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Panic Playdate In-Depth Review
- greggsy 4y agoThese look really neat, and simple (and innocent) enough for my young kids to use. It’s a shame they’ll be snapped up by people three times their age and used for twenty minutes before becoming a shelf ornament.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- cillian64 4y agoI can’t tell if the simple stripped-back style would actually appeal to kids or whether it only really works for people nostalgic for simpler times.
- jclardy 4y agoI doubt kids will find this appealing unless the parent's have already shielded them from the world of ipads/minecraft/roblox. It harkens back to the days of craning your neck to play an original gameboy with the table lamp in the corner of the room. I ordered one because I'd like to build a simple game for it, my dev career started in z80 assembly building monochrome games for the TI-83+, so 100% nostalgia for me.
- bluedino 4y ago>> It harkens back to the days of craning your neck to play an original gameboy with the table lamp in the corner of the room. Even at the time, the screen on the GameBoy was such garbage. The lack of a light didn't help either. But even with a backlight, all LCD screens were bad. I remember how washed out the Lynx and GameGear screens were. The replacement screens you can get for them now are amazing.
- brimble 4y agoI've found kids complain about crappy old-fashioned options for games/movies/et c., until that's all they have available. After a day or two those "bad" options become totally fine and they're excited about them and excitedly tell you how great they are. I grew up mostly on the NES and earlier systems, and IMO from approximately the Super Nintendo on, game system generations have all delivered about the same amount of happiness (though some individual systems were major duds, of course). It's just a matter of what you're used to. Admittedly, the frustration level of average games on the NES and other earlier systems kept them from being quite the joy-generating devices that later ones would be.
- hbn 4y agoIt's clearly a retro throwback for an older generation who grew up with more primitive handhelds. And/or a tinkerer's toy, to see what kind of things can be done with a crank input. If you want a cheap, simple distraction for your kid, there's a ton of used Nintendo DS units out there with an expansive library of games.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y agoLet's be frank, it was designed primarily for the latter audience. If it had been designed for kids, it would have been an app for their phone at a fraction of the price, possibly with an included dev environment. Pico-8 really kinda nailed that.
- dleslie 4y agoFWIW, my kids would play it for twenty minutes and then put it on the shelf. Kids these days have access to far higher fidelity, and engaging, experiences. The novelty of a small, quirky, severely limited little device would be passing. A bit like poking at a Tamagotchi after playing The Sims, Nintendogs and Pokemon Go for years.
- uniqueuid 4y agoWhoops, getting a broken certificate... > api.uat.loopring.pro
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- saagarjha 4y agoWorks for me. Do you have an extension breaking things, maybe?
- smcl 4y ago"UAT" sticks out like a sore thumb there ...
- pkage 4y agoLooks like an extension doing something (impersonating?) Loopring, as the domain loopring.pro apparently comes from Ukraine according to whois data. Loopring itself doesn't seem to refer to that domain at all, hence the distrust.
- notThrowingAway 4y agoLooking at how the device was marketed as being easy to develop for, I was assuming it would be the physical equivalent of something like the pico-8. Pico-8 is known for it's openness to hackability, and users have implemented features that aren't originally provided by the API like sprite dithering and 3D rendering. But looks like the device has really under-powered hardware to provide that, especially given the price. If the playdate SDK doesn't allow poking around into raw memory, it's wasted potential in my opinion.
- wheybags 4y agoYou can write apps in c or lua, so raw memory shouldn't be a problem
- rvz 4y agoJust like how the Steam Deck was a hype product, the PlayDate is yet another hype product which basically will be used as brilliant paper weight after just 1 hour of playtime.
- przmk 4y agoThe Steam Deck works really well, I've had no issue with it whatsoever. I fail to see how it's comparable to a niche product like the PlayDate.
- Farbklex 4y agoThe steam deck seems to mosty live up to expecatations so far, doesn't it?
