December 17, 2025 • 33 mins
In this Lite Switch episode of The Old SwitchAroo, Kyle Ford from Stream Team joins to discuss the Analogue 3D and how it compares to the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Online’s Nintendo Classics service as a gateway to playing Nintendo 64 games during Mike and Jaymo’s break before season four starts next month.
Mike, Jaymo, and Kyle talk about what it was like to try out the Analogue 3D for an old-fashioned game night on some fresh N64 carts. They’ll also discuss the retro gaming niche that Analogue’s products have been filling and a few of the challenges in playing N64 games on modern TVs, and compare what the Analogue 3D is like versus playing N64 games on Nintendo Classics using the Switch or Switch 2. Finally, they’ll give their verdicts on if the Analogue 3D is worth it or not.
Thanks for listening, and a very special thanks to Kristal Fields of The Lazy Circles for our catchy theme song! Subscribe to The Old SwitchAroo to get more retro goodness delivered straight to your feed! You can also join the fun on https://www.theoldswitcharoo.com, where you'll find access to our Discord, voicemail, and so much more!
Game on, everyone.
(0:00) Intro
(1.25) Welcoming Kyle
(2:30) Introducing the Analogue 3D
(29:20) NintenDO or NintenDON’T
(32:57) Outro
Sign up for Kyle’s thought-provoking newsletter at https://newsletter.houseofkyle.com/
Want to talk movies and television with Kyle? Join streamteam.club or hit Kyle up on the SwitchAroo Discord!
Check out the Analogue 3D at their official site at https://www.analogue.co/ (we aren't receiving anything from them)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
Welcome back to the old Switcheroo, where we're talking
gaming retro with Mike and Jamo.I'm Mike.
And I'm Jamo in this episode of the old Switcheroo Light Switch.
Instead of our normal focus on the over 300 retro games
available in the Nintendo Classics catalog, we are
reviewing a product that threatens to pull the rug right
out from under us. The newly released analog 3D
(00:48):
console which many are hailing as the definitive way to play
Nintendo 64 games in modern times.
Subscribe or follow us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple,
wherever you listen so you can get all the gaming goodness
delivered just how you like it. Now Mike, if you had to guess,
like percentage wise, how much of the Nintendo 64's original
library do you think has multiplayer of some kind?
(01:12):
I'm going to go, I'm going to gojust a solid 5050 because I'm
not. Sure, more than that.
More than that you idiot. No, it was a whopping 70% of the
original N64 library has multiplayer, so I think it would
be criminal to talk about this console and this new version of
the console with two players only.
Please welcome back to the show Kyle from the invite only
(01:35):
Cinephile community stream team.How you feeling today, Kyle?
Hello, thanks for having me again.
Oh, I'm so excited to have you back.
I asked how Kyle's feeling because we went hard at his
house last night. Full 90s pepperoni pizza, fruit
by the foot, Sunny Delight Nerdsgummy clusters, and a couch full
of friends playing Nintendo 64. I ate way too much.
(02:00):
How much are the pizzas leftover, Kyle?
Not much, I think maybe 1-1, yeah, multiple, multiple pizzas.
So. You have a whole legion of boys
helping you get the the leftovers eaten up.
But thank you so much for havingus.
We actually had a whole lineup of friends of the show.
We had Margot from our Season 2 episode where she covered Mario.
(02:20):
And then we also had Jackie and Sarah, who was on Season 3, a
Mario Party episode. So all great stuff and so, so
awesome to sit down with you guys and play.
So let's get into it. According to Analog's website, a
reimagining of the Nintendo 64 in 4K resolution, 10 times the
resolution of the original. The 1st and perhaps greatest
(02:41):
multiplayer system of all time, Analog 3D is 100% compatible
with every original N64 game ever made.
Region free Bluetooth LE. Not sure what that stands for.
Dual band Wi-Fi for original style controller ports.
Entirely new next generation analog hardware featuring three
DOS engineered entirely in FGPA.No emulation.
(03:05):
Analog 3D represents a milestonein video game preservation.
It's not just reimagining, it's a fully compatible, hardware
accurate recreation fully compatible with the entire
original library. After nearly four years of
dedicated FPGA engineering, Analog 3D overcomes the
limitations of software emulation.
No input lag, no graphic or audio inaccuracies, no timing or
frame rate problems. This is the N64 perfected and
(03:28):
true to its score. I don't know, they're pretty
hyped. So Kyle Analog 3D had had a long
road to launch. How long have you been waiting
for this thing? So I, I, we checked there's
something I should have brought up last night.
I brought bought the this is analog's pocket that they the
portable for original cartridgesfor any game system.
(03:50):
But I pre-ordered that in 2020 right after COVID.
I was like, this is the dream. So I that took like I think till
the end of 2021 to ship. So then I was on their list.
I was informed about this so I preordered this just looking at
my e-mail to see October 21st, 2024 and just got it at the end
of November. So they sent emails along the
way like your hearts gonna be broken and it's delayed.
(04:11):
So it was a long road, but yeah,a bit over a year from order to
arrival. And I was reading about this,
Mike, you'll appreciate this. You're, you're a perfectionist,
I think when it comes to math and programming and all that
stuff. They kept saying in these emails
that Kyle received that they are99% done, but they're just like
that one last 1% to just really fine tune this thing and make it
(04:32):
the recreation they really wanted it to be.
They also let people you know cancel their pre-orders and pay
them back anything. Were you ever tempted to throw
in the towel? I was.
Committed to this one only because I used to have the old
N64 hooked up to a CRT monitor in the garage for the boys even
when they were growing up and they eventually sold it and they
still were bitter about it. So this was my attempt at
(04:55):
redeeming myself, so I was not going to cancel this for sure.
Awesome, Awesome. You didn't give up.
And Mike, you prefer playing these games on CRT televisions,
do you not? I don't know if I'd say prefer.
Like I know that there's a distinction to it.
Like it's more that like I had ACRT much longer than most just
because they were like cheap. The retro gamers have now
(05:17):
capitalized on that and they no longer are cheap.
I was in the market for CRTS at the era where much of the cost
of getting ACRT was just being someone who was willing to show
up and make it leave someone else's house.
Right, right. Yeah.
And so those have now gone up incosts significantly because you
(05:40):
get into issues of like the X, the amount of delay that you get
I think is one of the big ones. When you're emulating it, Yeah.
It's you. You were kind of like,
accidentally like sort of a hipster as far as like, oh,
yeah, you still have vinyls and,like, I still have ACRT
television. But Kyle, though, you also have
(06:00):
a vinyl record collection. Yeah.
And then I also saw you had. Well, actually, I know because
we played before the NES mini, the Super Nintendo Mini, the
Sega Genesis Mini. Is there something about the
physicality of this that's appealing to you?
It is. I don't know if it's just
straight up buying packaged nostalgia for the most part, and
I fall for it every time. But yeah, I do much prefer
(06:21):
especially that when the first NES many came out, the physical
controllers to me go a long way,especially the actual, not even
a, you know, approximation of it, but the actual controllers
were huge. So yeah, I'm a big fan of
revisiting with as close to the experience as I can get, you
know? And it's funny because, you
know, Mike and I are, you know, the whole premise of our show is
to do all the Nintendo Classics games emulated on the Switch.
(06:43):
But it was, it occurred to me inthe bathroom right before we
were going. That's weird.
But I was I was bathroom thinking TMI that like, you
know, the Nintendo Switch Onlinecould be so much bigger.
I feel like if they marketed differently, if they had a
better multiplayer functionalityand a way to have lobbies and
you could join anyone who wants to play this old game.
