How To Register Custom Joycons

Screenshot 2021 12 07 At 9.13.03 Am — *Image: Game Trader Zilch*

If there's one aspect of Switch which has allowed players to truly make the console their ain, it'southward the ability to chop-and-change the Joy-Con which transport with the system. Many unlike colour combinations are available thanks to the various packs Nintendo sells, and the visitor has fifty-fifty gotten into the realm of offer series-specific controllers for the likes of Zelda and Super Mario.

Withal, there'south always that want to make your panel feel fifty-fifty more than personal, and that's where GameTraderZero.com comes in. Founded by Gal Silver, the store offers customised Joy-Con and Pro Controllers, some of which boast special mods such as D-pads and LED lighting. Keen to know a trivial more than almost this burgeoning business, we sat downward with Silvery for a little chat.

Nintendo Life: What inspired y'all to start modding and selling gaming gear?

Back in the spring of 2019, I was sitting at home recovering from a kidney transplant. My awesome wife, Meaghan, came home i solar day with a surprise for me - a Nintendo Switch - so I would have something to play with comfortably. I was always definitely into video games. Proverb "gamer" sounds so serious, correct? I had an NES, a Wii, an Xbox 360. And I also always had a really adept gaming computer because of work, on which I did most of my "serious gaming".

Since I was already savvy with selling games I wasn't playing, selling Joy-Con I was building just came naturally as a next step

At that point, I hadn't owned a Switch before, but I was really fascinated with the portability aspect of the console. Sitting and playing in front of my PC proved to exist really hard for me and I found myself spending more time recovering on the couch than anything else. The Switch was not just a surprise from Meaghan only surprisingly awesome. From that point, I just wanted to play every game I could put my hands on and started buying a lot of used ones.

Some I would play, honey and keep, while others I sold off in order to buy new ones. I mean solar day, a game bundle box arrived and had a set of Joy-Cons in it, which I decided to fix because they were drifting pretty bad. They as well didn't look very good and were well used. I bought DIY shells that came with buttons and the cheapest screwdriver. After 2.5 hours, I had my first really expert looking, migrate-free, make new, refurbished set of Joy-Cons. A friend that visited me that twenty-four hours saw them and wanted them correct away. And since I was still playing with my original blue and cherry ones, I just gave him the modded ones.

Later that week, when he came by with a set to replace the ones I had given him, I decided to modify those also because the modding process intrigued me. I did that a few times that month. Since I was already savvy with selling games I wasn't playing, selling Joy-Con I was building simply came naturally as a adjacent footstep. I was withal chasing the side by side great games, merely after seeing people's reaction to my mods online, who were buying them faster than information technology took me to source more parts, I made the conclusion to give modding my total attention.

Earlier this year, when we saw more growth, my best friend - who used to sit with me on the burrow playing Mario - joined me in the store to make our online presence more robust. For an online shop, it'south crucial for us to get to know our community where they beloved to exist. And then, as the shop grows, so does our interest in well-nigh platforms, from Instagram to Discord and more. Between the states and my married woman, nosotros're so thankful for beingness where we are today and we tin can't expect to do much more for everyone who'southward every bit passionate nigh gaming as nosotros are.

Could you give u.s. a run-down of some of the mods y'all offer at the moment?

At the moment, GameTraderZero.com and our Etsy Shop offering mostly original curated designs. They simply were not available similar that before nosotros built them and put them out in that location.

At that place's kind of something for anybody. Our LED mods are perfect for anyone with an LED-rich set upwards (or merely a matter for LEDs), world-tones for "cosy gamers", pastels if yous're passionate about Kawaii or Animate being Crossing, clean aesthetics for sworn minimalists, blingy mods if you're into showing off a bit, retro looks that are a tip of the chapeau to gaming heritage, articulate mods for a bit of transparency, and a variety of Pro-Controller designs to stride up your gaming comfort and abilities. You can likewise send in your own Joy-Cons to be modded, if y'all can survive without them for a few weeks.

You lot tin can usually discover the set you've e'er wanted in our shop and we'll always encourage yous to message u.s. nearly it, which is the best office

You lot tin usually observe the set y'all've ever wanted in our store and we'll e'er encourage you lot to message u.s. about it, which is the best function. You tin get something with different buttons, swap the trounce colours and pretty much whatever wild thought of Joy-Con you wish for - we'll build them - as long as we tin source the parts. Someone messaged us two weeks ago and said sort of "I am looking for something special and I don't know exactly what yet." That is so cool. We worked with him on a design he'll love, which in the terminate was inspired by Pokémon colours and YouTube creators he's into. It's the best office of what nosotros exercise and seeing someone thrilled with their new controllers is just and then rewarding.

Nosotros're ever busy adding more than options to cull from and we'll do more than in-depth customizations in the near future. Maybe controllers for other consoles as well. Hint hint.

What'south been your most popular item so far?

Our about popular gear up at the moment is the Joy-Con LED mod with blackness shells and clear buttons. For the longest time, I was under the impression that our pinkish set with white buttons was our best seller, just information technology's now at number ii. But since nosotros started consistently offering our LED Joy-Con set, information technology kind of took our shop by surprise: Nosotros found ourselves building more than of those than annihilation else. It besides really helps that we were the showtime shop to offering those already built and not part of a DIY fix.

