Nintendo Wii U games running from a 1980's Bernoulli disk [video]

A YouTuber tried the kind of stunt that makes retro fans instantly sit upright: plugging an ancient 1980s Bernoulli disk drive into a Wii U to see if Nintendo’s much-mocked console would somehow play nice with prehistoric storage. On paper, it’s a simple “will it work?” experiment. In the comments, though, it turned into a full-blown memory war, with viewers using the video as an excuse to relive the golden age of clunky backup disks, obscure cables, and computer gear that sounded like it could launch a space shuttle.

The biggest reaction was pure nostalgia. One commenter swore they used Zip disks constantly for architecture work and never got the infamous “click of death,” basically starting a quiet little credibility flex in one sentence. Another went full dramatic historian, declaring, “I was there when the old magic was written,” before explaining that old-school storage gear was never normal-person stuff — it was pricey, niche, and for the computer nerds willing to suffer for speed. That turned a goofy hardware experiment into a mini class war about who really remembers old tech.

Then came the Wii U defenders. One fan posted the emotional rehabilitation campaign in a nutshell: the Wii U was the awkward console that “walked so the Switch could run.” Translation: maybe Nintendo’s flop deserved more respect. The only sour note? Emulator drama. Even in a video about a crusty old disk, someone had to complain that Cemu still doesn’t play their favorite Wii U games well enough. Classic internet behavior: no retro curiosity without at least one side quest into gaming discourse.