But it's almost like if this if if that was handled better,
(07:06):
Nintendo might start raising theprice on it.
And, and I thought about how awful that would be because
like, I just recently cancelled my game pass subscription
because it got to a price where I was like, well, I don't play
this enough to justify like $40 every month, right.
You know, But then the idea of being priced out of a retro game
(07:27):
collection is super sad it. Really.
Is Yeah, Yeah. So, you know, how did it feel
buy in these, you know, game controllers and cartridges?
Yeah. Having a super weird yeah,
totally. It was completely strange.
It's it's kind of one of those like I'm gonna do it.
And this time I've learned my lesson.
I thought for sure, oh, I'll sell it all and it'll all be
great, you know, virtualized or whatever in the future.
(07:49):
And then now he's the pendulum has swung back towards wanting
the physical again a little bit.So that was great.
I go there's a place called GameDude here in LA, which is like a
Mecca for a lot of this stuff. So it's often like a nice little
day trip. Yeah, Jeremy knows them, of
course. But yeah, that's fun.
And then yeah, the controllers, I was, I know that's a separate
topic, but even these cheap ones, these are just knock off
(08:10):
and 64 wins. They're like 20 bucks on Amazon
and they're like, honestly not that hard for, I mean, hard for
me to tell the difference between that and the original
plastic 1. So yeah, it's been, it's been
fun. And you, you had the games we
played last night. We're kind of unique.
You got them in a sort of an unusual.
Way yeah well I got the first two I know immediately Mario 64
and Goldeneye, which are probably Mario Kart 64 I should
(08:33):
say are my 2 favorites personally but so I immediately
ordered them when I pre-ordered this thing and they just been
sitting around from eBay for a year and then once this thing
shipped I was like I'll fill in the collection got a few more so
yeah it was very piece meal. And but you got them from like a
warehouse where they were original printings.
But they're and they're labeled as they're labeled as new,
whatever, but they're not. I mean, they're like shrink
(08:54):
wrapped. Whether it's legit shrink
wrapped, who knows, But just an eBay seller.
So maybe it could have just beenlike maybe the warehouse had too
many. There was like a glut for some
of those games in the day, but who knows?
Yeah, MM. You were sort of unnerved by
that. You.
Remember. What is this?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think it's especially
from the perspective of not being able to afford brand new
(09:15):
N64 games. It meant really that like when
you were, especially if you're getting them either rented or
used, like you got a copy of Goldeneye and you saw whichever
version had the most stuff unlocked.
And like, that's the, well, that's the, that's the save file
we're using. So to see it start up with four
empty save files on a physical copy is weird.
(09:36):
Yeah, yeah. Mario 64, we booted it up and
there was not a single star to be had yet and think, Oh my
gosh, this is a virgin cart trench.
Like we're taking making this thing on a journey.
So in our normal episodes, we like to talk about the box art.
And Kyle, you've been waiting onthis thing for years and years
and years. And I'm dumb because I was
thinking like, oh, we could talkabout the fun box art, but this
(09:57):
is not on store shelves. This is online only purchases.
As far as I know, All in all, yeah.
But the packaging, I think Kyle grabbed it for us to hold up to
the camera. I don't know if it's there's a
still nearby cab. Why I have the I have the unit.
Unfortunately not the packaging.OK, I wish.
But yeah, if you haven't seen it, Jeremy will share it.
It looks very much like N64. Yeah.
A bit smaller. It it shares the same lines and
(10:19):
same basic shape of it. Exactly, But yes, unfortunately,
I I immediately threw the packaging away.
I should have saved it for you, but it was very it's very it was
very sleek in Apple like I got the I don't know if it matter.
There's they they came in darkerlight versions and so my
packaging was was dark. I'm not sure if it matches it,
but yeah, very nice. And the same was was the case
for the pocket several years agoas well.
(10:39):
They very high end. Once it finally ships, they ship
it right, you know? And since this was online only
like and I was checking and theyjust listed as sold out.
Yeah, they do sell out fast. I know they've done
individually. Look, there's I think they have
like a turbo graphic 16 emulated1 and some others over the years
they've done and I I think they do fairly low batches and sell
(11:01):
out immediately and then come back.
How much did this cost? I think it was 250.
Yeah. I'm just a guy.
I forgot it's been stuff. But yeah, I think it was in the
neighborhood of like 250, which is pretty high for this.
But for me, the nostalgia was too hard to yeah.
It's just like they just list there.
There's no like, oh, it's this much but sold out.
It's just like it's just sold out.
Like how much did this cost whenyou had it?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly it it's I think
(11:22):
they sell out if I remember evenwithin hours or if not most a
day when they announce these things.
But yeah, it's pretty cool. It's it's funny, I feel like the
heat death of capitalism happening before our eyes has
made me sort of flippant about prices because like, yeah,
that's a lot. For retro console though, yeah.
But it's also, it's like, well, it's like $40.00 for a stake.
So what is money at this point? Yeah, that's right.
(11:44):
And I understand that's a very privileged attitude to have.
Yeah, but I'm with you so. But also so it is an interesting
idea though, because this is nota cost effective way to play
Nintendo 64 games because like. The cartridges, yeah.
You got to get the cartridges and like, you compare that to
like the cheapest Switch and then signing up for the Nintendo
expansion pack, which is like, you know, for the N64 games,
(12:06):
it's like 50 bucks a year. Yeah, so.
Think that's a fair assessment? Why's that?
Where's Smash Brothers? No.
Yeah, right. You have to wait till they
release them. Yeah, like that.
That's, I think the big thing really is like you can say, OK,
what about emulation, which getsinto the whole piracy thing,
(12:31):
right? But it's not as though this is
competing with a Nintendo service that is offering you the
ability to play the same games. Like I think Analog is doing
what Nintendo don't at this point.
Yeah, and they're not making newhardware for it, but to play it.
For yeah, they're not making thenew, the new hardware.
(12:52):
So you don't have a way to simply work with newer
televisions. You know, Nintendo's has their
own service, but it has a limited selection of games, not
everything. And it really feels like analog
is basically stepping up becauseNintendo isn't doing the same
sort of thing. Like Atari actually released one
(13:15):
of these same kind of things of new hardware that works with new
TV's, that plays all the old games, and Atari did it
themselves. We're doing this.
It's official. We've made it work with at least
as many games as they could can.It's a fairly complete list.
But like Atari took this on themselves to be like, no, we're
going to sell this thing so thatyou can play these.
(13:36):
You can play the original games on new, on modern televisions.
Nintendo kind of just left that open.
So there there isn't a differentoption.
It's funny because, you know, weall expected there to be a
Nintendo 64 mini because they did NES, they did SNES, and
those sold like gangbusters. Just stopped.
Yeah, and it almost feels like that Nintendo decided they
(13:58):
wanted to put their eggs into the Nintendo Switch Online
basket, thinking that that wouldtake off.
And it, you know, it kind of just hasn't really.
So Speaking of comparing the two, one of the big draws of the
analog 3D is all the different display modes.
I'm just taking up the Wikipediaarticle that lists them out
here. It says it has five different
display options, BVM, which is Iguess is broadcast video
(14:21):
monitor, PVM or professional video monitor, CRT scan lines
and clean. Kyle, you hadn't really messed
with the different display settings that we came over last
night. Do you have a favorite?
Do you tend to go for the crisp I def or do you like the filter
recreating the old look? Yeah, I like the.
The default I believe was PVM, PBM or BBM, one of those two
(14:44):
which was fine. It definitely had like a scan
line style effect. And then we tried what was
always switched to last night for the most part, I think.
