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[Slaylock]

 

[Davevil]

Me playing with that crank

 

[Ceadeus]

I just seen the video and it looks quite fun tbh!

So I'm like, ok let's pre ord... 2023, ok fuck that..

 

[xRosaX]

The lack of any back lighting just KILLS ME. I cant do it. I cant go back the ways of old.

 

[Spukc]

I just seen the video and it looks quite fun tbh!

So I'm like, ok let's pre ord... 2023, ok fuck that..

same

fuck that

 

[protonion]

How the hell did I miss this?

Sadly my country is not included but I will order the second it is added.

It is obviously made with love and the games look a lot of fun. Lot of variety and the crank is a cool little gimmick.
In fact the hardware limitations make it an ideal handheld for me, as I was never a fan of the of the high powered handheld trend that started with the PSP.

 

[CobraAB]

Shit, you will be able to get a PS5 much quicker if you order a Play date today.

Does look kinda cool. I did see it in Edge magazine which seems like an eternity now.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

We learned a lot of different things about the Playdate during our time with it, like your can flip the screen. Here's what we found out!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:27 Playdate Mirror for Streaming
0:50 Screen's great outside
1:44 Crank
2:18 Left-hand crank mode
3:05 Accelerometer and Mic
4:00 Speaker & SFX
4:45 Bluetooth
5:45 Crash Animation
5:55 Storage Left after Season
6:21 Games Outside the Season Too
6:54 Playdate Pulp Webtool to Make Games
7:40 Another Season Later?!
8:20 Boogie Loops Pizza Butts
8:32 Outro

 

[Y0ssarian]

Looks like a piece of shit, ngl

 

[amc]

Screen looks like something half of the current neogafer's where playing around a decade ago, on their Zeebo or portable ZX Spectrum clones and shit.

Nah.

 

[Impotaku]

Looking forward to mine turning up. As someone who grew up with not only electromechanical handheld games but then lcd this thing is totally for me. There’s a nice selection of games on it too, looking forward to seeing what other indie delights appear on this thing. Part of the draw is the games are not found anywhere else, well some stuff like snake is obvs phone fodder but others are unique to this.

Would rather people make unique stuff than trying to port stuff to make it just another gameboy/crappy Chinese emulation box.

 

[RoadHazard]

Watched a review. Still don't understand the crank, seems utterly pointless and gimmicky. There are much better ways to do analog input.

 

[jaysius]

No backlight, no color in 2022 is just fucking ringing out the consumer, almost predatory it's definitely lazy at the price they're asking.

These review score are padded, hell Gamespot even bitched out of giving it a score.

 

[SF Kosmo]

My wife ordered me one for Christmas, which is perfect, as I probably wouldn't have bought one for myself but I have been very curious.

I love this sort of niche oddware, and the idea that a system's unique limitations are what gives it an individual flavor. For whatever you think of the one-bit screen and the crank. the system is amassing a library of interesting exclusive content, thanks to both the developer-friendly SDK and some smart investments with talented indies.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Starting on April 7, Playdate’s price will increase by $20 to $199 due to rising manufacturing costs, the company said on Tuesday.

“That $20 delta is largely because our factory recently gave us the inevitable news that in 2023, the price of building a single Playdate is going up,” said Panic co-founder Cabel Sasser.

 

[Bboy AJ]

Manufacturer: "It's going up by $1 to build."
Playdate: "Fuck it, charge our customers $19 more and tell them the cost to build it has gone up."

 

[ReBurn]

$200 is too much for that.

 

[SmokedMeat]

What happened to this thing? Seemed pretty neat, but then it just fell off the face of the Earth.

 

[diffusionx]

What happened to this thing? Seemed pretty neat, but then it just fell off the face of the Earth.

All the people who bought it died of a Soylent overdose

 

[Agent X]

What happened to this thing?

I just came across this video (posted yesterday) which showcases some of the best games for the system. According to the video, there are over 400 games available now. A few of the games in the video look like they're quite creative.

 

[SF Kosmo]

The PlayDate my wife ordered for me as a gift finally arrived, like a year later. It seems like they've alleviated some of the supply chain issues with a slight hardware revision and now they're shipping at a much better clip. Hopefully soon you'll be able to just buy one without a pre-order wait.

