Nintendo 3DS Flaw Lets You Play GameBoy ROMs

What happens when you can't play a beloved video game any more, considering the hardware for which it was designed is no longer available?

Some gamers have found an answer: Use a recently discovered exploit on the Nintendo 3DS handheld system to sideload old GameBoy and GameBoy Colour ROMs onto the device.

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The Nintendo 3DS can already play sure older Nintendo games via its Virtual Console feature. The Virtual Panel is an emulator, a piece of software that runs on one kind of hardware (in this case, Nintendo 3DS), simply "emulates," or pretends to be, some other kind of hardware (in this instance, GameBoy or GameBoy Color).

But Nintendo just allows games sold via the Nintendo eShop on the Virtual Console. And so what's a fan of niche older games to do?

A YouTuber named KazoWAR appears to have plant a new flaw in the Nintendo 3DS's software that lets users play any old GameBoy or GameBoy Color games on the device.

Pulling off the trick requires users to legitimately purchase at least i GameBoy Color game from the Nintendo eShop. The game has to be at or less than one MB in size. And so, on a SD card, identify the ROM for the GameBoy or GameBoy Color game you desire on your 3DS, equally well as the exploit code (the link to the file is in the YouTube description), and put the SD carte into the 3DS'due south card slot. The fob works by essentially replacing the eShop-purchased game with the sideloaded ROM.

The in-game saving mechanisms of the sideloaded games won't work, but users can employ the Virtual Console's own save-land feature to save their progress.

The trick doesn't seem to work with the new 3DS models only released in Japan, Europe and Australia, considering the new devices seem to accept patched the vulnerability.

That this hack is even possible reveals a bit more nigh how Nintendo's Virtual Console works.

"While the slow drip of official eShop releases adds incidental features like digital instruction booklets, it appears there's no technical reason that Nintendo couldn't throw its unabridged legacy library onto the service for legitimate download," writes Ars Technica's Kyle Orland.

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Jill Scharr is a staff writer for Tom'south Guide, where she regularly covers security, 3D printing and video games. You can follow Jill on Twitter @JillScharr and on Google+ . Follow us @tomsguide , on Facebook and on Google+ .

Jill Scharr is a creative writer and narrative designer in the videogame industry. She previously worked every bit a Staff Writer for Tom's Guide, covering video games, online security, 3D printing and tech innovation.