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The Miracle Piano System is a peripheral that is designed to teach people how to play the piano, using a keyboard, your SNES, and a special SNES program. The idea was to make learning the piano fun, by using an interactive program to instruct you, and games you can play by practicing. This accessory was licensed by Nintendo, and originally cost $299 (!).

The following info was sent to me by John Kizer. Strictly speaking, he describes his Miracle system for the original NES, but the NES and SNES systems are virtually identical, the main difference is that the SNES program has better (16-bit) graphics. If there are other differences, please let me know. Incidentally, there was a version of the Miracle System released for the PC as well. All used the same keyboard, but a different cable which hooked up to whatever machine your kit was intended for.

The Miracle unit was sold by The Software Toolworks as a kit which included a piano, cable, and "game" pak. The piano was about 46" long, 18" deep, and 6-7" high. The piano had two large stereo speakers located at the upper left and upper right of the unit, with the keys filling up about 3/8 of the upper surface. In between the stereo speakers was a keypad with LED indicators. The piano used a 162 (?) voice MIDI synthesizer to produce sounds. The white and black keys were plastic. The main body of the unit was also some kind of tough plastic with metal grilles over the speakers. There were six buttons on the unit, each with an LED, along with another set of LEDs to the right. By pressing certain buttons in a certain order, you could choose one of the synthesized instruments. The combinations were specified in the manual.

About the ports on the back: one was for an AC adapter (included in the package) which led to a transformer block that was plugged in to the outlet. With just that the unit could function as a piano/synthesizer. There was a switch next to the AC inlet which turned the unit on/off. There were standard audio ports such as AUDIO OUT. (Note: I believe the AUDIO OUT jacks are standard RCA jacks, though there could have been a 3.5mm phone plug instead. The unit also had a MIDI jack, which could be used to hook it up to a computer and use it like other MIDI capable instruments.) The most important port was a special port (that resembled a parallel or PCMCIA port) which accepted a bundled cable, which ran from the unit in to the Controller 1 slot on the NES. This was the interface the "game" got feedback from.

As for the actual cartridge, it looked like a standard SNES Game Pak with the Miracle logo on the sticker. When turned on, the pak would show a brief introductory screen, then begin with various "lessons". The activities consisted of things like "Duck Hunt", where ducks would appear on a staff, and you had to "shoot them down" by pressing the key which corresponded the place on the staff the duck was on. The program detected mistakes and displayed them on screen, then suggested activities to work on to help eliminate the problem. As the lessons progressed more advanced topics were practiced, going from using both hands, to moving on the keys, to the foot pedal (a small foam pedal was provided with the unit). As the lessons went on more difficult songs were practiced. Some of the songs on the unit were "Hound Dog", "Carmen", "Ode to Joy", and "Frightnight". At the end of each lesson you would play piano accompanied by a whole orchestra performing the piece learned during the activities. When not in an activity, the instructions written on the on-screen "chalkboard" were moved through by pressing the "A" and "B" buttons on a regular controller, which was plugged into Controller Port 2 on the NES unit.

Does anyone have a picture of the Miracle Piano they could send in?

Info and pics ripped from eBay