Speaker 1: On September twenty nine, two thousand seventeen, Nintendo launched the
Speaker 1: Super in NES Classic gaming console for fans of retro gaming.
Speaker 1: It shipped with twenty one games. Some hackers felt that
Speaker 1: just wasn't enough. I'm Jonathan Strickland and this is tech
Speaker 1: Stuff Daily. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was a beloved
Speaker 1: piece of hardware that originally launched in the United States
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen nineties. Gamers spent hours on titles
Speaker 1: like The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past,
Speaker 1: Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong Country, among countless others. When
Speaker 1: Nintendo announced it would follow up the successful launch of
Speaker 1: the NES Classic retro gaming system with an s NES version,
Speaker 1: millions of nostalgic gamers got excited, but there was some
Speaker 1: worry mixed in with that excitement. The NES Classic proved
Speaker 1: to be incredibly popular, so much so that many fans
Speaker 1: found it impossible to order a system from retailers. That
Speaker 1: meant the only option left open to you was the aftermarket,
Speaker 1: where sellers were marking up the price dramatically in the
Speaker 1: hopes of making a killer profit. There were fears that
Speaker 1: Nintendo would repeat this strategy with the S and E.
Speaker 1: S Classic. Those fears proved well founded, as the console
Speaker 1: is in scarce supply and high demand across the world.
Speaker 1: If you were lucky enough to order one before they
Speaker 1: sold out, you have in your possession a small device
Speaker 1: that looks like a miniature version of the nineteen nineties
Speaker 1: video game console. Rather than inserting game cartridges into this
Speaker 1: mini console, you'll find all the games are programmed directly
Speaker 1: into the hardware. Those games include twenty one titles, including
Speaker 1: Super Mario World Final, Fantasy Three, Super Metroid, and the
Speaker 1: previously unreleased sequel to star Fox. Many of the top
Speaker 1: selling games for the system can be found on the
Speaker 1: S and E S Classic, but some people seem to
Speaker 1: feel that it's just not quite enough. One of those
Speaker 1: people as a Russian hacker who goes by the handle
Speaker 1: cluster M. This hacker found out that the S and
Speaker 1: E S Classic is surprisingly easy to hack. He built
Speaker 1: a Windows application that allows users to access the S
Speaker 1: and E S Classics system and alter it. One alteration
Speaker 1: you can make is to add more games onto the console.
Speaker 1: Those games aren't just lying dormant inside the game system.
Speaker 1: You have to put those new titles onto the S
Speaker 1: and E. S Classic. You do this by taking the
Speaker 1: game files called ROMs. ROM is an acronym, and it
Speaker 1: stands for read only memory. That means it's a type
Speaker 1: of memory you can access, but not change. The old
Speaker 1: S and E S cartridges are an example of ROM games.
Speaker 1: The games themselves were hard coded onto the cartridges. If
Speaker 1: you want to take a cartridge apart, you'll see what
Speaker 1: looks like a complicated circuit board, complete with microchips. This
Speaker 1: represents the actual game you're playing. Over the years, hackers
Speaker 1: have created digital files that represent those hard coded games.
Speaker 1: We call these files ROMs. There are large databases of
Speaker 1: ROMs online, not just for the S and E S,
Speaker 1: but also for other console systems as well as arcade machines.
Speaker 1: To play ROMs, you need an emulator. An emulator is
Speaker 1: a piece of software that replicates the functionality of another technology.
Speaker 1: It emulates or copies that technology. With an arcade emulator,
Speaker 1: for example, the software attempts to replicate the circuitry found
Speaker 1: in a particular arcade machine. This allows you to run
Speaker 1: the software on another device, such as a computer, and
Speaker 1: access those ROM files. The S and E S Classic
Speaker 1: system is really an S and E S emulator running
Speaker 1: game ROMs. By hacking the console cluster, m created the
Speaker 1: opportunity to add other ROMs to the devices storage. Some
Speaker 1: of those games work without a problem. Others have compatibility issues,
Speaker 1: likely because those games had specific microchips that the S
Speaker 1: and E s Classic Emulator wasn't designed to replicate. You
Speaker 1: might wonder if this is at all legal. Technically it's not.
Speaker 1: ROMs are a type of intellectual property. Someone somewhere likely
Speaker 1: holds the rights to those ROMs. Downloading a ROM without
Speaker 1: compensating the IP owner is a type of theft. That
Speaker 1: being said, many of these games are unavailable today. They
Speaker 1: weren't ported to any other systems, and the hardware that
Speaker 1: can run them, as well as the cartridges themselves, grows
Speaker 1: more delicate every year. Some hackers argue that by pulling
Speaker 1: ROMs from cartridges, they're preserving the files that otherwise would
Speaker 1: be lost to time. If you own a game, you
Speaker 1: could probably rip a ROM or download one from another
Speaker 1: source and you'd be just fine. It's similar to making
Speaker 1: a backup copy of a music album. Copies for backup
Speaker 1: or archival purposes tend to be viewed as harmless by
Speaker 1: court systems, but if you are creating a file with
Speaker 1: the intent to distribute it, and you don't own the
Speaker 1: rights to the information on the file. That's another story.
Speaker 1: There's a popular rumor in the ROM space that you
Speaker 1: can download a RAM and use it for twenty four
Speaker 1: hours and that's perfectly legal. Turns out that's a myth.
Speaker 1: Are you likely to get into trouble if you download ROMs,
Speaker 1: whether it's for the Nintendo or some other system. The
Speaker 1: answer is probably not, but it's still murky legal territory
Speaker 1: legality aside. ROMs do present people a chance to get
Speaker 1: their hands on game titles that have otherwise been forgotten.
Speaker 1: It's possible that Nintendo may release future s and e
Speaker 1: s and nes classic editions with a different library of
Speaker 1: games on them, fueling discussion and frustration among gamers who
Speaker 1: object to such marketing approaches. In the meantime, hackers will
Speaker 1: continue tweaking the hardware and expanding its capabilities. To learn
Speaker 1: more about emulators, hackers, and video games, subscribe to The
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff podcast, a show that publishes on Wednesdays and
Speaker 1: Fridays and is a much longer in depth exploration of technology,
Speaker 1: how it works, and what it all means. That's all
Speaker 1: for today. I'll see you again soon. E