The Nintendo Switch’s Game Boy emulator seems to have been leaked

Official Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulators for the Switch have seemingly been leaked online.

As spotted by Twitter user trasbandatcoot, the files, which are circulating in Discord servers and on forums, appear to include a Game Boy emulator called ‘Hiyoko’ and a Game Boy Advance emulator named ‘Sloop’.

Both emulators appear to have been developed by Nintendo‘s NERD (Nintendo European Research & Development) team, which is based in France and often handles emulation software for official Nintendo products.

The emulators were reportedly dumped from a Switch console, suggesting that work may be underway to include the classic handheld systems as part of Nintendo Switch Online.

The leak also appears to list 40 Game Boy Advance games included in the app, including first-party titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap and Metroid Fusion, as well as third-party games including Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Mega Man Battle Network 2.

This isn’t confirmation that these games will be released on Switch Online, and could simply be titles that NERD are using to test the emulator’s capabilities.

According to known dataminer OatmealDome, the emulator appears to include netplay support for link cables, with each Switch emulating two Game Boys at the same time and simulating a Link Cable between them.

It has been speculated for some time that both Game Boy consoles would join Nintendo Switch Online’s classic games offering, with multiple sources claiming last year that Game Boy and Game Boy Color games were likely to be added “really soon”.

In early 2019, dataminer OatmealDome discovered that the NES Switch Online app contained references to four emulators – Kachikachi, Canoe, Hiyoko and Count.

Nintendo Switch Online currently offers a range of games from the NES, SNES, N64 and Sega Mega Drive.

The standard Nintendo Switch Online subscription costs $3.99 / £3.49 per month, or $19.99 / £17.99 per year, and includes a selection of benefits as well as the ability to play Switch games online.

The Expansion Pack, which was released last, increases the price to $49.99 / £34.99 for an annual membership. This second membership is required to play Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive games.