Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

Panic never stops surprising me. You&#x27;d think you had them figured out, they keep jumping onto another shelf.<p>It must be fun to work at Panic. It reminds me of how tech companies were in the 90s. Clear mission, but open horizon.

It would be so awesome if this worked with Pico 8 or a similar fantasy console. I will be much more interested if the barrier to entry for making my own games is as close to zero as possible.<p>I want to make my own games for fun, but also to expose my son to the creativity and exploration of programming.<p>A physical console would make this experience so much more real.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php</a>

I personally <i>love</i> weird single-purpose hardware. Unfortunately it tends not to do very well commercially.<p>Anybody remember this guy? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WikiReader" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;WikiReader</a>

Not to discount the hardware, which looks absolutely beautiful, but what strikes me the most is the business model.<p>A new game, every Monday, delivered wirelessly to your pocket.<p>What excites me about Playdate is that it is something only an outsider with no attachments to existing business relationships could make.<p>Games released today are still encumbered by the regional and geographic thinking of traditional software distribution. While Steam, the App Store, etc have certainly democratised some aspects, they are still an exception to the traditional model that generates the most revenue.<p>Episodic games tried to bring seasonality to gaming. That didn’t really work (Episode 3 anyone?). Fortnite has been the most successful at it, but it is still a AAA game attached to a big publisher. It’s the evolution of the old model.<p>Playdate and Apple’s upcoming Arcade feel like the beginning of a new model and that’s really, really exciting.

I refuse to believe that anyone came up with a crank based input system organically.<p>Here&#x27;s what I think happened. They decided that they wanted to make a low power black and white game system for people to use while camping. They decided that a crank charger was the best solution for this and went ahead with development.<p>Further into the process they discovered that they couldn&#x27;t get the power budget low enough to make cranking a viable option, but they were too far along to abandon it completely.<p>Then someone had a brilliant idea. <i>Lets make the crank an input system, and develop crank based games.</i>

From the Media Kit page, it looks like this device will use a Sharp <i>memory LCD display</i> (LS027B7DH01), which is similar to an e-ink display, but without refresh issues. The same display as in the SwissMicros DM42 [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Ong91Ji3iDk</a>

It would be cool if the crank was also used to charge the device&#x27;s battery.

Between Panic and Teenage Engineering I actually have faith in this being a worthwhile endeavor. From the face of it I would expect this to go the way of the Ouya, but with those two at the helm it could actually be something cool. It&#x27;s a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant casual mobile gaming space.

Where&#x27;s the SDK? That&#x27;s what I&#x27;m interested in. I don&#x27;t wanna be limited to just twelve games.<p>Edit- looks like an SDK exists, it&#x27;s just not available quite yet: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.date&#x2F;media&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.date&#x2F;media&#x2F;</a>

This looks really cool and would be great for a fishing game.<p>I wonder about the lack of backlighting though? Hopefully the screen is much better in this regard than the original non-backlit GBA, which was difficult to see in low light conditions.<p>It was tricky getting light to hit the screen in just the right way: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.penny-arcade.com&#x2F;comic&#x2F;2001&#x2F;06&#x2F;13&#x2F;lame-boy-advance" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.penny-arcade.com&#x2F;comic&#x2F;2001&#x2F;06&#x2F;13&#x2F;lame-boy-advan...</a>

This is gonna be fun: &quot;Every Monday, via WiFi, owners receive a new game, the notification light on top of the case blinking to announce its arrival. Whenever you have five spare minutes, you’ll be able to reach into your own shirt pocket, and make time for your Playdate.&quot;

This is going to be a tough sell.<p>$150 dollars is very expensive for a portable game system, which will compete with any tablet&#x2F;phone that can play games that have better graphics and game play.<p>The problem is that this is competing with entire ecosystems of games that have been around for almost a decade.

I am really excited about this. Firewatch is an amazing game with amazing execution. Teenage Engineering&#x27;s OP1 is supposedly really good hardware (from what i heard and saw on youtube). Single purpose devices like this are more enjoyable to use since you aren&#x27;t always itching to use a different app etc. The gradual &quot;rollout&quot; of games with a new one each week sounds like an exciting thing to look forwards to every week actually! Although the price is steep (for a student), i&#x27;m pretty sure i&#x27;ll get it as this sounds like a well crafted and enjoyable experience

I love this so much. I&#x27;m such a sucker for simple gaming mechanics, and I have some faith that these specific people could make this work.<p>I know devices like this often fail to thrive in the market, but Teenage Engineering has some experience making this sort of single-purpose device work for customers. Panic seems to be very passionate, quality and delivery oriented, and good at doing an exceptional job on familiar products. There might be some potential here. I&#x27;d absolutely take my chances on this thing if I could get my hands on one! My kids would love it too.

