Take that stick apart and put some kind of grease in there, lest your enthusiasm kill it like most of them out there.

Not graphite? Which specific type/class of grease (I imagine you would want something extremely slick)?

I used some kind of white ceramic grease in a stick I would describe as 75-80% condition; it has been about 10 years with little deterioration since. I've read Lithium grease is better.

I've also read somewhere, though I could never find conclusive information, that Nintendo actually intended for these sticks to have some sort of grease included but was unable to for some reason that wasn't as trivial to explain as "Greedy company wants players to keep buying gamepads"..

I can't find any solid reference, but a small "assemble yourself" toy my daughter received for Christmas recommended applying grease to some cogs during assembly and mentioned that the grease itself could not be included in the product due to varying Customs/Import restrictions across the world.

Usually I see Lithium grease recommended

Post pics after you give your palms 1st degree burns playing Mario Party

The pain of a first degree burns pales in comparison to dominating the star count the whole game, only to lose after the playing is finished due to someone else eking by due to impossible-to-predict bonus stars. Toad is a masochist, and he would give us all third degree burns too if they didn't destroy nerves and therefore the ability to feel them.

>Toad is a masochist

I love the "inner beast" which often appears between well-matched players.

> All to say: the N64 Controller is a thing of beauty

Honestly, it's always been one of the ugliest controllers in my opinion, and I was under the impression my opinion wasn't super common. I'm not usually one to care about form over function, but if anything the function is even worse, because no matter how you hold it, 1/3 of the controls are unreachable. If I had a third hand, maybe I'd appreciate it more, but it just looks like it was designed by an alien who had never seen a human before...

I did something similar but got a flash cart and a CRT. The nostalgia aspect still works for me since I had a flash cart back then too, only that one was maybe double the size of the N64 itself and this one is the same size and shape as a regular cartridge. Interestingly both of them costed a few hundred bucks, though I guess the one from back then (I think it was the Z64 or maybe the Mr Backup?) would have been a lot more if you account for inflation. Would recommend, too many N64 carts are unavailable or prohibitively expensive.