Tag: nintendo

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Hyperkin's "No-Drift" N64 Stick Is Available Now by Damien McFerran (Time Extension)
Accessory maker Hyperkin has just released a Hall Effect stick for the N64, a "no-drift, GameCube-style" replacement that "requires zero soldering."

A new Time Extension news report about Hyperkin’s hall effect Nintendo 64 joystick mod crossed my feed reader. When I first read the article, I thought I had previously written about this in The New Leaf Journal, but it turns out that I had written about an 8BitDo hall effect mod. I happen to be a fan both of good hall effect controllers and the original, unique, Nintendo 64 joystick. The latter point gives me some pause about the Hyperkin mod. I quote from the Time Extension report: “Mimicking the GameCube’s analogue stick, you’ll be able to ‘feel the nostalgia and comfort of the GameCube era while dominating your favourite N64 games. This stick is designed for maximum comfort and a competitive edge, making long gaming sessions a breeze.'” While I prefer the GameCube controller to the Nintendo 64 controller, the Nintendo 64 had a more interesting (albeit less durable) joystick. If we are releasing mods, I would prefer one that preserves the feel of the original instead of replacing it with a more generic GameCube-style joystick, durability aside.

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Nintendo is sued the developers of the free and open source Yuzu emulator for Nintendo Switch games and succeeded in securing an agreement wherein both open source projects were shut down. I take no position on the litigation here. Instead, I highlight an absurd GitHub issue raised by a user with an unkind name directed at the Yuzu project (see archived issue). The user explains that he or she strongly disagreed with Yuzu’s decision to drop support for Windows 7 in the last few months (note that Microsoft dropped support for Windows 7 in 2020). This prompted the user to find 93 Nintendo emails and social media accounts and send messages “informing” Nintendo, a multi-national corporation that is very defensive of its intellectual propery, of the existence of Yuzu. After news of the lawsuit broke, the user confidently stated that Nintendo “probably” sued because of his or her awareness effort, but humbly conceded “maybe not.” While the user thinks that it is at least 50.1% likely that his or her spam emails and posts led to Nintendo unleashing its lawyers on Yuzu, I am 100% certain that  Nintendo, which named one of its most popular characters after one of its former lawyers, was well aware of Yuzu and rival Valve’s not subtly encouraging people to use Yuzu on Steam Deck while the disgrunted GitHub poster was still happly running Yuzu on his or her Windows 7 PC.

Main take-away: Imagine having the self-confidence to believe that your email and social media spam spur Nintendo’s legal department to action.