It has been revealed that Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD) will be working on the emulation to be used in the NES Classic edition.
The NES emulator and operating system was created by Paris-based Nintendo European Research and Development (NERD) from scratch.
It is not the first foray into software emulation for NERD. The studio was already responsible for the DS emulation on Wii U, making it only the third team outside of Nintendo working on Virtual Console emulation (the others are NST for N64 emulation on Wii and M2 for GBA emulation on Wii U).
It’s still unclear whether this is purely a NERD product. With a “Made in Germany” on the controller, and a lack of Japanese release as well as the software side being handled by NERD, it seems at least plausible. NCL may have still been involved on the hardware side. NERD seems to have quite some leeway and is well respected at NCL. Right now, they are also working on software for NX.
NERD’s previous works include:
– development of “super-stable 3D”/face tracking system for New Nintendo 3DS
– enabling support for digital releases of Wii games on Wii U eShop
– video player for the Wii U internet browser
This is very interesting not just for the NES Classic Edition but also for the upcoming Nintendo NX and how it will emulate classic games. We will continue to update you on the details.