Nintendo NES Classic Hacked, More Games Added

Normally, hearing about hacking incidents these days constitutes a bad thing. However, owners of the smash hit NES Classic by Nintendo might just feel a twinge of excitement upon hearing that someone managed to break into the system and add more games.

As Kotaku notes, with the internet being what it is, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to hack the mini console. So now, instead of settling with 30 of Nintendo’s classic video game titles, they can theoretically add as many as the device can hold.

The hack was first discovered by a Russian modder who posted it on a prominent gaming hub called GBX with the username “madmonkey.” Since then, the news has exploded, spilling over stateside and causing owners of NES Classic consoles to try the hack out for themselves.

Fortunately for those who are interested in adding more games, the hack involves no complex hardware alterations, so even novices can try their hand at adding their own games. More than that, there are actually videos with step-by-step instructions on how to do it, though as of this writing, the only known ones in existence are in Russian.

Using resources at Reddit and at the GBX forum, many users have already had success with their attempts at adding games, Tech Crunch reports. However, it should be noted that even if the process is accessible to anyone, it’s not exactly simple.

More than that, not every game that was compatible with the old NES is guaranteed to work with the NES Classic. The unit is basically an officially-sanctioned emulator, with codes that respond to specific sets of data. If a game was not tested on the device, it might not work even if the owner of the console manages to add it in. As for the legality of the practice, this might actually fall in a gray area.