost: APU Frequency Rises by Up to 182 Hz Over 35 Years

Alan Cecil, a savvy security consultant and the brains behind TASBot (the Tool-Assisted Speedrun robot), recently stumbled upon an interesting development regarding the Super Nintendo consoles. It turns out that due to one of its integral chips, these classic gaming systems have started running a tad faster than in their original state. According to insights shared by 404 Media, the Super Nintendo’s audio processing, managed by the Sony SPC700 APU, was originally set to a digital signal processing rate of 32,000 Hz. However, a curious observation by SNES emulator programmers back in 2007 revealed that this chip was operating slightly brisker at a pace of 32,040 Hz. To keep the games running smoothly, they adjusted their settings accordingly.

The SPC700 relies on a ceramic resonator set at 24,576 Hz to nail down its operational frequency. This component, however, is quite delicate, being vulnerable to influences like heat and other environmental elements.

By the end of February, Cecil, through the TASBot persona on the platform Bluesky, speculated about this clock speed increase and solicited data from SNES enthusiasts. The initial data collected suggests a fascinating trend: as these SNES systems age, the SPC700 chip seems to be running even faster than before. The peak frequency recorded so far is 32,182 Hz. Although this is just a marginal bump from the original 32,000 Hz, it’s significant enough to mess with the in-game audio of certain titles.

## Why Speedrunners Should Take Notice

For most of us who simply enjoy the nostalgia of playing SNES games, this faster frequency is unlikely to interfere with gameplay unless the sound is critical to the experience. Even if you choose to play your games on mute, it won’t make much difference to the overall experience. But for the speedrunning community—where every millisecond counts—such a shift can’t be ignored.

Think about it this way: when a stage ends and the screen refreshes for the next level, the console is loading the necessary data, audio included, from the APU to the CPU. With the SPC700 working slightly faster, it could theoretically reduce loading times, giving speedrunners or their bots a potential—albeit unintentional—advantage.

This acceleration might seem like a perk for casual gamers, but it spells potential chaos for speed-running records and those bots that rely on precise timing. The good news is that for human speedrunners, this minor performance boost hasn’t shown any real impact.

Cecil remains cautiously optimistic, stating, “We’re still in the dark about the exact impact on longer speedruns. All we can confirm is that there’s some effect on how quickly data zips between the CPU and APU.”

While the live, human players are somewhat immune, TASBot’s smooth operations might face hurdles, given its requirement for millisecond-level precision. Cecil aims to continue collecting data to understand how the aging process affects these consoles. Understanding these changes not only helps in creating accurate emulations of these timeless devices but also ensures we can preserve and enjoy the classic games that so many of us grew up loving.