It was CRT. CRT exactly, which I think I
ended up liking better by the end of the night.
But yeah, those were the two. And then the the final one.
What is it called? The most extreme clean, clean,
clean. Yeah, it was trying.
It was doing some kind of weird.I don't know what it was, what
(15:06):
was happening with it, but it looked almost too almost
flattened or like like a lens filter applied to the to
Elizabeth Taylor back in the daywhere it's all smooth.
Creepily. That was not my favorite one.
But yeah CRT or BVM I think or PVM were my top picks.
Now we we make poor Kyle venturebehind his television to plug in
my switch and the analog 3D so we could press a button and go
(15:28):
between the two modes to capturesome content here.
I like the Super clean look. I don't know if it's just
because I've been playing so many of these old games on the
switch, but it I almost found iteye straining to go back to the
sort of fuzzy look, which is funny because like I just just
did a TikTok about Sonic racing cross worlds on the OG switch.
And for 10 more bucks you can upgrade to the switch 2 version,
(15:50):
which makes everything crisp. And so it's funny that like the
original Switch is so old at this point that it has visual
similarity with a Nintendo 60 Fours, like sort of blurriness
to it, I think. I think I go the other way,
which is that it was interestingto look at the comparison
because from the Analog 3 DI think it actually reflected
(16:14):
visually a point that I've seen made, which is that a lot of
people have this idea of what retro games look like, which is
this very distinctly pixelated look.
And it's kind of this point that's made of that is what the
old games look like when you emulate them on higher
(16:35):
definition screens. So if you actually look at them
on sort of the original screens,because of the nature of those
screens, really the visuals are kind of designed in a way that
takes that into account. And so you get things like
better curves and fading of colors because they were the
images were designed in that kind of a way.
(16:57):
And that showed up a little bit on when we did the comparison
between the two Mario 60 Fours. I think is on the Switch.
Some of the stuff looks more jaggedly pixelated because it's
not trying to. Yeah, it's like the the
crappiness of the CRT is covering a lot of sins in a good
way, right, so. Yeah, I wouldn't even say say
(17:18):
it's covering the sins, but it'smore that it's designed with
that in mind. Like I think it's the same deal
of like if in spirit, like if you were to look at something
that was shot to be in black andwhite and look at what it looked
like in color and be like, well,this looks horrible in color.
It's like it was never meant to be washed that way.
Yeah. You go like this Adams family
(17:40):
house is pink. What the heck is up with that?
It's like, well, yeah, it's meant to look good visually in
black and white you. And so I think this is that same
kind of thing of it's. I don't think it's covering
things up so much as it was intentionally designed in many
cases with knowing that was how people were going to see it,
right? So you would look best that way.
(18:00):
Yeah, that was like the deliverymechanism.
So yeah, totally. You pointed out, Mike, that like
in Mario 64, the Lakitu and the little heads up display in the
bottom right corner in high def mode looks kind of janky, but
when you go to the other filter,it kind of smooths out and it
looks more like the proper shape.
I'm going to blow you guys freaking minds.
Are you ready? Do you think that like old
artwork is all smudgy and blurrybecause they hadn't invented
(18:20):
glasses yet? I mean.
It there may be some stuff whereactually it is reflecting that
the person doing it actually didhave eye issues.
I mean, the the not in the exactsame category, but like the
whole there's canals on Mars thing is thought to actually
(18:41):
just be stronger, basically mapping the veins in his own
eyes and not realizing that's what he was doing.
Yeah. So you can get, you can easily
get into situations like, yeah, this is this is building in the
things that you don't actually realize or you know, that the
person doing it wasn't necessarily thinking about in
(19:04):
those terms, right? Yeah, yeah.
Well, so Speaking of things thathaven't necessarily stood the
test of time or have, I guess I think one of the most intriguing
things about the Analog 3D is they partnered with 8 Bit Doe
for the 8 bit Doe 64 controller,which I think Kyle can hold up
for us to show off here. For those not watching on
YouTube. It ditches the iconic Trident
(19:26):
design of the original N64 controller, but it has a form
factor. Basically, they had an Xbox
controller. You got a joystick in the upper
left AD pad underneath it. And then you have the six face
buttons of the N64 controller, the B and the A and then the 4C
buttons over there on the right hand side.
(19:47):
And I don't know, I liked it. I liked it.
Kyle, what do you think? What do you well, so you Kyle,
you have recreations of the old controllers and you have this
new modern one. Which one do you reach for?
I reach for the old one and it'snot.
I mean, yes, the convenience. I'm not I what's?
What about these like little Amazon ones are from Hyper Hyper
Kin, I guess on Amazon they're cheap and the cords are
(20:10):
incredibly long for what I expected.
So maybe the double lengths I'veseen.
So like I can sit far back on the couch and do it.
I'm just more comfortable holding the middle, whatever you
call that, the middle of the joystick on an N64.
That's like my jam versus the other hold and and the back
trigger. I just reach for it and Mario
Kart so much. So that's my preference.
But the other one is great. A young man playing with us did.
(20:33):
I don't know if I should say hisactual name.
I don't know. He did not like the old
controller and like I had to teach him how to hold an N64
control. I felt very patronly.
It's very weird. It's very weird that you
explain. Hold the middle 1.
You know what you think. Right.
Yeah, In fact, MM, my mind is your mind.
Can you think of 1N64 game that would not work with the new
(20:56):
controller? Obviously sin and punishment,
yeah, because. Sin and punishment, Kyle, I
don't know if you're familiar with this one.
It's one of the only games whereyou hold.
Familiar with this one? You hold the middle of the
Trident and the left. Really.
Yeah, yeah, because you you movestrafe with the D pad and free
aim with the joystick. It was essentially a dual stick
(21:17):
game years and years before that.
And I think it's worth noting with that because I think that
leads to sort of my stance of not liking that new controller,
like because sin and punishment was basically a developer
decision of, hey, what if we made you use these two things
instead and built a game around the concept is, and I think this
(21:41):
has shown up a lot with, you know, Nintendo controllers have
evolved a lot over the years. If we want to use Evolve, then
applies some level of improvement over time, I think.
But they're all very different. And I think there is a situation
where a lot of people go like, OK, well, yeah.
(22:02):
Well, these this modern layout of controller is the best layout
of a controller. And all issues of that argument
aside, if you look at the old games, especially for something
like Nintendo, who did sort of take this seriously, these are
games being, you know, designed to be played on Nintendo
(22:24):
systems. They're being designed with the
controllers. They're going to be used with in
mind. Right.
And so I think there's an element of they play best on a
controller like the controller they were designed for, because
things are laid out in a way that makes sense with those
controllers. But Kyle's dog get kept getting
(22:48):
caught in the wires whatever Katie voice is, so I don't know.
I I just love a good wireless controller and so so Mike, when
you got the N64 controller for the switch, because I always get
Mike the controllers for the Nintendo switch online.
That's right, Mike, I always getyou them.
(23:10):
You could you said the joystick didn't really hold up, but I
felt like the 8 bit dough had a better joystick.
So that's why I preferred it, No?
I had no problems with the joysticks that we were that we
were using last night, OK. OK, so you so you think that the
Kyle's facsimiles might be a little bit better than the one
(23:31):
Nintendo? Officially made could well be.
Yeah, it's hard to remember. Yeah, I couldn't tell.
Like muscle memory wise, I couldn't tell the difference on
those knock, but maybe, I don't know, could have been lost to
the sands of time. So yeah.
