Another cool project that’s not mine but worth sharing:
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Wow, awesome! I like how he said the battery sucks and it’s uncomfortable to hold.
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I finally decided to sit down and complete a Switch joy-con mod that I’ve been wanting to do for close to a year now. After noticing that there was some drift on the original joy-cons that were with the Switch I gave my brother after upgrading to the OLED model. Well, in reality he noticed when I hadn’t, so I swapped out the old joy-cons for new ones that I had with no drift. Saddled with drifting joy-cons I decided that I was going to take the opportunity to fox it myself instead of shipping them to Nintendo. And since I planned to fixed them I felt it was time to entertain a joy-con shell mod that I had been interested in for a while. So behold, my new modded Joy Cons:
Admittedly this was done with an Extreme Rate shell kit and not a custom mod, but I’m very happy with the result. I’ve tested calibration and all buttons and it seems I didn’t mess up somewhere along the line, so I’m happy.
I’ve wanted to mod my official joy-cons to include a d-pad for a while now. I like my Hori d-pad joy-con but it doesn’t match the right joy-con, isn’t wireless and the buttons feel different. This mod solves all of that, and I adore the colour.
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Last year I got my ears pierced so I could start making and wearing earrings. I’m too fickle to commit to a tattoo and this lets me switch it up on a daily basis.
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Paper Mario TTYD is my all time favorite game and the side characters have a lot to do with it. It’s part of why I don’t think I could ever get a tattoo of it without it being a giant piece of SO MANY characters.
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Anyone have any leads on a reliable place to buy used or defective joy-cons. I’m looking to mod another set and would love to find a pair for a sane price. They could have damaged shells or even joy-con drift, as long as the boards, batteries and rail are in working order.
For that matter, anyone have a pair or even single joy-con in less than optimal condition gathering dust that you want to offload/sell?
I want to add, for anyone wanting to change the shell of the Switch Pro controller, it is really easy. the Switch Pro controller is a marvel of element design. I’ve changed shells on many a controller but I’ve never encountered a controller as meticulously and simply laid out inside as this one. Nintendo did a marvellous job designing it and it’s super friendly for modding.
On top of that the ExtremeRate shells are excellent. Probably the best I’ve ever bought. I used to have to order from random OEMs on eBay and often the fit and finish was imperfect. ExtremeRate has been excellent so far, with impeccable fit and finish.
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I might do this eventually, but I actually like the pseudo translucent vibe although I wish they would’ve leaned more into the color variety of the 90’s instead of simply black.
The switch is funny to me as I don’t play it that much but when Nintendo releases certain games I lean heavily into it for a bit then recede again. It’s become almost migratory at this point. I think if my playtime with it were more consistent, I would’ve customized the console and peripherals more.
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ExtremeRate does make translucent shells if that’s more your thing:
I’m pretty evenly spread across all my platforms, on average. I tend to go where games I want to play are. And there are still a lot of games that are most enjoyable on my Switch, especially after modding my left joy-con to have a d-pad. I was close to replaying Hollow Knight on my Steam Deck instead of Switch. Actually, playing an hour or so on the Steam Deck was what motivated me to finally mod my joy-cons. I’d been sitting on the new shell and replacement sticks for around a year or so. Once I modded them the Switch was instantly the best platform for Hollow Knight. Rich blacks from the OLED, a new d-pad and much more portable than the Steam Deck.
I know people put the Steam Deck beside the Switch in photos to demonstrate that the Deck isn’t that bad, but it’s the case that kills me. Don’t get me wrong, it a great solid case but I have a Tomtoc slim case for my Switch that is hard like the Steam Deck case, with a textile exterior, and is moulded to the system. It leads to the system in case being barely thicker than the system itself. The Steam Deck case almost triples the size of the Deck. Until something smaller is released for the Steam Deck the Switch will remain my go-to portable console for indies, 2D platformers and Nintendo titles. Thus modding it was a no brainer for me.
