Graslu00

The M64 controller by ModRetro is releasing in less than 24 hours, so here's my first impressions with a pre-production set that was sent to me a few days ago, TL;DR at the end:

First thing I noticed when I opened the package was the amazing build quality on these controllers. The plastic is very sturdy, buttons feature a very clicky membrane, and the shape feels just right to hold. When compared to the original controller, the middle handle is a bit longer on the M64 which makes holding it feel more natural, although this doesn't change much if you hold it the same way I do (left index finger on top, I know you don't do this lol).

The components inside seem to feature the same kind of high quality materials, and it's very easily customisable, so I hope they expand on those options in the future such as different membranes for the buttons and stick modules. No complaints at all when it comes to the build quality, holding the OG controller makes it feel cheap in comparison.

But the most important part and what most of you will want to know about is how the controller actually performs in-game with the new stick. The stick is a TMR module, deadzones are minimal, no drift, and should last a lifetime as opposed to the potentiometers we've seen on controllers since the PS1 to today (N64 used optical sensors originally, we'll get onto that later). It feels very smooth to use and you can make precise adjustments in-game, had no trouble playing F-Zero X with it which is a very sensitive game when it comes to handling your ship.

That said, at the end of the day it is still a GameCube style stick, which comes with some flaws. For shooters such as GoldenEye the aim will feel twitchier and less smooth, and since the shaft of the stick is thicker than OG N64, you'll reach the edge of the gate quicker meaning it's more sensitive. I did not measure the exact throw distance yet - the distance from moving the stick to hitting the gate limits - but it does feel shorter. This means that you reach maximum speed in games earlier than you would originally, forcing you to be more careful on the stick if you wish to be precise.

It is by no means bad, just a note to keep in mind that it *will* be more sensitive than the original stick. I was able to 100% GoldenEye and enjoyed playing it more than with a modern Xbox controller on either XBLA or the official Xbox One release. Way better than Joy-Cons on the Switch version too, and the overall feel is better than the official NSO Switch controller. Just that you won't be as precise as with the OG controller.

The stick range hits 85 on all sides, it is limited by software meaning you can't go over that number which is good in this case, the edge notch precision was a bit of a hit or miss though, but that might be on me and the calibration settings.

You can change the sensitivity settings on the controller itself by pressing L + Start for a second to lower it, or R + Start to increase it. There's 5 sensitivity settings, and I felt that the 4th one (3 LED indicators on) felt the best. Lowering the sensitivity just made it feel like it had a huge deadzone in the middle where the movement was very slow and then very fast on the edges, I would not recommend using that mode.

The two controllers that they sent me are the same except for the stick gate shape, the grey one had a N64 style gate while the green one is GC style. I can't speak much about this, as the gate shape doesn't affect GoldenEye gameplay much if at all. The range values are the same in both as it's handled by software, but I felt the N64 style gate was even more sensitive. This could be related to the pre-release firmware they shared for me to test on it as well though.

Speaking of firmware and settings, they have informed me that it is planned in their roadmap to have tools to fully customise the stick performance with the linearity settings, deadzones, sensitivity and so on. On our first contact they said they'd let me create a tailored custom profile for shooters that would be available for everyone to try on their M64 controllers in the future, I'll update on this once it actually happens.

Now again, TMR vs optical sensors (N64)... TMR is technically speaking better, it offers a higher resolution than the original sensors on N64 but since it's all adjusted in software later it doesn't matter much, it'll create some situations where the aim will feel twitchy and some values will jump even if you are holding it as tight as possible at an angle. Nothing too bad as compared to other controllers again, but worth noting. The original optical sensors on N64 work basically like a reverse engineered ball mouse, you had the gears that pushed by the stick turned encoder wheels and a laser would measure the "steps" moved (iirc, 128 per axis, physically limited to ~85). The optical sensors are incredibly accurate to this day, and offer cleaner data than potentiometers that has been used in the industry ever since the PS1, the only flaw in the original N64 design was the plastic components that caused the grinding and eventual dusting of the individual parts. The taller OG stick and the wider physical range as it's thinner gives a more accurate feel for precise movements.

