Rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro sporting 4K output are circulating yet again, but one engineer has already beat Nintendo to the punch with a 76" mega Switch with a built-in 4K screen.
As VGC spotted, Michael Pick – a self-described "casual engineer" – recently built a massive Nintendo Switch measuring 70" by 30" using 3D printed components, a 4K TV, some clever servo placement, and a custom-made housing. It weighs in at 65 pounds and is over seven times the size of a normal Switch.
Everything is packed into the giant replica Switch frame, and all of the buttons and joysticks on the thing actually work since they're linked to the real Switch found inside. When you press one of the giant buttons on the case itself, that motion triggers servos attached to the corresponding button on the internal Joy-Con, turning a meaty button mash into a gentle tap on the actual controller. Pick was able to finish a race of Mario Kart only using the giant Joy-Cons, so they're perfectly functional.
"The reason I went with this design choice (servos pushing physical buttons) was due to time constraints," he explained in a Reddit comment. "I knew that this method would 100% work, but the best method would be to hack into the Joy-Con controller and interface with the buttons directly, or there are some really cool projects I just recently saw that involve using a Teensy microcontroller to emulate the Joy-Con controllers."
Pick built this giant Switch, in part, to donate it to the Saint Jude's Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Thankfully, because it uses a real Switch as its core, this build also supports external controllers like the Switch Pro gamepad, which should be much easier for kids to handle. That said, I know that childhood me would've jumped at the chance to use a controller so big you have to press the buttons like you're playing whack-a-mole.
A new dock may be in the works for the usual tiny, human-sized Switch.
