Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I do agree, which is why my confidence that this isn't gonna be a big deal is also disappointment in a way.

Quite frankly no major company should succeed too much for too long. Things are always better when they fail sometimes.

You could essentially think of it as a fairly cheap gaming laptop. Given that it apparently lets you connect stuff like keyboard and mouse.

So, I did the joycon fix. Here's my results.

Right Joycon
Lost cause. Too hard to reassemble properly. IR antenna housing is crammed it so tightly it feels nearly impossible to get it to squeeze back into the shell compartment that fits over it. Not to mention that entire hassle resulted in ribbon cables pulling out, antenna unsnapping... it wasn't pretty. Got antenna back in, ribbon cables back in, or at least I did, but after pressing on shell trying to get IR housing to cram in they must have disconnected. I just gave up on that one. Plus it was missing one screw so I couldn't even brute force the shell closed.

Left Joycon
It fixed it. Well... mostly. There's no more drift, that's for sure. But in the calibration screen, sometimes it's a little slower returning to neutral. Not often, and not by much, but just enough to notice. But it doesn't affect use. I tested it. It's working great. And this thing had SEVERE drift before I started. Very severe. Worse than I've ever seen any joycon have.

Conclusion
It's worth doing for Left Joycon. Not so much for the Right. Unless you're very savvy with teardowns and feel confident you can reassemble. But I'm giving fair warning- it was very tough for me and I've done this before. I even used to fix PCs. I'm no expert, but I'm not wet behind the ears either, so if I had trouble, well, just bear that in mind.

It may not be quite 100% like new, and you may notice slight anomalies in calibration screen, but as far as real world use, it's fine. You'll never know the difference. Definitely worth doing for Left joycon.

For right joycon, my advice is to just pop $35 for a backup, and if the day comes you have to send in for a fix from Nintendo, you'll have a spare to use until you get it back.

Or... get Binboks 😀

@JaxonH do you use your joycons a lot for multiplayer? Asking this because I never had drift on my right ones but had on all left ones (including a pro) because the left analogue is way more used than the right one.

Weight of Steam Deck is just under 670 grams. That’s a heavy system. It’s something we don’t talk about much and something we definitely take for granted, but having a light weight system is crucial. Switch is about 400 grams. New 3DS is about 250 or so (rough estimates). Put your New 3DS on top of your Switch and hold it. Or put your phone on a Wii U gamepad. Either one works. That’s about how heavy the Steam Deck is. I’m not gonna lie, that’s a little heavy and will make long sessions of portable gaming less viable. Compare that with Switch Lite, and it’s even more drastic. Being feather light as a portable system is so important. There’s a threshold where it starts feeling really heavy and I would say normal Switch is just under that threshold. A system 67% heavier… you’re gonna notice that.

But maybe once you get used to it, it won’t be so bad.

@Balta666
I was fixing my brother’s joycon. I’ve never had drift myself.

But he never used them for multiplayer. Just solo.

The Steam handheld will essentially be the greatest emulation device ever (as well as its normal function). Should be able to emulate everything up to the Wii, and possibly even the Wii U on those specs.

@JaxonH

Do you mean just in terms of holding the thing up? As in, it might just make your arms ache after a while?

@Dezzy
Ya. It's not something we think about often because Switch Lite is like a feather, and even Switch itself isn't that heavy. But a device pushing near 670g could get uncomfortable holding for long periods of time.

It really will be the perfect emulation device. Though it might be best to install Windows for that. In fact, a Windows install seems like a viable option. As long as the on screen keyboard pops up as needed, with a touch screen it could totally be viable. Maybe even more viable than Steam OS it comes with.

Personally I'll probably leave it as is, but I'll watch some reviews of those who do install Windows and see how it fares. Would open up Dolphin for GC games and solve any potential compatibility issues with DRM games.

@JaxonH

Depends what situation you're in I guess. In quite a few of the situations I'd use a portable, it's usually quite easy to rest your arms on something as you hold it. Either in the passenger seat of a car, or on a train with a table in front. (or plane even, although I don't fly much)

@Dezzy
If it had detachable controllers and a kickstand that would solve the problem many times, but alas it does not.

edit
Wow! They designed a sensor in the right analog so Gyro can be activated only when it detects your thumb on the right stick!

This was always something you could do for the Steam controller on the right trackpad. It prevented unwanted movements any time you weren't aiming. Most use that setting in the config editor. But since this device also has a right analog this time they actually put the sensor in the analog as well! That's so rad.