It isn't realistic to believe any company would offer optical sensor alternatives these days, the manufacturing of these would have to be specifically made for this controller and inflate the price a lot, however I do wish they kept the original thin and tall N64 stick design. To better understand this, I recommend looking up - Stick it up! Adam Scott Studio - it's a website tool that explains the issue with N64 controller recreations that do not use the tall stick and offers solutions and examples.

Finally I want to add a few notes - the rumble did not work for me, but I've been told it's an issue with the pre-release units. Hopefully this can be fixed with software in the future. As for memory paks, there's *no way* to use them in these controllers. So if you want to play in real hardware with a game that requires them, you'll need to either plug them in a second controller port if the game supports it, or plug and unplug it on player 1 between sessions.

To wrap this up, I'm just going to do some comparisons in price now. I'll have a dedicated video review where I'll go more in depth with all these in the coming weeks, but in the meantime:

The M64 controller is set to release at $90. That's steep! And it wouldn't be an improvement against the OG in terms of gameplay... But with those $90 you're all set for a controller that: Works on PC right away (Bluetooth), can be used on the N64 with the included cable, requires no internal maintenance and you get a pretty sturdy controller that you should have no fear it'll break after a few Mario Party sessions.

If you wanted to do something similar with an OG controller you'd have something like this:

- Good condition controller: ~$25
- RockerGaming steel bowl: $45
- Raphnet N64 to USB adapter for PC: $24.99

That's already $95, less if you already have an N64 controller in good condition to upgrade of course. On top of that you have to keep in mind that you have to tinker around it for maintenance such as lubricating the stick every few months of use and general internal cleaning. The plastic on N64 shells are starting to be very brittle so you have to be extra careful.

However, yes, the OG controller with what I listed above will still offer a better gameplay experience unless you're explicitly looking for wireless options and don't really care much about the extra sensitivity on the M64. Have to keep in mind that the N64 community is still evolving when it comes to controller parts and in the future we'll have more alternatives.

Conclusion / TL;DR:

The M64 controller is a great premium third party option, but far from the perfection that some other reviews claimed. The OG controller is still the pinnacle when it comes to accuracy, and paired with community parts such as Project Renaissance by RockerGaming / TaoStyx you get a controller that will last forever and be as precise or even more than OEM.

I personally would not pay $90 for an M64 controller *myself*, however I can definitely recommend it for others if they're looking for a great quality third party alternative with the benefits I listed above, if they don't care about not having peak performance. It'll still provide a very satisfying experience and you can get used to the sensitivity, and who knows what future updates will bring.

I cannot stress enough though, no matter the amount of software updates, nothing will beat the original design until someone comes with a solution that 1:1 replicates it with modern materials. Huge props to ModRetro for respecting the original shape and listening to feedback though. Hopefully they can deliver with availability and demand.

It does have my blessing though. It passed the test of "can it play GoldenEye comfortably, and would a new player be able to be precise in this". Just keep in mind of the alternatives regarding OG controllers.

*I received the M64 controllers for free, no money was exchanged between either party, no guidelines on how to review it, and no bias here. This is purely my experience.

1 day ago | [YT] | 340

Graslu00

GoldenEye XBLA has been recompiled! ... Or has it really? You've probably seen a surge of news posts and videos about GoldenEye finally being on PC, but sadly this is not entirely true.

Yes, GoldenEye XBLA got recompiled, as in the .xex file is now an .exe file with PowerPC converted to C that runs natively on your PC. However, the graphics and audio are still emulated, so all the issues and GPU requirements from emulating it are still present, some of them more pronounced than ever.

