Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!

mediamogul

Wow. I'm glad it worked out for you at the time. All the effort and uncertainty involved in such things makes me glad I'm an emulation retro-gamer. With things progressing as they are, in the not too distant future we'll be able to run the entire NES library from the free toasters they give out at the bank.

buddyscott

and I'm sitting here still playing on my old nes wondering why people are paying such a ridiculous price.

PetroRie

IMHO way over hyped and too expensive. Buying a RPi3 +RetroPie would be a better investment you can get the entire NES game library, cheat support, multiplayer support, plays many old consoles, has Kodi (cough... watch movies and tv shows in HD), is WAY cheaper.

trixta

the nes mini getting hacked, is great for the scene. Having access to an official nes emulator is going to be awesome once its released.

hansolo77

I don't know why it needs hacked in the first place. I thought Nintendo said their source code was completely open available for anybody to use on their website. I mean, sure it's nice figuring out how to install Linux on it. But if you can do that, you're already done aren't you? You don't have to reverse engineer the software because it's already OFFICIALLY online for free. The only thing you're really doing is coming up with a way to read/write the ROM, and then that opens up the ability to replace it.

PetroRie

@trixta What is so awesome about an official NES emulator? There have been other emu's available for years performing perfect. Paying 60 USD for this? Nah thanks I'll skip. Beside people are selling them for crazy prices online.

dankcushions

@hansolo77 said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

I don't know why it needs hacked in the first place. I thought Nintendo said their source code was completely open available for anybody to use on their website. I mean, sure it's nice figuring out how to install Linux on it. But if you can do that, you're already done aren't you? You don't have to reverse engineer the software because it's already OFFICIALLY online for free. The only thing you're really doing is coming up with a way to read/write the ROM, and then that opens up the ability to replace it.

err, no, nintendo haven't released the source-code for their NES emulator online! why on earth would they do that?

trixta

@PetroRie obviously I need to spell it out for you. Now its been hacked, the hacking group can extract the emulator on the new mini as its based on linux. You don't have to buy a nes mini, you just need to wait for the right people to work it all out. If you think a 3rd party emulator is better then one made by nintendo, you are clearly delusional.

enderandrew

@trixta Copying the executable of the emulator is a far cry from having the source code. And this "hack" was merely overwriting the flash storage to run Linux instead.

hansolo77

@dankcushions

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/

Check the very last entry at the bottom of the page. :)

dankcushions

@hansolo77 said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

@dankcushions

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/

Check the very last entry at the bottom of the page. :)

yeah it contains OSS licensed software (along with any linux-based device), but the emulator won't be one of them.

enderandrew

@dankcushions said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

@hansolo77 said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

@dankcushions

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/

Check the very last entry at the bottom of the page. :)

yeah it contains OSS licensed software (along with any linux-based device), but the emulator won't be one of them.

Correct. I just double-checked. They use the following OSS:

Linux kernel
glibc
sdl2_mixer
sdl
soloud
busybox
eudev
cryptsetup
libpng
alsa-lib
luajit
kmod
clovercon

Looks like the only really useful stuff in there would be in the kernel and clovercon in how they handle controllers.

mediamogul

@trixta said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

If you think a 3rd party emulator is better then one made by nintendo, you are clearly delusional.

Actually, Nintendo has a precedent of preferring the use of third party open source emulators in their official releases. The GameBoy Advance 'NES Classics' line was published using the source code for PocketNES. Most all of the emulator's features were stripped away, leaving only the single cartridge multiplayer link transfer ability for games under 190kB. They have also freely admitted to using open source emulators for several of their 'Virtual Console' titles, but I'm unaware of what projects were used in those cases.

herb_fargus

@mediamogul don't forget downloading pirated ROMs and selling them to you ;)

http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?t=4412

mediamogul

@herb_fargus

Wow! That's too funny. I can't help but think of Tyler Durden selling people their own fat back to them in the form of soap.

soap

dankcushions

@mediamogul said in Famicom Mini (NES Classic Edition) Hacked!:

. They have also freely admitted to using open source emulators for several of their 'Virtual Console' titles, but I'm unaware of what projects were used in those cases.

do you have a source for that? if nintendo used any third party emulators they would need to show the appropriate license for them. i'm sure they have never done this and would create their own in-house.

backstander

@dankcushions @mediamogul
I've never heard of this either and legally they would need to follow the license agreements and release the source code (where applicable) but I could also see the creators of these 3rd party emulators scared to go after Nintendo in fear that Nintendo would send them back a cease and desist. Plus it would cost a lot of money in legal fees going after a big corporation but I'm sure the Electronic Frontier Foundation would help them out.

I could also see lazy developers that are on a short deadline looking at the open source code to help finish their project. It's happened before.

mediamogul

@dankcushions

if nintendo used any third party emulators they would need to show the appropriate license for them.

@backstander

legally they would need to follow the license agreements and release the source code.

Both your reactions and assertions fueled page after page of discussion at the original PocketNES forums during the time the 'NES Classsic' line was introduced. However, concerning their admission of open source emulators for the Virtual Console, It's entirely possible that I'm mis-remembering their use of other OSS technologies, in various WiiWare titles. Any official admission of open source software used by Nintendo would be documented below.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/oss/

edmaul69

@mediamogul i never heard all this but the first time i played super mario bros 3 i knew they were using a known emulator because it it had the same glitches as the emulator. I forget which one (possibly snes9x) but it had the same flickering of the ground and stuff like that.

mediamogul

Nintendo's in-house emulators seem to be hit or miss. NES titles on the WiiU are notoriously murky; yet thankfully, the 'NES Classic Edition' doesn't suffer from that.

Edit: Although I can't find an official confirmation of this, it seems to be widely speculated that the murky colors found in the NES WiiU VC games was in fact an intentional aesthetic decision to help reduce the risk of epileptic seizures. It's further speculated that this was not necessary in the 'NES Classic Edition' due to rom hacking on the part of Nintendo to alter the way images flash on screen.