Golf Can Be Unlocked And Played On The Nintendo Switch On July 11

Quite a discovery was made by Nintendo Switch hackers this past weekend. First, yellowS8 found a NES emulator and Golf file in the system’s firmware under the title “FLOG,” noting it had been present since firmware 1.0. While it was initially run by unofficial means, the method of unlocking for all systems has been revealed. On July 11, it is possible to use Satoru Iwata’s iconic gestures from his Nintendo Direct appearances to launch and play the game.

Due to the way the Nintendo Switch runs and registers dates, it is impossible to take a console that has been connected to the internet and attempt to trick it to think it is July 11 so you can play. (Only ones that have never been connected to the internet and use a user-specified date can be set to immediately play.) However, when July 11 does roll around, people can put the Nintendo Switch in Tabletop Mode, have the system on the home menu, remove both Joy-Cons, hold them downward and parallel with your body, then raise them up and hold both in front of you vertically for a few seconds. A jingle will play and Golf will unlock. It can be played in one or two player modes and offers Joy-Con and motion control schemes.

For those wanting to see how to unlock Golf, here is a video released by fire3element that shows the entire process step-by-step.

Golf was released on the NES in 1984 and was programmed by Iwata. Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 and was the president and CEO of Nintendo.