The game is also NOT decompiled, so this won't help modding in any way other than making new code injections easier, but without knowing what part of the code does what (decompilation), there's not much use for this. We've been able to mod XBLA before its official leak in 2021, this changes nothing.

At the moment, playing this recomp is nothing but experiencing the game in a much worse way than what you can achieve currently with Xenia Canary. The Netplay isn't really functional as this recomp ignores all the Community Edition fixes so online multiplayer barely works (no sound, no armour sync, no door sync, collision issues).

All these videos and news posts claim high smooth framerates, but what is happening is that the game is dropping frames constantly and won't go past 60FPS, instead, framerate overlays will attach to the settings menu that claims to be running at those speeds, not the game itself. V-Sync is also very clunky, and all the "new" features they list such as controller support (lol) or widescreen had been available since the original in 1997.

This recomp was done with the use of Claude AI, and they're asking for donations first and foremost in the GitHub description. It's okay to ask for donations in your projects, but when maybe it was better to keep it private until there was anything substantial. At the moment this just hurts the game more than helping it, since many misinformed people will gravitate towards this instead of properly emulatig the game.

Yes, this recomp can develop into being something more and better than Xenia in the long run, but right now? Not really. And even if it continues, it needs the talented community support to actually continue into a fixed experience, and we all moved past XBLA to focus on N64 decompilation which is the finished game and where the time is well spent. Later on the assets could be ported over to the N64 version, but there's little to no reason to work on XBLA as it is.

At the moment, the best way to experience XBLA is with Xenia Canary and the Community Edition patch. You can also play with mousehook or online with the Xenia Canary Netplay version, I have a tutorial for this in my channel.

For the ultimate GoldenEye experience in general at the moment, 1964 GEPD Edition is still your best bet. XBLA, again, is just an unfinished title in the end and cannot replace the original.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 698

Graslu00

007 First Light is releasing in just three days, two before the digital early access starts! I'll be streaming the game once the early access starts at 10AM EST.
I hope this time isn't too early for those in North and South America, but I guess for once I'll have a Europe-friendly schedule. The game is supposedly long enough to guarantee at least two parts.

2 months ago | [YT] | 386

Graslu00

Today marks the 26th anniversary of Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64! It released in the US on May 22nd 2000!

The game's troubled development did not stop it from being one of the greatest of all time, with hundreds upon hundreds of hours of fun to be had!

I'll stream it later tonight!

2 months ago | [YT] | 1,207

Graslu00

The registrations for ‪@Adzy3D‬'s GoldenEye XBLA tournament closes in less than 24h! There are still 14 slots available and will be played on Saturday.

The bracket will be announced on Saturday, there's a prize pool of $150 ($100 1st place, $35 second, $15 third). This will be played with Xenia Netplay, I'll have a tutorial in the pinned comment here alongside the registration link and everything else you'll need.

See you there!

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 207

Graslu00

Thanks to everyone that showed support and shared my posts about the copyright issues. After more than three weeks fighting the fraudulent claims from WAMI_CS, YouTube has finally stepped in and agreed with me that they were all invalid.

WAMI_CS should no longer be a problem with GoldenEye, this has affected all of us GoldenEye content creators for a while now and it should be resolved. If you experience any more problems with them, be sure to contact YouTube directly and forward them to my posts on Twitter / X where they confirm the resolution.

Don't ever let any of these fraudulent companies get away with this, they leech on people that are scared to fight back because of the big words YouTube put saying you might lose your channel. You won't. Learn your rights and fight for them. If you're not certain, just reach out to somebody that can guide you, but most of the time it's pretty obvious when these are fake.

Once again thank you to everyone!

3 months ago | [YT] | 1,521

Graslu00

You guys know I never do this but it's getting desperate. YouTube is hitting every single GoldenEye stream I make with fake copyright claims and they refuse to take action against WAMI_CS, a company based in Indonesia that keeps filling these automatic Content ID claims illegally. All the GoldenEye livestreams from March to April have been claimed for "GoldenEye Epic Theme", a track that they do not own and does not appear on my livestreams at all. The Perfect Dark stream was claimed by the copyrighted sound of... complete silence.

