But the game is running on a computer with the emulator which still strongly lends to it being software

Roger, disregarding :-)

And hopefully something that they’ll be able to find reams of prior art that precede the patent

Oh for sure. I’m not knocking those that can do it, just that my regular soldering skills are shit enough that I’d probably be hesitant to reball something more complicated even with the right gear :-)

Ah. Other than fixing the old Xbox360 RROD , I’ve never needed to do any BGA work, just circuit soldering

What’s the IR bottom heater for?

This game is literally the reason I bought a SNES. Heck, I bought the game before the console even