4Chan is the source of many internet leaks regarding video game files, and today is no exception; a set of three zips were uploaded to anonfiles, containing something rather interesting. Allegedly, within the files was a Game Boy emulator called Hiyoko and a Game Boy Advance emulator called Sloop, both developed by Nintendo themselves, through their European research and development team. The emulators were in NSP format, and users that downloaded the files quickly got them to work on their own modded consoles, which function and play GBA and GB ROM files. A video of the Sloop and Hiyoko emulators can be seen below, courtesy of Twitter user RatgorlHunter.

Rewind added in pre-1.0, very sloopy pic.twitter.com/b5E8xyfPJq

— RatgorlHunter (@RatgorlHunter) April 18, 2022

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Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 were shown to be working through the emulators, with settings within them curiously offering random matchmaking features. Given the existence of these files, it's likely that we'll be seeing Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games added to Nintendo Switch Online's game lineup sometime in the future. For now, nothing is officially confirmed.

*Another important piece of tidbit*, this was dumped from a Switch console, and not taken from Nintendo's servers, so this is *unrelated* to the other 2020/2021 Nintendo leaks. I'll still consider this a leak of its own though, as no GB/GBA NSO has surfaced yet. pic.twitter.com/SMqgJLV737

— MaxiBash (@trashbandatcoot) April 18, 2022

 

[ChoChoCup]

NICE

 

[djpannda]

ok I might buy the Nintendo online + for GBA

 

[SDA]

Apparently this is what Nintendo uses for the Nintendo Switch online releases, an officially-developed emulator.
Let's see if Game Boy Advance titles will ever be released there.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Watch Nintendo expect you pay the “+” tier for GB, GBC and GBA shit

 

[gamesquest1]

is that EZFlash flashcard image built in, if so thats pretty funny or has someone just loaded a random image into the emulator for testing it

 

[Dominator211]

Cue up those Hoenn Trumpets.

 

[MRJPGames]

The linked video no longer exists. It seems like RatgorlHunter either deleted their account, or it was taken down??

EDIT: http://web.archive.org/web/20220418194605/https://twitter.com/RatgorlHunter/
The videos of course don't work, BUT still intresting immages. Also seems like the account was made just to post about this leak

EDIT EDIT: For anyone intrested, quick, and knowledgable: 50217865

 

[MikaDubbz]

I'm baffled that it would have an image of the ez-flash cartridge. I mean I imagine it's all for internal testing purposes, as the feature to export saves for use in a flashcard would never be something they'd encourage their users to do, but I imagine it would be a helpful tool for testing how things hold up with the emulator they had developed. Still it's just crazy that ez-flash is there like it's no big deal, but I imagine it probably is one of the easiest ways to test how gba roms would hold up on real hardware.

 

[AkitoUF]

So glad I got my Switch hacked.

 

[Mikemk]

Wonder if they'll come up with a GameBoy controller, and what it'll look like.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Hmm, that part about the rom patches seem interesting. "Palette Re-tuning"?

 

[MRJPGames]

I'm baffled that it would have an image of the ez-flash cartridge. I mean I imagine it's all for internal testing purposes, as the feature to export saves for use in a flashcard would never be something they'd encourage their users to do, but I imagine it would be a helpful tool for testing how things hold up with the emulator they had developed. Still it's just crazy that ez-flash is there like it's no big deal, but I imagine it probably is one of the easiest ways to test how gba roms would hold up on real hardware.

I mean we're talking about the Nintendo that allowed Wii owners to buy a NES rom(s?) that had a homebrew/emulator header in it.

 

[Viorlu]

the N64 Emulator will be skipped. But the gb/gba emulator will not. But pleas keep the price at 50 euro a year.

 

[Mikemk]

is that EZFlash flashcard image built in, if so thats pretty funny or has someone just loaded a random image into the emulator for testing it

Not seeing this anywhere in the post.

I mean we're talking about the Nintendo that allowed Wii owners to buy a NES rom(s?) that had a homebrew/emulator header in it.

They have plausible deniability though. Including an EZ Flash ROM is actually copyright infringement (piracy).

 

[MikaDubbz]

I wonder what they'll do for a dedicated virtual console controller like the other 4 services have seen. This is my prediction:

I imagine it probably will be something similar, shaped exactly like the GBA, but naturally without a screen. Probably my most outlandish claim would be a built in accelerometer, I could see that not being included, but there were a handful of great GBC and GBA games that utilized gyro, so it certainly would have merit.

 

[Mikemk]

There's already a released N64 emulator, where have you been since October?

EDIT: This was supposed to quote a few posts above

 

[Flame]

time to dust off the switch...

 

[MikaDubbz]

There's already a released N64 emulator, where have you been since October?

EDIT: This was supposed to quote a few posts above

If I'm reading it right, they're saying that they have no interest in paying for the expanded Switch online service for N64 games, and as such haven't upgraded since the N64 was added, but a GBA service will be enough to get them to make the upgrade. I don't think they were trying to say that Nintendo straight up skipped N64 for the Switch, when that obviously isn't true.

 

[K3Nv2]

Maybe powkiddy can make good devices now