These copyright claims do expire in a month after my dispute, but this still means the monetisation is held hostage until then and then delayed an extra month, meaning that since March I've made $0 from my GoldenEye livestreams. Your donations, ad revenue, and everything is not sent to me until these disputes are over, and they're consistent.

YouTube always claims to revoke Content ID access to those repeat offenders - but this is not true - this only applies to content creators such as myself if I were to send copyright strikes to other creators. If you're a label company you're essentially immune to these rules. WAMI_CS is infamously known since at least 2018 for submitting these fake copyright claims all over YouTube, and guess what? They're still at it to this day. That's almost 10 years of illegal claims. WAMI_CS is a ghost company that doesn't even have a contact email and YouTube refuses to send contact information.

Please I ask you to make some noise about this. I've always been fighting against illegal copyright claims but it's tiring and feels powerless when you keep seeing this happen all over again with YouTube taking no action at all.

I am so done with this. These days it's easier to just create a fake label company, register music you don't own, and claim videos on YouTube. YouTube does not care about creators at all, big or small.

3 months ago | [YT] | 1,071

Graslu00

A great honour to match against TH126 once more in the Grand Finals, after the great show we put up last year during LTK Cup V.
Two years in a row, TH126 got eliminated by me in Quarter Finals in LTK Cup IV, and Grand Finals for Cup V. He was hungry for a personal revenge - and for his friends, Grim and Robbie - who I also eliminated in LTK Cup III and IV's Grand Finals. This year he proved that he still got it. After not losing a single set in a GoldenEye main tournament since 2022 (2014 if we count GoldenEye: Source), my streak has come to an end.

TH126, Grim and Robbie have been playing this game online together for almost two decades now, while you can credit GE Master for pioneering the GoldenEye Netplay scene, "The Big 3" were the ones that kept the flame alive. TH126 first started hosting the LTK Cup in 2010, where Robbie came on top leaving him in the second place, and it wasn't until LTK Cup II where he (TH) got his first championship. 15 years later last Sunday he managed to win his second LTK champion title against me, who had been dominating the scene since I entered in 2022 during the World Championships. It's not a small feat, and I'm really proud of him, and again honoured to have fallen against someone such as TH126 that we owe a lot for keeping the netplay competitive spirit alive.

Last year I announced my retirement from the GoldenEye competitive scene as I had, and have, nothing left to prove here and needed a break. For those that play games or sports competitively, you'll know that the mental toll is pretty hard when you reach a certain level that you have to maintain. I still decided to join this tournament to have a presence, despite interfering with vacation time and such so I had no time to prepare other than the past two weeks (which we spent playing A LOT), and most importantly to have fun - which I did have! At heart I've always been a competitive person, and I think this has rekindled that flame for GoldenEye multiplayer again. I'll be back stronger than ever next year, sometimes you just have to rest to keep climbing higher.

Again, huge thanks to TH126 for hosting these tournaments and having all of us gather together playing this game we all love. Thanks to Cagt and Adzy for the amazing commentary they've been giving us for these last two Grand Finals, and thanks to all of you who to this day almost 30 years later still follow this game and show support. See you all next year!

4 months ago | [YT] | 957

Graslu00

Wishing everyone a golden holiday season!

7 months ago | [YT] | 1,600

Graslu00

If you ever see one of my videos with this many ads, let me know in the comments and I'll fix it ASAP. YouTube likes to add all of these on long streams even after I manually add them.

I could disable the automatic ad slots, yes, but they're actually useful for old videos (I have thousands of them) where the system actually works alright adding them on loading screens and so on. In this case, YouTube decided to add them even after I manually did it.

For transparency, I usually have them every 15-20 minutes and on level transitions. I think it's fair that way without being intrusive.

7 months ago | [YT] | 340