Retro library for Nintendo Switch Online can be amplified any day now. Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulators for the service developed by Nintendo have apparently been leaked online, and it looks like a large number of games, including Mario Kart, Golden Sun.and Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire, has been tested on it.
Twitter user Trashbandatcoot tweeted today that four files leaked on 4Chan earlier in the day, which included emulators under development by Nintendo Europe Research and Development (NERD). The first, called Hioyo, is for Game Boy. The other, Sloop, is for Game Boy Advance. According to Trashbadacoot, both emulators are buggy but functional, and the leaked files contain screenshots of the games being tested on the Switch.
Another Twitter account, RatgorlHunter, went ahead and started tweeting actual camera footage of the emulators starting up and running on the Switch. That account no longer exists, though their most recent tweets can still be seen through Wayback Machine. A member of Pokémon and gaming cake account PoryLeeks told Kotaku the emulator only worked on a Switch-dev kit and shared recordings of the running emulator Golden Sun. via another member passing by John PoryLeeks.
According to Twitter user Mondo_Mega, the files show that tons of Game Boy Advance games have been tested on the emulator. While that does not mean that any of them are guaranteed to come in the future, the list includes titles like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion, Fire emblem: The sacred stonesand Mega Man Battle Network 2.
Strangest of all, the apparent leak references to EZFlash cartridges included the test files. The storage devices have long been used in retro homebrew, and are considered by Nintendo as vectors for piracy of its games.
“Nintendo internally acclaimed EZFlash cartridges make this leak feel to me,” tweeted developer and YouTuber ModernVintageGamer. “I do not think at all that Nintendo has developed it, if it is genuine.”
According to dataminer OatMealDomeHowever, the leaked GBA emulator is being developed by NERD in collaboration with Panasonic Vietnam. OatMealDome also shared a screenshot of a .git file showing the image of an EZFlash cart was added by a Nintendo employee.
Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rumors of Game Boy games being added to Switch Online began to circulate last last summer starting with Nate the Hate podcast. Nintendo’s life said later that its own sources confirmed the first report, just as it did Eurogramsand adds that “other retro platforms are on the cards as well.”
If and when Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games are added to Switch Online, they will be the fifth and sixth retro consoles to be represented, following the current series of NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64. Game Boy- games would be a special game appropriate addition to the laptop console as it was Nintendo’s first handheld success. Whether they will be added to the annual base price of $ 20 or the $ 50 per year version needed to access the N64 Expansion Pack is unclear. In either case, they would go to great lengths to make the online service less of a disappointment.
Nintendo’s Switch Online plans have a history of leaking ahead of schedule. Names of the SNES emulator and games was found in computerized files months before they were officially added. In October 2021 became the same thing happened with upcoming N64 games to be added.