NES Classic Edition Cracked (twice) (GUI Flash Tool Exists)

[Tanooki]

#1 a Russian did it to the US/EUR version:


#2 a Japanese person did it another way with the Famicom release



Japanese concept not well translated yet, but the Russian one raises some serious question to me on Nintendo lying about their system. Like hell it is locked or unwriteable for updates.

All you have to do is make a hot save in slot one (with SMB1.) Then plug the little box into your PC. Throw a file the hacker made at it. This file will put whatever NES games you like on the device, and it allows you to even update the text and place new JPG box art in there as well. This requires little more than the file, powering it on, hitting the reset button like once or twice, then turning it off and using it like normal.

With a proof of concept youtube video a few minutes long: All the Mega Mans, TMNT2, Duck Tales 2, Contra, River City Ransom, and more added.

This is all fairly fresh still, not too many have braved doing it since getting a replacement won't be easy. I saw someone dumped the standard system image (512MB) online so I guess if you brick it you can fix it. Curious to see what people do and figure out the limitations of the emulator. Would Castlevania 3 work (MMC5?) How about some of those wonky Japanese special chips from Konami and Namco?

[Exhuminator]

This file will put whatever NES games you like on the device

Man if this really works, Nintendo will be selling these things by the boatload for a long time. ON second thought, maybe not (see my post below).

[stickem]

I'm reading the limit is 60 games of now if I'm understanding the article I read. I mean that beats 30 and more than enought games if so.

[Exhuminator]

This Ars Technica article explains it pretty well:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/h ... usb-cable/

As I said a while back, if there was going to be a backdoor, it had to be via the USB port. I'm not surprised this happened, but the speed at which it did is impressive.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Nintendo block this functionality in future shipments of the NES Classic via updated firmware. This little trick may only prove good for the first run of the console.

[TSTR]

Man, now I REALLY want one of these.

[Tanooki]

I saw that 60 limit but it seemed more like what that guy put there than a cap unless I missed something. The NES games themselves are tiny, but it depends how much bloat the whole emulator/gui wrapper package eats up vs whatever storage Nintendo stuffed in there. One could guess as cheap as hyperkin is, they put 1.5GB~ of storage or so in the Retron5 so it's likely Nintendo may have used a similar lowest cost option. If the bloat isn't too bad beyond the wrapper itself, I'd think unless the software Nintendo wrote limits it more could be done. It is a risk now as people are experimenting vs making a likely for now irreplaceable brick.

[Reprise]

Oh man, I am so tempted to try this, but what if I brick or fuck up my system?

[Tanooki]

Then it's ready for a retropie build? Nintendo sure as hell isn't going to warranty repair that.

Depending how you brick it, it may be recoverable as one step I think I read was backing up the original build Nintendo put there to your computer (512MB image.)

[Thierry Henry]

Oh man, I am so tempted to try this, but what if I brick or fuck up my system?

Listen, if I could do it and not fuck it up, so can you.

Admittedly, I've only tried it with one game so far- Castlevania III.





When I get a chance I'll pick and choose which of the original 30 to remove and which others to add. No point in keeping those I know I'm not going to play.

[Reprise]

Oh nice! Thanks for letting me know you managed to do it. I'll give it a go later this week.