Nintendo and Nvidia have a working GC/Wii emulator for Tegra X1

10 min read Original article ↗
  • Want to ask some Rockstar Game Workers Union folks a question? Check out our Rockstar AMA here!
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
I'm a glitch hunter of the 3D Zelda Speedrun Community and recently we managed to get our hands on the Chinese NVIDIA Shield and Twilight Princess on it. This was made possible by a generous member of my TP community who took the risk of importing a Shield from China for $250 with 0 guarantees it would actually be possible to make it work. Buying the game from the Chinese store proved to be difficult, but a member from this very community here at resetera went ahead and used her wechat account to buy the game for us.

2 days ago Pheenoh, the person who imported the shield, did a full playthrough and glitch testing on this version. You can find the VOD here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/224297805

The most remarkable things about this version is how well it performs. It doesn't crash, it has no graphical issues, the framerate is locked at 30 fps pretty much throughout the entire game and the loading times are on par with the Dolphin Emulator with fast load times enabled, so pretty much instant.

There was one thing that hit our attention however. 2 notorious consistent game crashes on the original GC did not crash the game on the Shield. Interestingly enough the same 2 glitches that also didn't crash Dolphin until very recently where an option of proper Memory Management emulation became available.

With the hints mounting up, yesterday we went ahead and dumped the APK from the shield. After extracting it I immediately found the native executable that should be the game executable if this was a true port of the game. But taking a look at it it didn't match its GC counterpart whatsoever - especially crucial game asset strings that are required to run the game are missing.

What I did find however were the following strings:

1mfslu.png

Note: OSPanic is a GC function called by the game when it encounters a critical error

22kswe.png
my91pgiqteknauvwqny3dmgs1g.png
3loswn.png

This leaves pretty much no doubt that the executable I'm looking at is in fact a GC emulator. A GC emulator that runs one of the most demanding games on the Cube very smoothly on the same hardware as the Switch. Something tells me this emulator wasn't created to just emulate 2 Nintendo games on a niche console in China :P

EDIT:

Title is maybe a bit misleading. Wouldnt mind if a mod changes it to: "Nintendo has theoretical access to a highly capable GC/Wii emulator for the Tegra X1"

Last edited:
oh well done good sir, well done
Wow~ That's genuinely cool. GC/Wii VC incoming?
Well, for Nvidia shield. I'm sure the switch could run it, but that's up to Nvidia to port it.
Would be smart as part of the deal, I'd think
Well, Nvidia hired one some of the Dolphin crew for this project, so I'm not surprised it runs well. Also GCN VC when?
Is the resolution increased in these games, or do they run at their original 480i/p?
Why would you say that this is for the Switch when it's running on a Shield? Is it just because of similar architecture?
Wow~ That's genuinely cool. GC/Wii VC incoming?
Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.
Release this shit already. Switch has been selling gangbusters as is.

This takes it to another level.

EDIT: When I say release I mean in any form. I'll pay for games.

What was assumed before is now confirmed.
Awesome!
This is so interesting.

How is the emulation, in regards to resolution etc? Did they also introduce new textures etc for all of the button prompts? Any other noticeable changes?

I'm very curious how the Super Mario Galaxy release works without the Wiimote being used to control it. Did they just get rid of all the pointer-star stuff?

Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.
Doesn't the Switch's right joycon have one?
Doesn't the Shield actually have higher CPU clocks or something like that?
Is the resolution increased in these games, or do they run at their original 480i/p?
1080p.
Presumably the portable mode wouldn't be able to run it at that resolution so 720p there, maybe?
Amazing, this is very interesting indeed.
Now what would be cool: Gamecube games are part of the online service, you get them free within your 20$ online subscription.

