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

Alan Cecil, a security consultant and the mind behind TASBot, an advanced tool-assisted speedrun robot, stumbled upon something intriguing about the Super Nintendo’s aging process. An article on 404 Media explains how one of the console’s chips has caused its performance to subtly shift over the years. At the heart of this discovery lies the Sony SPC700 APU—a key component for audio processing with a specific digital signal processing rate set at 32,000 Hz. However, alert SNES emulator experts spotted a discrepancy back in 2007. They found that these chips were operating a tad quicker, at 32,040 Hz, requiring them to adjust their values to prevent game malfunctions.

The SPC700 relies on a ceramic resonator to maintain its frequency, humming along at 24,576 Hz. This piece, like many electronic components, is sensitive to environmental changes such as heat, which can influence its behavior.

Just this past February, Cecil reached out to the SNES community via Bluesky, utilizing his TASBot account to share his theory and gather empirical data. Early findings hint at a consistent increase in the SPC700 chip’s speed as consoles age, with the highest recorded frequency bumping up to 32,182 Hz. Though this uptick is less than 1% from the original frequency, it has the potential to tweak in-game audio and cause issues for certain titles.

The New Challenge for Speedrunners

While this frequency alteration impacts only the audio handling of the SNES, it shouldn’t disrupt gameplay unless audio timing is crucial or the sound is muted. Yet, for speedrunners or those developing bots that hinge on precise timing, this could spell trouble. The reason? When a level wraps up and the screen goes dark, the console scrambles to load the next wave of data—audio included. If the audio processing power surges and delivers data to the CPU faster than anticipated, those loading times shrink.

For the everyday gamer, this might seem like a win, but it poses a potential nightmare for speedrunning records and the bots vital to maintaining them. The silver lining? Human speedrunners remain unfazed by this increase in performance.

Cecil points out the uncertainty surrounding the impact on extended speedruns, acknowledging that while some transfer speed acceleration is evident, its total effect is still under observation.

Conversely, TASBot’s precision-driven runs could encounter challenges, as laser accuracy is non-negotiable for success. Cecil is eager to gather more insights into how time affects these consoles. Given that countless devices age similarly, understanding these shifts is critical to future emulation efforts and preserving the beloved classics that defined many of our young gaming years.