Nintendo's new Game & Watch handheld was pulled apart in pretty quick order, with hacker stacksmashing digging deep into the system's code before it even officially launched.
The same hacker has been busy in the days since, and, alongside fellow coder Konrad Beckmann, has been able to dump the stock firmware, despite the security put in place by Nintendo.
Efforts to hack the system further are ongoing, but there are limitations – the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. has just 128k of SRAM and 1.3 MB of external RAM, and there's only 1.1 MB of flash memory for storage.
Despite these limits, stacksmashing has been able to answer the call of the internet and get id Software's DOOM running on the system. Sure, this is a stripped-down version of the game with simplified textures and the memory allocation rewritten, but it proves it's possible – and it will be interesting to see where hackers take this system next.
[source hackaday.com]
Comments 34
But what about Crysis?
Doom on your wrist? That’s quite...
Wait! Is this the Mark of the Beast?!
I’d be happy with some additional NES games but also the GB Game & Watch Gallery game would be awesome to play on this!
Why? Yes that’s all I’ve got to say
So basically it does not run Doom in a way anyone would actually want to play it, agree with more Nes games and a game & watch gallery though, would be cool as hell on this.
But can it run Crysis?
Marvellous!
Not as impressive as seeing Doom run on a printer display, but delightful all the same.
Does this mean it'll be able to run nes/master system games?
But can it run and a constant feed of people asking if it can run Crysis?
The real question is...can it run Pokemon Emerald and other GBA games?
Dang. I was hoping it would have had a little more meat on its bones. If I can procure one, then I won't bother grabbing a second for "manipulating".
@Yanina It's not a thing anymore since Flight Simulator 2020 released.
This is wonderful. Hats off to them for making it a reality. I'd be up for following this and seeing the progress they make. Thank you NL, for bringing it to my attention.
To all of you hoping to easily install NES roms and the like: the USB port is for loading only, so you need to get familiar with the inside of the G&W for that.
I wish this hacker would sell details on how to clone his credit card.
Glad to see such important question got answered quickly.
Jokes aside, do you think Nintendo went with such low capacity handheld to cut costs and/or maybe prevent people from uploading tons of games to it? The NES and SNES mini were built in a way they could handle so much more than they were needed to
That specification is so low, I wonder if Nintendo are courting the idea of actually bringing back some of their older consoles, via a specialist manufacturer. Would love to see a new N64 with slightly tweaked internals so the games could run "better" than ever.
Waiting for NES and GB/C games to be played.
Real question can it run Skyrim?
I know it's just the urge to make it run Doom (and homebrew), but I prefer playing the official Doom GBA ports on the Famicom Edition Gameboy Micro. Or simply the Switch ports in handheld. I'm not even getting this G&W because I'm no longer collecting like I used to. If I were, and it had the required buttons and power to run GBA or SNES, I'd probably hack it as well, once there's a reliable way to do it. Even if it's just to play Mother 3, Minish Cap, Golden Sun, and Wario Ware on a new device.
Ha ha. Love that.
Was just a matter of time.
No one's asking the important question....
Can it run QUAKE?
@dew12333 haha smart guys i have no clue how to do this dodgy illegal works!
Impressive but no clue how to do that. But cool if you know!
Can it run errands for me?
Can it run a marathon though?
(On topic: this is awesome, I love the fact that people try to run DOOM on anything 😄)
@Bobb It's probably a bit of both. I think cost is the primary concern. They probably had a specific target in terms of capacity, which wasn't much at all, and it was probably much more cost effective to go with these microcontrollers than the Allwinner chips they used in the mini consoles. I'm sure they view the lack of storage and how that affects the ability to keep lots of games on this as a nice side effect.
@Falien Yes! plz gib more Game & Watch games!
If Doom can run on a scientific calculator, it can run on almost anything.
Now get it running Doom '16 and I'll be impressed.
@DanteSolablood lol I had Wolfenstein running on my ti-83+ So difficult to play but loved that I could if I wanted
It sounds like this guy put more effort into getting Doom running on G&W than I put into a good couple weeks at work.
Hat tip, sir. Well done.
Next Commander Keen on the G&W, please.
I don't really see the point of this, I already got nearly every Doom game ever made on my Switch Lite well presented with perfect performance.
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