Recently, Alan Cecil, a security consultant who also manages TASBot—a tool that assists in speedrunning—made a fascinating discovery about the Super Nintendo (SNES) consoles. He found that one of the chips in these classic consoles has resulted in them running a bit faster than originally intended. This revelation came to light through a report from 404 Media, which highlighted the role of the Sony SPC700 APU, or audio processing unit, in this change. While initially set to operate at a digital signal processing rate of 32,000 Hz, SNES emulator developers noticed back in 2007 that the chip was operating slightly faster, at 32,040 Hz. This meant they had to adjust their emulators to this new frequency to ensure games didn’t malfunction.
The SPC700 relies on a ceramic resonator to determine its frequency, operating at 24,576 Hz. However, this is a delicate piece of equipment, susceptible to environmental factors like heat that might alter its performance.
In an intriguing development, Cecil used the TASBot account to post his hypothesis on Bluesky this past February, seeking data from SNES users to further his investigation. Early findings revealed an interesting trend: as SNES consoles age, the SPC700 chip appears to speed up. The highest frequency recorded so far is 32,182 Hz—an increase that, though less than 1% over its original pace, can still influence game audio and potentially disrupt some games.
### Why A Faster SPC700 Could Pose Challenges for Speedrunners
Now, you might think that since the SPC700 primarily handles audio, a slight speed increase wouldn’t change much about gameplay—especially with the sound muted. But for speedrunners and bots that rely on precise timing, this alteration is significant. When a game level is completed and the screen goes black, the console loads up all the necessary data (including audio) for the next stage. If the APU sends this data to the CPU faster than anticipated, load times shrink, impacting speedrunning performance.
While this acceleration might not matter much to the average player, it could significantly skew speedrunning records and disrupt automated speedrun attempts. The silver lining here is that human speedrunners remain largely unaffected.
“We’re still trying to understand the full extent of its impact on longer speedruns,” Cecil noted. “What we do know is that data transfer between the CPU and APU is indeed affected.”
However, TASBot runs might take a hit, given their need for millisecond-level accuracy. Cecil continues to compile more information to understand how aging influences these consoles. This knowledge will not only help manage console variations over time but also aid in preserving the timeless games we’ve all enjoyed growing up.
