Playdate pre-orders begin in July

Ars Technica has a good article about it, if you want an overview: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;gaming&#x2F;2021&#x2F;06&#x2F;playdate-the-console-with-a-crank-gets-july-preorder-for-179-game-details&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;gaming&#x2F;2021&#x2F;06&#x2F;playdate-the-console-...</a><p>as well as an article from a couple years ago about the device: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;gaming&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;why-the-quirky-playdate-portable-could-succeed-where-ouya-failed&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;gaming&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;why-the-quirky-playda...</a>

Lucas Pope&#x27;s section of the update video [0] has me incredibly excited. He&#x27;s one of my favorite game developers, and seeing him work more with 1-bit 3D games after Obra Dinn has piqued my interest. Also, a blog on dithering I came across after playing Obra Dinn was one of the more interesting tech blogs I&#x27;ve read [1]. Also see Lucas Pope&#x27;s post on how he did dithering in-game [2].<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;DeWGukDrc1U?t=455" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;DeWGukDrc1U?t=455</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;surma.dev&#x2F;things&#x2F;ditherpunk&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;surma.dev&#x2F;things&#x2F;ditherpunk&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.tigsource.com&#x2F;index.php?topic=40832.msg1363742#msg1363742" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.tigsource.com&#x2F;index.php?topic=40832.msg136374...</a>

I am always impressed with the design of Teenage Engineering’s products but they have an air “pure consumerism”. I think this is that taken to its extreme. A toy that has a crank, retro screen, design-driven accessories, and the games are there but not promoted.<p>Compare that to the gameboy which put its games front and center with the selling point of being handheld. Admittedly, I would get the Playdate to put on my desk and admire as plastic art, but no more room.

I don&#x27;t get why everyone here is comparing this to gameboy emulators.<p>There&#x27;s a million ways to emulate gameboy at this point. There are emulators that run on pretty much every single platform. You can get a $40 handheld on Amazon that can do it.<p>To me the selling point of this system is that you can play _new_ games that are in a cool retro 1-bit art style.<p>That itself is a unique thing

Who is this built for?<p>Serious question. Yeah it looks cool but in a joke sense. It doesn&#x27;t really look like it is going to do anything well. The accessories look even more like a joke. Obviously im not the target customer, but im trying to figure out who is?

I&#x27;ve gone through the page a bunch of times now, read through the hn comments here and the arstechnica article linked in the top comment. But I&#x27;m still having a hard time appreciating this as art or even something non-gimicky and even slightly scammy.<p>For $179 + shipping you&#x27;re buying a small underpowered device with a black and white screen, a handcrank analog controller and 24 games. For an extra $29 you can buy a snazzy case and coming soon a stereo mount that&#x27;s going to be impractical to use while playing so I&#x27;m guessing will be for playing music.<p>The system&#x27;s closed and going to be reliant on either their SDK or soon to be coming editor. From the sounds of it, there will be ongoing subscription payments for new games.<p>They&#x27;re releasing the system without the SDK or editor. On their developer page they have a bunch of vague &#x27;coming soon&#x27; promises with no actual timelines or anything. They have no actual plans for any kind of centralized distribution for games.<p>Overall, it seems like there&#x27;s a lot of work or even planning that should have been done before starting pre-orders. At this point you&#x27;re purchasing less than half the advertised features with no real plans as to when they&#x27;ll be forthcoming.<p>Just because a well known name is behind a project doesn&#x27;t necessarily mean it&#x27;s going to be a good product or a great idea. Plenty of great people have made lackluster things. Especially in the video game world. A lot of this seems to be more hype because of the people behind the project than the project itself.

I appreciate the ~decent &lt;noscript&#x2F;&gt; textContent. Telling exactly what purpose(s) JavaScript serves helps make an informed decision on whether to open a graphical web browser or continue with w3m. (In this case, it was obvious I could read on about Playdate just fine.)<p>I&#x27;ve grown sick of create-react-app default &lt;noscript&#x2F;&gt; textContent.<p>&gt; Hello! Javascript is required for purchasing, signing up for the newsletter, viewing videos, and other content on this page. Please enable Javascript.<p>&gt; Your browser doesn&#x27;t seem to support video.

The design and esthetics of this thing are on point. However, I agree with other comments that the games don&#x27;t really speak to me, and I&#x27;ve found myself more interested in the pictures of the actual devices than any of the games. Regardless I hope this succeeds. Electronics need more original industrial design!

