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Introducing Playdate - A $179 black-and-white handheld with a dozen surprise games. Also, it has a crank.

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Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,261
Seattle, WA
1558542565063-Playdate-model-shot.jpeg


Scoops with the scoop.

So, Panic - a studio out of Portland that mostly does Mac software - is going to release a custom handheld with a 'premium' black-and-white screen - with 12 games that will be kept a secret until they unlock after release (one a week). Also, one of the inputs is a hand crank.

One of those games is the game you saw above: Crankin's Time Travel Adventure from Katamari Damacy designer Keita Takahashi. The crank is used to manipulate time forwards and backwards. Despite the presence of buttons, the only way to interact with Crankin' is with said crank. Not all games will work that way, obviously, but it's reasonable to expect many will make use of it.

There are other games coming from Bennett Foddy (Getting Over It), Zach Gage (SpellTower), and Shaun Inman (The Last Rocket), among others. What exactly they're making for Playdate, however, remains unannounced, with more details later this year.
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$150, pre-orders out this year. This thing looks absurd, but maybe in a way worth supporting.
 
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atomsk

atomsk

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,483
Panic worked with Keita on those Katamari t-shirts forever ago, so that's not too surprising.

Still, I wish Wattam would get a release date already.
 
JamboGT

JamboGT

Vehicle Handling Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,446
The most hipster of hipster gaming stuff I have ever seen.
 
Tiktaalik

Tiktaalik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,426
Looks like a lot of fun.

There's an opportunity for these small little devices now that 3DS is going away. Come on Nintendo, make Game Boy Classic happen.
 

Deleted member 54469

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Mar 4, 2019
320
design is cool but what exactly is the point?

for it's niche community i'm not going to ask. forever everyone else kinda feel like this is one of those things (like everything else now) cashing in on nostalgia and basically gentrifying by giving it a new instagram worthy paint coat and new name.

$150 for a black and white game boy with some weird gimmick? i'm cool lol. that's nice they found some great (also niche) developers to make great (also niche) games for it. just not sure why this exists though? especially for that absurd price? i mean you can get a 2ds bundle with a game and another free nintendo select for like $80 now.
 
eyeball_kid

eyeball_kid

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,227
Panic, Takahashi (please why are you distracting him from finishing Wattam!), and Teenage Engineering (makers of the awesome OP-1 synth). This is like a videogame hipster dream come true.

Not sure how well that crank is going to feel for left-handed users though.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Kind of weird there's only going to be 12 games for it; visually simple B/W games should be relatively easy to crank out.
 
corn_fest

corn_fest

Member
Oct 27, 2017
323
I can't help but compare this with the 32blit which recently sprung up on Kickstarter. Spec-wise, the console seems a little disappointing in comparison, but Panic, Teenage Engineering, and the developers they've partnered with all create great stuff so I feel like this will be cool regardless.

Ugh I'm gonna end up getting both aren't I.
 

Deleted member 33571

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Nov 17, 2017
907
very very cool, the lil bit of the Keita Takahashi game they showed looked really neat
I immediately got teenage engineering vibes between the price (eek) and the concept so it makes sense they worked on some of the hardware
 
jml

jml

Member
Mar 9, 2018
4,783
Seems ridiculous and I do not understand the appeal at that price at all
 
makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,655
If it was $50 I could see myself grabbing it for novelty purposes

But I can't justify $150 for a black and white handheld with no backlight. I had an original GBA for five years, not going back now
 
JamesQuall

JamesQuall

Member
Oct 27, 2017
749
I'm in. I already love Panic for publishing Firewatch and the Goose Game, and for putting a cool sign on their building that I can change the colors on during my lunch break!
 
ryushe

ryushe

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,813
If this were black and white WITH backlight, then I'd be on board. But as it stands, I can't justify $150 for this no matter how hard I'd like to try.
 
KilgoreTrout696

KilgoreTrout696

Member
Oct 25, 2017
644
ryushe said:
If this were black and white WITH backlight, then I'd be on board. But as it stands, I can't justify $150 for this no matter how hard I'd like to try.
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100% with you on the backlight. I'm looking into getting older gameboys modded with backlights not getting something new without them. Just flashing back to trying to play pokemon at night while in the car driving home, would have to wait to pass a streetlight in order to see the screen for a second.
 
pronk

pronk

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,643
Swery retweeted this, then retweeted a tweet about the Ouya store closing lol

Also pretty sure EDGE had an Ouya cover.
 

Deleted member 2791

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Oct 25, 2017
19,054
I like the idea and the hardware execution, but 150 bucks for twelve short games just doesn't cut it.
 
Brian_FETO

Brian_FETO

The Million Post Man
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,825
I think I love this? idk

$150 is an investment but like......it's also not that bad?

hmm

The curious thing is whether future seasons would be downloadable (it does have wifi) or if the intent is to have limited run systems with preset seasons
 
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