Nintendo / St.GIGA · 1995 · Super Famicom
A satellite modem for the Super Famicom that downloaded games broadcast at fixed times — including new Zelda episodes with live radio narration. Much of what it carried was never sold and was long presumed lost.
Nintendo launched the Satellaview in Japan on 23 April 1995. The add-on sat underneath the Super Famicom and connected to a satellite receiver, adding 1 MB of ROM and 512 KB of RAM. Nintendo partnered with St.GIGA, a satellite radio company, which provided the broadcasting service, while Nintendo and third-party developers supplied the content. It was priced at ¥14,000 when announced. Players used a special BS-X cartridge that worked both as the service's menu — presented as a small town in a style reminiscent of EarthBound — and as a game in its own right. Downloaded games could be stored on 8-megabit memory packs inserted into the cartridge. Content was broadcast on a schedule, and the most distinctive programmes were the "SoundLink" games, which streamed live voice acting by radio personalities alongside the gameplay. The best known were the BS Legend of Zelda titles, including new versions of the original Zelda that could only be played during their broadcast windows. The service peaked at more than 100,000 users in March 1997, but third-party support was thin and the audience fell to about 46,000 active subscribers. Nintendo ended the service completely on 30 June 2000. Because many broadcasts were never sold on cartridge and the audio streams were not stored at all, much of the Satellaview library was long presumed lost. That scarcity gave it a cult following, and preservationists have since recovered a large number of its games and built custom servers to recreate the experience.