Zen and the Joy of Console Gaming
A few weeks ago while heading to Wisconsin I strolled into a Target on Nintendo Switch 2 launch day, an hour after opening, and snagged a Switch 2 with Mario Kart World. It seemed liked there was a steady stream of buyers. As soon as someone checked out another would arrive but there wasn’t really a line, per se.
I gave up on getting a Switch 2 (at least immediately) after failing to secure one during preorders. But I was keen on replaying Zelda Breath of the Wild in 4K after seeing so many YouTube videos showing how good it looked.
This began a quest involving Mac gaming, OLED monitors, and finding the zen of console gaming.
I got Breath of the Wild working using CEMU on my Mac mini running at 5K resolution 60 frames per second and it looked fantastic. My Mac was humming along without even kicking on the fan and the quality was unreal. Apple’s display is not ideal for gaming so I started looking into some fancy OLED 4K monitors. After tinkering a bit I got the game running at 4K 240 frames per second and it was glorious. It was like I was seeing Hyrule for the first time, just absolutely stunning. I settled in and decided I’m gonna replay Breath of the Wild over the next 6 months on my Mac.
But this came with downsides like:
- Stutters from shader caching
- Annoyances with button mapping and connecting my controller
- Small thing: but the clicks to open CEMU, pick Zelda, get to fullscreen.
- Figuring out how to transfer my save file if I wanted to put it on our MacBook Air to play away from my desk (I tried the built in macOS Screen Sharing but no dice. It doesn’t support controller input and neither does Moonlight for macOS.)
These are definitely the first-est of first-world problems, no doubt. But they’re friction and time-consuming and when you have limited gaming time (because you have a 1-year-old kid) it adds up.
So now I have my surprise Switch 2 and I happily paid $10 to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition. After some difficulty downloading (hotel Wi-Fi is crap. Bring an ethernet cable, kids. Shoutout to the concierge who dug through the back office to find me one) I was ripping through Hyrule and it was stunning. It’s not as high-fidelity as it was on my Mac mini set up but there’s zero of those friction points. I can even switch (ha!) to handheld mode and take it on the go. That’s the joy of console gaming, especially with Nintendo where it’s plug-and-play and system updates take 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.
My last anecdote with the Switch 2 is our first night with it: we were trapped in a hotel room with a kid who goes to bed at 7 PM. We sat on the opposite end from where the kid was asleep and we put the Switch 2 in table top mode. My wife and I each had a Joy-Con and we had a blast playing a few rounds of Grand Prix in Mario Kart World before heading to bed. (It wouldn’t be until the next week that I discovered the sheer delight of Knockout mode.)
This post is really just here to say, and it’s gonna sound dumb: I like when gaming is fun. You hit a button and the Switch wakes up and you’re right back to getting blown to bits by a Guardian or sprinting away from a Lynel. Nintendo just makes it so nice to play games and I’m excited for the Switch 2 era to kick off.
I was totally blown away by the Donkey Kong Bonanza Nintendo Direct and I share the exact sentiment of Stephen on this week’s Into the Aether episode where I instantly went from “this looks fine” to “this looks like a phenomenally fun game.”
The Phoenician Scheme
As mentioned in my Q1 2024 update I was not a fan of Asteroid City. I was lukewarm on The French Dispatch as well so I was starting to think Wes Anderson’s work just wasn’t for me anymore (which is totally fine!). I’m a huge fan The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Darjeeling Limited.
Every project has the potential of greatness. His latest movie The Phoenician Scheme I think achieves this. It combines his fascination with miniatures and over-the-top sets (and 90º angles) with genuine and funny dialog from his earlier work. Where his recent work felt soulless, there was heart here. This is as close to an “action movie” that Wes will likely go and I was enthralled. Michael Cera also shines with the most bizarrely charming accent.
Two thumbs up!
Mario Kart World is a blast. Knockout mode online against 24 strangers is absolutely thrilling and chaotic beyond reason.
They’re working on Spaceballs 2. Here’s Mel Brooks introducing the project:
After 40 years, we asked, ‘what do the fans want?’ But instead, we’re making this movie.
Last week I bought a blue Nintendo DSi XL and am playing Phantom Hourglass for the first time. Emulation be damned!
Then today I snagged a Switch 2 from Target on the way out of town. Played Mario Kart World in tabletop mode with my wife and had a blast!
I’m a sucker for Nintendo, what can I say?
