The official Nintendo Museum appears to be emulating SNES games on a Windows PC, which is slightly embarrassing

Super Mario World
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo has had a difficult relationship with emulation, and that's putting it mildly. The company has often legally pursued emulator developers and ROM websites, and its website makes it clear that it's not ok to copy or download older titles, nor download a ROM for emulation even if you own the original game, lest you fall foul of various copyright laws.

Twitter user @ChrisMack32, however, seems to have made a rather embarrassing discovery. They've posted a video of a SNES controller being disconnected (via USB, no less) from a booth at the official Nintendo Museum in Japan, and it turns out it makes a rather familiar noise—the "ding dong dun" of a Windows USB device disconnect.

Hmm. While we only get a brief look at the screen, it appears whatever device the controller was connected to seems to be playing Super Mario World. That's a SNES title, of course—which suggests that its being emulated on a Windows PC underneath.

Well, it is the superior machine, of course. Still, for a company that has keenly banged the drum against emulators and sites distributing ROMS—even if they're used by those that own an original copy of the games they wish to emulate—it does seem a bit rich. Nintendo has even argued that emulation "harms innovation", which also seems like a bit of a stretch.

On the other hand, what did we really expect? A proper SNES running in every booth at the Nintendo Museum? Sounds like a nightmare to maintain, to me. You could always run them officially on the Nintendo Switch of course, to keep things above board.

But that's a Windows sound effect for sure, so unless this video's been edited, it looks like the Nintendo Museum may have taken the easy route and booted them up on a good old fashioned PC, via an emulator.

And that's sort of the whole point, isn't it? While ROMs and emulators exist in the minds of many in a sort of moral grey area, I don't think I'd be blowing too many minds if I said that people are drawn to them for the sheer convenience, among other things. It's just, y'know, not actually legal.

As several Twitter users pointed out, the fact the controller was easily disconnected also means that, thanks to that open USB cable, this particular machine could now be connected to by any number of devices—and thereby very easily compromised.

So, a fail on the emulation front, and a cybersecurity whoopsie all in one go. Good stuff. Anyways, one simple little sound effect, one slightly embarrassing reveal. I could hark on about this being a massive tacit win for the PC and emulation as a whole, but it seems in poor taste at this point. I think someone at the Nintendo Museum may be about to receive a nasty letter, and that's enough to ruin anyone's day.

Best gaming PCBest gaming laptop


Best gaming PC: The top pre-built machines.
Best gaming laptop: Great devices for mobile gaming.

TOPICS
Andy Edser
Hardware Writer

Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't—and he hasn't stopped since. Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy's been jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.

Read more
A picture of Bowser behind jail bars.
Nintendo wins major French piracy case with EU-wide consequences: 'Significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry'
Mario 64 fire effect
52-year-old 'Super Mario' supermarket in Costa Rica wins unlikely victory against the Nintendo lawyers: 'He is Don Mario, he's my dad'
Bloodborne art
Sony bullies Bloodborne 60 fps mod off the internet with DMCA takedown as it continues to let the FromSoft classic gather dust on PS4
Redhead woman using computer laptop at home stressed with hand on head, shocked with shame and surprise face, angry and frustrated. Fear and upset for mistake.
Court documents show not only did Meta torrent terabytes of pirated books to train AI models, employees wouldn't stop emailing each other about it: 'Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right'
BloodbornePSX - A hunter standing in front of a lantern
Sony enforcers execute a legal visceral attack on the BloodbornePSX demake, continuing its mission to eradicate all traces of FromSoft's beloved RPG on PC
Clock Tower cover art
Horror classic Clock Tower's Windows 95 port jabbed a giant pair of scissors through my rose-tinted glasses
Latest in Hardware
Valve Steam Deck OLED handheld PC
'The future of hardware at Valve is bright': Valve celebrates the success of Steam Deck and Steam OS
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding the company's new GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards and a Thor Blackwell robotics processor during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a raft of new chips, software and services, aiming to stay at the forefront of artificial intelligence computing. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Group allegedly trying to smuggle Nvidia Blackwell chips stare down bail set at over $1 million
OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on December 5, 2022.
If you don't let us scrape copyrighted content, we will lose out to China says OpenAI as it tries to influence US government
Alienware 27 AW2725Q QD-OLED
Alienware 27 AW2725Q QD-OLED review
Nvidia RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card on different backgrounds
AI will be crammed in more of the graphics pipeline as Nvidia and Microsoft are bringing AI shading to a DirectX preview next month
Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards alongside an RTX 4090
Nvidia says it's sold twice as many RTX 50-series cards as RTX 40-series in the first 5 weeks. I'd bloody well hope so given there was essentially just the RTX 4090 for competition
Latest in News
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales
Valve Steam Deck OLED handheld PC
'The future of hardware at Valve is bright': Valve celebrates the success of Steam Deck and Steam OS
Key art of the videogame Lunacid, showing a pale, long haired knight in purple armor contemplating a purple, flaming sword surrounded by the different phases of the moon.
One of my favorite indie RPGs is getting a follow-up made with FromSoftware's 25-year-old Super Mario Maker for first person dungeon crawlers
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 image - Henry riding a pink and blue striped horse while holding a fish
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 now has Steam Workshop support, and of course one of the first mods lets you adjust the 'jiggle physics'
Still image of Bastion holding a bird, taken from Microsoft's Copilot for Gaming reveal trailer
Microsoft unveils Copilot for Gaming, an AI-powered 'ultimate gaming sidekick' that will let you talk to your console so you don't have to talk to your friends
Erenshor - A player and two simulated MMO party members stand on a plateau in front of a yellow landscape
This RuneScape-looking 'simulated MMORPG' has all the nostalgia without the drama because all the other 'players' are NPCs