Get Your Classic Sports Games – An SNES Emulator Setup Guide

Few things can flood my memory banks with thoughts of my childhood better than hearing the startup music for certain Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games. From FIFA Soccer 96 to Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball — and of course other games such as Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past — I have fond and vivid memories of spending hours in front of the TV. I wasn’t fortunate enough to own a SNES, instead I relied on my friends to get my video game fix. Sometimes I would simply watch my friends play and be amazed by what I was seeing on the screen. Those high quality graphics pumping through the 16-bit chipset was something that captivated me. For the first time in my life rather than pretending to be Cobi Jones or Kasey Keller in the backyard, I could pick up a controller and really play as my favorite soccer stars.

Fortunately there is a way to go back in time, at least for video games, and it doesn’t even require a DeLorean. Short of purchasing an older system on eBay or Amazon, the best way to replay those games is to download a system emulator. To be a nine-year-old kid again isn’t something I find particularly appealing, but it would be a lie to say I didn’t occasionally long for the days of playing on a SNES again.

Prior to downloading the emulator, first we need to prepare your computer! Determining which operating system you’re on is something I can trust you to do, as there are different emulator versions for each major OS, be it Windows or Mac. Presuming you’re able to determine which version you’ll  need, the next step is to download a file extractor. I personally recommend 7-zip, though if we’re going full nostalgia WinZip used to be my program of choice (Windows only XP/7/8 only). Now that we have the file extractor ready to go and we know which emulator we want (SNES/Sega Genesis etc.) as well as which computer OS we’re on, we are finally ready to begin the downloading!

For my money, which is to say free, I use, trust and enjoy EmuParadise.me for all of my emulaor needs. Misleading URLs aside, rest assured this site isn’t a fan appreciation for the large flightless bird, but rather Emulator Paradise. The site is easily navigated with the drop down menu bar at the top. I’ve tried many versions of various emulators but I keep coming back to ZSNES [1.51], located near the bottom of the linked page.

Simply clicking on the 1.51 version will bring you to the download page itself. Click the orange colored “Download ZSNES 1.51” link and save it to a new and appropriately named file path, e.g. ROMs or Downloaded ROMs. It’s very important to remember your specific file path. As a package, the emulator will come with Avast! antivrus or something similar. You can easily uninstall the extra program by going through your Control Panel > Programs and Features > and installing the unwanted programs. I have everything saved under the default “Download” path and created my own “ROMs” file.  Once your download completes, open up 7-zip, the program you downloaded earlier. Upon first opening 7-zip, you’ll see a screen showing various drives, C, D and probably E. We’re after the C drive, highlighted below.

Double click the C drive and you’ll see every file saved on your computer. We’re looking for your specifically created file name, so we’ll need to do a bit of digging. While in the C drive, scroll down to the “Users” pathway. Double click it.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, do not click the top “All Users” tab, but rather your specific user name. For example, my username on this computer is wiers_000.

One you’re in the specific user tab, look for the “Downloads”file. Give it a click and it should display yours freshly created ROMS file. Within the ROMs file you’ll see “zsnesw151.” Double click on it and it should bring you to the second-to-last stop here in 7-zip.

You should now be seeing zsnesw.exe sitting there along with a file named “docs” highlighted below.

The docs file is the readme files, and while it is important to read those at some point, you don’t need to unzip those. Right click on the zsnew.exe and open it (you can also drag + drop the .exe file to your desktop in order to create an icon). Welcome to your new emulator! Note: If your screen is unresponsive at this point, simply press the spacebar as the emulator indicates.

You’re now ready to download whatever game ROM you’re looking for! Of course, we suggest you download only games you’ve previously purchased long ago for those now-dusty systems. We do not condone downloading games in which the developer and publisher haven’t yet been paid. If you’re looking for a specific title, again Emuparadise.me is the place to go. They’ve created a list of almost 3,700 games for the SNES and are sorted alphabetically as well as giving you a search option.

Once you’ve picked out which game — you know, the one that really brings back the memories…and that you’ve already paid for once upon a time — it’s finally game time! The first game I chose should be no surprise…FIFA 96! Similar to how you saved the emulator itself, you’ll probably want to localize any ROM you download specifically to the ROMs folder. Assuming you save all the ROMs to the ROMs file (along with the emulator itself) you should have no problem retracing your steps within the emulator.

If you need a refresher, the proper click path for the emulator is as follows:

Game > Load > C Drive > Users > *your specific user name* > Downloads > ROMs > then double click which game you want.

If you need to get out of the game window, simply ALT + Tab or to close the emulator ALT + F4. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an almost two decade old grudge match to play.

(Header photo via Wikipedia)