One last thing, don’t mod the jo-cons unless you are relly committed to doing it. The components inside, like various connctors, are tiny and the whole thing can be really fiddly. My project to mod mine was part of a larger project to actually fix joystick drift by replacing the analogue stick modules. So my jo-cons were almost a write off before I modded them. If you want to do it for fun I’d say really consider whether you want to deal with how fiddly it is.
But if you want to change the shell of the Switch Pro Controller, I say go for it. There are only two ZIF connectors inside, and they are quite large and thus super easy to deal with. Nintendo made the Pro controller super friendly for repairs. There not one Y00 screw inside, unlike the joy-cons. It’s clear they wanted repairs to be fairly open. Even the layout of the boards and other components are very friendly. I’ve modded various PlayStation controllers and I have to say the Switch Pro Controller is a cakewalk in comparison.
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I agree with your points. I think it may be due to my changing interests, lack of time and the hobby itself evolving. I find myself playing my PC more as well, but mainly for Indie games as my laptop was purchased in 2016 so like yours it’s getting up there with the 970 doing the best it can. I’m going to see how GPU prices go and prolly just buy another pre-built but try to get a 3000 series if I can. I don’t care enough to build from scratch.
When it comes to the Switch specifically, I have a few games I plan on getting this year for sure (Klonoa, Pokemon: Scarlet/ Violet), and have a good collection so far but I just don’t find myself immediately turning it or my PS4 on as much as I would’ve years ago. I work in IT so sometimes, the last thing I want to do is interact with another GUI. haha
I guess to bring it back to projects, the next big one for me is creating a dedicated MAME cabinet. I already have the system but would need to build the cabinet and haven’t decided if I am going to take that on myself or contract it out. I guess we’ll see later in the year.
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This is very nice.
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This is excellent! Definitely looks easier than the pigrrl I tried to make. Scared me off of handheld modding.
Debating buying a Vita again. The last one I owned had modded thumb sticks but after awhile it just gathered dust so I sold it. I go through phases of selling stuff then re-buying them.
I do have a Switch Lite Dialga and Palkia and really enjoy it. I don’t play it often but every once in awhile it’s good for some Carrion or Gris sessions.
Hmmm…to buy another Switch Lite or a Vita? I might look for a cheap Switch Lite and mod it or maybe just save my money and be an extreme cheapskate!
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Great thread, I love hearing what people are working on. Feel silly I only just found it.
My current project is making a kind of “mini” website to act as an archive for all things Phantom 2040, an absolutely awesome animated series from the mid 90s. It also had a game released so part of the site is going to be a full walkthrough of that. Yes, it’s niche, but I’m a big believer in things like this being archived and it’s up to the fans to do so.
I’m building the site using Notion, which I’ve used for personal stuff or a while. It’s so easy to make simple, nice looking pages with it and it works well for what I want for the site. While it’s not technically for making sites, it can be done and just requires a little bit of tinkering to get working.
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That’s so cool!!
You might get some copyright strikes with that artwork 
What game engine are you using there?
So I’ve been super busy with kids, as well as my new obsession/hobby woodworking. I’ve been building this dumb cabinet in my free time instead of working on Grouvee Now that fall actually might be here, my time will probably get shorter and shorter out in the shop. I’m still not done, but I’m getting very close. I’ve got to make some doors, and turn that walnut on the ground into a countertop somehow. It’s been fun to make something and actually get to pick it up and touch it.
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That sounds like you’re a pro game developer already!
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Looks awesome, Peter. Always wish I had these kinds of skills, but alas I can barely sand anything straight.
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Well, the Phantom 2040 site I mentioned a while ago I was working on is finally live.
This was a much bigger undertaking than I at first thought, but I really enjoyed working on it. Still a few things I’d like to add/tweak, but pretty happy with it overall.
Of special interest to this group; if you’ve ever tried the Phantom 2040 video game and couldn’t manage to achieve the good ending (it’s notoriously tricky) the site includes a full guide on how to do just that!
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