Hackers put SNES, Sega Genesis and Game Boy games on the NES Classic

For some people, playing NES games on the NES Classic just isn't enough. They want the throwback system to play games from the SNES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600, too.

YouTub user Soulctcher recorded use of an NES Classic hack that runs games from multiple different consoles, showing off gameplay from Super Metroid for the SNES, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis, Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 and more.

The hack allows NES Classic owners to install and load files that didn't come packaged with the console. At first, hackers found a way to get other NES ROMs onto the console using a method that spread pretty quickly in January. But some hackers didn't want to stop at simply expanding the NES Classic library.

Instead of uploading immediately-playable ROMs, this new hack actually turns the NES Classic into an emulator by booting up different operating systems for different consoles in order to play non-NES games (because they don't run natively on the NES Classic operating system).

Why turn the NES Classic into an emulator? We're not sure. The controller doesn't even have enough buttons to properly emulate an SNES game -- it's missing the shoulder buttons as well as the X and Y buttons.

It must feel pretty cool to play Sonic the Hedgehog on the NES, though, but Sonic and some of the other 16-bit games look a little bit choppy in the video.

Of course, hacking your NES Classic in any way has the potential to ruin it and hacking any console or running ROMs you do not own isn't exactly legal, either.