Building With Brad: Nintendo Switch Travel Kit

Oh boy, a GB hardware modding video!

Wasn't expecting a sequel to a ten year old video on this Sunday night.

Build a fucking gundam you coward.

hope brad doesn't dock it up

he'll be without joy if he does

Weird, why do the letters T A N G - S O O N show up randomly through the video?

@hassun That's like nails on a chalkboard

With all the issues Brad reported about not being able to tighten the shell all the way; I'm very hesitant to do this. I do want a dpad though...

Speaking of traveling with a switch, has anyone tried using one of these small form Switch Hubs.

I haven't done the homework on most types of docks so I'm still not sure what could potentially brick a Switch and if there is a consensus on what is safe in the 3rd party space.

This was real unexpected

Happy holidays all

Title card has Brad with beard.

Cuts to Brad with no beard.

;(

Wait, a GB video with actual B-roll in it? What year is this?

Great job Brad. I always enjoy the edited content that this site produces, even if it is rare.

Paul's evil twin.

great video, nice work brad!

The prodigal builder returns!

I'm actually fascinated to hear Brad mention Tetris 99 specifically as an improvement - it's the one game where I actually prefer the JoyCon to my Pro Controller because the directional buttons being separate completely eliminates the chance for accidental misdrops.

I guess the other thing to note is that this would make the Left JoyCon weird to use in single sideways mode, as your face buttons would be a d-pad. That said it's already a "last resort" control scheme I wouldn't recommend as-is, so maybe that doesn't matter too much.

@hassun: That's giving me so much anxiety...

Why would you want a dpad for Mario Maker? It has true analog control just like the first one, right?

Braaad, the Builder!

Can he fix it?

Braaad, the Builder!

Yes! He! Can!

Great video Brad, love these techi things, still hoping Nintendo Will Make a official Joy-con with D-pad one day, slim chance I know.

Great video! More like this, please!

I was just recently searching for a decent dpad for the Switch and ended up buying a 8bitdo SNES styled controller. It's not perfect but still better than the Hori Horipad which has a dpad similar to the 360 controller.

This stuff is great, thanks Brad!

Love the home improvement esque music!

@awakened: people tend to prefer dpads for super nintendo games like super mario world

*Building With Bradish
FTFY

@bezerker285: I do not watch videos closely enough to notice things like this. If this is some kind of subliminal announcement I am extremely happy.

Nice attention to detail in wearing the same blue shirt after the 4 month time skip.

This was cool!

Wholesome!

I did the same mod last year (but only to the left one) to get the dpad and Bras is absolutely right, It's way better for playing platformers with. Played through Hollow Knight, The Messenger, Tetris99 and currently playing Mario Maker with it. I can't believe Nintendo still stubbornly refuses to release an official one.

I wonder if Nintendo will release a "the d-pad from the Switch Lite but as a joycon set" Joycon sometime next year, or the rumored Pro model will just have those out of the box. This mod is tempting to do, but I feel it's still a step away from the quality I would really want.

Surprised they still have the template.

@lkennedyl said:

Do it

Great video Brad! That travel dock is dope

yayyyy new featuressss

More of these please.

Did the d-pad mod a few months after I got mine (so Stardew Switch +4 months) and didn't have any build quality issues. Sounds like I lucked out from googling and I am not looking forward to doing it again when the cleaner solution solution no longer stops joycon drift

The d-pad itself is fine. Probably about the same as an 8bitdo one. I can dragon punch consistently and it is a godsend for Hollow Knight and the like. I think the issue with the god-awful cross and the false inputs on the d-pad is just that the ergonomics of the switch is horrible. Your thumb tends to get cramped up as the d-pad is really close to the left edge and you either have a crunched up thumb and limited motion or are coming at it from below which leads to weird motions.

For folk who travel with their switch less but still like the joycons it might be worth looking in to a wing grip of some form. Had one for my Vita (and then just modded the hell out of a case to protect the screen) and loved it. If it weren't for the joycon rails being shit I would do the same for my switch.

This was neat! I'd love if it was a more in-depth tutorial-like video, but I understand that that would take much longer and probably be a lot harder to arrange. A fun watch anyway!

Will... will we get more of these?

I wish I could do this, but the shells seem impossible to buy in Europe. Can't believe Nintendo doesn't just release an official one, it's infuriating.

Yeah been hard tracking down some that doesn't have to be imported from the US.

My own context: I spent all day today Sunday lying around a pool, beers, all that good summer and now at 7:21 pm, this was such a lovely well put-together bit of information that I had to say thanks you guys work so well on your personal fringes you should do it more when you can!

this video took 7 months to make? damn :o

it's fun though, thanks brad :]

@spacejordan: But Nintendo added analog movement to all the game styles of Mario Maker. So you get more control fidelity using the stick. Moving the stick a little makes Mario move slowly, moving it a little farther makes him go faster. You still need to hold down Y for full run though. For slower, more precision sections of levels, the stick should give you an advantage.

@awakened said:

Generally, what people (or myself at least) prefer about using a d-pad over an analogue stick is that you get cleaner inputs, and faster responses. With an analogue stick you have the problem of accidentally tilting the stick at a slight angle, and if you want to switch from say, full left to full right, you have to physically move the stick all the way over, which takes a non-trivial amount of time. On a d-pad all your inputs are guaranteed to be locked to the important directions and you only have to rock your thumb slightly to fully change direction.

Obviously some games are better with sticks, but IMO, the precision of slow walking ads almost no value to Mario where you almost always want to be running as fast as possible at any point. I can't think of anything that isn't a gimmick level intentionally built for it that would benefit from slow Mario.

Liked the blues number

This Old Switch With Brad Vila

Brad the Builder, can we fix it? Brad the Builder, Yes we can!

This was almost the perfect example of why Brad needs more shirts. Almost had 3 plaid in a row.

I can't imagine the peace of mind that comes with disassembling something on a nice brightly colored surface like that. Every time I drop a laptop screw onto the nightmare of dark grey tabletops and carpeting at work I want to jump out a window