Wherever you look, people seem to love hacking into games systems and cartridges to create gameplay experiences that just would never be possible through official means. This latest project is no exception, and amazingly allows SNES games to be played on a real, unmodified NES console.
Tom Murphy, aka Tom7, has found a way to manipulate NES cartridges so that they can truly outperform what would usually be expected from them. Tom hacks the circuit boards of these cartridges, equipping them with Raspberry Pi 3 mini-computers. The Pi plays host to a number of SNES ROMs which are all filtered through a special program, translating the necessary data into something the NES can read and essentially display on a TV.
If you want to see all of this happening in action, check out the video below. The idea starts to take shape at around 5:40, and if you skip ahead to 16:12, you'll see Tom placing the finished NES cartridge into the system, allowing the NES to play the SNES classic Super Mario World. This is some kind of Back To The Future-style wizardry that goes well over our heads, but it's pretty amazing to see.
This isn't the only interesting project that Tom7 has created, though. A few years back he created a computer program that could learn how to play NES games on its own, with just tiny amount of instruction from the player. Somehow, though, seeing Super Mario World be played on a NES just seems even more crazy. We're all used to Virtual Console, where retro games are played on newer systems, but reversing that is very interesting indeed.
Now then, who's up for some Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Game Boy Color?
[source youtube.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 31
What devilry is this?!? This is surely the work of gods, not man!
@gaga64 T'is naught but witchcraft I tell thee! Fetch the Holy Water and drive it back into the night!
This is where I will say that TECHNICALLY, the game isn't running on the NES, the final picture is just being gated through it.
But it's a fun experiment, and with cartridge consoles, we did used to see the occasional chip included in the cartridge to boost system power.
@Pod
I'm with you on this one.
The extra chip didn't do everything for the SNES, unlike that RPi that does everything.
Still impressive someone managed to do this.
It reminds me of the SNES that displayed a pre-recorded game of Mario 64
Yeah, this isn't running SNES games on a NES. It's running SNES games on a Raspberry Pi. Pretty sure we all knew that was possible.
That's awesome.
It’s a miracle
Highlight for me was that just after 19:00 into the video, he manages to get the original Super Mario Bros running on the NES with bonus ultra jaggy flicker screen.
Oh what a time to be alive...
clickbait
I do agree it was a neat project even though he is, as was mentioned, simply matching his modified input to the hardware of the existing NES. The RPI is doing the actual work and there is a way to clean up those screen artefact's but again you are further modifying the input and not the actual hardware.
The hardware is the same. The processus, the way the console get the information is exactly the same as a normal cartridge.
This is running on a NES.
The RPI is sending signals to the ports like a normal cartridge, only faster.
Listen to what he says and don't jump to conclusions.
This is pretty amazing!
@BionicDodo I was pretty much going to say the same thing, because the headline is quite misleading. Not to undersell his accomplishment though - it's still a really neat hack and I'm surprised he got it interfaced at all with the NES. But yeah, definitely more like the Pi is running SNES games and streaming the audio/visual data to the NES.
I understand the let down because you feel he "cheated" since he has a modified cartridge to make this happen, but he is still using the NES controller to interact with the game and making it possible. It is similar to some of the games that came out for the SNES that had extra chipsets inside to work.
Quite happy to see many people call out this article on being misleading aka click-bait. The now I see this happen on Nintendo Life the less I feel bad for using an ad-blocker.
On topic: I just to say this is a neat feat of engineering
Did you guys see the "Mario eating a boot, not funny" picture at 17:00 right before the Nintendo logo popped up? There was some boot references at the beginning to on the TV.
This is quite a cool accomplishment and an interesting project although I'm not sure his idea of 'jokes' and mine are quite the same 🤣
Now i just need someone to make my switch able to remote play my ps4 games and I’ll be all set.
wouldn't it be basically just be taking the nes for video and controller while just emulating the game on the pi?
(I can't actually watch or listen to the video right now)
Man finds use for all that extra space inside nes cartridges.
I’d love to see someone post a hacking thread on the forums and it not get closed. But here we have this.
@DTMOF84 I invite you to the snes classic thread
Cool but pointless!
This is basically how the Super Game Boy works. BTW, someone made one of those for NES, too B)
But... I mean sure the NES isn't modded but the game cartridge has a computer installed in it. Doesn't that mean all the NES is doing is just displaying the image while the Rasberry Pi mini computer does the real work?
I'm surprised this was filed under "News" rather than "Weirdness".
Yeah it’s impressive that he’s had to covert the programming so the nes will read the game on its limited colour palette but the cartridge essentially has a computer running an emulator on it, so the NES isn’t really processing anything it’s just using the video out signal.
@gaga64 facepalm when you wake up you are a god yourself. It's wake up time and see who you trully are. You are here to experience life as a human being. Everything is fake you see.
Actually when you say "oh, he's just using the Nes to display, control (and also as power supply) the raspberry pi emulator" you should say "Holy poop!!!! He really did something to display/control/feed the raspberry pi through the NES Cart Slot! and it is amazing!"
Crazy.
Now you're playing with SUPER power!!!
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