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

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.

@BobWulff pic.twitter.com/6HjWqN4DRHOctober 14, 2024

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