Key Takeaways
- It turns out that the Nintendo Museum is using a Windows-based SNES emulator for some of its interactive displays.
- The revelations led social media users to accuse the company of hypocrisy for using these solutions while also investing significant resources in cracking down on fan emulation.
- Nintendo has historically been strongly opposed to third-party emulators, but there have been few complaints about its first-party emulations.
that Nintendo Museum Newly uncovered evidence suggests that is using an emulator for at least one set of interactive displays. A vocal section of Nintendo fans found this revelation ironic, especially since the company had long opposed emulation.
After some delays, the Nintendo Museum opened its doors to the public on October 2nd. Located in Kyoto, Japan, the center will allow visitors to explore the company's extensive library of consoles and titles as well as experience many of its classic games first-hand.

relevant
Nintendo Ends Unofficial Link's Awakening PC Port
Weeks after release, the fan-made PC port of the classic Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening was discontinued by Nintendo.
The video suggests that the Nintendo Museum uses a SNES emulator.
However, not all of these interactive displays are powered by vintage hardware. This was recently discovered by Twitter user ChrisMack32 after he decided to disconnect one controller from a Nintendo museum station running the 1990 SNES classic. super mario world. Doing so caused the machine to play an instantly recognizable “device disconnected” sound event, which Microsoft's operating systems have used since the days of Windows XP in the early 21st century.
Reconnecting the gamepad will trigger the same iconic “device connected” sound event, super mario world The Nintendo Museum's display runs on a Windows-based SNES emulator. The revelation sparked a strong reaction online, with some social media users accusing Nintendo of being hypocritical for opposing emulation software while resorting to such a solution.
Nintendo has never been opposed to first-party emulation.
But the Japanese gaming giant's anti-emulation stance has historically only involved third-party projects, and the group has had no qualms about relying on such software internally. For example, much of the Nintendo Switch Online game library is emulated, and the company also previously ran a popular 3DS emulation service called Virtual Console. Therefore, the concept of the Nintendo Museum using emulators is consistent with this tradition. There's currently no evidence that the Kyoto Center's interactive displays are using anything other than the company's own emulators, of which Nintendo has no shortage.
Nintendo's fight against third-party emulators continues
But the fandom's displeasure with this revelation isn't surprising at all. Especially seeing as it's only been a few weeks since Nintendo shut down another popular emulation project. According to a report in one of the project's Discord mods, in early October 2024, Riperiperi, lead developer of Switch emulator Ryujinx, was contacted and agreed to stop working on the app and even delete its GitHub repository. Half a year ago, Nintendo succeeded in shutting down its Switch emulator Yuzu. However, that case was much easier to resolve because it successfully asserted a piracy violation against the app developer.

nintendo
Nintendo is a Japanese video game company based in Kyoto, Japan. While producing extremely popular hardware consoles like the Switch, it is also known for many of its first-party video game franchises, such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Pokemon, and more.