While the Nintendo Switch 2 has been all the rage lately with respect to headlines, we car across something on social media platform 𝕏 (formerly Twitter) this week involving the original Nintendo Switch that may have some of you doing a double take, and rightfully so.
The content in question, first shared by @Patrosi73, shows what appears to be a first-generation Nintendo Switch running a version of iOS inside of QEMU, a generic and open-source machine and userspace emulator and virtualizer.
While the exact version of the firmware remains unknown, follow-up comments reveal that this is a full-fledged build of iOS running in an emulator, not a dumbed-down simulation build.
However, the feat isn’t without its caveats, as @Patrosi73 reveals that it takes 20 minutes to fully boot iOS on the Nintendo Switch in this way, it kernel panics frequently, and you can’t launch apps because they merely time out and crash.
This is undoubtedly because of a mix of different factors, likely including the lack of Apple hardware, drivers that don’t support Nintendo Switch hardware, and other dependencies the apps need that the Nintendo Switch lacks.
In other words, while the fact that this is even possible is quite interesting, it’s far from usable. We expect that this is because of a mix of things, including the Nintendo Switch’s underwhelming CPU and GPU, which pale in comparison to any modern iPhone.
Still, a really neat concept!