It's been 35 years since the SNES first launched as the Super Famicom in Japan, complete with a sound chip designed by the father of PlayStation himself, Ken Kutaragi. Over the past few weeks, Super Nintendo fans have made a curious discovery – that chip has been quietly overclocking itself over the decades, making SNES consoles run ever so slightly faster than they did back in the day.
The idea that "SNES consoles seem to be getting faster as they age" was posited back on February 26 via TASBot – the speedrunning robot operated by community figure Alan "dwangoAC" Cecil – alongside a call for data detailing exactly how quickly everyone's Super Nintendo is running. After well over 100 responses, the hypothesis is starting to seem pretty definitive. A SNES in 2025 is going to run faster than it did when it was originally manufactured.
