The NES Classic was both a big hit and a bit of a disaster for Nintendo. It proved to be extremely popular in the run up to Christmas, but Nintendo decided not to make many of them, leaving consumers frustrated as new stock trickled into stores and immediately disappeared.
Those lucky enough to grab one have had plenty of time to sample all 30 games included on the tiny console and are starting to look elsewhere for new entertainment. Nintendo decided not to allow new games to be added to the Classic, so it's a closed platform. That is, until hackers start prodding at it.
Tomorrow the NES Classic will be two months old, but it will no longer be a closed platform. As Arstechnica reports, hackers have figured out how to unlock the system and allow new NES games to be uploaded to the onboard storage. The only problem being, it's not exactly an easy process.
To perform the unlock, the following steps are necessary:
- Create a save game in the first save slot of Super Mario Bros
- Turn off the NES Classic
- Connect the Classic to a PC using a USB cable
- Run "sunxi-FEL" USBBoot software on the connected PC
- Boot the Classic into "FEL" mode by holding down the system reset button while pushing the power button
- Use a custom tool to copy the Classic's internal data to the PC
- Modify the copied internal data and add any new game ROM files
- Perform a "memboot" of the Classic and reboot into "FEL" mode
- Transfer the modified internal data back on to the Classic over USB
- Reboot the Classic as normal to (hopefully) experience a new set of games to play
There are many points in the process outlined above where things could go wrong and your NES Classic left unusable. The hackers make this very clear with a disclaimer attached to the instructions. There's also a few important questions left unanswered, such as how many games you can upload and how many will work with the emulator Nintendo decided to use?
Another question anyone considering attempting this should ask themselves is: Why risk my NES Classic when RetroPie exists?