So as far as how the console runs games, I thought it was
totally comparable to Nintendo Switch Online, which probably
speaks more to the quality of the emulation happening on the
(23:52):
Switch because this is just an N64 down to the chip level, is
it not? As far as I understand, I think
it would have to be pretty closeto be able to use the original
cartridges. So yeah.
So we tried out Kyle's library of Super Mario 64, Ocarina of
Time, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64, and Goldeneye.
But Kyle, you gotta save one of these games and kill the rest.
(24:14):
What's the It'd be hard, but I have to go with Mario Kart 64 if
I. Dang, you'd do that to your
wife? You'd take Ocarina away from.
Her. I'd take it away.
Yeah. So.
Yeah, 0 hesitation, cold as ice.Done.
Mike, you'd be the same. You'd save Mario Kart 64.
I think it's the right choice, yeah, yeah.
Stop using those terms. But I don't know though, I just
(24:38):
I thought it was so fun to gather on the sofa after all
these years. It ran great.
I guess it is doing by default and overclocking of the hardware
so that games like Goldeneye no longer suffer from really bad
slow down. Although interestingly, you can
turn that off. So Mike, I thought you'd
appreciate that because Mike, have you ever seen a speed run
(24:59):
where slow down is used as an advantage for a speed runner?
Or slow down? Is using an advantage?
Yeah, because like you can kind of, you know, Matrix, that's
crazy. Possibly.
I know I've seen ones where slowdown gets involved, but it kind
of varies. I think it sometimes depends on
(25:20):
how they're on how they're counting.
Well, I think what's neat about the analog 3D is that like, you
know, it does kind of give a newoption for the speed running
community because it is so faithfully recreating the
original cartridge. In fact, you can even argue it's
a you know, better option than emulation.
Are they are they accepting it? I don't know.
It's I think it's too new. Yeah.
Because I was going to, I was going to say that would be my
(25:42):
question because with various technologies they go back and
forth on that. Right, you took your Nintendo's
stance on analog specifically or?
No, the the speed room communities, they do track how
you're playing them and there are situations where they've
determined that certain for certain games, certain things
(26:05):
are not acceptable. Right.
Isn't that what got the King of Kong disqualified recently or
whatever? Yeah.
Some kind of emulator that was not qualified.
Yeah, that's great. Thank you for reminding me about
that movie. I think those get slightly
further into like just is it theoriginal thing or not, where
more more the console stuff tends to be a little bit more
(26:27):
flexible. But you do get into things where
it is like everybody plays the Japanese version because it's
slightly faster and that's just sort of accepted.
But I think that that exists more on the what game version
you're playing than it does on how you're playing it
necessarily. But like there's a huge amount
(26:48):
of other factors that weigh in there.
If you get into are you playing pal Vernus versus NGSA?
Because there's different frame counts and it is complicated in
that sense. Like honestly, I'd be more
curious to see a speed runner play on this to see how much it
really does replicate what they're what they're expecting.
(27:11):
Because there's there is a a lotof the issues.
And I think even analog 3D in their description kind of points
to this when they're separating out from emulation is that this
is going to behave exactly, it'ssupposed to behave exactly the
same way to the frame from what you would expect on the original
hardware, which does suggest that they are, that it is
(27:35):
exactly equivalent, but also that it's going to be the speed
runners that notice that becausewe're something of like frame
perfect stuff. You know, I'm not getting second
perfect stuff when I'm playing some of these games, let alone
frame perfect. Whereas it's the speed runners
that'll notice it. Yeah, yeah.
Because that's like surgical precision, some of these speed
(27:57):
runners or the ones we've all heard about.
I think surgery is less precise,yeah.
Probably. Yeah.
My dad knows about that. I kind of tell you the details
unless unless you give a review and then I will spill it all.
So leave a like or a comment. So Kyle, you know what's next
(28:19):
for your analog 3D and 64 library?
What's the next cartridge you'regoing to?
Order That's a good question I mean these are like definitely
my top five if you were to ask me so I've got to I got to think
back I'm like I have much more nostalgia for any essence and
super Nintendo games than I do for this this era.
I was certainly into these big ones, but then I didn't go that
far. I was like in college at the
(28:39):
time was a little bit busier. So I got to I got to see how how
I branch out. But you know, I.
Know what Mike's would be? What's that?
Cruise in USA, right Mike? I mean, it's definitely a a
solid entry, yeah. Yeah, cuz like I, you know,
Mike's been waiting for that game to be added ever since he's
been doing this show. And now it occurred to me like
he doesn't have to wait anymore.Just.
Just get an analog 3D and 200 and something dollars later.
(29:03):
I'll probably browse the aisles at at Game Dude and see what
what stands out to me. That's so fun.
I was like the the the other pitch there would be Rogue
Squadron. Oh yeah.
Yeah, Mike fell out of a chair playing that one.
I guess he was coming out of a nosedive.
All right, Well, guys, I think that covers it.
It's time to declare the analog 3D as a Nintendo or a Nintendo.
(29:28):
Don't. Kyle.
Our guest of honor here, The only person who actually owns
one right now. Yeah.
Would you recommend it? I definitely would yeah, and
Nintendo like to your point, it brings like the just the ability
to have the the in living room experience and pizza party
whatever is what makes the made the system great.
I think so for sure, Nintendo. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna sprinkle a little spice onthere, OK?
(29:49):
I, I, I feel like for the price,right?
I feel like you get a Switch andNintendo Switch Online
expansion. Pack because.
The young man who played with us, who shall not be named was
very eager to jump into a bunch of other games.
And I feel like the the ability to have this huge library
(30:11):
without breaking the bank. And then, you know, I'm a dirty,
dirty cheater on my switch too. I can rewind N64 games.
I legit don't know if I would have enjoyed Ocarina of time as
much if I could not safe state it right.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, nottaking anything away from what
they've accomplished, but for the type of gamer I am, is a
(30:32):
Nintendo, mostly because of price.
Mike, where do you land? I think it depends on someone's
starting point. OK.
I think if it if you are someonewho is heavily after the N64
games and you especially if you still have them.
Like I still have my old N64 games.
(30:54):
So does that make you? And so I think if that's your
starting point, I think this is the obvious way to go.
That's which a switch isn't worth it if that's what you're
after. OK.
If you are already at the starting point of a of a switch.
It helps. There's games on there that are
not on Nintendo Switch and gamesthat never will.
(31:18):
But because you're still having to buy all of the games, I think
if you're starting at a Switch, it's a lot easier to to just
accept what's available on Nintendo Classics and kind of be
content at that for not that much a year than to drop the
amount of money it would take toget that and then get the games.
(31:40):
OK. It it it's a.
It depends on which one what what your priority is.
A Fama context. OK, well guys, I think we're
gonna call that game over for today.
Kyle, it's always so much fun totalk tech with you.
And thanks again for hosting us last night.
Before you get on out of here, why don't you tell our listeners
how they can join the Stream team?
(32:01):
Sure, if you go to stream Team dot Club in any browser that you
like and you can sign up there, we'd love to have you.
Yeah, we do live streams once a month.
When you are listening to this, we'll have just recorded one on
the Gremlins, which is a holidaymovie, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's a Christmas movie.
Never seen it. I went to a Christmas themed
haunted house for a few few years back.
(32:23):
Oh, that's pretty sweet. Like the haunted house was
during the holiday season. Yeah, it was like when you left,
they had hot like hot chocolate and cookies and a list of
printed list of Christmas lightsto go look at nearby.
That's pretty nice. That was really, it was really
awesome. My wife did not like it.
She did not really know what Gremlins was going into into it,
and that's the only reason she went.
(32:45):
Is it scary? I mean, it depends, I guess.
