Enter Todd Gill, 3D printer extraordinaire. Under the name Retro Frog he designs, prints, and sells (and more often than not makes his designs available for free) a number of accessories for consoles old and new: vertical stands for PS1 and X Box, MiSTer cases, dust covers for controllers or cart slots, and more.
Why not create something that would allow vertical shooters to use the whole screen estate while allowing players to use more comfortable controllers like the Pro Pad or even wired arcade sticks?
First shown in a Tweet, RoTATE (I guess the pun is evident) would soon get the attention of the community and moved to Kickstarter; the project was successful, but unfortunately missed its extra goal that would see the contraption brought to life as moulded plastic, rather than 3D printed.
ASSEMBLY
Out of the box, RoTATE comes in two main parts: the base and the vertical arm, with pre-assembled rotation mechanism and tilting head; there are also four adhesive rubber feet and a single thumbscrew.
No instructions are provided, but there's no real need for them. Simply attach the four rubber feet to the flat side of the base, fit the arm into the base receptacle paying attention to the obvious notch, secure them together with the thumbscrew, and RoTATE is ready to go. If anything, the thumbscrew could have had indentations for screwdrivers for those with bigger fingers and for ease of disassembly.
DESCRIPTION
RoTATE is 3D printed with a filament printer, the outer surfaces clearly showing patterns typical of those machines. The base is 14.3cm wide and 10.2cm deep, with a total height of 1.6cm, receptacle for the vertical arm included.
The vertical arm is the most complex part, with the rotation mechanism and a tilting head for optimal viewing angle. The tilting head is held in place by a spring-loaded screw, and maximum extensions of 0° (head fully vertical) to 90° (head fully horizontal), with four detents in-between. Once the spring-loaded screw is loosened a bit, the head can be easily adjusted without tools while steadily holding the chosen position.
The rotation mechanism has four positions, and does a full 360°; this mechanism might feel a bit loose initially, but it has been able to hold a Switch with just one Joycon horizontal without any problems.
The four detents are a few degrees off from being perfectly parallel (or perpendicular, depending on the position) to the base, but it's only noticeable if you measure this and it's completely forgotten the moment you start playing.
Four prongs are used to hold the console, with two of them having a small tooth each; a big "USB" and an arrow on the inner face of the rotation support point to them, and these teeth will fit into the receptacles flanking the console's USB-C port.
Once fully assembled, RoTATE reaches a total of 13.5cm in height, with the tilting head fully vertical, rubber feet included but excluding the rotation support, and weights 123g.
It might not be as portable as a FlipGrip, but it's not an excessively big piece of equipment to bring along if you so wish.
All components feel sturdy enough, including the four prongs that hold Switch; these prongs aren't completely rigid as they need to bend a bit to let the console in and out. They are probably the part that is in more danger of snapping due to continuous use, especially with an OLED Switch: this version of the console is a tighter fit then the original, and every time I attach/detach the console I pay extra attention to not overburden the prongs and not to scratch the upper side of the console. Rubberised surfaces, or some way to open the prongs, would have made me more comfortable for both console and RoTATE.
USE
To attach the console place the lower side first, aligning teeth and indentations, then snap the upper side into place.
Speakers, cart slot, power and volume buttons, and USB port are all accessible with the console attached. The vent on the upper side is partially covered, but that should not be a problem in handheld mode. OLED Switch users will lose the ability to access the micro SD on the back of the console due to the revised kickstand, but again that is a minor (or non-existent) problem.
With the Joycons attached and the head vertical, it's not possible to move from a vertical to horizontal position and vice-versa, but tilting the head to its second detent is enough to do just that.
RoTATE has quickly become a great alternative to holding the console; with the console in hand, my arms would start going numb after a while, forcing me to have them rest on something, whether on my legs or the edge of the table. RoTATE completely removes this problem, and has the distinct advantage over the kickstand of raising the console to offer a more comfortable, and adjustable, viewing angle. It is also a far more stable arrangement too.
Setting up a RoTATE is basically immediate and not as awkward to assemble/disassemble as a FlipGrip, and switching between horizontal and vertical orientation is effortless. RoTATE is a great way to experience vertical shooters for those who can't rotate their housebound screens.
I would be lying if I said the four prongs don't worry me though; continuously snapping Switch into place and removing it will create some scratches for sure, and of course it will wear down the 3D printed prongs too. I've never had scratches from removing and inserting two Switches into their docks (standard and OLED versions), but I fear that sooner or later RoTATE will leave some marks, or worse: one of the prongs goes directly over the ventilation grill, a notorious weak point in the design of the original Switch. The prongs don't touch the screen at all, but every attach/detach is done with the utmost care to avoid damage to both Switch and RoTATE.
Currently Todd is fulfilling Kickstarter orders, and after that RoTATE will be available to the general public. Cost hasn't been announced yet, but the Kickstarter pledge for one was USD 30 plus shipping.