This needed to happen. If nothing else this will at the very least show Nintendo what they could be doing. If it does really well they'll be forced to respond. Not that I think this thing is gonna take over the market, but if it can pull off 10+ million sold, Nintendo would have to take note.

Yeah no way will this sell Switch numbers. I could easily see it doing like 5-10 million units though.

@Dezzy
That's a fair estimate. GPD Win sold several million I think, and that was considered a massive success for them.

I like this bold new direction for Valve, and they deserve to hit 10 million. Will they? Idk. I think they can at least do 5. But I'd like to see 10. I really would. I just want it to be successful enough they continue the line and release successors and revisions.

In the interview with IGN hands on they explicitly stated they wanted to pursue this long term with future successor models "if they're right about consumers wanting a product like this and it does well".

Their mistake with Steam Machine was, it only appealed to non-PC gamers without a gaming PC, and while they made it console like in some respects, they still had 10 different companies releasing 50 different variants with different power levels and upgrades, which makes it just as intimidating to non-PC gamers. Should have stuck with 2 models. Low and high tier.

But this... this not only appeals to handheld gamers, this also appeals to actual PC gamers. Unlike Steam Machine which offered no value to a PC gamer, this does. This provides something PC gamers don't already have. And they're releasing one model power wise. And that is why I believe this will see a much different outcome.

As someone who uses Switch as a fighting game practice machine from time to time with stuff like Street Fighter 30th and DB FighterZ, being able to practice SFV tech or Guilty Gear on the go like this sounds blissful

Is Steam OS just Linux then? Would any Linux-compatible software run on it?

Anyone got a link to a list of all switch physical releases to date.😁

My main hope is that it makes it blindingly obvious to end users how overpriced the Switch has become for its spec. Or at the very least shocks enthusiasts who defend the Switch spec at that price a bit. I lost count of how many people on this forum have said to me over the last 6 months or so that landing a bit under the XBOne spec for a bit over the Switch RRP was way out of reach. Now Valve announces hardware that has a GPU that's about 25% above the OG XBOne and is only $50US more than the OLED Model

Whether this is competing with the Switch directly or not, and I don't think it is, it certainly makes it abundantly clear what is possible in that kind of form factor and price in 2021. Something that hopefully forces Nintendo's hand a bit in terms of pricing and, eventually, SKUs with improved internal hardware

It's a custom distro but yeah, it's basically just a custom laptop in a different form factor that ships without windows. No reason why you can't install windows on it if you want. But also, given it's Linux, no reason why you can't install anything you want on it.

I know people say Steam Machines was a forgotten idea but in a way it kinda wasn't. It was literally just a branding PC makers could use to sell hardware with SteamOS on it. Problem was most of the people who were into the idea were also into building their own hardware......

Also this Steam Deck thing has Steam OS on it so technically it's a "Steam Machine"

Seeing Sony this year essentially repeat what Nintendo did last year (lots of silence with the odd announcement here and there) is a reminder of just how lucky we are that Nintendo went back to their normal approach (general Direct early on in the year, general Direct in June, etc.) this year.

Zelda Skyward Sword is amazing.

It looks fantastic on my Lite. Playing at work today and the buttons work great. Camera control needed to be set to Super Fast- once I did that it was perfect.

Can't believe I'm playing Skyward Sword on a handheld.

@Ninfan

Probably not anywhere. The list would be close to 2,000 games at the moment, if you include all the physical releases exclusive to certain regions of the world, boutique limited prints, etc. To my knowledge, Twitter user JP Switchmania is the most manic Switch collector of us all; he might have a Google doc ongoing or something. Just look at that glorious Wall-O-Red behind the man.

Anywho, are you curious about something in particular?

@CactusMan

A woefully insufficient database. Good in regards to commonly available retail releases, but not good in regards to the several hundred boutique limited prints not present in their database.

I haven't had Linux for like a decade.
There are quite a few limits to what software is available though right? I mean I'm looking at the Dolphin emulator and the Linux version seems to be quite a few years behind the windows version.

@Dezzy
Linux definitely has its downsides, and emulation progress is one of them. I have no idea how well Dolphin on Linux runs but I hope it has a version of 5.0 stable build that offers sufficient emulation.

Most Steam games should work though. Proton compatibility layer let's Windows Steam games run directly on Linux without any porting or emulation in the background. But it has issues with anti-cheat. Valve, however, in their Developer FAQ has stated they're working with several entities to get that ironed out before release.