Personally the association with Teenage Engineering makes me more concerned that this will not be as exciting as it sounds. TE&#x27;s Op-1 is a fine piece of kit, but their recent offerings have been very underwhelming. Also the placement of the crank and the form factor look very un-ergonomic.

I think it&#x27;s cool. I&#x27;m not that old, but games these days mostly seem to be about squeezing every last dollar out of the consumer through shady means. I think this is part of why I don&#x27;t play video games anymore. It&#x27;s nice to see something different.

Isn&#x27;t $150 expensive? Or may be I am just too poor, to throw money at anyone who asks for it.

I&#x27;ll give this idea one plus - it&#x27;s a got a playful, fun design. I get the idea of going simple and fun with this.<p>As a device to plunk down $150 on, no way.<p>- If the crank is so fun, they didn&#x27;t manage to show it.<p>- Hopefully they&#x27;ll show more games, because the promise of 12 black and white games involving two buttons a crank isn&#x27;t awe-inspiring.<p>- The 2DS is the same price and is vastly more powerful and capable. Obviously they&#x27;re going for simplicity and quirkiness but objectively it&#x27;s just a real hard sell here.<p>- Nintendo is rumored to be making a cheaper more portable Switch along with a Switch Pro this year, and I bet that cheap one is going to be $200.<p>I just think the only &quot;why&quot; of this thing is &quot;because we could.&quot; That&#x27;s totally okay, but I&#x27;d be shocked if this was any more than a limited run item, and even more shocked if anything beyond those initial games ever make it to the platform.

Love the compliant mechanism buttons<p>(I just recently learned about compliant mechanisms - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=97t7Xj_iBv0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=97t7Xj_iBv0</a>)

Is this cute? Yeah, absolutely, but there are actually a lot of cute little handheld gaming devices just like it, except they have nicer screens and don&#x27;t cost $150.<p>Like the Bitboy, Pixel Classic, PocketGo, Pocket Sprite. Even the Micro Arcade series which are credit card sized single-game handheld with full color screens.

My feelings are not positive on this one. Trying to be for the sake of the guys making this but here is my problem...besides being very let down that the crank has nothing to do with charging, the price is just too much. Canadian here so 150USD is just over 200$CAD. For 200$ I can very easily pick up a used ipad or iphone and my kids would love to have either one of those. They play lots of games, they watch videos, they surf the internet, they make video calls, and 100 other uses I am sure. So though this device might be cool, it would be a pretty hard sell for me and my kids. The value just doesn&#x27;t seem to be worth it.

I love seeing products like this, but I fear 150 is a bit beyond the impulse buy price that probably is needed to get big sales.<p>Having said that it looks neat.

I&#x27;m really excited about this. I&#x27;ve always kind of wanted Teenage Engineering tech because low-fi, tactile, single purpose devices always appeal to me, but I seem to have anti-musical ability so couldn&#x27;t justify one. This is something I could actually use and enjoy, and I would love to take a crack at developing for it.

Reminds me of Ouya[1], which was $99 console and I think did not have much luck as a gaming platform.<p>1 - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ouya.tv&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ouya.tv&#x2F;</a>

Man they worked with Teenage Engineering for this? That&#x27;s a pretty incredible team. I am amazed.

I dont know how much it costs to make specialized hardware. But i think there was a missed oportunity in cartridge based handhelds. There were a couple of games for GB,GBA and DS that had gimmicky controls that came from the cartridge. As the gyroscope for Yoshi Tipsy Turvy, Wario Ware Twisted and Kirby Tilt n Tumble. Another one was Guitar Hero for the DS and i think there was one with a light sensor for the GB? This feels like it has the same spirit. Wish them good luck.

The crank is really interesting. It&#x27;s such an off the wall choice for a user interface. It will be cool to see how developers take advantage of it.

This is interesting, but I can think of lots of things I&#x27;d put on the side of the device to make it unique besides a crank. It&#x27;s an oddly specific way to provide analog and&#x2F;or constant input (if it does indeed crank 360 degrees) from the player. An actual analog stick? A dial? A trigger? A switch lever? A touch sensitive pad? A trackball?<p>Maybe these guys are really into fishing?