When you take more 1500 Joy-Con mod sets nether your chugalug, you proceeds and then much feel and skill, our store has a unique ability to build these LED mods and produce them fast plenty to get a viable product. It also really helped that anybody liked them!

What would you say makes your products so special when compared to your rivals?

In ane give-and-take, service. Our customer care is impeccable and it shows. And that's just where it begins. It's our attentiveness and power to requite the needed attending to each and every i of our customers. It's the lx-solar day warranty that comes with a articulate warranty card in every box we ship. Information technology'due south the printed instructions that come with each of our LED modded Joy-Con and Pro Controllers that explain exactly what you're getting and how to operate the controllers in addition to the articulate printed diagrams on them. The special box that will protect your new set of Joy-Con no matter where it ships worldwide. (And believe us, we've shipped to the ends of the earth and dorsum merely to check). We really intendance and effort to treat our community similar we would've wanted the large companies to treat us.

Nosotros actually intendance and try to treat our community like we would've wanted the big companies to care for us

In addition to that, different a lot of our competitors, nosotros are proud of our "fabricated from refurbished" Joy-Con sets which sell at a rate of ten to 1 when compared to the "made from new" option. It'south the all-time value for the customer, letting anybody get a custom Joy-Con that they might not take otherwise been able to beget and the refurbished ones are assembled with so many new parts in them, that it'due south pretty much just the original PCB that's in there. You really would not be able to spot whatever difference, visually or functionality wise. It as well helps to reduce e-waste matter by repurposing tech that otherwise would exist discarded. Nosotros too similar to say that it'south absurd to own a new gear up that has a lot of gaming stories to tell from its previous lives.

We are also proud to say we were the first to put out there the pink and white set, the LED mod, the white on white set (which was very funny, because they became so popular just before Nintendo announced the white Joy-Cons of the new OLED model) and more.

When Nintendo came out with the Switch Lite, I ordered a few white analogs just to see if they piece of work in regular Joy-Con. I was thinking "it couldn't exist that they wouldn't, right?" And what do you lot know, they did fit and they even featured the new pattern from Nintendo to reduce drift. It was all new, no ane knew there was a revision until we opened a Joy-Con that came with the V2 Switch. From there to adding white buttons and or blue for the designs with the blue analogs was a no-brainer. Thus the first pinkish Joy-Con set with the contrasting white buttons and analogs was built-in. The first of its kind.

But when it comes down to it, we'd like to think that ownership a set up from GTZ is really having a home for your controllers. Buyers can ever come back for more modernistic wants and needs, questions, support, etc.

Where do you source the parts used in your mods?

Nosotros source most of the parts we apply from China. We have unlike suppliers for unlike kinds of parts. We're currently working on expanding our manufacturing capabilities and are working difficult to make new designs that the world of gamers never had access to before. We tin can't really elaborate likewise much on it because we love to keep it close to the breast until the stop, but it'll be the point where the earth of blueprint meets the world of gaming. We promise to tease it equally it evolves in every social platform nosotros're on.

In that location's a lot been said about Joy-Con drift over the years - do your mods do annihilation to tackle this outcome, and are you able to requite any insight into what might be causing information technology?

There certain is a lot to be said well-nigh Joy-Con drift. Gladly I can say that since we started making Joy-Con, the number of drift cases we encountered in our sold sets of Joy-Con is extremely depression. It really helps that we utilize brand new genuine analog sticks, only it'due south our testing and uncompromising quality control processes that lowers the probability of drift fifty-fifty further. If we're not certain about an analog, we won't take any chances and replace it so and at that place in the shop. We say it jokingly at the workshop, but at this point, we tin listen to an analog's click sound and tell you its future. The more quality control we perform, the chances for drift go minuscule.

We say it jokingly at the workshop, but at this point, we tin can mind to an analog's click sound and tell yous its future

Having said that, we are aware that information technology's all player dependent ultimately. The analogs are small and the harder you play, the more bruised the mechanism becomes. There'southward a gamble that every Joy-Con will create a drift at some bespeak, but we're not very concerned with that since we know we provide a very good starting signal. If subsequently all of these measures, someone experiences drift on a Joy-Con they purchased from us, our warranty will cover whatever drift upshot for the initial lx days just to make sure in that location's nothing wrong correct off the bat. Beyond that, we'll gear up whatsoever drift issue for just the cost of postage ($fifteen domestic) and our service is otherwise gratuitous for our customers.

Our relationship with them is very important to us, so we never pass up anyone asking for assist. Edifice controller mods is all about taking our gaming experience and making it so much more. It kind of defeats the purpose of what we do to leave anyone annoyed with drift. We want you to play and be happy doing information technology, so having GameTraderZero every bit a home for that already makes facing the dreaded drift amend.

Do you have plans for any other Switch-related mods in the time to come?

Yeah and a lot of them. In a small business, it'due south a bit trickier to be able to realize a lot of plans in a short period of time considering anybody in our pocket-size team has so much to practice already. But who needs sleep? Right? Our spare fourth dimension and weekends are always dedicated to making things abound.

Nosotros're working on expanding our in-business firm capabilities to make custom buttons, shells, and sublimation manufacturing. The beauty of making customized controllers is that there really are so many options and preferences. In the well-nigh time to come, we'll be able to build Joy-Con and controllers that are exclusive to GTZ and have never been fabricated before.