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Panic Playdate Review
- jointpdf 4y agoSo this writer took an gorgeously-designed and adorable little machine, and haphazardly stuffed it in an old white sock as a travel case? Grody and a bit sacrilegious. At least get a sock of comparable craftsmanship, like Darn Toughs.
- suction 4y agoIt's just a plastic toy for manchildren, get over it.
- codeyperson 4y agoReal men don’t play, obviously .
- suction 4y agoDon't know about "real", more like "grown up".
- mig39 4y agoI ordered mine at the beginning of August 2021. Still waiting for it to show up :-)
- rtkwe 4y agoThey sent out an email recently that said what wave you were in and a list of when the waves were expected to ship. I ordered mine at the very end of July '21, practically the first day iirc, and I'm wave 2 which is supposed to be this quarter.
- raldi 4y agoHow do you know Wave 2 is this quarter?
- kemayo 4y agoAll I've seen was this tweet thread: https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1516099269979262976 https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1516099269979262976 Basically, they started shipping the Group One systems on Monday and say that they think they'll all be out within the next month. Presumably Group Two will ship after that, meaning they'll be shipping late May -- but they haven't actually announced that, just said there's news coming soon.
- ngngngng 4y agoThey said they should be done with group 1 within the next month and group 2 will start immediately after.
- eps 4y agoIt's on the website, linked from the account/order page. Basically, first 10000 are shipping now, next 10k will follow and that will exhaust their 20k first batch they are getting from the factory. The rest will follow later. And your order number is your spot in the delivery queue. Mine is in 15000s, so not long now :)
- rtkwe 4y agoMid 16000s for me glad to finally be getting my hands on it soon. Seems like a fun idea.
- stetrain 4y agohttps://help.play.date/orders/when-will-units-actually-start-shipping/ https://help.play.date/orders/when-will-units-actually-start... It says Early 2022 for Group 2, while Group 3 says Second Half of 2022.
- rtkwe 4y agoIt's in the email they sent to me. It's probably mentioned elsewhere: The Current Estimates Your Playdate Is In: Group #2 Group #1 ~1 to 10,000 Late 2021 → Now Early 2022 Group #2 ~10,000 to 20,000 Late 2021 → Now Early 2022 Group #3 ~20,000 to 30,000 Still 2022 (Second Half) Group #4 ~30,000 to 40,000 Still 2022 (Second Half) Group #5 ~40,000 to 50,000 Still 2022 (Late Second Half) Kind of process of elimination if you make a distinction between early 2022 and second half, at this point early 2022 means by end of Q2.
- MBCook 4y agoI ordered as soon as I could when pre-orders went up. Unfortunately I was out and about and didn’t have a good cell signal so it took longer than I would have liked. I’m in Group 2, hopefully near the start. I can’t wait. Looks like a blast and I’d love to try my hand at developing for it.
- olliej 4y agoSomething similar happened to me, I was so sad :( (I think I may have been over the pacific?)
- dgritsko 4y agoI don't have any need for one of these. But this review makes me want one, it looks like a lot of fun. Anybody here have one yet? How does your experience compare?
- ngngngng 4y agoToday was the first day any non reviewers have been receiving them. Mine should be here within the next day or two.
- paxys 4y agoThis looks like something I'll have an absolute blast with for a few hours and then keep away in a drawer and never touch again. Although if your product's target market is rich nerds that's a great strategy.
- xwdv 4y agoThat’s generous, I would probably play for up to an hour, or less.
- tshaddox 4y agoSame for me, although I'm the worst when it comes to that. I've done roughly the same thing with flagship gaming consoles and even an expensive custom-built (my me) gaming desktop.
- bombcar 4y agoCompared to some forms of entertainment, $180 for a few hours isn't that bad. A flight in a small plane would run you way more than that.
- airstrike 4y agoIf anything, flying is more akin to torture than entertainment...
- patch_cable 4y agoI think the parent was referring to a private plane that you pilot. 180 would about cover the expense of fuel for the hour.
- bombcar 4y agoYup, even if you never want to get a license you could spend $180 or so on an introductory flight or two for fun. WARNING: you will get addicted and end up spending $15-20k on a license.
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- post_break 4y ago*edit adding the review link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdP59hhiDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdP59hhiDg * This thing, I'll never forget John Gruber saying "The story is about Playdate, the most amazing and exciting product announcement, for me, since the original iPhone." I don't know if I could roll my eyes harder without getting a headache. Is this thing some sort of techie inside joke? Then reviewers get their hands on them. Metal Jesus on YouTube recently got to test one and it confirmed everything I needed to know. It's expensive. The screen isn't backlit so you've got OG gameboy issues. And it's a complete chore to hold. He was complaining about hand cramps after a little bit of play time. And the screen resolution is so low that some of the gameplay is hindered. But it has a hand crank: https://i.imgur.com/wBmESKj.jpg https://i.imgur.com/wBmESKj.jpg
- wlesieutre 4y agoYou need light to see it yes, but that screen is nowhere near OG gameboy issues
- anyfoo 4y agoYeah. Not sure if the parent commenter had an original Gameboy as a kid, because if they did they wouldn't throw that comparison around so inflationarily...
