With the Nintendo Switch 2 being the hot new toy that going around, some people have found fun in modding the first Switch in bizarre ways. Rather than cracking it to run game ROMs, someone has tried to get the gaming device to run a different operating system instead. The result is a Switch that runs iOS, via open-source machine emulator and virtualiser QEMU.
And it’s not a particularly good result either, per the post of the modder, @Patrosi73 on X. As the post itself describes, it’s the world’s slowest “iPhone” that takes over 20 minutes to boot, and apps crash every time you try to run them. The process also took two days, which is a questionable use of said time, to say the least.
So, on the practicality front, this is not it. But for what it’s worth. But for those who are technically inclined, this may have been a fun challenge. 9to5Mac says that “the fact that it even boots at all is impressive enough, especially considering that iOS is famously hard to get running on anything other than Apple’s own devices”.
With that sentiment in mind, being able to say that you got iOS running on a Nintendo Switch is probably more for bragging rights than anything else. For those who want to give it a try for yourself, you can find out more about the QEMU Apple Silicon emulation via its GitHub page.
(Source: @Patrosi73 / X, 9to5Mac, GitHub)