What a fascinating concept. Makes me feel out of touch with consumers these days, I&#x27;d have imagined the appeal of this would be very low but since the Panic team has a great track record and volume manufacturing is not cheap I guess they have assessed their demand.<p>I&#x27;m curious who is buying this instead of e.g. a GPD XD (full android clamshell with dedicated game controls).

I knew Teenage Engineering had something to do with this on first sight.

This. So much this.<p>There’s much to be said about a handheld gaming device that isn’t constantly distracting you with notifications and alerts. My iPhone constantly teeters between Do Not Disturb and full-on ring volume.<p>Looking forward to mandatory immersion in the art, story, and gameplay of a dedicated handheld gaming device, a la the original Gameboy.

I have a bunch of Teenage Engineerings Pocket Operators. I definitely see this as something very similar. It will probably be surprisingly powerful as a platform, but still not going to be trying to compete with the Switch. They&#x27;ll concentrate on making a fun experience over pushing the boundaries of technology.

This looks pretty cool! There have been some horribly misguided niche consoles lately, (see the Amico), this one looks great by comparison. I can see it working as kind of a novelty product. I think the price point is a little high, since it&#x27;s close to Nintendo handheld prices.

Initially I thought it was just another Gameboy imitation, but a crank? Wow, that would add a whole new dimension to it. At this stage of the gaming industry when everybody keeps making very similar games and products, any unconventional creative ideas are more than welcomed!

Design wise this looks similar to something teenage engineering would make. Which I think is cool, I like their stuff. Specifically the op1 with the hand crank functionality

This looks neat. It reminds me of what you might get if Nintendo built the GameBoy today with similar tech constraints (BW screen, only two buttons, motion controls, etc.)

Hmm, I was expecting this to be like the PGS and friends kickstarter scams but it&#x27;s by Panic which I respect very much. I&#x27;ve used almost everything they&#x27;ve made and I&#x27;ve played Firewatch (Great story, not really a game as much as a choose-your-own-adventure-story but your choices don&#x27;t matter).<p>I&#x27;m probably not going to be buying this day 1 but this is very interesting and if anyone can do it Panic can. Best of luck to them!

I&#x27;m wondering if that crank would work for a leftie?

I appreciate everything Panic has done, and how they pushed apps to a higher UI and innovation level. I probably will get a Playdate.<p>The first handheld I&#x27;ve owned was a Greenhouse G&amp;W. I do wish to get back the simplicity and joy of games from that area.<p>I don&#x27;t like the language of the page though, e.g.<p>&quot;we hope you can’t wait to unwrap your gift.&quot;<p>A gift which I&#x27;ve paid $149 to you? My understanding of gift is different than that of Panic I assume.

Realistically, this thing is going to live and die based on 1) how good these games are and 2) who gets in on the initial batch<p>if the right people get their hands on these (i&#x27;m thinking influencers, game critics, but the kind of people who are receptive to new ideas and) and the games are worth playing, it could become a must-have item.<p>If either of these fail, it will fall into relative obscurity, as these products usually do

It would be cool if the 3d model was also an emulator.

Pimorini (I think they are quite famous as Raspberry Pis retailers in Europe) recently started a kickstarter for another handheld console: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;pimoroni&#x2F;32blit-retro-inspired-handheld-with-open-source-fi" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;pimoroni&#x2F;32blit-retro-i...</a>

I would be VERY interested in a VERY detailed description of how they, as a software company, handled this hardware project.

I hope this becomes popular. Unlike iOS and Android it has physical controls and hopefully I can develop for it cheaply.

Mark Zuckerberg apparently tried to buy Panic, the creator of Playdate<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.engadget.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;24&#x2F;panic-playdate-facebook-offer&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.engadget.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;24&#x2F;panic-playdate-facebook-...</a>

I want to be mad that I can’t play Firewatch on my phone but I hope I can never play it on my phone.

Not too sold on the price but it will download 12 games every month for you, if I read that correctly. That is pretty cool. The crank mechanism seems silly but with some creativity perhaps you can do interesting things with it, like fishing.

Check out bittboy (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bittboy.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bittboy.com</a>), a similar handheld console which has emulators for NES, SNES and GB&#x2F;GBA&#x2F;GBC games , at less than 1&#x2F;3rd of the price.

Its interesting but for these kinds of projects its the software library that will mean everything to how well this goes. I&#x27;m not going to spend that much for a device to play tech demos when I already have handheld gaming devices

This is really cool. I might buy one if I am feeling impulsive. I love purpose-built hardware like this!<p>Would feel more comfortable if I knew they&#x27;d allow people to build and sideload games though.<p>Aside: this website is <i>very</i> choppy in Chrome on Ubuntu.

