From the ashes: ZSNES developers announce new Super Nintendo emulator Super ZSNES

ZSNES is back, and now it's super-powered.

The original developers behind the classic Super Nintendo (SNES) emulator ZSNES announced today Super ZSNES, a new SNES emulator written "completely from scratch." 

Super ZSNES brings a fresh take on SNES emulation. Rather than focusing on a system's CPU, Super ZSNES leverages a computer's graphics card to enable some enhanced features. The biggest draws here include a high-res mode for the SNES's famous Mode 7 graphics mode (including height mapping), improved audio accuracy, and a Super Enhancement Engine. Of course, the classic "falling snow" menu animation is also present. 

The Super Enhancement Engine (SEE) is the current focus of Super ZSNES. It allows gamers to enable high-resolution graphics (for both sprites and backgrounds) with the click of a button. It can also overclock the SNES's CPU to prevent slowdown and lag in games (which the SNES is infamous for, particularly in titles like Gradius III and Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts). The SEE can also enable widescreen modes in games without the need for specific mods, and it can "upscale" audio via uncompressed samples. 

Retro gamers can select which of these features they want enabled, and purists can disable all of them. Super ZSNES also includes features common to modern emulators, like save states, rewind, and cheat code support.

Super ZSNES is currently in the very early stages of development. Some features common in other SNES emulators (like support for the SNES's SuperFX chip and Netplay) are currently in the works and should drop soon. 

Super ZSNES is available for Windows, Mac, and Android. An iOS version is planned for the future.