Although two videos have been removed, this video destroying batteries when charging Doom on the Game & Watch unit remains active.
Nintendo is using copyright notices to remove YouTube videos that detail how to hack the newly released one Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. portable color.
A hacker going through the stacksmashing handle managed to hack the handheld the day before its official launch on November 13thanks to early retail delivery. But a YouTube video detailing this method of hacking, originally posted on November 14th, was knocked down for one Nintendo’s targeted copyright claim earlier this week. Another exciting video, entitled “Bringing homebrew to Nintendo Game & Watch”, was also removed for an apparent copyright claim.
Two other Game & Watch hacking videos remain active so far: one detailing how to upload one Doom port for the drive and one that discusses how to discard the firmware. None of these existing videos show images of Nintendo’s own games displayed running on Game & Watch; such footage is specifically blurred in one of the videos, actually.
Nintendo doesn’t seem to be automatically targeting everyone Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. footage of the game on YouTube; you can still find many videos analyzing the unit and featuring copyrighted footage, for example. But Nintendo’s copyright on the games themselves gives the company incredibly wide discretion as to which “performances” of those games to allow or block through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Unlike the NES and SNES Classic Edition consoles, which were relatively simple to hack via a direct USB cable connection, the Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. The unit has a locked CPU, flash memory encrypted with AES and no data connection via the USB-C charger. Hacking Game & Watch, therefore, currently requires opening the system and using custom hardware to dump custom firmware and homebrew software back and forth.
Stacksmashing tells Gizmodo that they are editing the videos in question and will file disputes in an attempt to get them back on the service. Nintendo did not respond to a request for comment from Ars Technica.
Listing image by Stacksmashing / YouTube