Apple iOS Update Adds Support For Switch Online Classic Controllers

That's great for the 5 people who needed this!

If only you could get the controllers

They actually had the controllers up on the NA site for like 5 hours today…

Hmm, time to play Final Fantasy Dimensions on iPad or Apple TV with a SNES controller.

Fifth comment. Thank you.

@ZapNCrap the Apple TV hardware has an accompanying subscription service called Apple Gaming or something like that. It’s primarily focused on indie games but adapted to remove all free-to-play garbage elements from those games.

These are many of the same indie games popular on Switch. But you needed an Xbox controller to play the games. Not any more, which is why this is an important update.

Do joycons work with ios ?

@Zach777 Now if only they could extend that to at least 5 days.

Heck even Steam has managed to make the Steam Deck readily available by now.

Does iOS have any N64 games to play?

If you could order one without the scalpers grabbing them all, this would be great news, but....

Also do you realise they came out today last year. A whole year of trying to get these bloody things.

@Woodyshoe It does if you have a Mac and can build Provenance from source as it supports N64 now. I'll be giving this a try this evening.

The one downer to Nintendo's N64 emulation is there's no patched versions of games. The Redux patch for Ocarina of Time adds so many awesome quality of life things that it's hard to go back to the vanilla version now.

Today marks exactly one year since the release of the N64 controllers, that's one entire year of constantly trying to obtain one of those damn things without lining the pockets of some selfish scalpers on eBay.

I've mentioned this before, the issue is Nintendo allowing FOUR per person, this is turning non scalpers into opportunists. Literally anyone who gets there at the right time buys 4 knowing they're guaranteed a hefty profit.

There's numerous eBay accounts with zero ratings flogging 3 of those things, I'm honestly so sick of not being able to get one of those damn controllers.

I revisit the page 6 times a day, unfortunately the last time I used to check first thing every morning. Thinking that they'd restock the controllers to a timer that would activate at like 6am or something. Then bizarrely the last time they were made available, it was about 5 O'clock in the evening.

I'll also tell you what doesn't help, Nintendo Life creates an article every time they go back in stock, works like a scalper alarm.

@CaptChaos All the serious scalpers have bots setup. Others have sites setup to send alerts.

Nintendo really needs to change their policy though. Do one per order, or make it so you need to have an account with a paid subscription to place an order.

@JayJ ah OK, I did have a feeling they must have some system set up, it's painful! All I hope is that they suddenly become available in such high numbers that the scalpers make losses on eBay... haha

Not going to happen, I genuinely enjoy playing the classics so much with a friend online, but we both are unable to get these controllers so there are numerous games we can't play.

Genuinely some games are just so dependent on that controller, it's just awful trying to make 'em play well via a Joy-Con.

@JayJ I agree, they could simply do both. Have a batch that is sold through the store to anyone, and have a batch that requires proof of subscription. They could also limit the amount allowed to a specific post code too.

That said, I don't understand how anyone that really wants one has still not managed to get one. They do sell out quickly, but it's a good few hours. If you have an alert set up, then you really shouldn't have any problem at all. It's not like a PS5.

I actually think Nintendo deserve some credit. They don't restock every few weeks with a few thousand controllers - thus creating a nightmare scenario of them always selling out in minutes to scalpers. They seem to be doing huge restock less frequently, so you do have hours to get one if you want one.

@CaptChaos Yeah it's why I'm just going to give up on the expansion pass for a while. If they ever get it together, I might get it again.

Nintendo would make a literal ton of money if they mass produced all of these for retail.

If they think it's going to affect people wanting to these on emulators any less they are mistaken.

Nintendo should stop worrying about emulation, it is NEVER going away lol.

@Bunkerneath add these to your wishlist, set up a notification in your mail app like Gmail to get notified with a Nintendo email. You should get an email when stock hits. That’s how I scored mine. I wish I got two. Best of luck!

I have tried it, it doesn't work. I tried it with Steam too, when that was announced. It also doesn't really work. My phone can connect to my NES controller, but it can't detect the d-pad on either of them. Same on Steam. So yeah, they can connect...but can you use them? No.

@nocdaes what kind of alert do you mean? The 'Notify me' when in stock option does nothing, you do not get notified. They're also not available for several hours (UK), usually 20 minutes and they're gone.

I know numerous people who can't get one of these things.

They've only restocked them, I think three times in the UK? so that's a 60 minute window within the entire past year.

@CaptChaos There's sites that will send you an email or even a text message to alert you when a particular product becomes available. Not all have the controllers, but some do now.

NL posted an article about the N64 controllers becoming available in the UK and it was a good hour before they sold out, but it was also a good hour after they came online that NL posted their article. I know because I bought one, and was pleasantly surprised!

There's no doubt they are difficult to get... but they're not impossible. There's a good chance more stock could arrive alongside GoldenEye - but not very helpful as we have no idea when GoldenEye is landing...!!

This is the NL article. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/09/switch-online-n64-controllers-are-back-in-stock-now-uk
They haven't time stamped the September stock annoyingly, but it was definitely at least 2 hours - and you can see they thank a Joel chap for the tip, meaning they were available for a length of time before NL posted the article.

The July stock update IS time stamped and you can see it was just over an hour. Again appreciate with work/kids/life this is still an insanely small window, but it's not impossible. Got to be prepped and ready to go.

@mereel I know but the classic controllers are only available to people with switch online and are very limited in stock so not many people have them. Also I think the main thing people would want to use them for is emulation which isn't the best on iOS. And you said you can use them on Apple gaming but I don't know how good these controllers would be for that considering the games on there were not designed with them in mind especially the n64 controller and nes controller cause it has like two action buttons. But it's still kinda cool though.

@nocdaes ah thanks for the advice and the reply! Appreciate it, I'll keep trying!

The author of this article says the NSO N64 controller works with iOS—can anybody confirm that? Mine will “connect” in the iOS Bluetooth list, but the four lights on the top/back of the controller keep flashing, never settling on one of the leds. Looking through Reddit, it looks like some other people have the same problem. I have yet to see somebody say that it works on iOS, except for this article. Curious if I need to do something to get it to work on iOS, or if that was just a mistake by the author

@Nicknb3 I have been scouring the web about this too. Found a comment on Engadget saying the same, they connect and show correctly but never work. Crazy how many publications have this story but never actually tested it themselves. Neither my Genesis/MD pad or N64 one work. My Xbox Series S controller works like a charm, must be something missing in the retro pads.

Very annoying to see this promoted.