During last year’s holiday period, one of the best gifts for gamers was a nostalgia trip with the newly revamped Nintendo NES Classic. It featured several games that were popular back in the day. However, the console was soon hacked which enabled a wider variety of games rather just than those few that were pre-installed.
Now, nostalgic hackers are back at it again as they are not yet finished with the NES Classic edition. The hackers were able to further expand the compatibility on the miniaturized version of the console. By making several changes to the console’s software, they were able to play games from other consoles like the Super NES or the Sega Genesis, which were never meant to work on the NES Classic.
The newest hack comes from someone with the handle Madmonkey, who developed a program called RetroArch in order to enable the console to play games that never released on the original NES. The program is able to mimic other gaming consoles from that era of gaming like the Super NES, the Game Boy, and even Nintendo’s competitor, the Sega Genesis.
While the initial hack of the NES Classic, which increased the number of games available on the console, had some inherent risk as it could brick the console even after a minor mistake, NES owners can use the RetroArch program quite easily, but it may also lead to the bricking of your console if the install is not successful.
If you are interested in playing Sonic on your NES Classic, then you should be able to by following an instructional YouTube video showing the necessary steps to install and use the RetroArch program. The video was posted by another hacker going by the name of Soulctcher. The instructions can also be found on Reddit, but you should verify them, as just one wrong step can lead to the bricking of your console.
Also, it is unclear if the companies behind the games on consoles like the Sega Genesis have any way to prevent or impede gamers from playing their games on a console that it was never intended to. Using an unsanctioned program on a console may have some legal implications, but as the console are not connected to the internet, it’s hard to detect who is using or not.
Image source: Nintendo