- kuu 4y agoEven if it is the cases that most people will stop after 1h of use, it's interesting to see new players and see innovation in the videogame consoles space. Maybe this one is not the successful one after the release, but at least it's proposing something new (the shape, the crank, the games), and maybe this one or next iterations are a success. Remember that it is not mandatory to buy it. You may not like it but some other may do.
- jpgvm 4y agoThis is a really poorly informed take. Playdate is and always will be niche. If you buy it not knowing what you get yourself into then yes, instant paperweight. The Steamdeck however is in a completely different league. It's a portable Linux computer that has a validated graphics and driver stack for games and the support of the largest games distribution channel. Even if you stop playing games on it you are left with a very capable platform to do anything else you might want on a handheld computer.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoactually it comes with a stand to make it a desk clock and pen holder
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- nojs 4y ago
- christophilus 4y agoYeah. Thought it was a horror flick when I first heard the name.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoIt's called a Playdate, made by Panic. I'm not sure Panic Playdate is the intended name.
- tgv 4y agoIt's also not the article's title, so I guess it was edited for this effect.
- post_break 4y agoThe ergonomics of this device just seem to bite it. Yeah it looks nice, but it's not easy to hold and crank and do other things. So many reviewers seem to touch on it being uncomfortable, this one included.
- mhitza 4y agoI'm the target audience for this device, and this is the most important point I'm taking from the reviews. I think the console might be too small for crank + buttons usage. If it'd be bigger, it could probably rest comfortably in the palm. In it's current form you'd probably need to have it rest on your pinky slightly elevating it up to use the dpad with the thumb.
- cooperadymas 4y agoI'm normally into kitschy, retro handheld gaming devices like this. I was in a flurry to get the Analogue Pocket. I love the Gamebuino and Arduboy. By all accounts, I should be smack dab in their target demographic. Yet, for some reason I don't fully understand, I have no interest in the Playdate. The design of the main device is super slick. I want to want to play games on it. Even the idea of the crank has some appeal. I can imagine Stardew Valley style fishing, or some Zelda mini games fitting right in with it. Then I look at it all together and my heart gives it a big old meh that I can't explain.
- LeoNatan25 4y agoExactly what I feel. Part of what gives me that feeling is that Panic and Cabel Sasser are such Twitter “darlings”, so everyone has been gushing over this for years. Also, some of the hardware choices are really stupid. No LCD backlight is ridiculous. Playing to nostalgia goes only so far. When it actively hinders the enjoyment of the product, the product just isn’t very good.
- reaperducer 4y agoWhen it actively hinders the enjoyment of the product, the product just isn’t very good I'm a bit confused here. In the beginning of your comment, you imply that you haven't used one. Then at the end, you state that the lack of a backlight "actively hinders" the product. How would you know if the lack of a backlight actively hinders the product, if you haven't used it? The review indicates that the lack of a backlight isn't a problem at all. That's from someone who's actually used it. How is it that you know more about this product's usability when you haven't used it? 31 comments in, and 90% of the posts here are people who have never used the product complaining how bad it is based on their pre-conceived assumptions, or making wild guesses. I miss the old days of HN when people would post when they had something substantive to add, not just to slake their vanity by seeing their words in print and pretend they're an expert on things they know little about.
- LeoNatan25 4y ago
- benob 4y agoAccording to the wikipedia page of the Playdate, it's run by a STM32F746 microcontroller [1]. It is interesting that it has lower specs than the Mario Game and Watch STM32H7B0 cpu [2], which is itself quite limited by its RAM and flash. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console) [2] https://github.com/Upcycle-Electronics/game-and-watch-hardware https://github.com/Upcycle-Electronics/game-and-watch-hardwa...
- paulcole 4y agoGame systems aren’t limited by RAM and flash. They’re limited by the quality of games available for them.
- dleslie 4y agoContent and quality go hand in hand; and form defines function. The restriction on content size is going to restrict the sort of games that will achieve reasonable quality. We can probably expect that most of the best games will be short, simple arcade experiences. Which is fine, just don't expect more.
- paulcole 4y agoI think you’re missing my point. Great games can exist on any hardware. But great hardware gives you no guarantee of great games.
