Warrior 64 Clone Console Is The Ultimate N64 Remake

[CZroe]

Here's a little treat for you guys straight from the British IntecGaming spokesman living in mainland China, Lee Barrett:

A week ago I watched a PrimeInChina video about some shill in China named Barrett being exposed by The Times for being paid to push Chinese Communist propaganda:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beijing-funds-british-youtubers-to-further-its-propaganda-war-x5gqp5fg0

I thought "that guy looks familiar" but I didn't quite connect it to the Warrior 64 and IntecGaming until seeing this video from SerpentZA today:

(~52 minutes in but I cut it out and uploaded just that part above)

Yeah, this guy is a paid shill with no shame. His YouTube channel is full of Chinese Communist Party propaganda about Huawei, face scans, Communism>democracy, etc:

https://youtube.com/c/BarrettYT

I say "shameless" but in the clip I started out with he actually tries to lay it all on his brother and YouTube partner, Ollie Barrett even though we have a solid example of him doing it right here with Intec. The clip was taken from his deleted live stream. Once he got the money he was negotiating for with that video it went *poof* so I'm glad we have an archive of it.

Yeah, IntecGaming probably thought they could pass him off as American just like they thought they could pass this guy off as an Englishman:

At least "Richard from England" was only intended to be seen by other Chinese people who might be convinced that this product is good enough for Westerners.

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

AMAZING dig! 

[CZroe]

A couple corrections:

"Ollie Barrett" is spelled Oli Barrett, according to The Times.

Oli is actually Lee Barrett's son, not his brother as I had previously read. Makes it even more despicable that Lee would call out Oli for shilling.

 

The Time article exposing the Barretts as propaganda shills is behind a paywall but I'll be adding screenshots of it later.

 

My DIY Warrior 64 kit finally arrived this morning... just after I left for the day. No real reason to be excited for this thing after RetroRGB Bob beat me to the punch on upgrading one but I still haven't seen a DIY kit unboxing anywhere.

[CZroe]

Got to unbox the thing and test-fit a board in it but that's about it. I'm more impressed by the shell than I thought I'd be but it definitely isn't 1st party quality. One example: There is far less ventilation on top. Most of what look like vents actually isn't. Only two tiny slits barely wide enough for a razor blade. Granted, N64's don't really overheat even when you run them without a heatsink... but the Expansion Pak can. Indeed, 3rd party RAM was notorious for overheating and locking up. When the extra heat from the system I wonder if it will cause more RAM overheating/instability. I kinda wish they had put a few vents on the memory door.

Mine has a tiny blemish in one corner and I can see a bit of plastic poking through where they used a label on the bottom to hide an injection mold point. Then again, I had a PSP-1000 with the metal ring in the back ruined from the Sony factory by the same exact thing (wasn't flush and never went back flush after trimming the excess plastic). What's worse is the texture around the smooth and mostly-fake vents goes from looking fine near the front to looking singed and dirty near the cartridge slot. It's a very different texture than the other textures parts of the shell... more like an Atari 800XL than an original N64. The other textures parts are more like an original N64.

Yeah, there's no way this thing fits the 64DD or the Bung Doctor V64. I tried the latter. Makes me wonder why they bothered making as door on the bottom. The shape doesn't seem quite the same as the original so it isn't like they work as replacement doors on original consoles either.

I kinda like how the power switch fits within the lines of the case until you flick it on. Unlike an original shell the two halves of my Warrior 64 shell don't really fall into place and seat together when unscrewed unless I hold them together with pressure. Not an issue but definitely a quality difference I noted from the typical OEM shell.

I kinda wish the cartridge doors were opaque... like the solid green door flaps on a clear Jungle Green console. They look like they might fit an original console to work as replacements but, well, no original consoles had clear doors.

The manual tells you to remove your old Jumper Pak or Expansion Pak with "a stick" even though you don't need to do anything (it comes off with the top shell). Other than telling you how to identify which adapter boards to use with which console, the instructions don't show you anything the YouTube video didn't show. No soldering tips or anything. It's just, you know, "step [whatever], solder the [thing]."

I haven't messed with the controller yet but I have an original HoriPad Mini 64 or whatever it's called to compare it to.

[Steven Pendleton]

2 hours ago, CZroe said:

Got to unbox the thing and test-fit a board in it but that's about it. I'm more impressed by the shell than I thought I'd be but it definitely isn't 1st party quality. One example: There is far less ventilation on top. Most of what look like vents actually isn't. Only two tiny slits barely wide enough for a razor blade. Granted, N64's don't really overheat even when you run them without a heatsink... but the Expansion Pak can. Indeed, 3rd party RAM was notorious for overheating and locking up. When the extra heat from the system I wonder if it will cause more RAM overheating/instability. I kinda wish they had put a few vents on the memory door.

Mine has a tiny blemish in one corner and I can see a bit of plastic poking through where they used a label on the bottom to hide an injection mold point. Then again, I had a PSP-1000 with the metal ring in the back ruined from the Sony factory by the same exact thing (wasn't flush and never went back flush after trimming the excess plastic). What's worse is the texture around the smooth and mostly-fake vents goes from looking fine near the front to looking singed and dirty near the cartridge slot. It's a very different texture than the other textures parts of the shell... more like an Atari 800XL than an original N64. The other textures parts are more like an original N64.

Yeah, there's no way this thing fits the 64DD or the Bung Doctor V64. I tried the latter. Makes me wonder why they bothered making as door on the bottom. The shape doesn't seem quite the same as the original so it isn't like they work as replacement doors on original consoles either.

