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Is there an easy way to dump my Switch games to PC?

hemo memo

Gold Member
Hi there,

To start, why is this so complicated?
I’m not going to bother you with a long story but I didn’t expect to be a PC gamer in my life and because of the people around me I recently did.

Now I have 256 games on Switch alone. I will ignore the other consoles as I don’t have as many, but is there an easy way to dump my Switch games to PC? A simple guide on how to do it? I seriously don’t know where to start. Do you think I should ignore the idea all together and just play the games on the original hardware? I mean I have an expensive PC I want to take advantage of.

Note: Please don’t make this about emulation=piracy

Kindly for mods to lock the thread if they find it a problem
 
To start, why is this so complicated?
It's almost as if Nintendo doesn't want its customers to do this.

I'm not too familiar with the forum rules regarding emulation and stuff, but a simple DuckDuckGo search will yield you enough material to get going. If I remember correctly, you need a hacked Switch for it, and hacking the device is illegal? We have lots of experts on the subject here, they'll probably chime in in 3.. 2..
 

fersnake

Member
just download it u already have them. btw iirc you need to mod your switch then install a homebrew app to rip (copy) the game then transfer it to your pc. sry cant give you more details the last game i rip was on a modded OG xbox. just watch a youtube video i guess there is alot there.
 

Pejo

Member
So you need to get CFW running on your Switch and then there are a number of different tools once you have that enabled. Tinfoil and NXDumpTool are utilities that I know about that you'll need to look into. Due to the touchiness of this subject with Nintendo, I am just gonna keep it obscure and say that Youtube has plenty of step-by-step guides. Check out Dave Budness who has a pretty clear tutorial.

Disclaimer, this is not gonna be "easy" or quick, if you're actually planning on dumping physical roms that you own, and not just pirating them. In my opinion it's worth it though.
 

RaZoR No1

Member
Cartridges only or E-shop games too?
Currently the only non CFW solution is the MiG Switch and the MiG Switch Dumper.
Otherwise try to find or get a Switch with a modchip or CFW.
You can still use a modded switch normaly and separate the CFW and the normal FW (Emu NAND and SysNAND).
But be aware, that the dumps can only be used with a MiG oder another modded Switch.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Cartridges only or E-shop games too?
Currently the only non CFW solution is the MiG Switch and the MiG Switch Dumper.
Otherwise try to find or get a Switch with a modchip or CFW.
You can still use a modded switch normaly and separate the CFW and the normal FW (Emu NAND and SysNAND).
But be aware, that the dumps can only be used with a MiG oder another modded Switch.
All eshop games.
 

keefged4

Member
Welcome to the club, Well worth putting the time into to experience Switch games without the restraints of the shitty hardware. You will need to hack your switch first of all, I'd start here - https://nh-server.github.io/switch-guide/

Providing your switch is vulnerable to the RCM hack it should be a pretty straight forward process. Once you've modded the switch its just a case of getting software onto it to backup the games themselves, then transfer them to pc.

Expect to get the usual emulation moaners dropping their hot takes in here btw.
 
In some countries it is illegal to download pirated games regardless of owning a license for the exact same version you are downloading.

Other countries don't even care if you are doing piracy or not.
Yeah, I'd be wary of this action.

I just moved to this house two years ago and before I was finished unpacking everything, I really wanted to play Fallout 2. I own both the original big box release and the later "dual cd" release that has both games in a small paper jewel case like release, so I own it twice over. I didn't know where exactly they were packed so I thought "eh, I'll just download it". Immediately got some bullshit letter from my ISP about piracy and they didn't seem to care that I owned the game. Obviously I could have taken better precautions, but in retrospect I'd have just bought the 3 dollar version on Steam or something.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Yeah, I'd be wary of this action.

I just moved to this house two years ago and before I was finished unpacking everything, I really wanted to play Fallout 2. I own both the original big box release and the later "dual cd" release that has both games in a small paper jewel case like release, so I own it twice over. I didn't know where exactly they were packed so I thought "eh, I'll just download it". Immediately got some bullshit letter from my ISP about piracy and they didn't seem to care that I owned the game. Obviously I could have taken better precautions, but in retrospect I'd have just bought the 3 dollar version on Steam or something.
In my country they moved it from illegal to grey area when torrenting exploded, because distributors filed so many piracy cases that they were clogging even more the courts and ISPs were threatening to raise prices and delay court cases as much as possible if they continued receiving subpoenas for IP activities.
So the law was changed and now you can download whatever you want and it's only illegal if you keep the files for more than 24h (lol, yeah right...). I don't think it was changed again, but this was nearly 20 years ago.
 

MikeM

Member
It's almost as if Nintendo doesn't want its customers to do this.

I'm not too familiar with the forum rules regarding emulation and stuff, but a simple DuckDuckGo search will yield you enough material to get going. If I remember correctly, you need a hacked Switch for it, and hacking the device is illegal? We have lots of experts on the subject here, they'll probably chime in in 3.. 2..
Which is stupid. Why does it matter to Nintendo if he takes the stuff he paid for and throw it on his PC? Or microwave? Or bonfire?
 

StereoVsn

Member
Is it easy to softmod the original Switch? I have one laying around that I don't use and I'd consider it.
From what I remember it was fairly easy. Then you can dump games as needed but your Switch needs to be in appropriate software and need to make sure you don’t go online when running CFW.

There are instructions on the interwebs for all of this.
 

Garibaldi

Member
I had a look into this a while back. With the newer OLED models it's too much of a faff on to bother. I just download a copy of the stuff I already own.
 
