F-Zero X Can't Be Made Today ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [AGR Part 2]

Part 3: To be released

0:00 F-Zero X
1:11 How Planned Obsolescence Made Racing Games Worse
4:24 F-Zero X Continued
6:55 F-Zero X: Expansion Kit
7:40 What is Anti Gravity Racing?
8:44 Outro

[RAPTOR]

The thing about F-Zero X on N64 was because the sticks were optical sensors, not potentiometers.

Potentiometers are the cheapest way to make your controller's sensors. This is the often standard stick sensor in your typical PS and XB controllers, and even in the joycons.

Hall Effect sensors are the rising new standard which is related to the electromagnetic sensors known to exist in the control sticks for the Sega Dreamcast. These modern hall effect sensors however were popularized and made mainstream by GuliKit, and these sensors do not risk drifting.

Optical sensors: These are EXTREMELY precise! Like Hall effect sensors, these sticks are often extremely precise, and if they were made of metal, they would last much longer, but sadly, the optical sensor sticks popular in N64 controllers were made of plastic to cut the costs, which in turn made them prone to fail not by the sensor's fault, but by the fault of the fact of wear and tear over frequent use.

Microswitch arcade sticks: These sticks use microswitches, and are used in arcade machines and fight sticks that offer the arcade authentic feeling.

F-Zero X made optimal use of the N64's optical sensor control stick, and it's precise nature. THAT is what makes F-Zero X control so well.

[PAPO]

I just want to correct something, the N64 joystick was OPTICAL, not Hall Effect. It avoids many of the normal potentiometer stick issues, but does have it's own

[foxelgames]

Developer of ArcRacer here, which I see is on your big list of AGRs; thanks for making this series! It's nice to see the genre getting some love, I'll be watching with interest.

[christiankettlewell]

When I was really little, I played this while holding the stick all the way up (because that’s what worked in Mario Kart 64) but if you don’t let go when you go off a ramp, you force your vehicle downward and die every time. It took me longer than I’m proud to admit to learn this lesson as a kid that there was a correlation to what I was doing and to why I was dying, but it’s something that I’ve never forgotten. So keep that in mind if you drive that style.

[NIMPAK]

F-Zero X also had the same lead programmer as Wave Race 64 and, as far as I know, no other racing game afterwards. The guy honestly seemed like an unsung genius. Heck, I'd even go far as to say that despite the hardware issues, the N64 era was Nintendo at their peak. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Gamecube too, but I think people tend to over praise it a bit too much and tend to forget that there were a lot of growing pains early on in its lifespan and outside of Melee and GX, a lot of crappy sequels.

[RetroAussieBloke]

what pisses me off most about F-Zero X is that Nintendo's official re-releases are, demonstrably, far and away the worst ways to play this.
The joystick sensitivity is absurdly strong, even putting aside the fact that their modern sticks have stick drift, and have had it since the Wii.
The N64 used hard plastic for its' stick, with some minor weight to the stick itself. That means it can't snap to full lock without a bit of effort, but by constrast it ALSO makes small adjustments much, MUCH easier!
If you're not lucky enough to have original hardware - Grab a PC emulator, set the stick senstivity to an upper deadzone of 15%. That will make your maximum range well within the game's much smaller boundary, and it plays like butter once you do that!

[LuwiigiMaster]

I feel like the reason they abandoned the Hall Effect controllers is due to cost. Why spend 50 cents on something when you can spend 8 cents on something that works roughly the same way? It's the same reason cars don't have physical controls on them anymore.

[j.m.n]

I'm glad you're doing this series, very few people into racing games as a genre talk about ag racing. I'm also happy to see the Redout games on that massive timeline you show, they're some of my favorite racing games of all time and it's awesome to see someone recognize them.

[Franklin_Johanessan]

My parents wonder why I'm so specific about what controller I consider, and why I don't even consider 1st party ones, and one with swappable cages/housing

[Namkify]

This looks actually like one of the more thoughtful AGRs, which makes me wonder: are you going to Rank them at the end aswell? Im sure youtube loves rankings

[ThePonySlayer]

Your channel is one of the few that speaks the plain truth without the need of marketing speak or some other type of BS.
Hope you see this comment and get the message that we love your content.
Wish there was a way to donate some coffee cups to you.

[sergewind]

Counterpoint to "no reason not to push the stick all the way": Trackmania. In it, turning too far can cost you more time than you gain from precise, tight, and smooth turns. It's a noticeable difference when using the Rally and Desert cars, but not as noticable on the Stadium car, which is why Stadium is more popular (as you can play it with a keyboard and not be too far behind the joystick/wheel users in precision); and nowadays they've also added Action Keys for kb users to steer at 20/40/60/80% of the maximum steer.

[nickpress]

F Zero X is a joy dispenser. Thanks for giving it the recognition it deserves. :)

[Megatron]

I had the original version of this game released in the US (no expansion) and beat it about every way possible (all circuits with all characters and all difficulties). My favorite thing about this game is by far the soundtrack followed closely by the framerate. One thing I would add to your video though, when sliding / drifting (if I recall you can hold Z and R to force a drift) the Acceleration / Speed setting makes a huge difference - Vehicles favoring speed slow down considerably when drifting while vehicles favoring acceleration actually speed quite a bit when drifting. This is extremely useful in tight spaces where there are tons of racers in a large group as a spin attack can take them out quickly.

Acceleration / Speed also affects your vehicles ability to fly - High speed does not fly too well while you can fly much further with high acceleration.

Great video though, F-Zero X is one of my favorite games ever!

[Klonoa]

Fun fact: the controllers you showed with the spinning with force feedback and the one where you turn or steer twisting are made by Namco for the PS1 and PS2. Shocking how old some stuff is but still holds up today or it becomes the best way to play this games. Nice video!! btw

[VestedUTuber]

Oh, when you go over other AGRs, make special mention of Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. Due to it being a movie tie-in, it's actually still to this day the best selling AGR ever produced.

[zpacula]

And that's why Steam Controller (press [f] to pay respects) came with touchpads! (Also in Steam, for every controller that it supports, you can turn off the deadzone and change your sticks sensitivity curve)

[ValhallaKingdom]

The f zero expansion kit also has three new vehicles, the Super Falcon, Super Stingray and Super Cat

[EnigmaHood]

7:37 "Setting up the emulator requires too much button clicking"

You just earned yourself a like and a subscribe

[TheInfiniteLegend]

That tidbit of using hall effect joysticks instead of regular joysticks
I should get one (not just for X, but also GX), i never knew that these joysticks could help with your accuracy by tons, thank you