Massive Nintendo “Gigaleak” Surfaces With ROMs, Canceled Games, and Much More

This post was last updated at 7/25/2020 4:52PM PST.

Update: As of 7/25/2020 there is now ANOTHER leak that just hit the internet. This is now a massive N64 leak of source code, Pokemon roms, and prototypes that is likely to help developers of the best N64 emulators. There is even a folder for “Ultra Mario Bros 64” and “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2”. Link to the N64 leak post is at the bottom of this one.

Brace yourselves, the leaks are incoming.

A massive Nintendo source code leak has appeared online. This mega leak is extremely interesting as it contains a treasure trove of behind the scenes files for classic Nintendo consoles and games. It is safe to say that at this point, this “Gigaleak” (as many are referring to it) is perhaps the largest data breach in Nintendo history.

The leak itself, from what we have gathered, is around 2 GB worth of various Nintendo related content. At the time of this being written, the leak itself is still being scoured by multiple people, continuing to reveal new information. In the remainder of this article, we will go into what has so far been confirmed to have been found within the files (yes, it appears that we almost got a Pokemon MMO for the Gameboy Advance).

What’s in the “Gigaleak” Nintendo source code?

So far, the following has been found in the source code:

• Full development repository for Ensata official DS emulator (\20100713cvs_backup.tar\ensata\)
• Full development repository for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
  (\20100713cvs_backup.tar\pokemon\pm_dp_ose\)
• Full development repository for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, ending in March of 2006
  (\20100713cvs_backup.tar\pokemon\pokemon_dp\)
• Full personal development repository by a Diamond and Pearl dev
  (\20100713cvs_backup.tar\pokemon\yama_work\)
• Full development repository for NetCard (cancelled GBA peripheral)
  (\netcard.7z)
• iQue GBA stuff
• Full development repository for Game Boy Advance BIOS
  (\other.7z\agb_bootrom.zip\agb_bootrom)
• Full development repository for Game Boy Color Boot ROM
  (\other.7z\agb_bootrom.zip\cgb_bootrom)
• Full master ROM database (America and Japan, NOT Europe) for Famicom and NES including the ROMs (and I mean everything – there’s even Nintendo World Championships 1990 and shit like that)
  (\other.7z\NES)
  (\other.7z\HVC)
• Master ROM of Super Mario RPG
• Source code to Star Fox
• Source code to Star Fox 2
• Source code to Link’s Awakening DX
• Link’s Awakening DX bug reports
• Source code to Wild Trax / Stunt Race FX
• Source code to Yoshi’s Island
• Source code to Mario Kart
• Nintendo Source code to F-Zero
• Source code to TLOZ A Link to the Past
• TLOZ A Link to the Past dev stuff & bug reports
• Source code to Super Mario All-Stars (including Mario World?)
• Source code to the Wii VC Game Boy Emulator
• Some weird prototype game (“super_donkey”, from early 1993 – Yoshi’s Island style)

• Super Mario Kart prototype(s)
• Full development repository for a tool to upload titles to the Wii Shop Channel
• “WallPaperPasswordMaker” source code
• Random test program source code
• Seven early 1990s tape backups
• Several Super Mario World 2 prototypes – “Super Mario Bros 5: Yoshi’s Island”
• eTicket signing keys for an unknown system
• Private and public keys for “various arcade manufacturers”
• Game Boy Advance and Iris (early 2003-era DS prototype with 1 screen) board documentation
• Tons and tons of CAD documents in general relating to Nintendo products
• Wii private keys?
• ES/FS source code (IOS) (also a p2p/voice chat lib?)
• P2p lib:
  (/netcard.7z/gba/depot-offline/sw/common/sdks/p2p)
• IOS Arm Toolchain patches:
  (netcard/gba/depot-offline/sw/devroot/tools)
• Hamtaro Ham-Hams Unite! debug build
  (other\CGB\B86__ハム太郎 2\Master\USA\ham2usa_020807)
• SuperFX Test Program (1991)

A bunch of Nintendo prototypes are apparently currently being compiled from leaked source code right now as of this post
First up there's this Yoshi's Island proto with different UI graphics, placeholder music from Mario World, and has a prefix of 'Super Mario Bros. 5' pic.twitter.com/Qqock5RZaS

— Akfamilyhome (@Akfamilyhome) July 24, 2020

Source Code For A Pokemon MMO Using The Gameboy Advance in Mega Leak

The above list is likely to expand and change when the community has had more time to dig through the mega leak’s contents. A Reset Era discussion is currently happening on the discovery of a Pokemon MMO that was in the works. Fans have been wanting a Pokemon MMO for years now, but it appears that back in the day, a company called iQue was actually working on one behind closed doors.

In 2004, iQue came up with the idea for developing a mainline online Pokémon MMO style game for the PC, in which the player would control their character using a Game Boy Advance as the controller. This MMO Pokemon title was to be based on Fire Red and Leaf Green.

In the game’s offline mode, players would only be able to catch ~ 30 different Pokemon, but the online mode was to feature the rest of the remaining cast. There were further plans for planned updates to keep players engaged and coming back, with new Pokemon to be added over time and in-game events (this sounds eerily similar to what we are seeing unfold in Pokemon GO).

Who would have thought that back in 2004, there was a Pokemon MMO game being developed where players would control their character with a GBA connected to their computer.

Super Castlevania 4 Prototype Source Code

It looks like the source code of a Super Castlevania 4 prototype has been discovered and it even seems like members of the community have gotten it up and running. From what we’ve seen so far, the majority of the music sounds unpolished, but the cave stage theme has a cool loop which was removed from the final version – super interesting. This version of Castlevania can be seen by watching the video below.

These leaks are fascinating to read about and analyze online, but it is important for us to mention that we do not recommend you obtain or download these files yourselves. Considering the fact that Nintendo themselves probably aren’t too happy about these files getting out into the wild, it’s best to steer on the safe side and not have them downloaded locally on any of your devices.

We won’t be sharing any direct links here for obvious reasons, but will continue to update this article as more info is revealed.

It has not yet been confirmed who this Gigaleak initially came from, but if we had to guess, we’d speculate that it might be tied to this initial hack and leak from back in 2018-2019.

At this point, who knows what else the community will find hidden within these leaked files. We’ve already heard of a somewhat broken Super Mario Kart build with no drifting, unused tracks, and a unique title theme. We’ve also heard of alternative versions of games like Mario All-Stars and Mario RPG. There are also all kinds of crazy sprites and images found that were never used in any games to date.

Brace yourselves, we have a feeling a lot more information is about to hit the net on this soon. What are your thoughts on all of this Nintendo “Mega leak”? Let us know in the comments below.

We do not recommend downloading any of the leaked files. Openly reading about them, researching, and discussing them are one thing, but downloading them and having them on your machine are another. Furthermore, you have no idea if the people who are reuploading these leaked files have added viruses or malware – in general, it’s best to just not do it.

Update: Another massive leak was just uploaded online: N64 Gigaleak just hit the internet, we’re updating our post live with info as it becomes available.

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