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Holammer

Member
I pirated since the 8bit micros and would be still be pirating if not for Steam being so gosh-darned convenient.
So as an expert in the field? Go ahead and pirate them.

community-chang.gif
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Hi there,

To start, why is this so complicated?
I’m not going to bother you with a long story but I didn’t expect to be a PC gamer in my life and because of the people around me I recently did.

Now I have 256 games on Switch alone. I will ignore the other consoles as I don’t have as many, but is there an easy way to dump my Switch games to PC? A simple guide on how to do it? I seriously don’t know where to start. Do you think I should ignore the idea all together and just play the games on the original hardware? I mean I have an expensive PC I want to take advantage of.

Note: Please don’t make this about emulation=piracy

Kindly for mods to lock the thread if they find it a problem

It's quite a process, and the steps look overwhelming, but it's actually pretty easy if you just follow this guide step-by-step:

https://yuzu-emu.org/help/quickstart/

You do need to purchase a tool called an "RCM Jig" from Amazon in order to do this as well. It's like $8.


I'm all about emulation, but I'm not for piracy, so I only dump my own titles that I've purchased, and I've got the process down so that it's pretty seamless at this point.


And yeah, if you have the PC hardware for it, fuck ever playing Switch games on base hardware. My Switch games @4k look incredible:

53274816339_edd07275d1_o.png


53527696425_04b27e9f24_o.png


53088786236_fd688b4e5c_o.png


53273572662_99f5a36a0a_o.png


53133386020_7edb59e341_o.png
 
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El Muerto

Member
Hack your switch or buy a MIG Switch Dumper. With the dumper you can supposedly drag and drop your games onto your PC because the carts show up as mass storage. It's currently up for preorder.
 
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hemo memo

Gold Member
It's quite a process, and the steps look overwhelming, but it's actually pretty easy if you just follow this guide step-by-step:

https://yuzu-emu.org/help/quickstart/

You do need to purchase a tool called an "RCM Jig" from Amazon in order to do this as well. It's like $8.


I'm all about emulation, but I'm not for piracy, so I only dump my own titles that I've purchased, and I've got the process down so that it's pretty seamless at this point.


And yeah, if you have the PC hardware for it, fuck ever playing Switch games on base hardware. My Switch games @4k look incredible:

53274816339_edd07275d1_o.png


53527696425_04b27e9f24_o.png


53088786236_fd688b4e5c_o.png


53273572662_99f5a36a0a_o.png


53133386020_7edb59e341_o.png
That’s impressive.
 
It's quite a process, and the steps look overwhelming, but it's actually pretty easy if you just follow this guide step-by-step:

https://yuzu-emu.org/help/quickstart/

You do need to purchase a tool called an "RCM Jig" from Amazon in order to do this as well. It's like $8.


I'm all about emulation, but I'm not for piracy, so I only dump my own titles that I've purchased, and I've got the process down so that it's pretty seamless at this point.


And yeah, if you have the PC hardware for it, fuck ever playing Switch games on base hardware. My Switch games @4k look incredible:

53274816339_edd07275d1_o.png


53527696425_04b27e9f24_o.png


53088786236_fd688b4e5c_o.png


53273572662_99f5a36a0a_o.png


53133386020_7edb59e341_o.png
That Prime Remastered shot looks so incredible.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
All eshop games.

Wait a minute! My Switch is the OLED model. Am I screwed?

You'll either need to have a hardware chip installed, or obtain the games through other means.

Alternatively, you could also purchase a v1 Switch, log into your Nintendo account with it, download all the games you want to dump on a giant SD card, then take it totally offline, soft mod it, then dump the games from your SD card to a PC-friendly format.

As someone who has ripped my own Switch collection, the road ahead of you is extremely time-consuming. A lot will depend on your SD card read/write speed. Use a wired USB connection with something like DBI to offload the games to your PC, as wireless is extremely slow. I dumped about 300 games from cartridges, and it took me about two months.
 

Faust

Perpetually Tired
Staff Member
Hi there,

To start, why is this so complicated?
I’m not going to bother you with a long story but I didn’t expect to be a PC gamer in my life and because of the people around me I recently did.

Now I have 256 games on Switch alone. I will ignore the other consoles as I don’t have as many, but is there an easy way to dump my Switch games to PC? A simple guide on how to do it? I seriously don’t know where to start. Do you think I should ignore the idea all together and just play the games on the original hardware? I mean I have an expensive PC I want to take advantage of.

Note: Please don’t make this about emulation=piracy

Kindly for mods to lock the thread if they find it a problem
If you own the game and are dumping the game to your PC to play via Emulation, we have no need to lock the thread.

Yuzu has a full guide on how to transfer your legally purchased games to PC for emulation usage.


As a reminder to everyone else:

D. Emulation/Piracy

The topics of emulation and piracy in the context of the technical nature of emulators and ROM images, hardware modification technology, as well as their effect on the industry as a political topic are deemed to be generally acceptable.

Linking to pirate download sites, directions on how to get pirated software to work, reviews or impressions of pirated software, and livestreams of pirated software play are all strictly prohibited.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
You bought 256 digital console games? Goddamn. You'd have to play 30 games a year to make that worthwhile. Is that even possible? Are these just $2 shovelware games or what? I know you have a list.
Some first party Nintendo of course but most of the list is actually indies or short games or ports i’ve missed on other consoles or games I’ve found at a great discount. I had physical games on Switch before but i’ve sold and now the only cart I still have as I didn’t finish yet is Xenoblade 3. Still, I didn’t expect this list to get this ridiculously big to be honest. But i’ve finished around 100 something games.
 
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