Nintendo has released many of its classic games on services like the Virtual Console or the Nintendo Switch Online app. However, there is one part of the company's history that Nintendo seemingly wants to ignore, as there were many games produced for the Satellaview add-on for the Super Nintendo. These games have never been re-released in any form, despite numerous opportunities to do so.
The Satellaview was a peripheral that connected to the bottom of the Super Famicom, which was then connected to a satellite dish. The player could then hook up rewritable cartridges, which could download games through the satellite link. This acted as a primitive version of the digital download services that are commonplace today. The Satellaview also had a Soundlink system, where broadcasters could communicate through the game if it was played at specific times. The Satellaview service was officially discontinued in the year 2000, meaning that it technically lasted until the PS2 era.
The Satellaview never left Japan and it would have been lost to time, were it not for SNES game emulation and people managing to find games saved on existing cartridges, and modifying them to work correctly. There were some great Satellaview games that have remained in the domain of illegal downloads, as Nintendo has so far shown no interest in preserving them.
BS Super Mario Collection On Nintendo's Satellaview
The other entries on this list have been preserved through emulation and translated into English by diligent fans, allowing people to play them in the current day. The same cannot be said for BS Super Mario Collection, which has only partially been preserved and is considered a piece of lost media. BS Super Mario Collection was spread across four weeks of broadcasts, with the first week featuring stages from Super Mario Bros., the second and third weeks featuring stages from Super Mario Bros. 3, and the fourth week featuring stages from Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
These weekly broadcasts featured new world maps for Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels, as well as voiced animated inserts and radio hosts talking throughout the games. As of the time of writing, only the second and third weeks have been discovered. It's hoped that the remaining weeks turn up in a future Nintendo Gigaleak.
Radical Dreamers, A Chrono Trigger Sequel On Satellaview
Radical Dreamers was a Satellaview-exclusive sequel to Chrono Trigger, with characters and a story that would later be repurposed for Chrono Cross. Radical Dreamers is a visual novel with light RPG elements, where three adventurers must break into a mansion and steal a magic item. The visuals in Radical Dreamers are incredibly creepy, with the player exploring the dark corners of the mansion and encountering its unsettling residents. It has been possible to play Radical Dreamers with an English patch for years now, but there's a chance Square Enix might remake it, as the company has been remastering a lot of games from its back catalog.
The Sattellaview Legend Of Zelda Games
There were several games in The Legend of Zelda series that were made specifically for the Satellaview and have never been released on other platforms. One of these is BS The Legend of Zelda, which is a remake of the original game in the series, with a graphical overhaul and random events on the overworld. The more interesting Satellaview Legend of Zelda game was Ancient Stone Tablets, which was a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, and starred a human from the real world, who arrives in Hyrule. Ancient Stone Tablets was broadcast across four episodes by Nintendo, and all of them have been preserved through emulation.