180 dollars (plus shipping) is more than it&#x27;d cost for a modified gameboy plus a flashcart, and is near the price of an Analogue. The Analogue can play any gameboy (and advance) game every made, and is also a musical instrument.<p>If this was around 80$ I would be all over it.

Despite having little interest in buying one myself, a suite of specially-developed surprise games seems like an interesting idea kinda like the Humble Indie Bundles... plus the upcoming web-based SDK to make your own!<p>Also cool to see the fantastic poolside.fm in a screenshot although the pen-holder dock feels a little kitsch. It&#x27;s promising, however, that the design partners are Teenage Engineering - known for their Pocket Operators and the truly amazing OP-1 all in one synth[0] for which I strongly vouch.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teenage.engineering&#x2F;products&#x2F;op-1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teenage.engineering&#x2F;products&#x2F;op-1</a>

If you want to comment about how it&#x27;s too expensive or doesn&#x27;t play 30 year old gameboy games, don&#x27;t bother? This is a new device that delivers new experiences and will likely sell out of its first shipment very quickly.

I think the design and concept are really cool but it seems like actually owning it would get old too fast and be more of a novelty.<p>I could see myself buying this if it could emulate NES or GameBoy games though.

Oh nice, Lua support! Should make porting one of my games (that I already mostly ported to Pico-8) to this little guy. Maybe I&#x27;ll finally finish the Pico-8 port while I&#x27;m at it.<p>This is the original Flash version from back in the day. I&#x27;m also working on a 3D sequel with Twitch support in my limited spare time: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newgrounds.com&#x2F;portal&#x2F;view&#x2F;183428" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.newgrounds.com&#x2F;portal&#x2F;view&#x2F;183428</a><p>I don&#x27;t know why, but I have a good feeling that this device will be fairly successful. Maybe it&#x27;s just good marketing on their part.<p>I don&#x27;t really have a good idea of how to make good use of the crank, except maybe add something that allows you to go back and forward in time (at least undo support). Maybe I&#x27;ll even alter the mechanics to take advantage of it, like that 5D chess game.

I&#x27;m really interested in the Pulp web-based development environment.<p>I&#x27;m planning on picking up some of these to try with some junior-high and high school students in the fall -- if Covid is over by then :-)

Knowing teenageenginering, that thing is built like a brick, full aluminium and will outlast you

They seem very efficient at marketing; the product seems very recognisable, polarising and there have been many previous discussions [1] here already.<p>That being said, there&#x27;s something that I don&#x27;t like in this kind of marketing. To me it looks very unsubstantial and repetitive.<p>I guess one factor here is the price; for $179 it seems a luxury item and perhaps it&#x27;s easier to believe that its flaws and unknowns are quirks or features; and that they&#x27;re not worth mentioning.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27440015" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27440015</a>

From a more in-depth article from Ars:<p>&gt; This &quot;stereo dock&quot; doesn&#x27;t have a price yet, but it will ship with a preinstalled online radio option, dubbed Poolsuite FM, that Panic says will include &quot;expertly curated Soundcloud playlists that will transport you to a magical, sun-kissed musical zone between the past and the present.&quot;<p>This sounds ... suspiciously like Poolside.fm

I hope I&#x27;m actually able to get one. New game hardware has been such an absolute nightmare to get the past few years.

Oh, cool. Something else I can put in the no longer supported pile with my PocketCHIP.

The crank reminds me of one of a handheld electronic fishing game I used to have as a kid. I didn&#x27;t see a fishing game listed but that would be pretty fun.

Man that is just a beautiful website<p>Both from the UX, to typography, to aesthetic (on desktop at least)<p>Anybody know who built this?

This things been a long time coming. I think the first announced timeline was shipping in early 2020 at $150, and taking orders in 2019. I guess covid messed some of their timeline up, but I&#x27;m still excited about it.<p>I&#x27;ll definitely be getting one, I think a big aspect of what makes it different is the programmability aspect. They&#x27;re trying to make developing games for it super accessible, and I think it&#x27;ll be a lot of fun for programmers who don&#x27;t have the time to make full-on traditional games, or don&#x27;t want to make decisions about the framework, language, etc. The constraints are what makes it fun. If the SDK is good, it&#x27;ll be huge.

I hope they are more successful than the Ouya, best of wishes, extremely hard market to get into.

