Hardware Time to buy? I hope so

[codezer0]

Now that Travis Strikes Again is out, and my tax return (unwittingly) paid my rent for me, I feel like using some of the funds that I did manage to save as a result, and pick up a Switch.

Annoyingly, because of the sealed battery, I'm much more leaning on getting a new one, unless there is a reason I should look for a second hand one (and can find a source toward getting a replacement battery for it).

The three games I care about getting right away are simply, Travis Strikes Again, Let's go Eevee and Smash Ultimate. anything else after that is basically if I feel like it and funds allow.

No doubt got a fair few questions, and basically the more complete/informed I can be, the better. Questions written in the order they pop into my mind as I type this.

• Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to mod a fresh, new Nintendo Switch? Suffice to say, keeping a console stock is not in the cards as far as I'm concerned.
• Since I got it in mind already, how much is a replacement internal battery, anyways? Are there any mod cases that allow for installing a larger, extended battery in the console?
• Since I'm trying to see if I can line things up to also get a capture card, is there some method that would say, allow me to do video capture of the Switch in portable mode? Because forced motion controls is really frustrating.
• What would a high capacity extended battery for a Switch go for nowadays? Capacity per dollar matters here.
  
• Can one recommend a cheaper alternative to the Switch Pro controller? $70 for a real controller is much too much IMO, and the JoyCons individually are too tiny for me.

I'll likely have follow-up or additional questions leading up to when I can pull the trigger. With my birthday being this coming Monday, I'm hoping things line up so I can have something fitting for myself

 

[katsup]

• Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to mod a fresh, new Nintendo Switch? Suffice to say, keeping a console stock is not in the cards as far as I'm concerned.

Suggest you spend some time reading. Nintendo patched consoles in the middle of 2018 and these patched units can not be hacked at this time. So unless you know of a store that has old stock, you'll likely to only find patched units on the shelves.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/switch-...he-first-post-before-asking-questions.481215/

 

[Pleng]

• Since I'm trying to see if I can line things up to also get a capture card, is there some method that would say, allow me to do video capture of the Switch in portable mode? Because forced motion controls is really frustrating.

Why would being in docked mode force motion controls upon you? I'm very confused about that!

• Can one recommend a cheaper alternative to the Switch Pro controller? $70 for a real controller is much too much IMO, and the JoyCons individually are too tiny for me.

You do know that you don't have to use the joycons individually, don't you? They come with a grip to combine them together into one controller. When combined in the grip they're not that much smaller than a pro controller (no dpad, though).

Anyway, I purchased this controller from Ali Express and it does the job just fine for me. There is a recently discovered issue on mine with the d-pad seeming to press 'up' by itself occasionally - I had no idea it even happened until I tried playing Tetris 99 with it; it hasn't knowingly affected me in any other games.

 

[KyleHyde]

1. New consoles have a higher chance of being patched units nowadays, as someone mentioned above. If you're planning to hack your console, it would be best to look into used units instead. There's probably a couple of those on eBay if you know where to look.
2. I wasn't even aware that people were already selling replacement batteries for the Switch. A quick glance on Amazon showed me that they're around $19-$30 on average. That's cheaper than I thought. As for modded cases, I haven't seen any of those myself. Most of the Switch batteries I've seen are external accessories (either cases with an integrated battery and USB ports or USB C power banks) that simply extend your current systems battery life by allowing it to charge while it's being used.
   
3. I'm not sure, seeing as I'm clueless about this. Why would you be forced to use motion controls though? The only games (that I'm aware of) that force that upon you are Pokemon Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu and Fitness Boxing when being played in tabletop mode and dock mode. Unless you're simply saying that you would prefer not to play with a wireless controller.
4. Are we still talking about internal batteries here? If not, then I'm not entirely sure. I know some of the power banks found on Amazon go on sale pretty often.
5. There's multiple replica pro controllers (like the one someone linked above), though their build quality and input lag greatly vary. Those tend to be in the $30 (or less) price range. There's also the 8bitdo SF30 controller, which seems to be going for $40 atm (they also have other old controller models). Other than that, there's the widely available PowerA controllers; they have wired (no motion controls) and wireless versions with a similar design to the official pro controller (they also have Gamecube variants), though they lack rumble and NFC features, plus the wireless variants run on AA batteries.

 

[codezer0]

Why would being in docked mode force motion controls upon you? I'm very confused about that!



You do know that you don't have to use the joycons individually, don't you? They come with a grip to combine them together into one controller. When combined in the grip they're not that much smaller than a pro controller (no dpad, though).

Anyway, I purchased this controller from Ali Express and it does the job just fine for me. There is a recently discovered issue on mine with the d-pad seeming to press 'up' by itself occasionally - I had no idea it even happened until I tried playing Tetris 99 with it; it hasn't knowingly affected me in any other games.

Let's go eevee/pikachu forces motion controls in docked mode. Only way you can play without it is in portable mode. I didn't much appreciate forced motion controls on the Wii, and was pretty much turned off by it on the games that I did care about having for WiiU, which turned me off on getting the console altogether. it's why I was wondering if there was a way to do game capture in portable mode so I can have a way to stream that experience.

Even in the grip, they're not that pleasant to use. They're only sort of tolerable when attached to the tablet itself.

The forced motion controls is basically why I can't really jive with Mario Odyssey. Knowing that one can't 100% it without being forced to use motion controls for all the moons is a turn-off.