They make really good PR. Twitter was exploding yesterday. The topic &quot;Software Development&quot; on the original Twitter client only had tweets about this gaming system. (And not a single half naked cosplayer programmer.)

It has a really high price for just a crank and a good design. I think that I could wait for the day games are launched, perhaps they will be long enough and entertaining. I still dont have much expectations.

It looks cool, I was at Funomena when Crankin was being developed and helped Akira Thompson with some Lua code, didn&#x27;t realize it would end up on a new handheld 3 years later :).

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gamalaptop.vn&#x2F;laptop-gaming-cu-gia-re-tphcm&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gamalaptop.vn&#x2F;laptop-gaming-cu-gia-re-tphcm&#x2F;</a>

It&#x27;s a smart looking design. But that recessed speaker grille is going to fill up with fluff and grime pretty quickly. Especially if kids use it!

I could smell some Teenage Engineering influence when I first saw it. That being said, I do kinda want one. It&#x27;s a neat little bit of design.

This is so wird, I just want one to support the weirdness A new game every week? Presumably subscription-based - which I&#x27;m less wild about.

The crank must be an analog of the Apple Watch crown.

If anyone wants to do a startup together designing a cheap, retro-style handheld game console with an open app store, please email me :)

This will sell to indie gamedev scenesters and they have the perfect designer roster to hit that audience.<p>From a commercial success standpoint, I&#x27;m bearish. Common pitfall in comedy is to make jokes for comedians. This scene has a similar problem where they love to make games for game devs.

Panic team is amazing. Neat product. You guys combined virtual gaming with physical elements. Congratulations!!!

sort of related to this (indie gaming hardware), I recently got the Adafruit PyBadge. You can program it with CircuitPython, Arduino or MakeCode (a microsoft visual coding IDE). fun if your idea of fun is making the game and then playing it, or figuring out how to port some existing game.

This looks awesome. I wish I had made it.<p>Makes me wish I had finished writing my book on making your own video game console!

Strange. I&#x27;ve found the opposite to be true. They do a pretty decent job explaining why you need a web server and how to make a basic one. Once it&#x27;s set up, there are tons of examples and resources to look at. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gamalaptop.vn&#x2F;laptop-gaming&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gamalaptop.vn&#x2F;laptop-gaming&#x2F;</a>

The crank is cute but I want a paddle controller for games like Tempest and Pong.

New poster child for not doing product naming and ergonomics by committee.

I like the crank idea only if it also charges the battery as you play.

Why the name playdate?

Not even April 1st.

I think they might have just revolutionized gaming.

Teenage Engineering make really cool stuff too! :)

Wow! I was not expecting this at all. Exciting!

Everything Teenage Engineering touches is gold

Image links are broken for me.

Super ambitious, but I love&#x2F;respect the fact that there&#x27;s still people out there driven by sheer passion and originality, rather than money.<p>I&#x27;ve ranted many a times about the hypercapitalistic race-to-the-bottom approach that Valve&#x2F;Epic&#x2F;etc are taking. This is a breath of fresh air and they have my full support.

Can the crank charge the battery?

a crank but no analog stick? bold

why is every comment saying how cool this thing is?

Slightly off-topic, but the website design looks like a worse version of Teenage Engineering website (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teenage.engineering&#x2F;products&#x2F;po" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teenage.engineering&#x2F;products&#x2F;po</a>) with larger font size (a bit too large imo). Not dissing the website though, it isn&#x27;t that bad overall, just thought it was interesting, since I haven&#x27;t seen many others attempting that.<p>EDIT: after a closer look at the page, I realized that they explicitly mentioned partnering with Teenage Engineering on parts of the device design. The website resemblance makes more sense now :)

This company seems well aware they aren&#x27;t a match for Nintendo. Based on the comments, Hacker News does not seem very aware.<p>Much like how Teenage Engineering&#x27;s OP-1 is not competitively priced. This is another example of an insightfully designed, well built product for adults. Older millenials looking for a sentimental package so they can feel like it&#x27;s their 8th birthday again. They are reunboxing a gameboy color.<p>Their goal isn&#x27;t to revitalize the dying, Nintendo&#x2F;Smartphone dominated scene of handheld gaming. Just a small company releasing a niche product in a low quantity for a low risk profit.<p>No different than a craft brew or a local farmers market.

I like the idea of having weird hardware like this produced. I can see it becoming a collectible. I don&#x27;t <i>love</i> it though.<p>I&#x27;m curious though, did someone see this and <i>really</i> want it?