I wish them the best. Games is a cutthroat industry, and game <i>consoles</i> are absolutely unforgiving... The number of failure-points that can bring down the entire project (hardware disruption, lack of developer interest in building for an unproven closed system, lack of consumer interest in buying an unproven closed system) is high. Massive chicken-egg problems in closing the loop on a long-term successful console bet.

Just makes me think of when Gruber said &quot;The story is about Playdate, the most amazing and exciting product announcement, for me, since the original iPhone.&quot; I can&#x27;t help but roll my eyes at this thing.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;daringfireball.net&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;playdate" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;daringfireball.net&#x2F;2019&#x2F;05&#x2F;playdate</a>

As for the battery life, I would have expected this to run for days, literally, but they say only 8h active. It can only power its real-time clock for 14 days. What did they do wrong? Does it scans for networks every 5 minutes?<p>Besides that, could be a good 5-15 minutes killer while avoiding the smartphone vortex

Link should be <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.play.date&#x2F;orders&#x2F;when-can-i-preorder&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.play.date&#x2F;orders&#x2F;when-can-i-preorder&#x2F;</a> to differentiate from the main site since there&#x27;s no blog post about this &#x27;news&#x27;

The dock really makes me feel like Teenage Engineering has really gone a little deep into Panic on this. Playdate already has an overpriced accessory before anyone even has a Playdate? It&#x27;s also not sounding like a very interesting one.

The (exquisite, I must add) landing page is broken on iOS - the webGL model of the hardware eats all the scroll gestures, so I couldn’t scroll down the page until one of the header links took me to the bottom, where I could scroll back up.

Previous related threads:<p><i>Playdate October 2020 Update</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24945598" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24945598</a> - Oct 2020 (2 comments)<p><i>Playdate – December 2019 Update</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22016483" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22016483</a> - Jan 2020 (20 comments)<p><i>Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19986106" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=19986106</a> - May 2019 (402 comments)

Taking a moment to appreciate the landing page. I had no idea about this device before, but at the end of the landing page, I know what it is, who it is made for, the idea behind it, the cost, accessories, when they start shipping, etc. They even did it with nice aesthetics and a quirky look.<p>Nicely done!

I&#x27;m a huge teenage engineering fanboy but whatever you do, don&#x27;t break their stuff, once it&#x27;s broken, it&#x27;s broken. Curious if the same is true for playdate, if it&#x27;s like the rest of the TE gear, If you mess up the crank, expect to buy a whole new unit.

Does this thing have long-term legs or will it wind up sitting on shelves in six months? And what about developers - if the current plan is to give away the games, what financial incentive is there to develop for it, except as a resume piece?

The screenshot of the editor [1] has a small window showing the programming language. Wondering which it is. Ruby?<p><pre><code> [1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.arstechnica.net&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2021&#x2F;06&#x2F;Pulp-1-1440x997.png</code></pre>

So, there&#x27;ll be a subscription to new games, right? What&#x27;s the price for that?

I wonder how well this will fare after initial novelty wears off. And will it sell nearly enough units for there to be games for it in future... I do remember products like OUYA and how well they did...

I&#x27;m more interested in using it for non-gaming-related things since it seems like a neat little hardware package to begin with.

Now we wait for the softsynth OP-1 emulator on this to complete the circle.

they says &quot;SDK&quot; and then say &quot;web based&quot;. So will I be able to run native code on this thing or no?

I&#x27;ve been looking forward to this thing

Still mad the crank doesn&#x27;t charge it.

it looks fun

Playdate seems to me like a masterclass in marketing. The device is nothing extraordinary (imo), but it&#x27;s presented and marketed in a way that makes it interesting.

Looks blocky and uncomfortable to hold. Has a black and white screen with no backlight. Can&#x27;t play Nintendo ROMS. Is a subscription service...<p>The marketing is flashy, but I have zero interest in this product.

The styling of this thing is beautiful. That said, is it too much to ask that they come up with their own original name for a device that is patently a solo experience instead of hijacking a term for humans interacting with each other in physical space?

Humor me, why would this be interesting in any way shape or form? I can see this only being interested to people with fetishes for old LCD-based semi-disposable toys.

It looks amazing, but... why? I can&#x27;t see myself spending more than 10 bucks on something like this. There are plenty of &quot;vintage styled&quot; games on Steam, getting a Raspberry Pi and putting it into a nice cover would be probably cheaper.