- post_break 4y agoI had an original gameboy. So it's not exactly the same type of torture, but in 2022 not having backlighting is kind of a joke.
- wlesieutre 4y agoIt's a weird niche device with weird niche games, I'm not planning to buy one but I'm happy to see people doing something interesting instead of all chasing the same mass market. There's a certain retro appeal to the "shades of gray like a gameboy" screen without the part where it's impossible to see in 90% of lighting conditions.
- yakkityyak 4y agoI would rather buy another Analogue Pocket over one of these.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoThat's what I did, but I suspect for a lot of the target market, they will get both, and there's a reasonable chance of a lot of people buying a Steam Deck, too. It's a good year for portable gaming.
- mattl 4y agoI’m getting all 3 :/ Pocket has arrived so far. It’s nice but I think if a jailbreak for firmware opens up homebrew games beyond GB Studio that’ll be nice.
- filmgirlcw 4y agoSame! I’ve got the Pocket and I’m group 1 on Playdate and Q2 on Steam Deck, so we’ll see which one I get first. And yeah, I need a jailbreak for the Pocket. And Kryzz had to flee his homeland so getting flash carts is a PITA right now and most of my OG carts are with my parents :/
- nicolashahn 4y agoI ordered one of these almost solely because I thought it'd be really fun to develop for.
- designcode 4y ago
- behnamoh 4y agoLost me at "no backlit display". Thanks, but no thanks.
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- anyfoo 4y agoI haven't seen it in person, but if it's the kind of display I think it is, it will look absolutely amazing and be better than most other equivalent backlit displays (and you don't need a good light source to make it readable).
- frosted-flakes 4y agoA book isn't backlit either, but that's not a problem, is it? The type of display used in the Playdate (Sharp memory LCD) is highly reflective and has very high contrast.
- InfiniteRand 4y agoWell, the lack of backlit books did spawn an industry of reading lights
- dfee 4y agoI bought one, and of course it hasn’t arrived yet (though I think it will in Q3). The best parts for me are the following: 1. It’s indie. 2. It’s accessible. 3. It’s got a completely different engagement model. I have a 7yo who I bought it for (really) and with the web drag-and-draw IDE, I can’t think of a better way to get him involved in the exploration of technology. Maybe it can be fun and provide an outlet for deep exploration. I sure as hell am not going to sit down with him and explain the principles of enterprise architecture. For engagement models / indie-ism, we have a Switch and just got a PS5. They’re neat. I guess. But they’re also kinda stale and boring (outside a few winner games). Kinda like watching Disney these days with the Avengers series. Diminishing returns on every title and no real way to engage beyond consumption. I’m really hoping this is good for him (and good for me as a reset against my day to day as an engineer indoctrinated in the Bay Area ways of growth). To that end, the other comments I’m seeing don’t seem to understand the appeal that has attracted me.
- lapetitejort 4y ago> 1. It’s indie. Shamelessly, this is what I'm excited about most. There's some big little names attached to the project, and I'm excited how the limitations will stretch their creativity.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoThe limitations also make it accessible to many more people too. A few months ago me and two friends got together and spent a weekend making a little game in that format. (the sdk wasn't out yet but we just used love configured for its resolution and 1bit color). None of us had ever made a game or even a serious attempt at one before but we had a playable proof of concept of a mechanic we could iterate on by the end of the first day. Similar thing with the art. Making truly great pixel art under those constraints is very hard, but making good enough to play with is much more in reach than it is with high fidelity engines.
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- jrootabega 4y agoI'd be primarily interested in the crank mechanic, but it looks like getting enough of a grip on the other side to stabilize it would be a pain, and cranking will probably result in accidentally throwing the whole thing down.
- jrootabega 4y agoYup: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdP59hhiDg&t=11m53s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdP59hhiDg&t=11m53s Gee, who would have thunk it? The 3DS had this problem even with no crank. I predict this might show strengths more as a wearable badge, though the crank definitely wouldn't work well in that case.
- causality0 4y agoIt seems like Playdate reviews fall broadly into two categories: people that got it for free or stand to make money off it via their readers/viewers really like it. People who paid their own money for it and don't have a large audience think it's mediocre and mostly not worth the $180.
