Back in July this year, a Switch owner named Setery asked people online to look into a reason why NES Golf had appeared on her Switch when she left it and came back. She discovered that she was able to play the game as normal, which left users baffled as to how it had appeared on the console in the first place
Modders delved further into this, and found that there was in fact the NES Golf game hidden inside the Switch’s firmware under the name ‘flog’ which is ‘golf’ backwards. Some people speculated that there was some kind of hidden method that allowed players to launch the game from the Switch menu, but at this point, no one knew just how to trigger it.
Recently, modders have been doing even further investigations, and have found that this appears to be a heart warming tribute to the late Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata.
“We thought they had included it during manufacturing by mistake,” Plutoo, one of the modders, told Kotaku over Twitter direct messages. “But when we [dug] deeper, we found there was some suspicious code in the ‘Home Menu.” When Plutoo decided to look into it. He discovered even more information: “The code looked for the date July 11th, and the code right before seemed to enable the ‘Joycon sixaxis’ motion sensors.”
Plutoo advised that the he code enabled a “secret handshake” which unlocked something on 11th July on the Switch’s home screen. He also advised that the motion hidden in the code was said to match Iwata’s well known Nintendo Direct gesture. This, along with the fact that Iwata passed away on the 11th July, and programmed NES Golf back in the 80’s, seems like all of this has been put together as a touching tribute to the late CEO.
Since you can trick the Switch into thinking that it’s 11th July at any point, a user named Fiskerdin tried something out for himself. “I booted the unopened Switch up, did the setup procedure, and decided to try it out the gesture which was posted,” he explained over e-mail to Kotaku. “I simply put both Joy-cons parallel to each other and pointed towards the ground, then raised them in a vertical position and waited, the screen turned blank, an audible cue was played, and then I was greeted with the Golf menu.”
Nintendo has yet to confirm if this is deliberate, even if all information does suggest that this is the case.
you guys are late on covering this as spawnwave and gamexplain beat you guys to it however its worth mentioning that it is very heartwarming so that outweighs you guys being as the saying goes, ‘the train is late’, chuggaaconroy 20(something)
That’s not how news works. It doesn’t become *less* newsworthy because someone else reported it first. Not everyone reads every site. If they decided not to post something newsworthy because it was on another sight, many of their readers would never hear about it.
When the New York Times breaks a new story, other outlets don’t just ignore it because NYT got it first. That would be ridiculous.
Yeah, i just learned this right here. Who cares if somebody else posted it before?
Yeah, I find out about MOST things HERE first. Even though lots of people say that other sites announced it first. Such as amiibo release dates etc. However, in this case, I found out in a YouTube video first. Then went “directly” to this site and saw the same thing posted.
It doesn’t mean that they can posted this because someone else has already posted it.
Not everyone watch every site.
Who cares? Not everyone watches them.
The hell is spawnwave?
NVM just realized it’s YouTube not blogs. SMH.
Incredible.
Almost a little moist in my eyes.
||Hallowed is Lord Iwata forever…||
May His spirit linger in the halls of The Order.
And again I cannot stop write this…
Thank you Mister Iwata. I wished to meet you in real life, but… this can’t be happening…
It is true what you said that day….
On my business card, I’m a corporate President.
In my mind, I’m a game developer.
But in my heart… I’m a gamer
Every single player has the heart of a gamer.
Omg this is an amazing tribute. Iwata bringing one of his games, “directly, to us.
Man, awesome comment!
This is pretty cool
It’s interesting how modders and Iwata can be used in the same setence.
I’d like to see someone use “Abradolf Lincler” and “Ghandi” in the same sentence
You just did it, reference those two, in your comment above.
This is very fitting. Nintendo is seeing a new renaissance after being slandered by fans and media alike after the Wii U. Iwata took a severe pay cut during the dark days of Nintendo, and even now, he’s looking after each Switch from within. He truly loved Nintendo.
That’s so great, I teared again after knowing this news..I miss so much Iwata and the directs with him..
Wow that is amazing. I hope they publicize it next year so fans know.
Best tribute easter egg ever. Can’t wait till July 11th to play the game…
Mr. Iwata will always be a great man. We miss you.
I think I’ll wait until July 11 to try this. Play this tribute as it’s meant to be played.
Also, best gaming tribute ever!
Heartwarming. The Switch was Iwata’s last gift to the world, so the fact that, on the surface, they put a bit of Iwata’s character in the Switch, is truly amazing and shows just how much Iwata meant for the guys at Nintendo. It seems as if Iwata was more of a friend, than a boss to these guys.
What a wonderful tribute to leave for Iwata. We all know it was probably his programmers that left this little easter egg behind. And we can all rest assured that Lord Iwata’s final gift to us, the Switch, has become a great success and a tribute in itself to his heart and intellect. You know you made a positive mark on the world when your coworkers love you this much.
This is beyond cool. I miss Iwata. The Nintendo Directs haven’t been the same without him. In fact, I don’t really watch them anymore. I just come to this site to find out what happened. THEN I’ll sometimes go to YouTube and watch the best parts of the directs, so I can skip the boring parts. I was a little more determined to watch them LIVE when Iwata was alive.
It’s never going to be the same :(
This is sick deals right here.