If you were little. When I was little, there were I
felt scared by it, yeah. For sure, that's the whole
journey. Well, you know what?
Sign up on stream Team dot Club to hear my take on it.
And until next time, guys, Please remember to like, follow
or subscribe to the old Switch aRoo and rate a review the show
wherever you get your podcasts. And you can visit
(33:06):
www.theoldswitcharoo.com to findall our social media links.
And we'd love to hear what you thought of this episode or what
we're hoping to hear in future episodes.
And of course, you find a link to our Discord.
You can talk games, play games, and even make a friend or two.
Kyle's in there. Mike's in there, I'm in there.
As always guys, thanks for listening to the old switcheroo
where we've been talking gaming retro with Mike and Jamo.
(33:29):
I'm Mike. And I'm jamo game on everyone.
Welcome back to the old Switcheroo, where we're talking
gaming retro with Mike and Jamo.I'm Mike.
And I'm Jamo in this episode of the old Switcheroo Light Switch.
Instead of our normal focus on the over 300 retro games
available in the Nintendo Classics catalog, we are
reviewing a product that threatens to pull the rug right
out from under us. The newly released analog 3D
(00:48):
console which many are hailing as the definitive way to play
Nintendo 64 games in modern times.
Subscribe or follow us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple,
wherever you listen so you can get all the gaming goodness
delivered just how you like it. Now Mike, if you had to guess,
like percentage wise, how much of the Nintendo 64's original
library do you think has multiplayer of some kind?
(01:12):
I'm going to go, I'm going to gojust a solid 5050 because I'm
not. Sure, more than that.
More than that you idiot. No, it was a whopping 70% of the
original N64 library has multiplayer, so I think it would
be criminal to talk about this console and this new version of
the console with two players only.
Please welcome back to the show Kyle from the invite only
(01:35):
Cinephile community stream team.How you feeling today, Kyle?
Hello, thanks for having me again.
Oh, I'm so excited to have you back.
I asked how Kyle's feeling because we went hard at his
house last night. Full 90s pepperoni pizza, fruit
by the foot, Sunny Delight Nerdsgummy clusters, and a couch full
of friends playing Nintendo 64. I ate way too much.
(02:00):
How much are the pizzas leftover, Kyle?
Not much, I think maybe 1-1, yeah, multiple, multiple pizzas.
So. You have a whole legion of boys
helping you get the the leftovers eaten up.
But thank you so much for havingus.
We actually had a whole lineup of friends of the show.
We had Margot from our Season 2 episode where she covered Mario.
(02:20):
And then we also had Jackie and Sarah, who was on Season 3, a
Mario Party episode. So all great stuff and so, so
awesome to sit down with you guys and play.
So let's get into it. According to Analog's website, a
reimagining of the Nintendo 64 in 4K resolution, 10 times the
resolution of the original. The 1st and perhaps greatest
(02:41):
multiplayer system of all time, Analog 3D is 100% compatible
with every original N64 game ever made.
Region free Bluetooth LE. Not sure what that stands for.
Dual band Wi-Fi for original style controller ports.
Entirely new next generation analog hardware featuring three
DOS engineered entirely in FGPA.No emulation.
(03:05):
Analog 3D represents a milestonein video game preservation.
It's not just reimagining, it's a fully compatible, hardware
accurate recreation fully compatible with the entire
original library. After nearly four years of
dedicated FPGA engineering, Analog 3D overcomes the
limitations of software emulation.
No input lag, no graphic or audio inaccuracies, no timing or
frame rate problems. This is the N64 perfected and
(03:28):
true to its score. I don't know, they're pretty
hyped. So Kyle Analog 3D had had a long
road to launch. How long have you been waiting
for this thing? So I, I, we checked there's
something I should have brought up last night.
I brought bought the this is analog's pocket that they the
portable for original cartridgesfor any game system.
(03:50):
But I pre-ordered that in 2020 right after COVID.
I was like, this is the dream. So I that took like I think till
the end of 2021 to ship. So then I was on their list.
I was informed about this so I preordered this just looking at
my e-mail to see October 21st, 2024 and just got it at the end
of November. So they sent emails along the
way like your hearts gonna be broken and it's delayed.
(04:11):
So it was a long road, but yeah,a bit over a year from order to
arrival. And I was reading about this,
Mike, you'll appreciate this. You're, you're a perfectionist,
I think when it comes to math and programming and all that
stuff. They kept saying in these emails
that Kyle received that they are99% done, but they're just like
that one last 1% to just really fine tune this thing and make it
(04:32):
the recreation they really wanted it to be.
They also let people you know cancel their pre-orders and pay
them back anything. Were you ever tempted to throw
in the towel? I was.
Committed to this one only because I used to have the old
N64 hooked up to a CRT monitor in the garage for the boys even
when they were growing up and they eventually sold it and they
still were bitter about it. So this was my attempt at
(04:55):
redeeming myself, so I was not going to cancel this for sure.
Awesome, Awesome. You didn't give up.
And Mike, you prefer playing these games on CRT televisions,
do you not? I don't know if I'd say prefer.
Like I know that there's a distinction to it.
Like it's more that like I had ACRT much longer than most just
because they were like cheap. The retro gamers have now
(05:17):
capitalized on that and they no longer are cheap.
I was in the market for CRTS at the era where much of the cost
of getting ACRT was just being someone who was willing to show
up and make it leave someone else's house.
Right, right. Yeah.
And so those have now gone up incosts significantly because you
(05:40):
get into issues of like the X, the amount of delay that you get
I think is one of the big ones. When you're emulating it, Yeah.
It's you. You were kind of like,
accidentally like sort of a hipster as far as like, oh,
yeah, you still have vinyls and,like, I still have ACRT
television. But Kyle, though, you also have
(06:00):
a vinyl record collection. Yeah.
And then I also saw you had. Well, actually, I know because
we played before the NES mini, the Super Nintendo Mini, the
Sega Genesis Mini. Is there something about the
physicality of this that's appealing to you?
It is. I don't know if it's just
straight up buying packaged nostalgia for the most part, and
I fall for it every time. But yeah, I do much prefer
(06:21):
especially that when the first NES many came out, the physical
controllers to me go a long way,especially the actual, not even
a, you know, approximation of it, but the actual controllers
were huge. So yeah, I'm a big fan of
revisiting with as close to the experience as I can get, you
know? And it's funny because, you
know, Mike and I are, you know, the whole premise of our show is
to do all the Nintendo Classics games emulated on the Switch.
(06:43):
But it was, it occurred to me inthe bathroom right before we
were going. That's weird.
But I was I was bathroom thinking TMI that like, you
know, the Nintendo Switch Onlinecould be so much bigger.
I feel like if they marketed differently, if they had a
better multiplayer functionalityand a way to have lobbies and
you could join anyone who wants to play this old game.
But it's almost like if this if if that was handled better,
(07:06):
Nintendo might start raising theprice on it.
And, and I thought about how awful that would be because
like, I just recently cancelled my game pass subscription
because it got to a price where I was like, well, I don't play
this enough to justify like $40 every month, right.
You know, But then the idea of being priced out of a retro game
(07:27):
collection is super sad it. Really.
Is Yeah, Yeah. So, you know, how did it feel
buy in these, you know, game controllers and cartridges?
Yeah. Having a super weird yeah,
totally. It was completely strange.
It's it's kind of one of those like I'm gonna do it.
And this time I've learned my lesson.
I thought for sure, oh, I'll sell it all and it'll all be
great, you know, virtualized or whatever in the future.
(07:49):
And then now he's the pendulum has swung back towards wanting
the physical again a little bit.So that was great.