I kinda like how the power switch fits within the lines of the case until you flick it on. Unlike an original shell the two halves of my Warrior 64 shell don't really fall into place and seat together when unscrewed unless I hold them together with pressure. Not an issue but definitely a quality difference I noted from the typical OEM shell.

I kinda wish the cartridge doors were opaque... like the solid green door flaps on a clear Jungle Green console. They look like they might fit an original console to work as replacements but, well, no original consoles had clear doors.

The manual tells you to remove your old Jumper Pak or Expansion Pak with "a stick" even though you don't need to do anything (it comes off with the top shell). Other than telling you how to identify which adapter boards to use with which console, the instructions don't show you anything the YouTube video didn't show. No soldering tips or anything. It's just, you know, "step [whatever], solder the [thing]."

I haven't messed with the controller yet but I have an original HoriPad Mini 64 or whatever it's called to compare it to.

So... basically it's bad. Is there anything you can really salvage from it beyond what Bob already did?

[CatPix]

I'll be interested in the pad review. That might be the only worthwhile part. I do'nt expect too much tho, most pads in the same price range are mediocre so that one shouldn't come as a big surprise either.

[CZroe]

So... basically it's bad. Is there anything you can really salvage from it beyond what Bob already did?

The shell was better than expected in most ways but could be better in some others. The ventilation was the only part I expected to be better. Not sure what I was expecting regarding texture consistency since I didn't know it was supposed to have three textures (smooth, frosted, and acid-etched). The acid-etched texture around the smooth vents was the only one with a consistency issue.

It does seem like there is more room above the heat sink for hot air to accumulate but it could still use more vents.

I just recalled that my Bung V64jr512 cartridge conforms to a stock N64 shell so I need to see if that fits the Warrior 64 too.

The plastic looks good and high-quality. The fit is good enough once screwed together. The design looks a bit better than I expected with the contrast between frosted and clear areas but still seems like an acquired taste. I don't hate it but I don't particularly like it. Some people will love it. I love the original design and don't expect this to grow on me.

[CZroe]

Though I seemed to be the first to notice that the notorious propaganda shill Lee Barrett was the same guy from the Warrior 64 kickstarter, PrimeInChina just made a video about it:

 

 

No mention of where he found out and he seems to get a lot of facts wrong but it is raising awareness.

 

First, they never claimed or implied that Lee was the made-up American they call "John" in their Kickstarter story. Though they may have assumed Lee could pass for American, Lee never even claimed to work for Intec.

 

Also, MetalJesusRocks and thus PrimInChina are wrong about it being the same quality as the $30 external HDMI cables for N64, though that would be true if the N64 had RGB output and the external cables used RGB like they do for SNES. The actual scaling is the same poor quality scaler that deinterlaces non-interlaced 240p game content but the source signal is higher quality RGB.

 

[CZroe]

Here is my visual comparison between the Warrior 64 Pad and an original HoriPad Mini 64:
http://imgur.com/a/WLJQOut

My twin brother hates the HoriPad Mini 64 but I had him play through a 16-star run of Super Mario 64 on both. He expressed no preference and had no complaints about the Warrior that didn't also apply to the HoriPad. I'm inclined to say that the Warrior 64 controller is slightly better since the range is a little tighter and there are some games where oversteering causes issues. Walking backwards in Blast Corps or randomly spinning out more in Mario Kart 64 were oversteer issues I noted with a controller called "The Rock" way back in 1997.

I recall the translational logic in some Gamecube-style aftermarket sticks for standard N64 controllers limits you to something like 16 directions so I need to make sure that isn't the case here. Also, I've noticed that the quick sword spin technique in Ocarina of Time is much harder on some aftermarket sticks and emulators (even Wii Virtual Console) so I need to test that with the Warrior 64 too. That's the move where you spin the stick and hit B for a spin attack without charging the B button. It doesn't use magic like charging the B button does either.

TL;DR: Early impressions of the pad are good.

[Steven Pendleton]

I'm not some sort of N64 controller expert, but it definitely looks to me like they looked at the Hori controller and said "How can we copy this as close to 100% as possible without getting sued?" and went from there. Even then, it still is borderline... Good that it's actually a good controller, though.

[CZroe]

I'm not some sort of N64 controller expert, but it definitely looks to me like they looked at the Hori controller and said "How can we copy this as close to 100% as possible without getting sued?" and went from there. Even then, it still is borderline... Good that it's actually a good controller, though.

Yeah, the Warrior 64 Pad is definitely a straight-up replica of the HoriPad Mini 64 much like the Old Skool ControlPad is a replica of the original NEC TurboPad. Everywhere you look in The States we have crappy replica original-style N64 controllers with an empty oval above the Start button where the Nintendo logo goes (several different brands) so it seems only some brands care to avoid this.

IMO, the Retro-Bit Tribute 64 and Hyperkin Admiral are the ones that made some attempt to be different/legally distinct from Hori's HoriPad Mini 64 while IntecGaming straight-up didn't care short of copying logos on their Warrior 64 Pad. Just like the OldSkool ControlPad and the Hyperkin Specialist, all three are likely made by the same ODM manufacturing partner.

Anyway, MadLittlePixel's controller test results with the wireless Brawler 64 looks extremely similar to the Warrior 64 Pad:

My Warrior 64 Pad result is still slightly closer to the ideal range of a brand new original N64 controller but it's close enough to the wireless Brawler 64 for the difference to be a sampling error. They probably have the same circuitry converting the analog pot ranges to the N64's optical encoder format... maybe even the same ODM again.

Yeah, it's pretty clear that there is one big ODM marketing these variations and controller production services to different brands in much the same way they did with those console-specific HDMI cables (#Pound, X-treme, XAgent, LevelHike, Hyperkin, etc).