🔗 Satellaview

The Satellaview is a satellite modem peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom in 1995. Containing 1 megabit of ROM space and an additional 512K of RAM, Satellaview allowed players to download games, magazines and other forms of content through satellite broadcasts provided by Japanese company St.GIGA. To use Satellaview, players had to purchase a special broadcast satellite (BS) tuner directly from St.GIGA or rent one for a six-month fee, and to pay monthly maintenance fees to both St.GIGA and Nintendo. It was attached to the bottom of the Super Famicom via the system's expansion port. It featured heavy support from third-party developers, including Squaresoft, Taito, Konami, Capcom and Seta.

Satellaview was the result of a collaboration between Nintendo and St.GIGA, the latter being known in Japan for its "Tide of Sound" nature sound music. By 1994, St.GIGA was struggling financially due to the Japanese Recession affecting the demand for its music; Nintendo initiated a "rescue" plan by purchasing a stake in the company. Satellaview was produced by Nintendo Research & Development 2, the same team that designed the Super Famicom itself, and was made to cater towards a more adult-oriented market. By 1998, Nintendo's relationship with St.GIGA was beginning to collapse due to the company refusing to go forward with a debt-management plan and failing to secure a government broadcasting license. Nintendo withdrew support for Satellaview in March 1999, with St.GIGA continuing to supply content until June 30, 2000, when it was ultimately discontinued.

The rise of technologically-superior consoles such as the Sega Saturn and PlayStation and its high cost made consumers reluctant to purchase Satellaview, especially due to it only being sold via mail order, or through specific electronic store chains. Despite this, St.GIGA reported seeing over 100,000 subscribers by March 1997. Retrospectively, Satellaview has been praised by critics for its technological accomplishments and the overall quality of its games, particularly those from the Legend of Zelda series. In recent years, it has gained a strong cult following due to much of its content being deemed lost, with video game preservation groups being formed to dump and preserve its games and other services online.