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[Playdate] or what if Warioware Inc. made a console?
Jam Warrior
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PLAYDATE! The most Nintendo thing to not be made by Nintendo.
What is it?:
A teeny tiny handheld console with all kinds of quirky features. Chief of which is that one of the inputs is a hand crank and it has a low-res monochrome screen.
But what games will it have?
It's a mystery! All kinds of people (including some pretty well known names) have made bespoke unique games for this thing, and with your purchase you'll get two a week beamed to you via wi-fi until you have the full first season of 24 games. More seasons will hopefully follow if the whole project doesn't crash and burn. It's also going to be widely open for homebrew and is planned to have browser based devtools released for free to all.
How much?
$179. Yup it's a comfortably well off man's toy. Make peace with it. If you think that's wild wait until you see the speaker/dock/pen holder.
When is it out?
SOON! Pre-orders open up on the 29th July. No set date for shipping but it should be this year hopefully.
Where can I find more info than this crappy OP?
https://play.date/
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/playdate-preview-you-wont-believe-how-fun-this-dorky-179-game-system-is
https://www.polygon.com/22587175/playdate-impressions-release-date-pre-order
https://www.theverge.com/22587172/playdate-hands-on-preview
+4
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It looks like it captures the pure simple joy of computer games as play things in a way that I am very on board for.
I could get one of these for $180...or pay double for a machine that plays any PC game up to the modern era and will probably be able to emulate this console and others like it comfortably.
The only thing it lacks is a hand crank.
But I'm not going to pre-order because the company is taking the full $180USD from you immediately upon pre-order, not when the device ships. The company says anyone who wants to cancel the pre-order at any time will get a full refund, but that still gives me pause.
Now, i'm like 95% sure this is a real product that is going to ship, but there's still a chance that this goes belly up and no product ships.
I just really don't like taking the full amount 6+ months before the product is actually available. I'll consider picking one up when I can just buy it, but I'm passing on a pre-order.
Not really. This isn’t some ambitious start up with an idea collecting dev funds for something that currently only exists as plans and could all amount to nothing due to development issues. It’s a well established company taking orders for the final production of a product that has been finalised after years of development.
Honestly, it's such a weird device that... after the hellscape that the last year and so have been, just looks fun? And it's something I can use right about now. Was able to snag a pre-order for a Late 2021 delivery one.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Roll on ‘late 2021’!
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
So I get a first batch one, as well!
Excited for this stupid little toy
Good news; the first wave made it to the US. Yay!
Bad news: they were QA testing them and they noticed the battery capacity wasn’t quite right, and that a few units weren’t powering on or charging when drained. Which was weird, since they were the same batteries the Dev units were using and they weren’t having the same problem. So they’re taking a bullet and ordered a new batch of batteries from a different supplier that tested fine and are looking to might actually be better? But they have to ship the first wave back to the factory to have them changed out, and that’s going to take time, bumping the release back to Early 2022.
Covid News: Hey, you’ve heard there’s a chip shortage out there? Probably?
Yeah, apparently they can’t get more of the CPU’s the Playdate uses for two literal years. So they decided to do a motherboard revision for newly made units with a new CPU that’s actually widely available. There shouldn’t be any changes to the experience between the two… but that’s a thing that happened.
Actual Good News: The SDK’s almost ready to release to the public! The Pulp SDK should be dropping in January, and the full SDK should be dropping in February.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
The Twitter thread goes into more detail on it.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Unrelated:
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
A Twitter thread with some of the stuff people have been doing. Heads-up that there's some spoilers in there for the Season One games and the first-time boot-up sequence in there, but they seem to be pretty well labeled.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I think maintaining the surprise is the better option long term so I'm steering away from reading or watching much for now.
It BEGINS.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Today+Your Number/139.5
I'm just on about them saying in the tweet that they reckon they might get group one shipped within a month and I'm in group 2.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Mine just shipped yesterday. Which means they have averaged over 330 units shipped every day. So they are well on track to get group 1 out before mid May. And that is 18 (working) days per group.
Did you see the elaborate spreadsheets and calculators people made for estimating the shipping dates of Steam Decks? The internet is already fully into the way of madness.
Steam | XBL
I’d already earmarked the 0.99c joke game based on the trailer (sound on)
Says confirm address before June 8th, so still a few weeks before shipping, but getting closer