Despite being impossible, Harvest Moon 64 hits Nintendo Switch Online

[Content Warning: '90s farming simulator video games.]

Way back in 2010, an executive from the stateside publisher of Harvest Moon, Natsume, poured cold water on the idea of there ever being a digital re-release of Harvest Moon 64 in an interview with an outlet called "Nerd Mentality":

Nerd Mentality: We have some huge fans of Harvest Moon 64 on our website, and we are wondering if it will ever come out on Virtual Console?

Graham Markay: It will not. It will not. And it's not from lack of trying. Unfortunately, the code of the game is not… it's not an easy transfer. It would be really time-consuming and long, and we've looked into it, and we've tried to see if there's any way around certain things, but the conversion to virtual console, it's just… I shouldn't say it's never going to come out, but there's just a really, really, very small chance that it would ever come out. Which is unfortunate because we know that for a lot of dedicated, die-hard fans, that's their favorite.

Nerd Mentality: So it's only the technical issues holding it back?

Graham Markay: Oh yeah. Just the technical issue.

This interview took place 11 years after the game's initial release, so in the intervening 13 years of scientific improvement, they apparently discovered how romsites worked and licensed the ROM dump to Nintendo for its Switch Online service service.

I sold my HM64 cart during the post-pandemic nostalgia collector boom, but I remember playing this game straight through Christmas break in 1999, so maybe I'll fire up the Switch release for old time sake. 🧑‍🌾