Dolphin developer, Pierre Bourdon, and fail0verflow show off Dolphin running on the Nintendo Switch running Linux – Get ready to play GameCube/Wii games on the go (if don’t mind some frameskip!)
With the Nintendo Switch scene going nuts with the ShofEL2 exploit, a firmware-independent exploit as it depends a hardware issue, emulators that push the system’s boundaries were bound to crop up! Thanks to Linux running on the Switch, it seems that some talented developers have been able to emulate Nintendo’s older home consoles on it!
What do we know?
Late yesterday, Dolphin developer Pierre Bourdon showed off a screenshot of the Nintendo Switch running Zelda Wind Waker, a classic GameCube game, on the Nintendo Switch. A few minutes later, team fail0verflow also confirmed that Dolphin was running on the Switch thanks to a sarcastic tweet telling us that they have a sneak peak of a brand new Zelda game on the Switch.
It’s important to note that the Nintendo Switch uses the Tegra X1 SoC, a powerful SoC that’s also used in the famous Shield TV. The Shield TV is capable to run some Wii/GameCube games through Dolphin on Android as its SoC is quite powerful so that means that the Switch has a decent chance of being able to run some previous generation games.
How does it run?
Developer Bourdon has stated that Zelda Wind Waker runs at around 20-25FPS with open source drivers and not an awful lot of optimisation.
This is pretty good news since it means that with some optimisations to the GPU driver and perhaps the emulator, you’ll be able to run some Wii/GC games on the Nintendo Switch which makes it a great portable to play these games.
If you’re fine with some frameskip, you may also be able to play some less-demanding Wii/GameCube games since frameskipping could make games run somewhat better with a decent enough result if the
frameskip setting isn’t too high!
Conclusion
Obviously, you won’t be running all Wii/GC games at full speed tomorrow and you shouldn’t expect to be able to do that any time soon!
That being said, the future for this hybrid console looks pretty promising and through more work on emulation, it could become the ultimate portable gaming console for retro-game likers!
Pierre Bourdon’s Twitter (further updates): https://twitter.com/delroth_
Fail0verflow’s Twitter (further updates): https://twitter.com/fail0verflow
Wind Walker lol
Typo fixed! 🙂
I lol’d seeing Yuzu running as a Switch homebrew, devs are crazy, that’s why we love them.
How can i do this? I need it no!
wow :O that is pretty nice
Epic! Morons at Nintendo still don’t have GC running on switch but hackers do lmao.
maybe a PS2 emulator on the go some day?
Seeing as Dolphin’s running through Linux, PCSX2 is 100% possible.
Nah, the PS2 is even hard to emulate on a somewhat mid-tier pc. I don’t believe the switch can emulate it.
I’m liking my N switch every hour…totally worth the buy and wait 🙂
I love the game where Zelda walks on the wind
That’s not Chinese, it’s Japanese.
Indeed. I’ll fix the article
fursst
just get a gpd win 2 if you can afford it
Or a SmachZ, if devs ever achieve to debug their prototype :p
If you install Linux, Will you lost Nintendo switch firmware?
No, my understanding is that it is loaded from a separate drive.
Thanks for the precision.
“Superbe travail” by the way.
Excellent news !
Ikaruga or Sonic Battle should run, not the most demanding games.
Rogue Leader/Rebel Strike or Metroid Prime, on the other hand…
Hacked WiiU runs GC iso natively (even on the gamepad !), still the best way to enjoy them on a semi portable imo.
What about ps2 emulation? Think KH2, SWBFII would be two great editions for it
why does it say Zelda Twilight Princess under an image of wind waker?
A true portable GameCube. Now I just need $300 to buy a switch.
So… if I’m at 4.0.1 should I stay put or update?