You can debate the SNES Classic Edition’s 21-game lineup until the cows come home, but after a brief, early look at the console, we’re wondering about the hardware even while admiring it.

We got to see the SNES Classic during a meeting with Nintendo earlier this week, although we could only go hands-on with the hardware — it wasn’t turned on or hooked up to a TV. There’s a lot that we won’t know until we get the chance to do that, but the session did answer some of our questions.

The SNES Classic will come with two wired SNES Classic Controllers in the box, and the system will also support both the Wii Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro, Nintendo said on the throwback 16-bit system’s website. Now we can confirm how that will work.

If you looked at an image of the SNES Classic, you might have been wondering how the SNES Classic Controllers will connect to the console. The official NES Classic Controller had the same plug as Wii controllers, and those ports sat in the place of the original seven-pin NES controller ports on the front of the NES Classic. However, the SNES Classic appears to feature the original console’s seven-pin controller ports on the front, as you can see in the images above.

If you zoom in on the SNES Classic photo above, you can see that the SNES controller ports are clearly replicas of the design, not actual ports. In other words, the SNES Classic Controller plugs into a Wii controller port, just like the NES Classic Controller. But where are those ports?

The European and Japanese versions of the SNES Classic — which are known as the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Famicom, respectively — feature a panel in front that pops down to reveal two Wii controller ports. The North American console works exactly the same way, as you might have expected. (See the two notches near the bottom of the system, in the photo above? That’s where you dig in your fingernails to pop the panel off.)

It remains unclear whether the SNES Classic Controller works with the Wii and Wii U, like the NES Classic Controller does. The NES Classic Controller can plug into a Wii Remote, and in that way, it can be used to play Virtual Console games on both the Wii and the Wii U. Nintendo sold the NES Classic Controller separately for $9.99 (although it was almost as hard to find as the system itself).

As far as we could tell, the controller is the same size as the original SNES gamepad, like the NES controller and last year’s “classic” replica. But two different Polygon editors who played around with the SNES Classic Controller thought that its buttons and D-pad felt a bit mushier than they remembered those of the original gamepad being.

Of course, we should stress that this wasn’t a production unit; the SNES Classic doesn’t launch until September, so the final retail console and controller could be different, and a Nintendo representative said the company is still tweaking the hardware. In addition, we didn’t have the original SNES controller on hand to compare directly.

Nintendo didn’t give us the dimensions or weight of the SNES Classic, but just like last year’s 8-bit predecessor, the system fits in the palm of your hand. And it surely weighs less than a pound. The console’s purple power and reset switches function like they did on the original SNES, although the eject button doesn’t do anything, of course. (When we asked a Nintendo rep if the reset switch sends you to the SNES Classic’s dashboard — like the reset button on the NES Classic does — the spokesperson said the company isn’t ready to discuss software functionality yet.)

There’s also no word on when, or if, Nintendo will take pre-orders for the SNES Classic in North America. Pre-orders are already live in regions such as Europe and Australia, but a rep for Nintendo of America told us the company has nothing to announce at this point.

We’ve additionally asked Nintendo about the Virtual Console functionality and stand-alone availability of the SNES Classic Controller. We’ll update this article with any information we receive. The SNES Classic debuts Sept. 29 for $79.99.