Developer Successfully Emulates Nintendo Switch Games on M1 Mac

[MacRumors]

Earlier this week, a developer using the pseudonym Sera Tonin Brocious on Twitter successfully managed to emulate Nintendo Switch games on Apple silicon, which they demonstrated by running Super Mario Odyssey on an M1 Mac.

As noted by The 8-Bit, the developer was able to achieve this feat with the open source Yuzu emulator, which uses Vulkan, a high-performance 3D graphics API. The implementation is not perfect due to limitations of MoltenVK, a runtime library that maps Vulkan to Apple's Metal graphics framework on macOS and iOS.

The screenshots show Super Mario Odyssey running on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip running macOS 11.0.1. This is possible because the processors in the Nintendo Switch and M1 Macs are both based on Arm architecture.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1340777743244509196

In a follow-up tweet, the developer said the "big hurdle" is proper Metal support, noting that the current MoltenVK implementation results in "middling performance." And while there are no instructions for the public to try this out yet, it's an exciting accomplishment, and one more example of the new capabilities unleashed by Apple silicon.

Article Link: Developer Successfully Emulates Nintendo Switch Games on M1 Mac

 

[Minato1990]

Need to buy one now ASAP

 

[ocnitsa]

Why waste time with that when you should be working at getting Goldeneye to run on it??

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Huh. I thought this was fast, being just 3 years after the Switch came out. I was under the impression emulators normally start being available about 10 years after a console is released, but I checked and Dolphin actually released in 2003, just two years after the GameCube.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

The Mac power has been unleashed!!!

 

[The Barron]

Awesome power! ?

 

[LeadingHeat]

Very cool. Crazy the possibilities that these M1 Macs are bringing about!

 

[Deliro]

The Mac power has been unleashed!!!

ARM power. Cool accomplishment. I can’t see it being very stable though. 1/2 my iOS apps crash on my M1.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Why waste time with that when you should be working at getting Goldeneye to run on it??

Sweet Jesus!
also contra and Metroid prime & echoes

 

[DeepIn2U]

Huh. I thought this was fast, being just 3 years after the Switch came out. I was under the impression emulators normally start being available about 10 years after a console is released, but I checked and Dolphin actually released in 2003, just two years after the GameCube.

I thought Dolphin was GameCube’s code name internally at Nintendo

 

[JosephAW]

Waiting for SheepShaver

 

[ArPe]

Why waste time with that when you should be working at getting Goldeneye to run on it??

OpenEmu runs Goldeneye N64 ?

 

[macfacts]

Hardware is fast enough but apple would never allow an emulator in the store. Have fun running benchmarks

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I thought Dolphin was GameCube’s code name internally at Nintendo

Correct - that's where the Dolphin emulator gets its name from. It's also where the ship in Pikmin and the island in Sunshine got their names from.

 

[Skika]

I love my Switch, altough this is a great accomplishment, i dont ever see myself replacing my switch with my mac. 2 different devices.

 

[AppleTO]

So this isn’t really emulation then if both the game and cpu are the same architecture. More like virtualization - of the unauthorized sort ?.

 

[B4U]

And within 1 week's time, Nintendo sends cease and desist letter. ?
Nintendo is notorious about things like this.

 

[alex00100]

He's now on Nintendo hitlist.

 

[benshive]

Hardware is fast enough but apple would never allow an emulator in the store. Have fun running benchmarks

Not to mention that Nintendo is essentially Apple of the gaming world. They'll everything they can to shut down emulators for their games.

 

[neoelectronaut]

Well that's one way to get more games on macOS.

 

[trip1ex]

seems odd MacRumors would advertise this given it's basically piracy or the tools for piracy.

 

[hawkeye_a]

I love my Switch, altough this is a great accomplishment, i dont ever see myself replacing my switch with my mac. 2 different devices.

What if you could run macOS on your Switch?

 

[George Dawes]

That's quite an achievement !

 

[AngerDanger]

Huh. I thought this was fast, being just 3 years after the Switch came out. I was under the impression emulators normally start being available about 10 years after a console is released, but I checked and Dolphin actually released in 2003, just two years after the GameCube.

Same with PCSX2 and the PS2.

For whenever reason, I was under the same misapprehension that it usually takes longer to develop emulators until I looked into that one.

 

[Blackstick]

Oh god. Hell hath no fury like Nintendo's attorneys...