4 ms·

There are exclusive games made by some famous people in the industry, and it features a new gaming device: a crank.

by dbeley 5y ago

nimbius 5y ago
you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this novelty garbage and you now have a multiplayer gaming experience and a linux environment with proven SDK's and interoperability but heres the dealbreaker: no crank. Nowhere does Playdate indicate it is anything but single player or that it currently has any games, but im sure 'some famous people' doing stuff is cool too.
- justwalt 5y ago
  The things have wifi and Bluetooth. Why couldn’t someone write a multiplayer game for the playdate?
- paulcole 5y ago
  > you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this Yes! I could buy many assortments of things for the cost of a Playdate but I want a Playdate. It sounds interesting to me in a way that 2 retroids or 200 packs of gum doesn't. > some famous people' doing stuff is cool too. Yes! I find it interesting and a project I'm interested in supporting even if it ends up being disappointing.
- gpt5 5y ago
  Tell that to Nintendo
- cpmsmith 5y ago
  Their homepage[1] is pretty up-front about it: > The Season. > Here's the truly unique bit. Playdate isn't just an empty system. Once you set up your Playdate, you'll start to receive two brand new games... every week. For 12 weeks. Having novelty doesn't make it garbage, and yes, paying for 24 new games to get made is generally more expensive than pirating Dreamcast ROMs. [1]: https://play.date/#the_season https://play.date/#the_season
  - nimbius 5y ago
    "The Season" is frankly just a season pass with more steps. until any of these games get made and reviewed, its an empty system that doesnt even ship with a game. FYI: NONE of the games listed on their season page have a release date.
    - kemayo 5y ago
      Granted, this is taking them at their word, but they're certainly claiming that they'll be shipping two of those games every week for the first 12 weeks after the system ships. That's a release date, even if a slightly amorphous one keyed off of a specific event that we don't know the exact timing for yet.
    - philistine 5y ago
      They have failed to adequately explain this detail: the season starts when you power up the machine, delivering two games a week for 12 weeks. So the games release when they first start shipping the first units.
      - kemayo 5y ago
        Oh, that's interesting. I had been assuming it'd be a more universal release schedule. I wonder how the people getting their devices after the early orders have already received all the games are going to feel about it.
  - ChrisRR 5y ago
    I'd rather just pay for the games I'm actually interested in
- teawrecks 5y ago
  A retroid is an off-the-shelf quad core CPU running android and an emulator. The playdate is an actual custom console platform inspired by retro designs. Modern consoles are so powerful that an indie dev is rarely limited in what they can do, which might sound like a good thing, but there's a reason Orson Welles once said, "the enemy of art is the absence of limits". Think of it like a film maker spending more money to use old film/lenses. Yeah, using the phone in their pocket and windows movie maker would be cheaper and higher quality, but that's not the point. I am also very curious what MP experiences will be possible with the WiFi/BT on a retro handheld.
- emptyparadise 5y ago
  https://hard-drive.net/spend-80-snes-classic-can-install-emulators-raspberry-pi-never-shut-fuck/ https://hard-drive.net/spend-80-snes-classic-can-install-emu...

There are exclusive games made by some famous people in the industry, and it features a new gaming device: a crank.

by dbeley 5y ago

There are exclusive games made by some famous people in the industry, and it features a new gaming device: a crank.

you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this novelty garbage and you now have a multiplayer gaming experience and a linux environment with proven SDK's and interoperability but heres the dealbreaker: no crank. Nowhere does Playdate indicate it is anything but single player or that it currently has any games, but im sure 'some famous people' doing stuff is cool too.

justwalt 5y ago
The things have wifi and Bluetooth. Why couldn’t someone write a multiplayer game for the playdate?
paulcole 5y ago
> you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this Yes! I could buy many assortments of things for the cost of a Playdate but I want a Playdate. It sounds interesting to me in a way that 2 retroids or 200 packs of gum doesn't. > some famous people' doing stuff is cool too. Yes! I find it interesting and a project I'm interested in supporting even if it ends up being disappointing.
gpt5 5y ago
Tell that to Nintendo
cpmsmith 5y ago
Their homepage[1] is pretty up-front about it: > The Season. > Here's the truly unique bit. Playdate isn't just an empty system. Once you set up your Playdate, you'll start to receive two brand new games... every week. For 12 weeks. Having novelty doesn't make it garbage, and yes, paying for 24 new games to get made is generally more expensive than pirating Dreamcast ROMs. [1]: https://play.date/#the_season https://play.date/#the_season
- nimbius 5y ago
  "The Season" is frankly just a season pass with more steps. until any of these games get made and reviewed, its an empty system that doesnt even ship with a game. FYI: NONE of the games listed on their season page have a release date.
  - kemayo 5y ago
    Granted, this is taking them at their word, but they're certainly claiming that they'll be shipping two of those games every week for the first 12 weeks after the system ships. That's a release date, even if a slightly amorphous one keyed off of a specific event that we don't know the exact timing for yet.
  - philistine 5y ago
    They have failed to adequately explain this detail: the season starts when you power up the machine, delivering two games a week for 12 weeks. So the games release when they first start shipping the first units.
    - kemayo 5y ago
      Oh, that's interesting. I had been assuming it'd be a more universal release schedule. I wonder how the people getting their devices after the early orders have already received all the games are going to feel about it.
- ChrisRR 5y ago
  I'd rather just pay for the games I'm actually interested in
teawrecks 5y ago
A retroid is an off-the-shelf quad core CPU running android and an emulator. The playdate is an actual custom console platform inspired by retro designs. Modern consoles are so powerful that an indie dev is rarely limited in what they can do, which might sound like a good thing, but there's a reason Orson Welles once said, "the enemy of art is the absence of limits". Think of it like a film maker spending more money to use old film/lenses. Yeah, using the phone in their pocket and windows movie maker would be cheaper and higher quality, but that's not the point. I am also very curious what MP experiences will be possible with the WiFi/BT on a retro handheld.
emptyparadise 5y ago
https://hard-drive.net/spend-80-snes-classic-can-install-emulators-raspberry-pi-never-shut-fuck/ https://hard-drive.net/spend-80-snes-classic-can-install-emu...