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Updated , rescanned every two hoursSaturday, October 31, 2026

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NES emulator runs inside a 1 GB Qwen model

LLMs

What is A working Nintendo in ~1GB of Qwen weights?

It compiles the NES 6502 CPU, 2 KB of RAM and a game’s ROM into the weights of a stock Qwen3.5 language model, so the model predicts the CPU’s execution log token by token. A tiny host program handles graphics, controller input and timing, letting you play titles like Super Mario Bros. with exact emulation output.

Who it is for

AI hobbyists and emulator developers can see how large language model weights can be repurposed as a programmable processor and run classic games without writing a traditional emulator.

How to try it

python -m nesformer run roms/thwaite.nes --frames 3 --engine hf

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