- zitterbewegung 4y agoI’ve watched reviews about it and the biggest problem is the lack of having a backlit screen . Only having 12 games is another issue (but anyone can develop the device ) but not having a backlit screen in 2021 is a huge problem because people play with handheld devices when it’s dark sometimes .
- surewe 4y agoIt comes with 24 games (this was announced before preorders opened -- it was previously 12).
- kemayo 4y agoThey've also been recently promoting some third-party games you can sideload: https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1516864373473480705 https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1516864373473480705
- airstrike 4y ago$180??? That's highway robbery. I hadn't heard about it until I read this article and I was guessing it cost around $40
- SeanLuke 4y agoTo me, a critical quality of a handheld and portable gaming device is durability. In this light, a handcrank, with a fairly long shaft and a 90 degree handle, seems to be an incredibly stupid idea. It's just begging to get snagged on something and broken off. I wouldn't give this thing to my kids: they'd destroy it in a week. There are so many alternatives to a handcrank which aren't desperately fragile.
- nomel 4y ago> seems to be an incredibly stupid idea It's on a floppy hinge, it's metal, and it folds in when you're not using it. Here's it in use: https://youtu.be/ZGdP59hhiDg?t=125 https://youtu.be/ZGdP59hhiDg?t=125 Here's a teardown showing what looks like a very reasonable mechanical strain relief: https://youtu.be/J5G02ru0GyM?t=110 https://youtu.be/J5G02ru0GyM?t=110 > There are so many alternatives to a handcrank which aren't desperately fragile. ~~It's not just for charging.~~ (edit: Not for charging! Obvious with that teardown!) It doubles as an input for the games. > I wouldn't give this thing to my kids: they'd destroy it in a week. This sounds like it may not be related to the device.
- filmgirlcw 4y agoI played with a prototype Playdate at Xoxo in 2019 and I was just delighted by it. It was already a gadget I knew I’d buy, because I love Panic and gadgets, but the time I spent with it was really fun. But I’m the target market I think, which is someone with lots of disposable income who wasn’t looking for it to be anything more than it is. I think if you go in with the expectation that it is indie and quirky and NOT a mass-market product, it’s easier to position to people. I don’t have mine yet (I’m hoping it’ll ship next week), but as long as it does what I saw three years ago, I think I’ll be really pleased. Again, I don’t think this has broad appeal. But I also don’t think it has to. It’s for the people it is for and I think that will be enough.
- kemayo 4y agoYeah, I think it's perfectly reasonable for someone to look at it and go "$180 for that? It's not worth it for me". It's very specifically-targeted. It does look cute, though, and if their SDK takes off I could see it being a really nice intro-to-programing tool entirely independent of Panic's own game-seasons thing. (I bought one. I won't be getting it for another 1-2 months, alas.)
- Gigachad 4y agoSo basically only good if you source your joy from spending large amounts on consumer products that give little lasting enjoyment. I can see how HN loves this thing
- johnnyanmac 4y agoApparently you can't order one today even if you wanted to, so at the very least it does seem like Panic captured its expected market. I don't think this is for me, but given some of the developers' interests being peaked over this I am interested of what comes out of this.
- fennecs 4y ago
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- atdrummond 4y agoI have one - well, at least for the moment. Played it in the super bright Bay Area sunlight today and had zero issues with legibility. This will really sink or swim dependent on how well those initial games deliver. If there’s no true stinkers in the initial run, I suspect we’ll see a strong long term development effort buoyed by ongoing consumer interest. It is a pretty neat little device and I know personally that I’m always a more creative developer when I have some legitimate, and significant, limitations on my resources.
- jayd16 4y ago>No game system has had a built-in crank before Honestly, its just a worse analog stick. The upside is that the games will be easy enough to play with common controllers.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoIt's not though. A crank has an intrinsic position and it doesn't auto-return to 0 (because it doesn't have a 0). And it gives precise rotational control, while analogue sticks only give directional control.
- jayd16 4y agoThe emulator can just hold on to the crank positional state and analog sticks should be precise enough that rotation can be controlled by sweeping through directions at full magnitude. You could possibly even ignore the crank state entirely and assume any new direction is the new crank angle. Most likely games will handle low sample rates anyway. Lots of games have you control a virtual crank by rotating a stick. Might not be as satisfying as the crank (if the crank is even satisfying to begin with) but I don't think it would be unplayable.
- cush 4y agoThose are software solutions. You can't physically feel them. The tactility, precision, and control of a crank can't be matched by something that doesn't spin on one axis. Also it's more fun...
- bstar77 4y agoI regularly play my Atari Lynx that I got for Christmas '89. Playdate looks like it would scratch that itch for really simple mobile friendly pixel art games with no added nonsense.
