“This is the hanafuda captain speaking. Launching emulation in 3…2…1. Many efforts, tears and countless hours have been put into this jewel. So, please keep this place tidied up and don’t break everything! Cheers, the hanafuda captain.”
The Hanafuda captain is a sly reference to Nintendo’s primary business venture before entering the video game industry in 1974. From 1899 to 1956, Nintendo specialized in playing card games. One of those games in particular called Hanafuda — translates to “flower cards” — was a rousing success, and is still played in Japan, South Korea, and Hawaii.
Apparently, the Hanafuda captain respects the efforts of modders and wishes them well. Although it could just be Nintendo acknowledging the inevitable fact that all video game consoles are subject to modding endeavors.
The Famicom Mini, the Japanese counterpart to the NES Classic Edition, was also released in November. The Famicom Mini was the first of the two to be hacked. Shortly after its release, modders successfully installed Linux on the console. The NES Classic was initially believed to be difficult to hack. However, tough challenges entice the modding community. As we reported over the past few days, modders increased the NES Classic’s catalog from 30 games to 84 games.
It’s unclear if this newly discovered message can be found in the NES Classic Edition, too, but modders will certainly start looking for it.
This is the second time in recent weeks that Nintendo has given a message to hackers. In December, Nintendo called out to hackers for help to lockdown 3DS exploits. The bounty program includes rewards ranging from $100 to $20,000 — the greater the security threat the exploit poses, the higher the reward.
Hopefully, modders heed the advice of the Hanafuda captain and keep their hacked consoles in working order.
