Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or requiring them to do anything in any way.
But the DMCA doesn't allow it.
Nintendo won't support people pirating their games, but as much as I think copyright lasts too long, this isn't exactly a surprising position from a game manufacturer.
Nintendo is a member of the Entertainment Software Association (https://www.theesa.com/), which AFAIK is the main entity lobbying to keep console jailbreaking illegal.
Not to mention the fact that Nintendo shuts down online services and digital stores for old consoles, which means that you can't even download games you've purchased anymore.
Also, the issue isn't about whether Nintendo wants people to play old games on old hardware, it's that Nintendo doesn't want you to play new software on old hardware, and that they're actually able to enforce this through the DMCA's arbitrary special restrictions for video game consoles (by comparison, jailbreaking phones is perfectly legal under the DMCA)
That both suppresses competition, directly hurts consumers, and is just wasteful.
* If these consoles have no more utility, people will throw them away, and they will end up in a landfill. When this happens, they will want to buy a new console to play new games, and Nintendo will sell it to them.
* With more consoles in the trash, there will be less circulating in the world, creating a shortage and inflating the value of old IP. They can profit off of this by re-releasing or re-mastering those old games on new consoles (until those too are deprecated and the cycle repeats)
* Nintendo is taking actions to deteriorate the utility of peoples' old consoles. They do this by halting development of new games for it, shutting down online services, and shutting down digital sales of games.
* Nintendo is funding a lobbyist group that is fighting to prevent consumers from modifying their hardware to extend its useful life
* If people are allowed to jailbreak their console, a "homebrew" software community may take off, which could lead to customers willing to pay money for software by third party publishers; aka, competition for Nintendo within their own walled garden.
Based on those observations, it's obvious what Nintendo's position on the issue is. The path of least resistance and most profit is to encourage (or force) customers to throw their old consoles away and buy new ones.
Maybe they don't care if it specifically goes to a landfill, but they certainly want it in the trash.
I don't think Nintendo cares enough to keep digital services running indefinitely, which is a shame. They did keep the Wii Shop Channel up until 2019, which is a considerable lifespan for a 2006 console. I've also never seen Nintendo take steps to curb mods for out-of-production hardware. Their hostility is reserved for emulators (because almost no one actually uses those to play roms they ripped themselves), and for mods of products they're actively producing.
To be clear, I'm opposed to closed hardware, and the ESA's stance. But I do read Nintendo's actions as broadly "supportive" of their old products, for understandable reasons. The caveat is that Nintendo wants you to use those products as designed—to play original, Nintendo-licensed cartridges on original Nintendo hardware.
And I'd hazard a guess that a significantly smaller percentage of old working Nintendo consoles end up in landfills than old working iPhones.
Is it not?
DMCA legislates against circumvention of copyright protection mechanisms.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-pro...
> Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (also known as copy protection measures or DRM) are often used to protect copyright works, for example, through encryption on DVDs. TPMs can have a important role in enabling copyright owners (rightsholders) to offer content to consumers in different ways, as well as protecting against unlawful copying (piracy). UK law protects the right of copyright owners to use TPMs to protect their works, and circumvention of such technology is illegal.
Essentially, bypassing DRM is a violation of the DCMA unless it has received an exemption from the government. Exemptions must be reevaluated every three years else they expire.
You needed so many tricks in order to run those fast enough, like removing floating point code and replacing it with integer replacement for the different CPUs it had.
All the API had to be reverse engineered.
Programming mobile phones,or raspberrys is much better and you have much more freedom.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_cons...
But more importantly, the only thing that matters is the end-user experience. The people playing games aren't going to care if the developer had to wrestle with some funky toolchain and weird hardware quirks. They just want new games for their old, but still fully functional console.