Hackers Find a Way to Add More Games to the NES Classic

For anyone looking to scratch that retro gaming itch, the NES Classic is the perfect solution. Well, almost. Nintendo may have included 30 classic games pre-installed on the system, like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Tecmo Bowl, but once you blow through those, there's no way to get more titles. The NES Classic doesn't connect to the internet or Nintendo's eShop, so the current roster of games is all you'll get until the inevitable follow-up that the company is sure to produce.

But what if you just need to play some Battletoads or Contra right now? As usual, there's a hack for that. Ars Technica is reporting that hackers have found a way to add more titles to the existing NES Classic library, including favorites like Darkwing Duck, Bucky O’Hare, and the rest of the Mega Man collection (the NES Classic only includes Mega Man 2).

There's a Reddit thread with a set of directions detailing how the hacker, named MadMonkey, accomplished this. The process involves hooking your NES Classic to a computer through the micro-USB cable, then uploading NES ROMs from the computer to the NES Classic.

A hack like this, in theory, can add any NES game you can find to your Classic—although a video found by The Verge claims that some people have run into trouble after uploading more than 80 games. Just know that all of these hacks involve a fair amount of computer savvy, as a wrong move can easily ruin your Classic device. Plus, there's also no legal way to do any of this, since downloading a ROM is considered pirating.

If you don't want to turn your NES Classic into an expensive paperweight, you can always legally download older titles from Nintendo's paid Virtual Console service, provided you have a Wii U or Nintendo 3DS.