NES Classic Hacking: How to add more games to the mini Nintendo console

As clandestine computer wizardry threatens to undermine democracy, hacking is definitely in vogue right now. In more fun news, hackers have also undermined Nintendo by targeting the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition!

The impossible-to-find NES Classic mini-console has been cracked, with hackers adding to its 30 game library, according to Kotaku. If you actually manage to get your hands on one of those bad boys, you too can subvert Nintendo's business plan and add The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants to it.

You could also add good games, but where's the fun in that?

How to hack the NES Classic Edition

Kotaku's piece has a detailed breakdown of the technical know-how required to hack the console, but it can be summarized as such: Connect the NES Classic to a computer via USB and add ROMs for NES games to its roster via a tool called "hakchi2." The tool was posted in a Russian forum by user madmonkey and refined by a second user called Cluster.

So if you're tired of playing Kid Icarus (and you must be because that game is terrible), you can go ahead and add something cool like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse or Tetris. This is a good way to pass the time until the Nintendo Switch comes out in March.

Of course, if you're one of the many, many people who never got their hands on an NES Classic Edition, there are better and cheaper ways to emulate old Nintendo games without shelling out hundreds of dollars on eBay or waiting in line at Best Buy. Lifehacker has a guide to building a better, more customizable version of the same thing for $35. 

But if you absolutely must feel like you're pulling one over on an official Nintendo product, you finally can, thanks to hakchi2.