SNES Classic almost identical to NES reissue on the inside

Nintendo's SNES Classic Mini, European edition (Nintendo of Europe)

Nintendo's miniaturized Super Nintendo Entertainment System, launching September 29, 2017, sports almost identical internal hardware to its 2016 predecessor, the NES Classic Edition.

It looks like a little version of its 1990 forefather, and comes with 21 classic games built-in, from "Super Mario World" and "Yoshi's Island" to "Final Fantasy VI" and "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past."

There's even a copy of the previously unreleased "Star Fox 2."

But early teardowns of the SNES Classic Edition have shown that while the games, controllers and casing might be different, the mini retro console is almost the same on the inside as 2016's equivalent NES Classic.

Hardware analysis carried out by Digital Foundry has determined that the circuit board, processor, memory and storage chips are equivalent between the SNES and NES Classic Minis.

So when Nintendo stopped making new NES Classics in April 2017, having sold more than 2 million of the set-top boxes, it was because new cases and controllers were being added to the same motherboard configuration.

That's a boon for the hacking and emulation community that sprung up around the NES Classic, prying open its system software, playing with its small-form-factor potential, often adding scores of extra games or even emulating entirely different console systems; for the SNES Classic, it's early days, and apparent that extra bells and whistles have been added to its software layer.

Similarities continue as, just as in 2016, Nintendo has left a note to inquisitive hackers inside its new machine.

The NES Mini's Japanese edition had a secret message of its own which, after referencing Nintendo's origins as a playing card manufacturer, said: "Many efforts, tears and countless hours have been put into this jewel. So, please keep this place tidied up and don't break everything!"

And hidden inside the SNES Classic's file system is a haiku-esque poem, retrieved by Reddit user SpongeFreak52, which reads "Enjoy this Mini // Disconnect from the present, and // Go back to the nineties."

Finally, a July 2017 trademark application, mimicking the form of a pre-SNES Classic filing, was taken to imply that Nintendo would extend its line of Mini Classics to include the SNES's 1996 successor, the N64.

Given the NES Mini's N64-emulating capability, and the identical innards of the NES and SNES remakes, an N64 Mini with the same set of chips and circuits might seem even more logical than ever.

For now, though, Nintendo has said that it will go back to the NES model with a reissue scheduled for 2018.