Bitcoin developers use ordinal numbers to preserve classic Nintendo games.

Bitcoin developers continue to push the boundaries of what Ordinals can do with a new project called Pizza Ninja. This week they announced that the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator has been added to the Bitcoin blockchain.

A video game emulator is software that allows one computer system to mimic another, allowing games from various arcades, consoles, or platforms to be played on devices for which they were not originally intended (in this case, the Bitcoin blockchain). It allows you to do so.

Ordinal numbers are often described as being equivalent to Ethereum-based NFTs, only for the Bitcoin blockchain. When Casey Rodarmor launched the Ordinals protocol last year, he opened the door for text, images, video, memecoins, and video games to reach Bitcoin.

“We did this for two reasons: one, because we thought it was awesome, and two, because there is a serious problem with preserving classic video games,” Trevor Owens, CEO of Ninjalerts, told Decrypt. .

According to a July 2023 report from the non-profit Video Game History Foundation, 87% of classic games are not in active licensed circulation and are considered ‘critically endangered.’ Owens said this report inspired Ninjalerts to start the Pizza Ninja project.

According to Ninjalerts, the Super Nintendo emulator is built into every Ninja profile picture, allowing users to play using the Ordinals Explorer or Marketplace in their browser. For developers looking to try out the SNES emulator, Ninjalerts has launched a website that provides documentation on how to save and password protect files.

The reason Ninjalerts chose the SNES emulator was because of block size cost and Bitcoin block size being limited to 1MB, Owens explained.

“16 bits is probably the maximum you can achieve in L1,” Owens said. “I think anything more powerful than the SNES would be very expensive.”

The first layer (L1) refers to blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana that allow developers to build applications on top of the network.

In February, a playable clone of the classic first-person shooter Doom was recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Taproot update made Doom possible on Bitcoin, and for the SNES emulator, Ordinals made the project possible, Owens explains.

BRC-69: Recursive registration

The BRC-69 standard released in July introduced recursive inscriptions. Recursive subscriptions are a mechanism that allows users to extract data from existing subscriptions and use it to create new subscriptions.

“We had to split the file into eight parts and then join them together through recursion,” says Owens.

He was optimistic about the future of Bitcoin blockchain gaming, but acknowledged that copyright issues may limit which games make the leap to public domain gaming.

“Under U.S. copyright law, specifically Section 117 of the Copyright Act, owners of lawful copies of computer programs (including video games) are permitted to make backup copies for archival purposes,” Owens said. “Emulators are completely legal, and so are public domain games.”

The Ordinals have offended some in the more conservative Bitcoin community by calling for NFTs to be completely removed from the blockchain. Last December, mining pool Ocean Mining, which previously banned transactions containing Ordinals, reversed its decision and said it would allow miners to decide whether to process blocks containing Ordinals subscriptions or non-financial transactions such as BRC-20 memecoin. It was revealed.

Owens hopes this project will provide a public service while also strengthening necessary discussions about the preservation of digital cultural artifacts. But he takes the controversy in stride, while acknowledging that many Bitcoin purists will not be happy to hear news of yet another project adding non-financial transactions to the network.

“Personally I hope this upsets some people. That will bring the conversation to a higher level,” Owens said. “I hope this serves as an example to others that there are real, tangible digital cultural artifacts that we want to preserve, and not only is Bitcoin the best place to do so, but that doing so on Bitcoin can bring new energy and interest to the people we are trying to build. To the ecosystem.” .

*Translated with permission from Decrypt.

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