BS-X Broadcasting System

The BS-X Broadcasting System was an add-on piece of equipment for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo gaming systems. The "BS-X" stood for "Broadcast Satellite X ".

One could access the BS-X service via the St. GIGA satellite station between 4:00-7:00 PM. The user was required to have a subscription to the St. GIGA station as well as a BS tuner in order to operate the BS-X. During this time, a player could download and play games. The BS-X system broadcasted for 5 years, up until June 2000. A very large catalog of games previously released in cartridge format as well as a few new games was made available for download through the service. A deluxe package came with a rewritable 8-megabit memory card that plugged into a slot on the top of the boot cartridge. Without such a cartridge, the BS-X saves downloaded content to its 512 KB of built-in memory ".

A feature called SoundLink allowed the use of streaming music or voice clips (most famously used in BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets) while playing a game.

The Legend of Zelda games that were released were BS The Legend of Zelda, BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets, and a port of A Link to the Past.

Along with other and earlier game download services, the BS-X service paved the way for modern downloadable content distribution, which allows the purchase and download of full retail games as well as original download-only titles, much as the BS-X allowed.

Trivia

 * The first 6 dungeons in the first BS The Legend of Zelda quest are in the shape of a letter. When put together, they spell out S t. G I G A  (St. GIGA), the company that provided satellite service for the BS-X. The other two Dungeons are in the shape of a Skull (Dungeon 7) and an Arrow pointing down (Dungeon 8)
 * Similarly, the Second Quest's dungeons spell "NiNtENDO".