Comments 976

Re: Switch 2's Dock Isn't Compatible With The Original Switch, According To Nintendo

nukatha

Looking at the website, I'm not convinced yet.
I don't see it spelled out in text, I just see the checkbox system that states this is a Switch 2 accessory and not a Switch 1 accessory. It could have been simply copypasted from, say, the Joy-Con 2 page without a second thought.

For instance, the new MicroSD Express cards (see the bottom of the store page) ALSO only have a checkmark next to the Switch 2, even though they're just faster SD cards and fully compatible with older SD card drives (such as the Switch 1), the older devices simply don't benefit from the higher read/write speeds.
@dartmonkey
If I missed anything on the listing in the text explicitly stating the incompatibility, please let me know.

Re: 8 Years Ago Today, We First Got Our Hands On Nintendo Switch

nukatha

As a non-press commoner, the Switch is the only console I have had the good fortune of playing prior to launch.
SCRAP ran the "Defenders of the Triforce" Zelda escape game in early 2017, and teams that finished in a timely fashion were given the opportunity to play BotW on Switch in a bonus room.
That was cool.
I wish there was some similar event running nowadays, that was a fun day.

Re: Rumour: New 'Switch 2' Leak Suggests Console Will Require A 60W Charger

nukatha

@KociolekDoSyta
@rta
If it was for quick charging then the power output would also be rated near its 60W power input, but the power output shown in that picture is 42W, higher than the original Switch's 33W to be sure, but that only covers 9Wof the 21W increase to the power budget. The new dock itself is eating up a full 18 W, the same as the maximum power draw of the original Switch console.
That power is being used for something, what could it be?

Re: Rumour: New 'Switch 2' Leak Suggests Console Will Require A 60W Charger

nukatha

Oh my, that's curious.
For those who don't know basic electricity, you calculate power consumption by Power=Volts*Amps.
Devices generally list the maximum volts/amps they are designed to work with. In reality the voltage is generally stable and determined by the power supply, while amperage is adjusted as needed by whatever a given device is doing. It is rare for an electrical device that isn't something like a toaster to actually draw its dill rated power for an extended period of time.
So the dock accepts 20Volt*3Amp=60 Watts, but then only spits out 15V*2.8Amp=42 Watts.
So, somehow the dock itself is expected to draw 18 watts of power.
The original Switch dock lists an input of 15V*2.6A=39W and an output of 15V*2.2 W=33W.
Which means the original dock itself is rated to use no more than 6 watts at any given time, which it uses for its few simple functions of running the USB ports, the power LED, and video out.
Here's the fun part:
The Switch, at the absolute most (running an intense game with a discharged console/joy-cons), barely uses 17 watts. (You can only approach the full 40-watt rating by plugging some USB devices into the system so that they're draining power too).
So here we have a DOCK ALONE that is rated to use the full power consumption of the original Switch, presumably have ~15-20 watts of the power budget reserved for its USB ports, and ~25-27 watts left over for the Switch 2 proper.

I will temper my expectations, but I now FULLY believe the Switch 2 dock has substantial onboard computational power. This could mean any combination of the below:
1. The dock has a CPU/GPU onboard that will result in superior performance when docked.
2.The dock can wirelessly communicate with a Switch console to facilitate dual-screen gaming like the Wii U, with the dock doing a whole bunch of work on its own.
We'll see.

Re: Best Of 2024: The Company You Can Pay To X-Ray Unopened Pokémon Card Packs Speaks Out

nukatha

@KidSparta
Netrunner (among other Fantasy Flight LCGs), Plaid Hat's Summoner Wars, and Doomtown all use that model.
And Magic/Pokémon/YuGiOh beat them every year. Lorcana too.
It ticks me off that people tolerate the random pack model.
But in a very real sense, people don't.
If you're playing Pokémon at the competitive level, you're buying singles from companies that open thousands of packs and then resell them.
But people love their Skinner boxes.
Sigh