I go there's a place called GameDude here in LA, which is like a
Mecca for a lot of this stuff. So it's often like a nice little
day trip. Yeah, Jeremy knows them, of
course. But yeah, that's fun.
And then yeah, the controllers, I was, I know that's a separate
topic, but even these cheap ones, these are just knock off
(08:10):
and 64 wins. They're like 20 bucks on Amazon
and they're like, honestly not that hard for, I mean, hard for
me to tell the difference between that and the original
plastic 1. So yeah, it's been, it's been
fun. And you, you had the games we
played last night. We're kind of unique.
You got them in a sort of an unusual.
Way yeah well I got the first two I know immediately Mario 64
and Goldeneye, which are probably Mario Kart 64 I should
(08:33):
say are my 2 favorites personally but so I immediately
ordered them when I pre-ordered this thing and they just been
sitting around from eBay for a year and then once this thing
shipped I was like I'll fill in the collection got a few more so
yeah it was very piece meal. And but you got them from like a
warehouse where they were original printings.
But they're and they're labeled as they're labeled as new,
whatever, but they're not. I mean, they're like shrink
(08:54):
wrapped. Whether it's legit shrink
wrapped, who knows, But just an eBay seller.
So maybe it could have just beenlike maybe the warehouse had too
many. There was like a glut for some
of those games in the day, but who knows?
Yeah, MM. You were sort of unnerved by
that. You.
Remember. What is this?
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think it's especially
from the perspective of not being able to afford brand new
(09:15):
N64 games. It meant really that like when
you were, especially if you're getting them either rented or
used, like you got a copy of Goldeneye and you saw whichever
version had the most stuff unlocked.
And like, that's the, well, that's the, that's the save file
we're using. So to see it start up with four
empty save files on a physical copy is weird.
(09:36):
Yeah, yeah. Mario 64, we booted it up and
there was not a single star to be had yet and think, Oh my
gosh, this is a virgin cart trench.
Like we're taking making this thing on a journey.
So in our normal episodes, we like to talk about the box art.
And Kyle, you've been waiting onthis thing for years and years
and years. And I'm dumb because I was
thinking like, oh, we could talkabout the fun box art, but this
(09:57):
is not on store shelves. This is online only purchases.
As far as I know, All in all, yeah.
But the packaging, I think Kyle grabbed it for us to hold up to
the camera. I don't know if it's there's a
still nearby cab. Why I have the I have the unit.
Unfortunately not the packaging.OK, I wish.
But yeah, if you haven't seen it, Jeremy will share it.
It looks very much like N64. Yeah.
A bit smaller. It it shares the same lines and
(10:19):
same basic shape of it. Exactly, But yes, unfortunately,
I I immediately threw the packaging away.
I should have saved it for you, but it was very it's very it was
very sleek in Apple like I got the I don't know if it matter.
There's they they came in darkerlight versions and so my
packaging was was dark. I'm not sure if it matches it,
but yeah, very nice. And the same was was the case
for the pocket several years agoas well.
(10:39):
They very high end. Once it finally ships, they ship
it right, you know? And since this was online only
like and I was checking and theyjust listed as sold out.
Yeah, they do sell out fast. I know they've done
individually. Look, there's I think they have
like a turbo graphic 16 emulated1 and some others over the years
they've done and I I think they do fairly low batches and sell
(11:01):
out immediately and then come back.
How much did this cost? I think it was 250.
Yeah. I'm just a guy.
I forgot it's been stuff. But yeah, I think it was in the
neighborhood of like 250, which is pretty high for this.
But for me, the nostalgia was too hard to yeah.
It's just like they just list there.
There's no like, oh, it's this much but sold out.
It's just like it's just sold out.
Like how much did this cost whenyou had it?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly it it's I think
(11:22):
they sell out if I remember evenwithin hours or if not most a
day when they announce these things.
But yeah, it's pretty cool. It's it's funny, I feel like the
heat death of capitalism happening before our eyes has
made me sort of flippant about prices because like, yeah,
that's a lot. For retro console though, yeah.
But it's also, it's like, well, it's like $40.00 for a stake.
So what is money at this point? Yeah, that's right.
(11:44):
And I understand that's a very privileged attitude to have.
Yeah, but I'm with you so. But also so it is an interesting
idea though, because this is nota cost effective way to play
Nintendo 64 games because like. The cartridges, yeah.
You got to get the cartridges and like, you compare that to
like the cheapest Switch and then signing up for the Nintendo
expansion pack, which is like, you know, for the N64 games,
(12:06):
it's like 50 bucks a year. Yeah, so.
Think that's a fair assessment? Why's that?
Where's Smash Brothers? No.
Yeah, right. You have to wait till they
release them. Yeah, like that.
That's, I think the big thing really is like you can say, OK,
what about emulation, which getsinto the whole piracy thing,
(12:31):
right? But it's not as though this is
competing with a Nintendo service that is offering you the
ability to play the same games. Like I think Analog is doing
what Nintendo don't at this point.
Yeah, and they're not making newhardware for it, but to play it.
For yeah, they're not making thenew, the new hardware.
(12:52):
So you don't have a way to simply work with newer
televisions. You know, Nintendo's has their
own service, but it has a limited selection of games, not
everything. And it really feels like analog
is basically stepping up becauseNintendo isn't doing the same
sort of thing. Like Atari actually released one
(13:15):
of these same kind of things of new hardware that works with new
TV's, that plays all the old games, and Atari did it
themselves. We're doing this.
It's official. We've made it work with at least
as many games as they could can.It's a fairly complete list.
But like Atari took this on themselves to be like, no, we're
going to sell this thing so thatyou can play these.
(13:36):
You can play the original games on new, on modern televisions.
Nintendo kind of just left that open.
So there there isn't a differentoption.
It's funny because, you know, weall expected there to be a
Nintendo 64 mini because they did NES, they did SNES, and
those sold like gangbusters. Just stopped.
Yeah, and it almost feels like that Nintendo decided they
(13:58):
wanted to put their eggs into the Nintendo Switch Online
basket, thinking that that wouldtake off.
And it, you know, it kind of just hasn't really.
So Speaking of comparing the two, one of the big draws of the
analog 3D is all the different display modes.
I'm just taking up the Wikipediaarticle that lists them out
here. It says it has five different
display options, BVM, which is Iguess is broadcast video
(14:21):
monitor, PVM or professional video monitor, CRT scan lines
and clean. Kyle, you hadn't really messed
with the different display settings that we came over last
night. Do you have a favorite?
Do you tend to go for the crisp I def or do you like the filter
recreating the old look? Yeah, I like the.
The default I believe was PVM, PBM or BBM, one of those two
(14:44):
which was fine. It definitely had like a scan
line style effect. And then we tried what was
always switched to last night for the most part, I think.
It was CRT. CRT exactly, which I think I
ended up liking better by the end of the night.
But yeah, those were the two. And then the the final one.
What is it called? The most extreme clean, clean,
clean. Yeah, it was trying.
It was doing some kind of weird.I don't know what it was, what
(15:06):
was happening with it, but it looked almost too almost
flattened or like like a lens filter applied to the to
Elizabeth Taylor back in the daywhere it's all smooth.
Creepily. That was not my favorite one.
But yeah CRT or BVM I think or PVM were my top picks.
Now we we make poor Kyle venturebehind his television to plug in
my switch and the analog 3D so we could press a button and go
(15:28):
between the two modes to capturesome content here.
I like the Super clean look. I don't know if it's just
because I've been playing so many of these old games on the
switch, but it I almost found iteye straining to go back to the
sort of fuzzy look, which is funny because like I just just
did a TikTok about Sonic racing cross worlds on the OG switch.
