R36S SNES Settings: Perfect Super Nintendo Emulation Guide
The Super Nintendo is one of the best-supported systems on the R36S — the hardware handles every SNES game at full speed with ease. The challenge is dialing in the right settings for the best visual and audio experience on the R36S's small 640×480 screen. This guide covers the optimal configuration.
Choosing the Right SNES Core
RetroArch offers several SNES emulator cores. Here's how they compare on the R36S:
| Core | Accuracy | Performance | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snes9x | Very Good | Excellent | Most games — best default choice |
| Snes9x 2010 | Good | Excellent | Fallback if Snes9x has issues |
| bsnes / bsnes-mercury | Highest | Moderate | Demanding games needing accuracy (e.g., Star Fox) |
| Mesen-S | Very High | Good | Enhanced mode 7, MSU-1 hacks |
Recommended Core
Snes9x is the best all-around choice for R36S. It runs all SNES games at full speed, has excellent compatibility, and provides great audio quality. Use bsnes only if a specific game requires higher accuracy.
Snes9x Core Settings
Open RetroArch Quick Menu → Core Options while running an SNES game to access these settings.
Video Settings
| Setting | Recommended Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SuperFX Overclock | 100% (default) | Leave at 100% for authentic pacing; raising it is an optional speed-up with a side effect — see the SuperFX section |
| Crop Overscan | On (both dimensions) | Hides the top and bottom rows that CRTs cut off anyway — see the note below the table |
| Aspect Ratio | Auto (8:7) | Correct SNES pixel aspect ratio |
| GFX Clip Windows | Enabled | Required for correct transparency effects |
| GFX Trans Layers | Enabled | Correct graphical effects in many games |
Why cropping overscan is the right default
CRT televisions never showed the full frame — the outer rows and columns fell behind the plastic bezel. Developers knew this, so many SNES games left the top and bottom few rows unfinished: stray tiles, half-drawn sprites, or a strip of garbage that no player ever saw. On a modern LCD that shows every pixel, those rows suddenly become visible.
Cropping overscan hides them again, which is why it is on by default in most setups. If you ever wonder why a game has a flickering line along one edge, this is almost always the reason — and the fix is this setting, not the emulator core.
Audio Settings
| Setting | Recommended Value |
|---|---|
| Audio Interpolation | Gaussian (most accurate to real hardware) |
| Echo Buffer Workaround | Off (only enable if specific game has audio bugs) |
Pro Tip
Gaussian audio interpolation most accurately reproduces the SNES SPC700 audio chip's characteristic sound — that warm, slightly low-fi quality that SNES music is known for. "Linear" sounds a bit cleaner but less authentic.
Display Settings for SNES on R36S
Aspect Ratio: Why Sources Disagree About "Correct"
The SNES renders 256×224 pixels. Divide those and you get exactly 8:7 — so if you want each pixel square, as the console generated them, 8:7 is the honest answer.
But nobody played the SNES that way. Every CRT television of the era displayed that image stretched to 4:3, so the shapes people actually grew up with were wider than the console's raw pixel grid. Mario is a little rounder at 4:3 than at 8:7.
Neither is wrong, and this is why guides contradict each other:
- 8:7 (Core Provided) — square pixels, geometrically faithful to what the hardware output. Preferred if you like sharp, undistorted pixel art.
- 4:3 — matches what a period television showed. Preferred if you are chasing the memory rather than the pixel grid.
On a 3.5-inch screen the difference is subtle. Try both on a title you know well and keep whichever looks right to you — there is no setting to get wrong here.
Recommended: Integer Scale for Sharpest Image
- Quick Menu → Video → Scaling
- Set Integer Scale to On
- SNES will render at 2x (512×448), perfectly crisp with no pixel distortion
Here is the arithmetic for this specific panel. SNES output is 256×224; the R36S screen is 640×480. Doubling gives 512×448, which fits with a 64-pixel border on each side and 16 pixels top and bottom. Tripling would need 768×672 — far too big. So 2× is the only integer option, and it is a good one: every source pixel becomes a clean 2×2 block with no interpolation.