This thing is the console equivalent of dumping all your character points into Charisma. It's underpowered, black and white, and odd as fuck, but everything about it is charming. The user experience is full of cute little animations, the games so far are creative and quirky, the build quality feels really nice, and because it's so thin it's the most pocketable handheld I have ever had, which makes it actually great to just keep in your pocket and mess with on the train or whenever. It's obviously a very niche device, targeting people who like oddware and indie games, but it's hard not to like it.

 

[BootsLoader]

This device is old, isn’t it?? Is this a marketing post?

 

[Brigandier]

I would rather just put that money towards a refurbed steam deck than this...

 

[SF Kosmo]

This device is old, isn’t it?? Is this a marketing post?

It sort of "soft launched" like a year ago or something but they've had trouble making enough units, so some people who pre-ordered are still getting theirs. Like mine was ordered 10 or 11 months ago, but I'm still only getting it now. So it's hard to think of it as "old" when it's still in the soft launch preorder period, but yes some of the earliest preorders were shipped like over a year ago and a lot of reviews dropped around then.

Not a marketing post just happy to finally get my thing.

I think they have shipped like 55,000 of the 60,000 units so normal availability should be soon.

 

[SF Kosmo]

I would rather just put that money towards a refurbed steam deck than this...

Not really competing products. This thing is super tiny and a lot of the appeal comes from the "season" of content (you get 24 games air dropped at regular intervals included in the price), and the small and weird form factor. There's a surprising amount and quality of games too.

It's obviously a pretty niche product, especially considering the price is not cheap. It's very much in that category of "Oddware" like a Vectrex or a Virtual Boy, but it's surprisingly well executed for what it is.

 

[Sorcerer]

Really want to play Saturday Edition, (I heard the dev on the the Playdate Podcast with another dev and one of them mentioned they wanted to bring their game to other platforms, and I was hoping it was Wild Rose, but their website seems to be dead).
The new Lucas Pope game, Mars After Midnight, seems interesting as well.
Kinda hard to pull the trigger on this, the wait time to get one seems crazy. The dock they touted seems to be no longer a thing. Lack of backlight, so playing in the backseat of a car on a long trip or playing in bed with the lights out is not doable. Seems like it is so tiny it might be uncomfortable to hold for a long duration.
Also I know as soon as one arrives at my door they will announce a new color or an updated model. LOL!!! Something stupid and shallow like making the Playdate blue will tip me over into getting one, but I need something to justify me wanting it for 2 games.

 

[BootsLoader]

It sort of "soft launched" like a year ago or something but they've had trouble making enough units, so some people who pre-ordered are still getting theirs. Like mine was ordered 10 or 11 months ago, but I'm still only getting it now. So it's hard to think of it as "old" when it's still in the soft launch preorder period, but yes some of the earliest preorders were shipped like over a year ago and a lot of reviews dropped around then.

Not a marketing post just happy to finally get my thing.

I think they have shipped like 55,000 of the 60,000 units so normal availability should be soon.

Thanks for informing me. I was not aware of this issue.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

If someone is itching for handheld gaming with $200 to spend, just find a used Nintendo system or one of those chinese devices that can play tons of emulated games.

Then again, if your plan is to put it on your coffee table to show people you can play cute black and white games with a crank, then by all means buy it.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Really want to play Saturday Edition, (I heard the dev on the the Playdate Podcast with another dev and one of them mentioned they wanted to bring their game to other platforms, and I was hoping it was Wild Rose, but their website seems to be dead).
The new Lucas Pope game, Mars After Midnight, seems interesting as well.

Really looking forward to Mars After Midnight. It doesn't seem to have a firm release date, but there a Catalog page for it.

Speaking of, they added an integrated app store called Catalog which seems like a great addition. There are still a lot of games that are only available by side loading from itch.io but it's good to have an official option as well. It lacks some features (can a brother get a search?) It's nice to browse.

Kinda hard to pull the trigger on this, the wait time to get one seems crazy.

I suspect this will change by the holiday. They have solved some of their supply chain issues with a new hardware revision, and it seems like they shipping at a much faster pace now. Within the next month or so they will likely be caught up on pre-orders finally and you'll probably be able to just order one.

The dock they touted seems to be no longer a thing. Lack of backlight, so playing in the backseat of a car on a long trip or playing in bed with the lights out is not doable. Seems like it is so tiny it might be uncomfortable to hold for a long duration.

Lack of backlight is a limitation. It has kind of a reflector back so it looks quite bright when you have good light but it's hard to see in the dark. You can do screen mirroring but I haven't tried it. I haven't had any ergonomic issues with it though.