The homebrew and romhacking scene keep pushing the boundaries of what the original retro consoles were capable of, with features like MSU-1, which adds CD-quality audio to these classics, to the more recent SuperFX3 chip included in the recent 2025 release of Doom for the SNES.

Now, thanks to the rumble specification created by Randal Linden for the 2025 SNES release of Doom, and with help by him as well, it is now possible to add rumble effects to SNES titles, to add to their immersion, and the very first romhack to do so is the newly released Star Fox: Shindou Edition by romhacker Kandowontu:

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This hack includes multiple patches for the different regions of the game, alongside custom boxart for NTSC-U and NTSC-J versions.
While the romhack enables rumble support for Star Fox, it's important to note that not all SNES emulators have support for it, as right now only the Mesen 2 emulator is the one that has rumble support.

Additionally, Rumble does work on real hardware, but SNES controllers that have rumble support are also scarce, if not non-existent, as this hack was made with a prototype SNES controller that had rumble motors, but Kando does mention that the BlueRetro adapters might include rumble support for cases like this.

The second SNES game to get rumble support by romhackers is actually not a native SNES game, but rather an NES game ported over to the SNES by romhacker Rumbleminze, who has previously worked on other NES to SNES ports like Kid Icarus, Double Dragon I & II, Super Dodge Ball, and now, the first Castlevania game from the NES, complete with a bunch of new features to go alongside this new NES-to-SNES port:

• 3 Difficulty Levels - Easy (Famicom difficulty), Normal (NES difficulty) and Hard (VS. Arcade difficulty)
• 14 palette options
• 6 MSU-1 Soundtrack options
• Use A or X to throw subweapons
• Swap between 2 subweapons
• Rumble support

People interested in trying out Star Fox: Shindou Edition can download the patch from Romhack Plaza, while people interested in the Castlevania SNES port can do so by following Rumbleminze's Bluesky account.

Star Fox: Shindou Edition romhack at Romhack Plaza
Rumbleminze Bluesky profile

 

[Scriber]

You're right let's not have any discussions ever, sorry for being curious about the implementation of a feature, and for daring to post in a forum of all places, I shall now flagellate myself for my sins. As a matter of fact, mods, could you please lock the thread, master Scriber deems it unnecessary to speak about things.

These threads always have a few people like you essentially whining about what the developer did with their own time and acting like the original, untouched game has been erased from existence, and that you're forced to play this new version for the rest of eternity.

Don't like the idea of rumble? Don't use it. Don't like the music? Don't use it. Questioning why the developer chose to do this or add that? Because they wanted to. You can learn to code and make your own hacks or ports with your own choices, or not. Don't like NES to SNES ports? Move along.

 

[raxadian]

Gamecube

Well I have Gamecube controllers but playing Snes games with them is annoying due to button placement. Hopefully one of the Snes Wii emulators will add rumble.

 

[Sander1974]

Fantastic work team , keep up the modding spirit

 

[Jayro]

Randy Linden must be protected at all costs... and Kandowontu is just a bad-ass dude, I talk with him on his Discord a lot. Two amazing dudes in the scene for sure! I have the DOOM SNES game and rumble controller pre-ordered, so when I get them I can't wait to try out all the games that have had rumble added to them on my Analogue Super Nt.

 

[Robert Newbie]

These threads always have a few people like you essentially whining about what the developer did with their own time and acting like the original, untouched game has been erased from existence, and that you're forced to play this new version for the rest of eternity.

Don't like the idea of rumble? Don't use it. Don't like the music? Don't use it. Questioning why the developer chose to do this or add that? Because they wanted to. You can learn to code and make your own hacks or ports with your own choices, or not. Don't like NES to SNES ports? Move along.

I can understand both sides.

For Infidelity's Mega Man VI SNES port, he made life/weapon fills instant instead of allowing the gameplay to pause momentarily. I disagree with the choice and it (of course) alters the original's design, but it's not a deal breaker by any stretch. It's a small change. The port is still immensely impressive, including both Japanese and American versions and providing (if I remember correctly) three different soundtrack options. You can't argue with a version of Mega Man VI made to run on more advanced hardware.

I suppose that, if you didn't port it yourself, you don't really know what was changed under the hood. Like you said, there's always the original, and the fan port can be looked at as a kind of "remix." It comes down to what the dev wanted and what the user can accept. Overall, the community tends to be welcoming to these projects because they give fans a new way to play an old favorite, even/especially if some changes found their way in.

I understand Star Fox and could see it being neat, but why Castlevania ? Is it just for the sake of saying "yeah it's been done" ? Because I can't see the game feeling more immersive in any way thanks to rumble. If anything it'd probably get more in the way than anything

It's true, it didn't have to be done, but it's nice that it's available. Plus, it'll pave the way for more games getting the feature in the future. I'd argue that it's good for the community all around.

Actually, rumble has been around for about 30 years, but I haven't heard of anyone finding it disruptive enough to stop playing. Plus, many games even had the option to disable it.

