Hackers can now emulate Nintendo 64 games on the Switch

Hackers have found a way to emulate the Nintendo 64 on the Switch, sharing shots of them playing Pokemon Stadium 2 and Mario Kart 64 via Twitter. This isn’t the first time the Switch has been exploited. We reported a few months back that the Nintendo Switch had been hacked via a security weakness in the console’s hardware. That means there’s little Nintendo can do to stop people from exploiting the system.

Pokémon Stadium 2 runs pretty well. pic.twitter.com/7r0cDG3gCl — Billy??CTcon (@_Mizumi) July 4, 2018

Since that information broke, there have been reports of players using the exploit to change their profile pictures to pornographic images in Super Mario Odyssey. This also raises questions over whether pirates will go on to distribute illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games.

Nintendo has taken measures to ensure that this doesn’t happen, banning consoles who engage in illicit activities. Likewise, the company is still able to easily distinguish between legitimate and pirated copies of their games, and can prevent players from accessing illegal games. This has had an impact on the modding community too, and it’s not terribly surprising that Nintendo’s grounds for banning players isn’t super clear. Pokemon modders ran into similar troubles on the 3DS even though they weren’t necessarily aware of breaking any defined rules.

It’s a sticky situation for sure, for both Nintendo and the user base. It’s certainly well worth keeping an eye on what will become of this Nintendo 64 emulator, and how the Switch hack will be handled in the future.