And for 10 more bucks you can upgrade to the switch 2 version,
(15:50):
which makes everything crisp. And so it's funny that like the
original Switch is so old at this point that it has visual
similarity with a Nintendo 60 Fours, like sort of blurriness
to it, I think. I think I go the other way,
which is that it was interestingto look at the comparison
because from the Analog 3 DI think it actually reflected
(16:14):
visually a point that I've seen made, which is that a lot of
people have this idea of what retro games look like, which is
this very distinctly pixelated look.
And it's kind of this point that's made of that is what the
old games look like when you emulate them on higher
(16:35):
definition screens. So if you actually look at them
on sort of the original screens,because of the nature of those
screens, really the visuals are kind of designed in a way that
takes that into account. And so you get things like
better curves and fading of colors because they were the
images were designed in that kind of a way.
(16:57):
And that showed up a little bit on when we did the comparison
between the two Mario 60 Fours. I think is on the Switch.
Some of the stuff looks more jaggedly pixelated because it's
not trying to. Yeah, it's like the the
crappiness of the CRT is covering a lot of sins in a good
way, right, so. Yeah, I wouldn't even say say
(17:18):
it's covering the sins, but it'smore that it's designed with
that in mind. Like I think it's the same deal
of like if in spirit, like if you were to look at something
that was shot to be in black andwhite and look at what it looked
like in color and be like, well,this looks horrible in color.
It's like it was never meant to be washed that way.
Yeah. You go like this Adams family
(17:40):
house is pink. What the heck is up with that?
It's like, well, yeah, it's meant to look good visually in
black and white you. And so I think this is that same
kind of thing of it's. I don't think it's covering
things up so much as it was intentionally designed in many
cases with knowing that was how people were going to see it,
right? So you would look best that way.
(18:00):
Yeah, that was like the deliverymechanism.
So yeah, totally. You pointed out, Mike, that like
in Mario 64, the Lakitu and the little heads up display in the
bottom right corner in high def mode looks kind of janky, but
when you go to the other filter,it kind of smooths out and it
looks more like the proper shape.
I'm going to blow you guys freaking minds.
Are you ready? Do you think that like old
artwork is all smudgy and blurrybecause they hadn't invented
(18:20):
glasses yet? I mean.
It there may be some stuff whereactually it is reflecting that
the person doing it actually didhave eye issues.
I mean, the the not in the exactsame category, but like the
whole there's canals on Mars thing is thought to actually
(18:41):
just be stronger, basically mapping the veins in his own
eyes and not realizing that's what he was doing.
Yeah. So you can get, you can easily
get into situations like, yeah, this is this is building in the
things that you don't actually realize or you know, that the
person doing it wasn't necessarily thinking about in
(19:04):
those terms, right? Yeah, yeah.
Well, so Speaking of things thathaven't necessarily stood the
test of time or have, I guess I think one of the most intriguing
things about the Analog 3D is they partnered with 8 Bit Doe
for the 8 bit Doe 64 controller,which I think Kyle can hold up
for us to show off here. For those not watching on
YouTube. It ditches the iconic Trident
(19:26):
design of the original N64 controller, but it has a form
factor. Basically, they had an Xbox
controller. You got a joystick in the upper
left AD pad underneath it. And then you have the six face
buttons of the N64 controller, the B and the A and then the 4C
buttons over there on the right hand side.
(19:47):
And I don't know, I liked it. I liked it.
Kyle, what do you think? What do you well, so you Kyle,
you have recreations of the old controllers and you have this
new modern one. Which one do you reach for?
I reach for the old one and it'snot.
I mean, yes, the convenience. I'm not I what's?
What about these like little Amazon ones are from Hyper Hyper
Kin, I guess on Amazon they're cheap and the cords are
(20:10):
incredibly long for what I expected.
So maybe the double lengths I'veseen.
So like I can sit far back on the couch and do it.
I'm just more comfortable holding the middle, whatever you
call that, the middle of the joystick on an N64.
That's like my jam versus the other hold and and the back
trigger. I just reach for it and Mario
Kart so much. So that's my preference.
But the other one is great. A young man playing with us did.
(20:33):
I don't know if I should say hisactual name.
I don't know. He did not like the old
controller and like I had to teach him how to hold an N64
control. I felt very patronly.
It's very weird. It's very weird that you
explain. Hold the middle 1.
You know what you think. Right.
Yeah, In fact, MM, my mind is your mind.
Can you think of 1N64 game that would not work with the new
(20:56):
controller? Obviously sin and punishment,
yeah, because. Sin and punishment, Kyle, I
don't know if you're familiar with this one.
It's one of the only games whereyou hold.
Familiar with this one? You hold the middle of the
Trident and the left. Really.
Yeah, yeah, because you you movestrafe with the D pad and free
aim with the joystick. It was essentially a dual stick
(21:17):
game years and years before that.
And I think it's worth noting with that because I think that
leads to sort of my stance of not liking that new controller,
like because sin and punishment was basically a developer
decision of, hey, what if we made you use these two things
instead and built a game around the concept is, and I think this
(21:41):
has shown up a lot with, you know, Nintendo controllers have
evolved a lot over the years. If we want to use Evolve, then
applies some level of improvement over time, I think.
But they're all very different. And I think there is a situation
where a lot of people go like, OK, well, yeah.
(22:02):
Well, these this modern layout of controller is the best layout
of a controller. And all issues of that argument
aside, if you look at the old games, especially for something
like Nintendo, who did sort of take this seriously, these are
games being, you know, designed to be played on Nintendo
(22:24):
systems. They're being designed with the
controllers. They're going to be used with in
mind. Right.
And so I think there's an element of they play best on a
controller like the controller they were designed for, because
things are laid out in a way that makes sense with those
controllers. But Kyle's dog get kept getting
(22:48):
caught in the wires whatever Katie voice is, so I don't know.
I I just love a good wireless controller and so so Mike, when
you got the N64 controller for the switch, because I always get
Mike the controllers for the Nintendo switch online.
That's right, Mike, I always getyou them.
(23:10):
You could you said the joystick didn't really hold up, but I
felt like the 8 bit dough had a better joystick.
So that's why I preferred it, No?
I had no problems with the joysticks that we were that we
were using last night, OK. OK, so you so you think that the
Kyle's facsimiles might be a little bit better than the one
(23:31):
Nintendo? Officially made could well be.
Yeah, it's hard to remember. Yeah, I couldn't tell.
Like muscle memory wise, I couldn't tell the difference on
those knock, but maybe, I don't know, could have been lost to
the sands of time. So yeah.
So as far as how the console runs games, I thought it was
totally comparable to Nintendo Switch Online, which probably
speaks more to the quality of the emulation happening on the
(23:52):
Switch because this is just an N64 down to the chip level, is
it not? As far as I understand, I think
it would have to be pretty closeto be able to use the original
cartridges. So yeah.
So we tried out Kyle's library of Super Mario 64, Ocarina of
Time, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64, and Goldeneye.
But Kyle, you gotta save one of these games and kill the rest.
(24:14):
What's the It'd be hard, but I have to go with Mario Kart 64 if
I. Dang, you'd do that to your
wife? You'd take Ocarina away from.
Her. I'd take it away.
Yeah. So.
Yeah, 0 hesitation, cold as ice.Done.
Mike, you'd be the same. You'd save Mario Kart 64.
I think it's the right choice, yeah, yeah.
Stop using those terms. But I don't know though, I just
(24:38):
I thought it was so fun to gather on the sofa after all
these years. It ran great.
