Nintendo Found Emulating Its Own Games

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Nintendo Found Emulating Its Own Games

Key Takeaways

  • The Nintendo Museum has been found to be using Windows-powered SNES emulators for some of its interactive displays.
  • This revelation prompted some criticism from social media users, who labeled the company as hypocritical for using such solutions while simultaneously investing significant resources in cracking down on fan emulation.
  • While Nintendo has historically strongly opposed third-party emulators, it had few qualms about first-party emulation.

As a lifelong Nintendo fan who has navigated through countless iterations of their iconic consoles and games, I find myself both amused and slightly disheartened by this recent revelation about the Nintendo Museum using emulators for some of its interactive displays.

It appears that the Nintendo Museum is utilizing emulators for at least one of its interactive exhibits based on recent findings. This discovery has sparked some amusement among Nintendo enthusiasts, given the company’s historical stance against emulation.

After facing a few setbacks, the Nintendo Museum finally welcomed the public on October 2. Located in Kyoto, Japan, this facility offers a chance for visitors to explore Nintendo’s extensive collection of gaming consoles and titles. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to relive many of their classic games directly.

Video Suggests Nintendo Museum Uses SNES Emulators

However, not every interactive display is operated by old-fashioned equipment. This fact was unveiled by Twitter user ChrisMack32 when they disconnected one controller from a Nintendo Museum exhibit featuring the 1990 SNES game “Super Mario World”. Disconnecting the controller triggered the familiar “Device Disconnect” sound, which has been a part of Microsoft’s systems since Windows XP in the early 21st century.

Reconnecting the gamepad elicited the well-known “Device Connect” sound, implying that the Super Mario World exhibit at the Nintendo Museum might be operating on a Windows-based SNES emulator. This finding ignited a wave of intense reactions online, with many users on social media accusing Nintendo of being hypocritical for employing such methods while simultaneously criticizing emulation software.

Nintendo Has Never Been Opposed To First-Party Emulation

Despite their past stance against emulation in third-party projects, it’s worth noting that Nintendo itself has extensively used emulation in its own operations. For instance, a large portion of the games available on the Nintendo Switch Online service are emulated, and they even operated a popular 3DS emulation service called Virtual Console. Given this background, it’s not surprising that the Nintendo Museum, which showcases interactive displays, might employ emulators as well – a practice that aligns with their history of using such technology. At present, there’s no indication that anything other than Nintendo’s own emulators are being used at the Kyoto center.

Nintendo’s Fight Against Third-Party Emulators Continues

The fanbase’s displeasure over this recent disclosure is hardly unexpected, given that it follows closely on the heels of Nintendo’s action in shutting down another well-liked emulation venture just a few weeks ago. This occurred in early October 2024, when Nintendo reached out to Riperiperi, the main developer of Switch emulator Ryujinx, and convinced them to halt development on the app and even delete its GitHub repository, as reported by one of the project’s Discord moderators. In contrast, six months earlier, Nintendo was able to shut down another Switch emulator called Yuzu more easily because it successfully claimed piracy infringements against the app’s developers.

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2024-10-14 18:43