The above video is an engaging interview with zsKnight, the lead programmer and creator of the legendary Super Nintendo emulator, ZNES. Hosted by Zophar, founder of Zophar’s Domain, the conversation offers a insight into how a passion project changed the early world of emulation forever.
Before mentioning any of what takes place in the interview, I just want to share my own personal experience. Although I wasn’t there personally when ZSNES was forming, a close friend of mine used to play ZSNES online (possibly called ZBattle), and only ever played Super Street Fighter II. This was an early way to play online, and some of the best players were using this to play. My friend has always said that the netcode was fantastic, and having access to this helped him and many others get really good at Super Street Fighter II, a skill that allowed them to grow as players.
Key Points from the Interview:
- A Technical Revolution: zsKnight explains that ZNES was a massive undertaking, born from his fascination with assembly language optimization. He wrote the core entirely in pure assembly code to achieve full speed performance on the low power computers common in the late 90s, an accomplishment he achieved with collaborator _Demo_.
- The Name and the Snow: zsKnight clarifies the name’s proper pronunciation is “Zed SNES” (or “Z SNES” in the US), admitting it was chosen simply because he liked the letter Z. He also reveals the iconic, peaceful snow effect in the graphical user interface (GUI), a feature beloved by fans, took him only about an hour to code.
- The Netplay Secret: In a major reveal, zsKnight shares the technical “big secret” behind ZNES’s famously responsive netplay feature. He explains the system secretly creates a save state every two frames and rapidly rewinds and re-emulates to quickly correct for network lag, ensuring a smooth experience.
- Life Beyond ZNES: After leaving the project, zsKnight leveraged his programming experience to land a job at EA (Electronic Arts), where many people recognized him as the emulator’s creator. Today, he works in mixed reality (VR/AR) and is developing his own retro-inspired game, Retro Endurance 8bit, which pays homage to WarioWare.
- Final Legacy: zsKnight expresses deep appreciation for the community and collaboration among early developers, and he acknowledges the tragedy of Near, the creator of the highly accurate BSNES emulator. He ultimately recommends that users today opt for modern, better-maintained emulators like SNES9X over ZSNES due to the challenges of maintaining old assembly code and potential security concerns.
For more details on the design, his favourite SNES games (Chrono Trigger is his favourite overall), and stories from the early emulation scene, you will want to watch the full interview.
