Now that the NES Classic is actually available for regular human beings to buy, a good underground hacking community is popping up to work on Nintendo’s box of nostalgia. Hacks can mod the console or get you extra games, but as it turns out, the designers would prefer you didn’t break everything.
A Twitter user was playing around inside his Famicom Mini console when he found a message to would-be modders from the original coders:
This is the hanafuda captain speaking. Launching emulation in 3…2…1. Many efforts, tears and countless hours have been put into this jewel. So, please keep this place tidied up and don’t break everything! Cheers, the hanafuda captain.
大変！ファミコンミニの内蔵エミュレータの中身をのぞいていたらメッセージを発見したよ … ごめんキャプテン！！ズタボロに壊し始めちゃったｗｗｗｗｗｗ #ニンテンドークラシックミニ #開発者からのメッセージ #削るとなぜか動かない系とはちょっと違う pic.twitter.com/C2dvIQlEuU
— ひろみつ(honeylab) (@bakueikozo) January 6, 2017
The tweet was spotted by WCCFTech, so we’re relying on the one Twitter user to verify the actual authenticity of the message. But if true, it’s a fun Easter Egg left in the code by the developers.
It’s also a surprisingly open attitude to the game console being hacked. Generally, big tech companies don’t openly encourage (or acknowledge) their hardware being hacked, which just leads to high-profile hacks on Playstations rather than anything else.
Since its launch, the NES Classic has been sold out at every big retailer worth mentioning. It’s clearly been something of a surprise hit for Nintendo, which did not have nearly enough units ready and prepared for the Christmas shopping boom.
