Earlier this month, Nintendo announced and released Alarmo, an alarm clock themed with sounds and images from some of the company’s fan-favorite video game series. While only Nintendo Switch games are currently available as themes, hackers have found a way to run custom code on Alarmo.
A user named GaryOderNichts (known for his ability to reverse engineer and hack the Wii U) demonstrated his Alarmo hack on the X, using a picture of a cat instead of one of Nintendo’s chosen themes for display Alarm clock.
GaryOderNichts also posted a lengthy explanation of how he accomplished the hack on his blog. In short, before he could understand the inner workings of Alarmo, the firmware had to be decrypted and uploaded to an external USB. After removing the firmware files from the Alarmo, the user can enable it to accept custom code over USB. There may be limitations on what you can put on the Alarmo, as it’s not designed for gaming. But it could be an important first step towards allowing users to upload their own custom themes, assuming Nintendo doesn’t find a way to prevent this from happening with future Alarmo firmware updates.
Alarmo is currently available through the Nintendo Store and for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. However, Alarmo’s wide release won’t come until next year. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s new music app has been taken down. While we wait for Switch 2 news, this also gives fans a chance to listen to something.