Posted by sarahZedig on Mar 20, 2025
hello again folks! as you hopefully know by now, the second horror marathon vlog premieres tomorrow, friday march 21st, at 2:00pm pacific time. well, i'm very excited to announce that immediately after that premiere, i'll be doing a totally unrelated livestream where i repair/refurbish/replace and test the joysticks on my N64 controllers!
here's the link to where that will be! it's currently scheduled for 3:30pm pst, but we may start earlier or later depending on technical difficulties-- it's been a long time since i've done a livestream, after all!
that's all you need to know, but if you're a nerd and want a full rundown of what the stream is, keep on reading.
the goals here are manifold. at the most basic level, i'm gonna be playing a lot of N64 games in the coming months so i want my controllers to be in tip top shape. but there are multiple definitions of said shape, so i aim to try out three of them. first, i'm taking apart a joystick module, cleaning & lubricating it, then putting it back together. then, i'm taking apart a second module and replacing the original parts with brand new injection-molded ones. lastly, i'll be fully replacing a third module with an aftermarket hall-effect joystick like the kind you'd find on a gamecube controller. once that's done, we're gonna test all three sticks on my N64 across a couple of different games to get a feel for them and see which method yielded the best results. finally, if there's time, i'm gonna switch gears to demo some of the analog video glitch modules i've acquired recently!
beyond the obvious, i'm using this as a test case for analog video livestreaming. instead of getting a feed direct from the N64 console to a capture card, i'll be filming my CRT (this will pay off in the glitch section). there's a lot of bits and bobs involved in this process that i want to put some pressure on to see how it holds up, and get some practice in. my hope is to get back into a more regular streaming schedule, and what's calling to me in the near-term is playing N64 games. this stream is then also generating material that will be used in at least one future video. at the end of it all, i should have some pretty good indications of what does and doesn't work in my analog setup from which i can make necessary improvements.
and of course throughout the stream i'll be chatting and answering questions about whatever, so don't worry if all this retro gaming stuff isn't your thing. also i may try to mirror the stream on twitch, but that's a secondary priority against all the other logistics on my plate.
so yeah, i hope to see you there!