If you’re curious about Jony Ive’s new company io joining OpenAI, I recommend listening to episode 565 of Upgrade. Jason’s pessimism mixed with Myke’s enthusiasm is chocolate and peanut butter.
I got into design because of Jony’s work but I’m deeply skeptical of this union.
NBC getting permission from the family of the late Jim Fagan to be their AI sports announcer entirely misses the point. They’re not hiring a living human to do this work. How do we get the next Jim Fagan if there are no more jobs?
(Full disclosure: I’m not really into sports.)
The App Store should have worked this way since day 1.
From Jay Peters at The Verge:
Apple Cannot:
- Impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app”
- Restrict developers’ style, formatting, or placement of links for purchases outside of an app
- Block or limit the “use of buttons or other calls to action”
- Interfere with consumers’ choice to leave an app with anything beyond “a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site”
My favorite thing with reviews on Pitchfork is that anyone could possibly classify music as a 10.0 or a 7.8. For example, Bon Iver’s latest album SABLE, fABLE is accurately described by Alex Robert Ross as melancholic, beautiful, and exuberant. It’s also an 8.1 out of 10.
I loved this post by Cory Doctorow. It is bananas how we have collectively ceded our privacy online:
… we should just update privacy law so that doing certain things with your private data is illegal, without your ongoing, continuous, revocable consent.
Obviously, this would come as a severe shock to the tech economy, which is totally structured around commercial surveillance. But the fact that an extremely harmful practice is also extremely widespread is not a reason to keep on doing it – it’s a reason to stop.
Mini Regret
I bought the base M4 Pro Mac mini and have a twinge of buyer’s remorse after seeing the base M4 Max Mac Studio. For $600 more you get 2x the GPU, 2 more CPU cores, 12 GB more RAM, SD card slot, and more ports.
The only downside? Less cute.
Former President Barack Obama at Hamilton College (ABC News):
The most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says, “No that’s not right.”
And
Most times it’s been easy to say you’re progressive or you’re for the freedom of speech and not have to pay a price for it. Now we’re at one of those moments where it’s not enough to say you’re for something. You may have to do something and even possibly sacrifice a little bit. … We say we’re for equality. Are we going to risk something for that? Are we going to stick up for it when it’s tough?
It’s been a week.
I’m working on a new app and the process is completely addicting. There are nights when I need to veg out and watch TV but I mostly just want to work on it.
With Cursor AI I can get way more done in a night but my Swift skills are invaluable for directing the LLM to make good code. Exciting times.
New iPads
As the world crumbles into disarray Apple unveils the iPad (A16) for $350 and iPad Air (M3) for $600. The compare page shows minor differences: processor, laminated screen (P3 color), keyboard/pencil support. The base iPad is a steal and is more than enough iPad for 90% of people.
Every episode of Severance is the best episode of Severance. That said: wow s2e7 (Chikhai Bardo) was riveting, beautifully shot, and exceedingly sad.
What I love about Urbana
Yesterday it hit mid-50s. In central Illinois this is cause for much celebration. I went on a few walks, got some food, and observed the following:
- A cluster of students leaving a neighbor’s house, all speaking French.
- Two women holding hands, one with an eye patch.
- At lunch at the new H Mart, practically everyone was speaking Korean or Japanese.
- A group of students fundraising on the Quad for the war in Ukraine.
By all counts, a town in the middle of cornfields should be as plain as a slice of Wonder bread. Instead it’s abuzz with people from all over the world. People who came here as students or teachers to better themselves and others.
Archie, Mary Me
I love Song Exploder, I love Alvvays, I love Archie, Marry Me. This episode has been in my queue for a while and I finally got around to listening.
Molly Rankin, in the episode:
It was one of my first attempts at really trying to execute writing something that I would listen to. Until then I was writing a lot of stuff I wouldn’t go out of my way to hear. I wanted it to be a classic pop song.
The lyrics remind me so much of my wife and our wedding. We had plans for a larger wedding but then COVID hit and we turned it into an outdoor family party. With the exception of my friends and faraway family not being able to attend, it turned out to be way more our speed.
“Forget the flower arrangements,” indeed.
An absolute crazy thing is that the only time I’ve seen Alvvays play was in the foyer at the Krannert Music Center in Urbana, IL at Pygmalion fest in 2016. After we paid to see Car Seat Headrest, Alvvays were just playing in the atrium for free where local jazz bands play on weeknights. It was unreal. Here was the band I loved just there. It was a really fun time.