 

[shadow1w2]

I hope eventually a universal rumble support for SNES games could be implemented into an emulator.
I figure something like how retro achievements and cheats function could work perhaps.
Maybe not as exact as a full on romhack though.

That way odd games that dont need rumble can get rumble just for a laugh.
Like Mario Paint, Super Scope 6 and Super Solitaire.

I hope Stunt Race FX gets rumble next, the smallest bumps already feel painful in that game though a better framerate might be better.

Just hope more emulators catch up with support, maybe it will end up a regular thing soon,

I know some poeple find the NES ports pointless but they really do open up a lot of modding potential which can run on real hardware.
Back in the day the idea of an NES to SNES was a fun idea but couldnt always happen.
Now we can have some fun with it without relying on a single emulator with graphics replacement support as much as I love that emulator its nice to have a romhack that can gp more places and this sets the ground work.

Sides something fun about improving old games within these limits.

I wanna see the Rad Racer games get ports, that could be interesting.

 

[niuus]

Saw the Star Fox rumble hack on RH Plaza. Gee, now what's the next SNES game that will have this function?

F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, and Super Metroid.

Actually, does any SNES emulator for Wii support rumble?

I'll likely add support for Snes9xRX once I recover the data from my failing dev drive, where all my devkits were installed.

The Wii classic controller does not have rumble function, only using the Gamecube pads you can feel it, unless you strap a wiimote to a classic controller similar to how you would use it to play splatoon on Wii U.
Or if the emulator is compatible with the Wii U pro pad.

You can have rumble on the Gamecube controller, through Gamecube-to-DualShock adapters, Wii U Pro Controller for both consoles, or the Gamepad on the U.

I hope eventually a universal rumble support for SNES games could be implemented into an emulator.

I hope Stunt Race FX gets rumble next, the smallest bumps already feel painful in that game though a better framerate might be better.

Just hope more emulators catch up with support, maybe it will end up a regular thing soon,

You might not have got the memo, but! That was the intention since the very start. The rumble specs are on Github, you can implement it on any game, and i'm under the impression that even the NES games that aren't ported yet that run through the NES emulator for SNES (some of those have already received MSU-1 mods).

I was never bothered by the original framerate on any of the FX games, though I know playing Stunt Race FX with SuperFX 2 speed is also nice. A SuperFX 3 bump will probably speed up the game too much, will likely need some extra work to make it both stable and smooth.

For the moment, you could still "get close" to the SuperFX 3 speed by cranking the overclock in Snes9xRX to 120 MHz (Wii U only), i'll add 150 later, or default to the original speed if you so desire (RX is the only emulator that plays FX games closest to the original experience, GX plays them like you press 1.5x fast-forward all the time, inherited from the original Snes9x).

I know some poeple find the NES ports pointless but they really do open up a lot of modding potential which can run on real hardware.

Those people are short-sighted individuals. The time will come when talented pixel artists and modders start "remastering" the ported NES games to 16bit visuals, besides the added smoothness of running on better hardware, with lots of soundtrack options to choose from with MSU-1 packs.

 

[Dakangel]

F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, and Super Metroid.
I'll likely add support for Snes9xRX once I recover the data from my failing dev drive, where all my devkits were installed.

The time will come when talented pixel artists and modders start "remastering" the ported NES games to 16bit visuals, besides the added smoothness of running on better hardware, with lots of soundtrack options to choose from with MSU-1 packs.

You just took away my doubt if ported nes games like the original Metroid could be modified to have the Super Metroid art style.
It would be great to have vibration in games like Megaman X, Final Fight or any of the great snes catalog, I hope you recover your data and continue with your great contributions to the emulation scene.

Also, is this the same Randal Linden that developed the mythical Bleemcast years ago?

 

[SDA]

F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, and Super Metroid.

How about the Donkey Kong Country games, or even Super Mario World?

 

[niuus]

Also, is this the same Randal Linden that developed the mythical Bleemcast years ago?

If you watch any of his current interesting interviews regarding everything that is happening with the rumble controller and Doom, you will know.

You just took away my doubt if ported nes games like the original Metroid could be modified to have the Super Metroid art style.

They can all be modified to whatever, and look very, very good. One of those ports was already given the 16bit graphics treatment.

 

[SRC267]

What other game would this be good for?

 

[Scriber]

What other game would this be good for?

Something like Super Punch-Out!! would be good.

 

[FunkySnake]

What other game would this be good for?

Any shooter.

 

[sycoclownx]

I always love seeing these romhacks. Rumble support will feel great in Starfox.

 

[ulao]

Bliss-Box is on top of it already, using a GC controller.
https://youtu.be/558JQjR_ayA

 

[niuus]

What other game would this be good for?

Contra III, Super Smash TV, Sunset Riders, TMNT IV.

Super Mario Kart is out already.

 

[uVSthem]

Has anyone gotten the the FASTROM 21mhz SuperFX patch to work with the rumble support patch?

 

[niuus]

Has anyone gotten the the FASTROM 21mhz SuperFX patch to work with the rumble support patch?

Fastrom for Star Fox is deprecated at this point and won't be used further, according to the developer.