- philistine 4y agoPhantasy Star was made for the Master System. How can the speed of a CPU lock out a console from anything but a specific type of game?
- Tepix 4y agoThey have a colour display 256x240 whereas the playdate has a 400x240 mono display. If we assume 4 bits per pixel for the NES (it offers 56 different colours but not all at once) That's 245.760 bits for the Game & Watch versus 96.000 bits for the Playdate, a significant difference.
- Loughla 4y agoI'm banking on many, many Gameboy games being ported to the playdate. That's sort of my dream when buying one.
- MBCook 4y agoI remember someone was already working on a GameBoy emulator for it.
- lazysloth 4y agoThe Playdate isn't a great gameboy emulator device with its 1-bit vs 2-bit(gameboy) screen, there are so many better devices in the market that is better suited for that.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoLack of Start and Select buttons might be a problem. There are ways around that (crank, accelerometer, etc.), but it's not ideal.
- Tepix 4y agoIn that case, check out the PS Vita.
- Aissen 4y agoAt ~230€ (w/ tax&shipping) it's a very hard proposition, even for someone with an interest in weird devices and disposable income. A gamer that likes indie games, probably be more at home with the cheaper Switch Lite and a few games from the online store. Still, I love that we live in a world where making such an open device with 24 included games is possible. Consumer hardware at scale is quite hard and capital-intensive, so kudos to Panic on shipping. I might end up getting one at some point…
- causi 4y agoStill, I love that we live in a world where making such an open device with 24 included games is possible. If that gets you excited you should check out the Funkey S. Same open hardware and open software and included community games, but also with the ability to emulate your favorite handheld consoles.
- CharlesW 4y ago> Still, I love that we live in a world where making such an open device with 24 included games is possible. It sounds like you love the idea of it (I do too), which I think is true of a lot of failed products. I'm not saying that you should buy it or that it will fail, just that there's an interesting lesson there for creators — loving that something exists isn't enough.
- archi42 4y agoI thought similar, but then realized that a huge part of the device's value are the included games. I still feel like 230 Euro is quite on the high end, but relatively speaking, it's not as much overpriced as it first seems. E.g. assume that each game is "worth" 3 to 5 Euro on average, and you're looking at 70 to 100 Euro "worth" of games (though you probably wouldn't buy all 24 of them?). My intuition says that, for the given spec and abilities, I would not feel bad paying 60 to 80 Euro. Add 10 Euro shipping to that, plus the games, and what I'd call a fair price is already 140 to 190 Euros. (Mind that my intuition is not yet calibrated for the current supply shortage).
- huhtenberg 4y ago> it's a very hard proposition And yet they sold out 40K units in a matter of a couple of hours. So the demand is clearly there regardless of how it compares to rational alternatives.
- legitster 4y agoThe lack of buttons killed my interest. The difference between the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance was night and day with just those two extra buttons. The crank is cute, but nothing speaks to these games having enough depth or choices to actually want to carry around this device.
- causi 4y agoThey built a handheld gaming system with a crank, put 24 games on it, and zero of them include fishing. Like really? Maybe I can sideload Legend of the River King.
- i80and 4y agoI forget where I read this, but there was apparently an interesting phenomenon where each developer they went to immediately thought of making a fishing game, but felt that was so obvious that everybody else would already be making a fishing game. And so, there are no fishing games :D
- sp332 4y agoIt's in https://www.polygon.com/23013686/playdate-panic-crank-history https://www.polygon.com/23013686/playdate-panic-crank-histor...
- Digit-Al 4y ago> One of the difficult things was figuring out if the final version of the crank was going to be a floppy crank or a stiff crank > I had a little technique where I would grease it just enough for it to feel really good Dude! Really? lol
- standeven 4y agoThe NES and Sega Master System have a ton of fun and engaging games. Both systems have controllers with only a d-pad and two buttons. The Playdate adds a crank and accelerometer.
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- incanus77 4y agoIf there's one thing that I've learned from all of this, it's that I never realized so many people wanted fishing games.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]