Considering Nintendo charges 10$ for even older games (SNES, NES) this seems unlikely but never say never. It certainly would be a great value

Doesn't the Switch's right joycon have one?
Nope that's different technology and it's not positioned in a feasible way for pointing.
This is an awesome find. But I don't see how this proves it is for Switch as well?
Why would you say that this is for the Switch when it's running on a Shield? Is it just because of similar architecture?
The same SoC powers both devices. The only difference now is the OS layer, and Nvidia helped develop the API for the Switch
Give me Super Mario Sunshine so the world can know of a greater 3D Mario game than Galaxy and Odyssey.
Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.
Can't they just release the games that don't use IR pointing?
Doesn't the Shield actually have higher CPU clocks or something like that?
It's also held back by Android.
I don't think it's more capable than Switch for the most part
Doesn't the Shield actually have higher CPU clocks or something like that?
What I was going to ask
Definitely higher than portable
Hope I can play Super Mario Sunshine, Melee, MK Double-Dash and RE4 on Switch soon...
Good work! I never doubted the technical feasibility of GC virtual console, just the financial (from Nintendo's POV). However, this makes me think we'll get a few surprises when the mysterious online service is finally revealed.
1080p.
Presumably the portable mode wouldn't be able to run it at that resolution so 720p there, maybe?

Interesting, thanks!
Can't they just release the games that don't use IR pointing?
Sure but that's a rather limited selection.
Interesting find. Not gonna get my hopes up, but it's really cool nonetheless!
Doesn't the Shield actually have higher CPU clocks or something like that?
Yes but under sustained load (ie: most games) it downclocks to Switch speeds. It also had 1GB less ram.
But this is made by Nvidia, not by Nintendo.

I'm thinking this will never see the light of day on Switch

Going by your reasoning about Dolphin not crashing in the same scenario I thought you were going to conclude Nvidia is using Dolphin code in their emulator. Glad that's not the case!
Give me Super Mario Sunshine so the world can know of a greater 3D Mario game than Galaxy and Odyssey.
Sunshine is a little weird though because it needs analog triggers to really work right. Nintendo has came up with stranger reasons not to do something though, and it wouldn't shock me if they just sit on this entire thing for years before selling anything. It took them years before they even started selling Wii games on the Wii U eshop despite it being a no brainer since launch day.
Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.
Come on Gamecube! Hurry! I want Paper Mario TTYD so bad.
I'd buy Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arkadia and Super Monkey Ball again for Switch, if they were in HD and with true widescreen.
Solution to IR:

Allow gyro usage in the left Joy Con for pointer and leave right Joy Con for Wii gyro. Touchscreen usage for portable mode pointing.

If they render natively at 1080p it's freaking impressive.
Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.

Pretty sure making the Joycon's gyro replicate a pointer would be incredibly easy.
The same SoC powers both devices. The only difference now is the OS layer, and Nvidia helped develop the API for the Switch
Doesn't the Shield CPU run on double the clock of the Switch CPU?
The Switch has a heavily underclocked Tegra, the title is completely misleading and it is just based on assumptions.
Gamecube is only a matter of when. Wii is a little more complicated as there's no way of replicating IR pointing without both a sensor bar and Wii Remote style controller.
We're getting Mario Galaxy on Shield, aren't we? Will they just completely cut the IR parts out?
This is some great work! Hopefully Nintendo start talking about their plans for their classic games on Switch soon. Portable F-Zero GX would be amazing.
giphy.gif

Same.

Glad y'all were able to get everything together! Already yielding interesting results.

Doesn't the Shield CPU run on double the clock of the Switch CPU?

I'm not entirely sure about the CPU but I remember someone on the old forum did some in depth testing and found the Shield GPU throttled to to the exact same clockspeed as the Switches docked mode when under load for an extended period of time. It's also worth noting Android and it's API's have some pretty significant overhead compared to the Switches barebones OS and the Switch has an addition GB of RAM.
We're getting Mario Galaxy on Shield, aren't we? Will they just completely cut the IR parts out?
I've wondered that myself. IR is a pretty huge part of that game with collecting starbits.
The Switch has a heavily underclocked Tegra, the title is completely misleading and it is just based on assumptions.
I wouldn't call it "heavily underclocked" since in practical situations the Shield TV throttles and ends up performing about the same as the Switch, with 1GB of RAM less too.
This is an awesome find. But I don't see how this proves it is for Switch as well?
It doesn't but it's it's still important knowing that such a thing is possible to run on Switch and has already been developed.