LakeSnes Core for SNES on iPhone & iPad | Retropa

What the catalog lists for SNES

LakeSnes upstream project: https://github.com/dinkc64/LakeSnes — the desktop emulator this core grew out of. What loads in Retropa comes from Retropa's own catalog, not from everything that project can do on a computer. And a recognized extension still does not promise that a particular title behaves. The app arrives empty as well: no games, no BIOS files, so bring only files you have the right to use.

• SNES / Super Famicom: .sfc, .smc, .fig, .swc, .bs, .st

Keep the image and its header intact

In Japan the same console sold as Super Famicom, which is why both names turn up in file lists. Most cartridge dumps carry .sfc or .smc, and the catalog piles a few copier formats on top of that. The extension says almost nothing about whether a copier header is stuck to the front of the file or whether the cartridge expects extra hardware. Keep the image you actually downloaded, plus a copy of it, instead of stripping a header as your first move.

Check the full controller

Once the game is in the library, confirm the system Retropa detected before you change anything else, and start from the stock layout. Where a two-button handheld stops, SNES keeps going with X, Y, L and R. Try the shoulder buttons, the diagonals, and any press the game wants you to make at the same moment. A handsome skin that skips L or R will make a perfectly healthy game look frozen.

• Check Start and Select too, not just the six action buttons.
• Pair a controller and map it before you blame the touch layout.
• Keep the original picture in mind so you can tell an input problem from a display one.

Cartridge-chip and special-format boundaries

A number of SNES cartridges carry their own coprocessor or other extra silicon inside the shell. The catalog's list of extensions is not a chip-by-chip compatibility table, and a .bs or .st file that gets recognized does not prove that every accessory path exists inside Retropa. When one title fails, note the hardware it needs if you happen to know it, along with the exact wording of the error. A filter cannot fill in for missing hardware, and neither can a renamed file.

Switching cores and keeping progress

SNES already defaults to LakeSnes, so most people never need to open this menu at all. Switching is a Retropa Plus feature, and it stays one even though playing SNES does not require a purchase. If you do switch, remember that the other core has to list both your system and your file format before a comparison is worth your evening. Retropa stores the pick per game. Copy the game's own save and the old core's save states first, then replay the same scene on both and listen for audio, look at the picture, test the controls. Save states belong to one core; the other core will not read them.

• A save state captures one core's internal memory, so a different core cannot load it.
• Back up the game's own in-game saves as well, since nothing moves them across for you.
• Switching never converts the game file and never supplies a BIOS that is missing.

Comparing LakeSnes with JGenesis

JGenesis lists SNES as well, but it takes fewer SNES formats than LakeSnes does. With Plus you can put the two side by side, as long as the format you hold appears in both entries. Run the same scene twice with matching controls and no filter, and keep each core's states in their own place. One cartridge behaving well in a comparison says nothing about the next special-chip title.