- WillPostForFood 4y agowith no added nonsense. Except the crank?
- runj__ 4y agoI started building a Playdate game about a month ago and the bare bones SDK is fantastic, it was a long time ago I had to think about individual pixels. I'm really having fun programming for a solo project, it's really something else. I'm still not totally sure how Lua handles memory but I assume it's optimized AF. I'm sure I'll run into issues at some point with 8MB of memory but it's fun seeing how much "memory intensive" stuff you can get away with.
- wraptile 4y agoI really like Playdate as an art piece but I think that's the wrong way to approach open video games. Hackers are better off hijacking existing systems because they are just much more accessible and objectively _better_. For example, Steam Deck is mere double the price of Playdate and it's a full, powerful and open linux computer - I can't wait to see what people will come up with for that!
- antiterra 4y agoLimitation can be a huge creative tool, as seen in the fantasy consoles like the Pico-8. Often the most transcendent and memorable experiences I have had playing games of recent vintage fell quite short of utilizing the maximum capability of their platform. I don’t think Steam Deck really brings that much to the table on its own as a platform outside of being a portable PC.
- blowski 4y agoIndeed, limitation is one of the most used creativity tools. Like how authors try to write a short story without he letter “e”.
- meheleventyone 4y agoThe problem with these sorts of technical limits is that their self imposition turns the exercise into being about overcoming them rather than making a good game. And in turn the recognition of the work is more about the technical achievement than how good the end result is. Games is a really funny one where the whole creative culture has been so soaked in pushing technical limits that now we exist in a period of abundance where limits practically don’t exist so we have to reinvent them. There’s definitely creativity there but it’s somewhat tangential to making games. In the same way many great demosceners ended up working in games but on the technical side of things. I’d argue limits that produce creativity in the games themselves need to be far more conceptual.
- antiterra 4y ago
- supermatt 4y agoOn the list since the very first announcement, and yet I STILL cant order one in Lithuania (an EU country, no less). :( Im just waiting for one in the 2nd hand market now. Anyone want to sell one? What happened to the dock? Doesnt seem to be any movement on that AFAIK?
- Koiwai 4y agoMost positive reviews about this thing sounds like the emperor's new cloths. Let's just pretent there is no nintendo switch lite, costing $20 more, and readily available. Or things like Miyoo Mini, cost like $50, and at least have a backlighted screen.
- micromacrofoot 4y agothat’s not the point though, no one buying it is expecting it to be the switch (i hope) - it’s a boutique gadget made by a bunch of software developers, practically an art piece
- tempoponet 4y agoIt's designed by Teenage Engineering, they're top dogs in the niche world of boutique synths. As a collector's piece, whether its modern design or consoles, this is something you would want on your shelf.
- Koiwai 4y agoSure, like those hermes apple watch gen 1.
- jai_ 4y agoThe biggest takeaway that I get from these comments is that HN users seem to either dislike fun hardware or just don't understand what the use case is. The Playdate is a novel, low-powered, handheld console intended for experiemental indie game design and has been marketed as such. Comparisons to a Nintendo Switch or a Steam Deck seem very pointless since these consoles are very much not targeting the same end users. It would be like complaining that you shouldn't buy a Raspberry Pi since a Mac Mini is better for your average user. I agree that the price is a bit steep, but that is to be expected when you are not producing at a volume.
- Eric_WVGG 4y agoor, why are you excited about the release of this new Wong Kar Wai movie, when there’s a new Avengers flick and the ticket is only a dollar more
- jrootabega 4y agoI think that's an editorialized takeaway. I'd say that some HN users recognize that trying to make something look nice or look fun might not make up for big potential usability problems and questionable pricing. (i.e. a price that will make many people question whether they should buy it. Not necessarily a "bad" price or an "unreasonable" price.) And many others are very emotionally invested in this, and will gladly attack those HN users instead of respectful disagreement.
- cableshaft 4y agoAlso what people keep failing to see in the price tag is it includes 24 games. And the games look pretty decent actually. Nothing on the same level as Mario or Kirby or Tetris in there, of course, but many that I'd like to try and would probably purchase separately anyway knowing me. For example, over the past two months of owning a Quest 2 I've bought about 40 games for it, to get a good feel for what the current state of VR gaming is like, and spent many hundreds of dollars to do so. None of the other consoles this gets compared to are offering even a single game with purchase of the hardware, let alone 24. There are other consoles that do, but those are mostly retro mini-consoles that include a bunch of old games that have been resold over and over again.
- jareklupinski 4y agoA 2.7" Memory LCD is the largest I can get anymore... thank you Playdate engineers for keeping this part manufacturable!