I guess it is doing by default and overclocking of the hardware
so that games like Goldeneye no longer suffer from really bad
slow down. Although interestingly, you can
turn that off. So Mike, I thought you'd
appreciate that because Mike, have you ever seen a speed run
(24:59):
where slow down is used as an advantage for a speed runner?
Or slow down? Is using an advantage?
Yeah, because like you can kind of, you know, Matrix, that's
crazy. Possibly.
I know I've seen ones where slowdown gets involved, but it kind
of varies. I think it sometimes depends on
(25:20):
how they're on how they're counting.
Well, I think what's neat about the analog 3D is that like, you
know, it does kind of give a newoption for the speed running
community because it is so faithfully recreating the
original cartridge. In fact, you can even argue it's
a you know, better option than emulation.
Are they are they accepting it? I don't know.
It's I think it's too new. Yeah.
Because I was going to, I was going to say that would be my
(25:42):
question because with various technologies they go back and
forth on that. Right, you took your Nintendo's
stance on analog specifically or?
No, the the speed room communities, they do track how
you're playing them and there are situations where they've
determined that certain for certain games, certain things
(26:05):
are not acceptable. Right.
Isn't that what got the King of Kong disqualified recently or
whatever? Yeah.
Some kind of emulator that was not qualified.
Yeah, that's great. Thank you for reminding me about
that movie. I think those get slightly
further into like just is it theoriginal thing or not, where
more more the console stuff tends to be a little bit more
(26:27):
flexible. But you do get into things where
it is like everybody plays the Japanese version because it's
slightly faster and that's just sort of accepted.
But I think that that exists more on the what game version
you're playing than it does on how you're playing it
necessarily. But like there's a huge amount
(26:48):
of other factors that weigh in there.
If you get into are you playing pal Vernus versus NGSA?
Because there's different frame counts and it is complicated in
that sense. Like honestly, I'd be more
curious to see a speed runner play on this to see how much it
really does replicate what they're what they're expecting.
(27:11):
Because there's there is a a lotof the issues.
And I think even analog 3D in their description kind of points
to this when they're separating out from emulation is that this
is going to behave exactly, it'ssupposed to behave exactly the
same way to the frame from what you would expect on the original
hardware, which does suggest that they are, that it is
(27:35):
exactly equivalent, but also that it's going to be the speed
runners that notice that becausewe're something of like frame
perfect stuff. You know, I'm not getting second
perfect stuff when I'm playing some of these games, let alone
frame perfect. Whereas it's the speed runners
that'll notice it. Yeah, yeah.
Because that's like surgical precision, some of these speed
(27:57):
runners or the ones we've all heard about.
I think surgery is less precise,yeah.
Probably. Yeah.
My dad knows about that. I kind of tell you the details
unless unless you give a review and then I will spill it all.
So leave a like or a comment. So Kyle, you know what's next
(28:19):
for your analog 3D and 64 library?
What's the next cartridge you'regoing to?
Order That's a good question I mean these are like definitely
my top five if you were to ask me so I've got to I got to think
back I'm like I have much more nostalgia for any essence and
super Nintendo games than I do for this this era.
I was certainly into these big ones, but then I didn't go that
far. I was like in college at the
(28:39):
time was a little bit busier. So I got to I got to see how how
I branch out. But you know, I.
Know what Mike's would be? What's that?
Cruise in USA, right Mike? I mean, it's definitely a a
solid entry, yeah. Yeah, cuz like I, you know,
Mike's been waiting for that game to be added ever since he's
been doing this show. And now it occurred to me like
he doesn't have to wait anymore.Just.
Just get an analog 3D and 200 and something dollars later.
(29:03):
I'll probably browse the aisles at at Game Dude and see what
what stands out to me. That's so fun.
I was like the the the other pitch there would be Rogue
Squadron. Oh yeah.
Yeah, Mike fell out of a chair playing that one.
I guess he was coming out of a nosedive.
All right, Well, guys, I think that covers it.
It's time to declare the analog 3D as a Nintendo or a Nintendo.
(29:28):
Don't. Kyle.
Our guest of honor here, The only person who actually owns
one right now. Yeah.
Would you recommend it? I definitely would yeah, and
Nintendo like to your point, it brings like the just the ability
to have the the in living room experience and pizza party
whatever is what makes the made the system great.
I think so for sure, Nintendo. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm
gonna sprinkle a little spice onthere, OK?
(29:49):
I, I, I feel like for the price,right?
I feel like you get a Switch andNintendo Switch Online
expansion. Pack because.
The young man who played with us, who shall not be named was
very eager to jump into a bunch of other games.
And I feel like the the ability to have this huge library
(30:11):
without breaking the bank. And then, you know, I'm a dirty,
dirty cheater on my switch too. I can rewind N64 games.
I legit don't know if I would have enjoyed Ocarina of time as
much if I could not safe state it right.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, nottaking anything away from what
they've accomplished, but for the type of gamer I am, is a
(30:32):
Nintendo, mostly because of price.
Mike, where do you land? I think it depends on someone's
starting point. OK.
I think if it if you are someonewho is heavily after the N64
games and you especially if you still have them.
Like I still have my old N64 games.
(30:54):
So does that make you? And so I think if that's your
starting point, I think this is the obvious way to go.
That's which a switch isn't worth it if that's what you're
after. OK.
If you are already at the starting point of a of a switch.
It helps. There's games on there that are
not on Nintendo Switch and gamesthat never will.
(31:18):
But because you're still having to buy all of the games, I think
if you're starting at a Switch, it's a lot easier to to just
accept what's available on Nintendo Classics and kind of be
content at that for not that much a year than to drop the
amount of money it would take toget that and then get the games.
(31:40):
OK. It it it's a.
It depends on which one what what your priority is.
A Fama context. OK, well guys, I think we're
gonna call that game over for today.
Kyle, it's always so much fun totalk tech with you.
And thanks again for hosting us last night.
Before you get on out of here, why don't you tell our listeners
how they can join the Stream team?
(32:01):
Sure, if you go to stream Team dot Club in any browser that you
like and you can sign up there, we'd love to have you.
Yeah, we do live streams once a month.
When you are listening to this, we'll have just recorded one on
the Gremlins, which is a holidaymovie, right?
Yeah, yeah, it's a Christmas movie.
Never seen it. I went to a Christmas themed
haunted house for a few few years back.
(32:23):
Oh, that's pretty sweet. Like the haunted house was
during the holiday season. Yeah, it was like when you left,
they had hot like hot chocolate and cookies and a list of
printed list of Christmas lightsto go look at nearby.
That's pretty nice. That was really, it was really
awesome. My wife did not like it.
She did not really know what Gremlins was going into into it,
and that's the only reason she went.
(32:45):
Is it scary? I mean, it depends, I guess.
If you were little. When I was little, there were I
felt scared by it, yeah. For sure, that's the whole
journey. Well, you know what?
Sign up on stream Team dot Club to hear my take on it.
And until next time, guys, Please remember to like, follow
or subscribe to the old Switch aRoo and rate a review the show
wherever you get your podcasts. And you can visit
(33:06):
www.theoldswitcharoo.com to findall our social media links.
And we'd love to hear what you thought of this episode or what
we're hoping to hear in future episodes.
And of course, you find a link to our Discord.
You can talk games, play games, and even make a friend or two.
Kyle's in there. Mike's in there, I'm in there.
As always guys, thanks for listening to the old switcheroo
where we've been talking gaming retro with Mike and Jamo.
(33:29):
I'm Mike. And I'm jamo game on everyone.
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