3DNES emulator turns your old 8-bit Nintendo games into 3D nightmares

Two-dimensional games are for old people. Thankfully, a new emulator will let you play aging games with a fresh coat of 3D paint.

3DNES is a new emulator (software that enables you to play software for another hardware platform on your PC) for the Nintendo Entertainment System that can translate the system’s classic 8-bit games into 3D images with depth. You can boot up the emulator right now if you are running the Firefox browser by going to 3DNES.com. You’ll need to upload your legally acquired NES ROMs to a cloud-storage site like Dropbox (put the .nes files in your public folder), but then you can play games like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! in 3D.

We tried this out for ourselves, and the results were neat but often scary. The problem is that many of these 2D games were not meant to have depth, and the emulator gets confused and produces horrifying wireframes and muddled polygons for characters and faces. But, regardless, it’s still cool.

Check it out for yourself in the video below: