Still would love one of these, but even $179 is a little too rich for my blood when the Playdate seems like such a novelty. There are certainly games on it that I would love to play and I don't...
Still would love one of these, but even $179 is a little too rich for my blood when the Playdate seems like such a novelty. There are certainly games on it that I would love to play and I don't mean to diminish anyone that loves it--I know we have several on Tildes--but there's a definite cost/benefit thing going on in my head, especially when I already have several of the Chinese handhelds that will play numerous games from old systems that both do not cost me any extra money and that I've never even played before; when I already have this, am I really going to get that much more enjoyment out of a Playdate for $200+?
Imo, the Playdate lives and dies on the back of the dev community. You get 24 games off the bat, 2 a week as part of getting the console, there are some fantastic games in the catalog, and there...
Imo, the Playdate lives and dies on the back of the dev community. You get 24 games off the bat, 2 a week as part of getting the console, there are some fantastic games in the catalog, and there is a new season coming out soon, BUT a lot of consoles have a key game that sells units, and I don't think Playdate has that. The closest thing would be something like Root Bear or YOYOZO, depending on your tastes, but a game that feels like a solid early app store mobile title doesn't offset $200 for the unit in my opinion. If you're not buying it because you enjoy novel or quirky indie gaming experiences, or you enjoy the dev community around it, it probably going to bounce off for you.
(That, and some of those handhelds with custom firmware and Portmaster are wild if getting stuff to work is as much of a game for you as whatever you're installing.)
I am certainly down for tinkering and playing weird stuff. The new Lucas Pope game that's on Playdate is pretty intriguing and can be pretty close to a system seller, but again, my issue is: Am I...
I am certainly down for tinkering and playing weird stuff. The new Lucas Pope game that's on Playdate is pretty intriguing and can be pretty close to a system seller, but again, my issue is: Am I going to get $200 worth of enjoyment out of this thing? I certainly like quirky, weird Indie games, but since I've started emulating and as well as playing older systems again, I find there's still lots of weird, unusual and fun things out there that don't need me to slap down $200.
I'm certain I'd enjoy the Playdate, but I've got a lot of other fun distractions--not to mention a 1000+ deep library on Steam--that cost me a lot less. I just wish it was easier to try the Playdate somehow and that would allow me to really figure out if it's worth it to me, but even used ones on eBay aren't much cheaper than buying new, if you can even find them.
The main draw of the Playdate for me is the portability and having a device that can replace my phone. I knew it was small but I was honestly surprised at just how small it is. I can carry it in...
The main draw of the Playdate for me is the portability and having a device that can replace my phone.
I knew it was small but I was honestly surprised at just how small it is. I can carry it in my day pouch alongside my wallet and hand lotion and chapstick and headphones. It’s teeny-tiny, so unlike my Switch which rarely leaves the house, I take my Playdate with me everywhere. It’s great for breaks at work, waiting at the bank, basically anywhere I would normally reach for my phone I can reach for my Playdate instead, which has been a big mental health boon for me. And because it emits no light, I can use it before bed without flooding my eyes with blue light, so my sleep hygiene has also improved (I use a book light to play in lowlight conditions, but the screen is so reflective that you’ll be surprised how easy it is to see even in low-light).
Overall the experience has been well worth the $200, and because new games are so cheap I always have something new to play.
I got a Playdate right when it released. If I’m being honest, I’ve probably played it for maybe 5 hours total? If it hadn’t been delayed and had come out before the Steam Deck, it would have seen...
I got a Playdate right when it released. If I’m being honest, I’ve probably played it for maybe 5 hours total? If it hadn’t been delayed and had come out before the Steam Deck, it would have seen a lot more play from me, but the Deck beat them to the punch.
I’m actually considering doing my next Backlog Burner with my Playdate library just to force myself to spend some quality time with it. I genuinely do really like it and think it’s impressive what people have been able to do with it, but I also just don’t ever pick it up.
The value proposition of the $199 Playdate was never clear to me. The Nintendo Switch Lite also costs $199 and offers 4,900 games, including expensive popular blockbuster games that all your...
The value proposition of the $199 Playdate was never clear to me. The Nintendo Switch Lite also costs $199 and offers 4,900 games, including expensive popular blockbuster games that all your friends are playing and cheap quirky indie games. And then everyone has a smartphone, and there are bajillions of cheap quirky indie mobile games in the Android and iOS app stores.
I feel that they should:
Have a cheap, basic sub-$100 version that make parents go, "oh why not, I'll just buy this: this is way cheaper than a PS5 or an iPad, hopefully it'll keep my 6-year old amused."
Have a premium $200+ version for Millennials and Gen Xers with Gameboy nostalgia and disposable income.
Have PC and mobile emulators so they can reach more audiences, who can then maybe convinced to buy a Playdate for a dedicated hardware experience.
I feel that in its current form, the Playdate feels like a figment of nostalgia thought up by Gen X hipsters in a Portland dive bar, and it struggles to garner attention and interest from the indie game dev community. I've been hanging around the GDC indie devs this week, and everyone is focused on using Unity or Godot to develop desktop and AR/VR games.
I feel like this is presuming that it's a failure, but given the sales demand and aftermarket prices, far from it - demand outstrips supply for the playdate. If anything, it's too cheap by market...
I feel like this is presuming that it's a failure, but given the sales demand and aftermarket prices, far from it - demand outstrips supply for the playdate. If anything, it's too cheap by market price.
In the end, it's is an artsy fartsy hipster device, and that's ok. There's a lot of serious gaming devices. There's room for a niche, weird thing with monochrome screen and a crank, and it's better that exists. We really don't need emulator device #6234 that looks vaguely like a gameboy and runs android and comes with emulators.
Have PC and mobile emulators so they can reach more audiences, who can then maybe convinced to buy a Playdate for a dedicated hardware experience.
Like, do you know how many generic android handhelds that can emulate any game you want that pour out of China right now? That is a saturated market if any exists. I'm glad that they didn't go for that, and I think they are as well - it's hard to compete in that sphere.
It's selling well, the artsy fartsy gaming hipsters are happy with their niche, there's a steady and dedicated community of mostly hobbyist, but some professional, developers. Things are going well for the playdate.
A bit of a note, the Simulator cannot play Catalog or Season 1 games, you have to play the PDX files locally. That limits you to open source projects or playtests on forums or the Discord, and...
A bit of a note, the Simulator cannot play Catalog or Season 1 games, you have to play the PDX files locally. That limits you to open source projects or playtests on forums or the Discord, and itch.io games. Now there is a lot of good stuff on itch.io, but not everything.
Emulators would be a fantastic idea. I get why they wouldn't, but being able to try the games in their imperfect forms would 100% get me thinking a little harder about actually picking one up.
Emulators would be a fantastic idea.
I get why they wouldn't, but being able to try the games in their imperfect forms would 100% get me thinking a little harder about actually picking one up.
Maybe it's a silly concern, but I'm confused why the Playdate doesn't have a better battery life considering the entry price. It only has a 740 mAh battery which seems shockingly small compared...
Maybe it's a silly concern, but I'm confused why the Playdate doesn't have a better battery life considering the entry price. It only has a 740 mAh battery which seems shockingly small compared even to a cheap smartphone.
Even small smartphones have larger batteries, so I have to imagine they could fit a bigger battery into the unit. They don't sell replacement batteries either unfortunately. That gives me pause on...
Even small smartphones have larger batteries, so I have to imagine they could fit a bigger battery into the unit. They don't sell replacement batteries either unfortunately. That gives me pause on buying a refurbished unit too.
I love the industrial and UI design of the little thing, the crank is cute, the existing games are quirky, the development challenge of making games for it (low CPU + large memory) makes it really...
I love the industrial and UI design of the little thing, the crank is cute, the existing games are quirky, the development challenge of making games for it (low CPU + large memory) makes it really intriguing as a software developer, but damn I can't go back to a LCD handheld without a backlight.
It sucked with the gameboy and it still sucks now. If I got one, I'd probably only used it tethered to a PC running the screen mirroring feature.
It really isn’t anywhere near as bad as the gameboy. The screen on the gameboy was muddy all the time and scrolling made things look like the screen got covered in Vaseline even in the best of...
It really isn’t anywhere near as bad as the gameboy. The screen on the gameboy was muddy all the time and scrolling made things look like the screen got covered in Vaseline even in the best of lighting. The screen on the playdate has a screen so good at reflection that if you make the pixels all “white” it’s mirror-like, and it refreshes fast enough for very quick action games.
I've seen a lot of people arguing that it's not that bad whenever I chime in on this, so maybe it's just my old man eyes betraying me, but my experience with the Playdate screen has been pretty...
I've seen a lot of people arguing that it's not that bad whenever I chime in on this, so maybe it's just my old man eyes betraying me, but my experience with the Playdate screen has been pretty abysmal. You really have to have it under direct lighting to enjoy it--if you've got only one source of light next to you (like a bedside lamp) then I need to hold the Playdate upright within a specific viewing angle to see anything, which kind of ruins the fun, especially when playing games that utilize the crank.
I did get a little battery powered clip-on reading lamp that I could attach to the cover, which made things much more bearable, but also kind of ruins the aesthetic. And again, when you're playing crank-based games the lamp gets to wibbly wobblin' and can fall off or shake out of place quite easily which also dampens the fun. It's such a shame that it doesn't have any built-in light. Even front-lighting with some LEDs around the screen's perimiter would have moved this thing into S-tier category for me, but as it is it's maybe D or C tier for me at most.
Still would love one of these, but even $179 is a little too rich for my blood when the Playdate seems like such a novelty. There are certainly games on it that I would love to play and I don't mean to diminish anyone that loves it--I know we have several on Tildes--but there's a definite cost/benefit thing going on in my head, especially when I already have several of the Chinese handhelds that will play numerous games from old systems that both do not cost me any extra money and that I've never even played before; when I already have this, am I really going to get that much more enjoyment out of a Playdate for $200+?
Imo, the Playdate lives and dies on the back of the dev community. You get 24 games off the bat, 2 a week as part of getting the console, there are some fantastic games in the catalog, and there is a new season coming out soon, BUT a lot of consoles have a key game that sells units, and I don't think Playdate has that. The closest thing would be something like Root Bear or YOYOZO, depending on your tastes, but a game that feels like a solid early app store mobile title doesn't offset $200 for the unit in my opinion. If you're not buying it because you enjoy novel or quirky indie gaming experiences, or you enjoy the dev community around it, it probably going to bounce off for you.
(That, and some of those handhelds with custom firmware and Portmaster are wild if getting stuff to work is as much of a game for you as whatever you're installing.)
I am certainly down for tinkering and playing weird stuff. The new Lucas Pope game that's on Playdate is pretty intriguing and can be pretty close to a system seller, but again, my issue is: Am I going to get $200 worth of enjoyment out of this thing? I certainly like quirky, weird Indie games, but since I've started emulating and as well as playing older systems again, I find there's still lots of weird, unusual and fun things out there that don't need me to slap down $200.
I'm certain I'd enjoy the Playdate, but I've got a lot of other fun distractions--not to mention a 1000+ deep library on Steam--that cost me a lot less. I just wish it was easier to try the Playdate somehow and that would allow me to really figure out if it's worth it to me, but even used ones on eBay aren't much cheaper than buying new, if you can even find them.
The main draw of the Playdate for me is the portability and having a device that can replace my phone.
I knew it was small but I was honestly surprised at just how small it is. I can carry it in my day pouch alongside my wallet and hand lotion and chapstick and headphones. It’s teeny-tiny, so unlike my Switch which rarely leaves the house, I take my Playdate with me everywhere. It’s great for breaks at work, waiting at the bank, basically anywhere I would normally reach for my phone I can reach for my Playdate instead, which has been a big mental health boon for me. And because it emits no light, I can use it before bed without flooding my eyes with blue light, so my sleep hygiene has also improved (I use a book light to play in lowlight conditions, but the screen is so reflective that you’ll be surprised how easy it is to see even in low-light).
Overall the experience has been well worth the $200, and because new games are so cheap I always have something new to play.
I got a Playdate right when it released. If I’m being honest, I’ve probably played it for maybe 5 hours total? If it hadn’t been delayed and had come out before the Steam Deck, it would have seen a lot more play from me, but the Deck beat them to the punch.
I’m actually considering doing my next Backlog Burner with my Playdate library just to force myself to spend some quality time with it. I genuinely do really like it and think it’s impressive what people have been able to do with it, but I also just don’t ever pick it up.
The value proposition of the $199 Playdate was never clear to me. The Nintendo Switch Lite also costs $199 and offers 4,900 games, including expensive popular blockbuster games that all your friends are playing and cheap quirky indie games. And then everyone has a smartphone, and there are bajillions of cheap quirky indie mobile games in the Android and iOS app stores.
I feel that they should:
I feel that in its current form, the Playdate feels like a figment of nostalgia thought up by Gen X hipsters in a Portland dive bar, and it struggles to garner attention and interest from the indie game dev community. I've been hanging around the GDC indie devs this week, and everyone is focused on using Unity or Godot to develop desktop and AR/VR games.
I feel like this is presuming that it's a failure, but given the sales demand and aftermarket prices, far from it - demand outstrips supply for the playdate. If anything, it's too cheap by market price.
In the end, it's is an artsy fartsy hipster device, and that's ok. There's a lot of serious gaming devices. There's room for a niche, weird thing with monochrome screen and a crank, and it's better that exists. We really don't need emulator device #6234 that looks vaguely like a gameboy and runs android and comes with emulators.
Like, do you know how many generic android handhelds that can emulate any game you want that pour out of China right now? That is a saturated market if any exists. I'm glad that they didn't go for that, and I think they are as well - it's hard to compete in that sphere.
It's selling well, the artsy fartsy gaming hipsters are happy with their niche, there's a steady and dedicated community of mostly hobbyist, but some professional, developers. Things are going well for the playdate.
They already have a fully featured simulator for desktop operating systems. Ping /u/BeardyHat
Well shit, thanks. I'll have to give this a go now, this is exactly what might hook me enough to seriously consider picking one up down the road.
A bit of a note, the Simulator cannot play Catalog or Season 1 games, you have to play the PDX files locally. That limits you to open source projects or playtests on forums or the Discord, and itch.io games. Now there is a lot of good stuff on itch.io, but not everything.
Emulators would be a fantastic idea.
I get why they wouldn't, but being able to try the games in their imperfect forms would 100% get me thinking a little harder about actually picking one up.
Maybe it's a silly concern, but I'm confused why the Playdate doesn't have a better battery life considering the entry price. It only has a 740 mAh battery which seems shockingly small compared even to a cheap smartphone.
Size, I'd imagine. It's a very small device - unless you have one in your hands, it's hard to gauge just how small it is. It's very small.
Even small smartphones have larger batteries, so I have to imagine they could fit a bigger battery into the unit. They don't sell replacement batteries either unfortunately. That gives me pause on buying a refurbished unit too.
I love the industrial and UI design of the little thing, the crank is cute, the existing games are quirky, the development challenge of making games for it (low CPU + large memory) makes it really intriguing as a software developer, but damn I can't go back to a LCD handheld without a backlight.
It sucked with the gameboy and it still sucks now. If I got one, I'd probably only used it tethered to a PC running the screen mirroring feature.
It really isn’t anywhere near as bad as the gameboy. The screen on the gameboy was muddy all the time and scrolling made things look like the screen got covered in Vaseline even in the best of lighting. The screen on the playdate has a screen so good at reflection that if you make the pixels all “white” it’s mirror-like, and it refreshes fast enough for very quick action games.
I've seen a lot of people arguing that it's not that bad whenever I chime in on this, so maybe it's just my old man eyes betraying me, but my experience with the Playdate screen has been pretty abysmal. You really have to have it under direct lighting to enjoy it--if you've got only one source of light next to you (like a bedside lamp) then I need to hold the Playdate upright within a specific viewing angle to see anything, which kind of ruins the fun, especially when playing games that utilize the crank.
I did get a little battery powered clip-on reading lamp that I could attach to the cover, which made things much more bearable, but also kind of ruins the aesthetic. And again, when you're playing crank-based games the lamp gets to wibbly wobblin' and can fall off or shake out of place quite easily which also dampens the fun. It's such a shame that it doesn't have any built-in light. Even front-lighting with some LEDs around the screen's perimiter would have moved this thing into S-tier category for me, but as it is it's maybe D or C tier for me at most.
Just $179? Is this some kind of a wind up?