Hidden Nintendo Switch NES Emulator Game Tribute To Satoru Iwata
Earlier, it was revealed that the Nintendo Switch was hiding a classic NES game inside it after modders began digging through its firmware. Now, it appears that the game is, in fact, a tribute to the fourth president and chief executive officer of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata.
Following data miners' discovery of a modified copy of 1984's NES "Golf" hidden in the Switch, fans began speculating if it was a bug or a placeholder for the eventual launch of Nintendo's Virtual Console service. It was later revealed that the game exists in all copies of the console, not just the ones the modders were tinkering.
The game was inaccessible, but through ingenuity and probably a lot of trial and error, users of the forum GBATemp.net uncovered the very specific steps needed to get the emulator up and running. First off, the Switch needs to be running on the initial firmware version (1.0.0) and be set to July 11, the same day of Iwata's passing.
Next, they must recreate Iwata's pose from all of the Nintendo Direct videos with their Joy-Con. Thankfully, there are a number of videos posted on how to do this but basically, it starts with their arms by their waist and then raises them to the front. It might seem weird but there's no doubt it's homage to Iwata's quirky personality.
There have been a few questions regarding the choice of the game, however, as it's obviously not the only NES game out there. "Golf" has a special significance to Iwata given that it is one of the first games he worked on during his programming days so it is certainly a tribute to his early days at Nintendo.
Iwata's passing was a great loss to the industry so it's not that surprising that Nintendo went to all this trouble to pay tribute to their late executive. Wherever he is now, there's no doubt he will be very pleased with this gesture.