The alternative, stretching 256 pixels across the full 640, means each source pixel covers two-and-a-half screen pixels. Some pixels get two columns, some get three, and the uneven thickness is what people describe as the screen looking soft or smeared. It is the scaling mode, not the panel.
Shader Recommendations for SNES
| Shader | Effect | Performance Cost |
|---|---|---|
| None (nearest neighbor) | Sharp pixels, modern look | None |
| crt-pi | Scanlines, CRT warmth | Low |
| crt-royale | Authentic CRT with phosphor glow | Moderate |
| xbrz-freescale | Smooth upscaling | Low-Moderate |
To apply: Quick Menu → Shaders → Load Shader Preset → browse to the shader file.
SuperFX and Special Chip Games
Some SNES games used special co-processors on the cartridge. These require extra configuration:
SuperFX Games (Star Fox, Stunt Race FX, Yoshi's Island)
This is the setting most often misunderstood, so it is worth being precise. At the default 100%, SuperFX games already run correctly on the R36S. The chugging framerate in Star Fox is not your handheld struggling — it is what the game did on a real Super Nintendo.
The reason is the chip. The SuperFX was designed for 21.4 MHz, but the revision in Star Fox's cartridge was clocked at half that, 10.7 MHz. Star Fox has no independent frame timer: its pace is tied directly to how fast the SuperFX finishes work. Slow chip, slow game.
So the overclock option is an enhancement, not a fix:
- Core Options → SuperFX Overclock → raise above 100% (200–400% are common choices)
- The framerate climbs well past what the original console managed
- But because the game's speed is bound to that chip, the whole game speeds up with it — ships, enemies and scrolling all move faster than intended
This is a trade-off, not a setting to max out
No value gives you a smooth framerate and authentic pacing, because in Star Fox they are the same dial. Leave it at 100% for the game as it shipped; raise it if you would rather have a faster arcade feel and do not mind that it is no longer accurate. Yoshi's Island is far less sensitive, since it uses the SuperFX2 for visual effects rather than for core timing, so a modest bump there is much less disruptive.
General rule: if a game runs badly and you are not sure whether it is the emulator or original behaviour, check footage of it on real hardware before reaching for an overclock.
SA-1 Games (Kirby Super Star, Super Mario RPG)
SA-1 chip games run fine with Snes9x defaults — no special configuration needed. These run at full speed on R36S.
The contrast with SuperFX is instructive. The SA-1 is a fast general-purpose co-processor and the games using it were written expecting that speed, so emulating it faithfully gives the intended experience with no dial to argue about. Emulating either chip does add CPU work on top of emulating the SNES itself, which is why special-chip carts are the only SNES titles where this device's per-core limits are worth thinking about at all — see the hardware breakdown for why single-core speed is the ceiling here.
SNES Game Compatibility Table
| Game | Core | Performance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario World | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
| The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
| Chrono Trigger | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
| Super Metroid | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
| Star Fox | Snes9x | Authentic pace | Runs as it did on real hardware (10.7 MHz SuperFX). Overclock only if you want it faster than original |
| Yoshi's Island | Snes9x | Full Speed | No tweak needed; SuperFX2 handles effects, not core timing |
| Super Mario RPG | Snes9x | Perfect | SA-1 chip, runs fine |
| Kirby Super Star | Snes9x | Perfect | SA-1 chip, runs fine |
| F-Zero | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
| Secret of Mana | Snes9x | Perfect | No tweaks needed |
Saving and Quick Saves
SNES save states work reliably on R36S. Some SNES games also use in-game battery saves (SRAM). Both work correctly with Snes9x.
- Quick Save: SELECT + R1 on ROCKNIX, FN + R1 on ArkOS — instant save state
- Quick Load: SELECT + L1 on ROCKNIX, FN + L1 on ArkOS — restore the last quick save
- SRAM saves: automatic — saved when you exit the game cleanly via RetroArch menu
Important
Don't hold the power button to force-power-off while SRAM games are running. SRAM saves can be lost or corrupted if the device shuts down mid-write. Always return to the RetroArch menu before powering off.