I got mine six months ago and I agree. To me it was always worth it because it was the perfect system to have a big homebrew community. I checked a lot of what was on itch and clearly, it needs some time.
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So hey what was everyoneās thoughts after Needmore?
I tried two games but only remember the name of one because the australian indie games podcast talked it up. Casual Birder.
I guess I did use the crank to use the camera. The writing appeals to someone who is not me.
I canāt even remember what I did in the other game. I think maybe it was a topdown dungeon crawller and I had picked up someone elseās progress and just walked around and thought about Void Stranger.
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My only thought was that as a hundreds-dollar instrument you were supposed to wrench around in perpetuity it sure was small and flimsy
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built like such shit i expected it to squeak
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Time-to-crank was extremely high across most available titles.
Sitting there with the crank machine yelling WHEN WILL I GET TO CRANK?!
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The surfing game was kinda fun.
Not hundreds of dollars fun.
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I honestly think they played themselves by making something that was doomed to be criticized as overly precious and then having it come out like 3x as precious as most people imagined
Panic is a Good Company as much as any Portland-based Apple software developer with a visible and friendly founder can be a Good Company but that thing is self parody
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Send me money, Cabel
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It wanted to be the next Game Boy but it wasnāt even the next GAMEDOG.
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anyway as an extreme skeptic of both the mister and the playdate I will say that I continue to love both my retropie and my analogue pocket
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the playdate sucked shit but I loved it because it was so shit: absolute hostility towards the person using it, a barely functional crank that feels stiff and unpleasant to actually crank, a screen thatās dimmer and more reflective than the original gba, a library of 90% garbage, where even the best game feels like a 6/10 tech demo for technology that doesnāt need to be demonstrated. Itās like a game system designed by a strugatsky-esque shambolic bureaucracy
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I literally didnāt play it because I was like āI cant see the gameā while watching others.
the lack of back lighting is kind of inexcusable.
I get that they wanted it to fit in a skinny jeans pocket but they should have made it more playskool and less teenage engineering.
thats my āhands offā eh whatever review.
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I put 20 hours into Sparrow Solitaire. Itās pretty much the only reason to play the Playdate and doesnāt even use the crank.
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Someone please give two of these things to Jeff Minter
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Season 2 is happening for those that have one.
I donāt.
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Me neither itās fucked up
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Iām actually a little embarrassed to admit it but I got myself a Playdate for my birthday recently. Itās definitely massively overpriced for what it is but I thought, hey, thisāll be a neat weird thing to have kicking around.
So the last 3 weeks Iāve been receiving the Season 1 games on a weekly basis. So far theyāve been generally insubstantial. Even the Keita Takahashi game isnāt anything to write home about, though it is cute.
I separately bought a game called Mars After Midnight that was made by Lucas Pope, the Papers Please guy. Itās extremely charming but again, insubstantial. I guess he designed it for his kids. It has big hypercard game energy in a pretty pleasing way.
I never had a mac when I was a kid, so aside from my elementary school computer lab, I largely missed out on Apple II gaming, but it seems to me like the Playdate is less of a 2020ās re-envisioning of a Gameboy and more of an imaginary Apple portable gaming console. Lots of pretty little dithered black and white hand crafted game experiences that you buy for $3, enjoy them for 5 minutes like youāre downing a refreshing soda on a hot day, and then basically never touch them again.
A lot of these games also remind me of the unlockable bonus games in, like, WarioWare Twisted. You know, a little one-screen score attack arcade game that you can have a good time with for 5-10 minutes at a time, and then maybe if it gets its hooks in you keep coming back. Or maybe not. Nothing as good as Pyoro yet though.
I did buy Season 2, and the first three packages from it downloaded to my device today. Itās two games and something previously unannounced called Blippo+.
Iāve played one of those games, Fulcrum Defender, and itās clearly the best game Iāve played on this thing by a longshotā¦ Actually I would put this up there with Pyoro. It might be better! Itās a score attack thing where you use the crank to aim a gun around a circle to shoot abstract shapes before they can reach the center. As your score rises, you level up, allowing you to choose from a selection of upgrades and subweapons. Itās the best use of the crank Iāve seen so far, actually feels really good to aim precisely with it. My left hand was cramping after 15 minutes of play thoughā¦ The Playdate is not even remotely ergonomic.
Blippo+ rules. Itās basically an alternate universe science fictional satellite TV / Minitel system. You can surf through different channels full of weird, goofy live action programming, all dithered to hell on the Playdateās low-res black and white screen. Itās a huge number of brief programs, like 2-6 minutes each. Some of them are enjoyable in a 90ās FMV game kind of way, you know, watching a programmer try to act. Some are weird or funny enough to recommend them on their own merits. Some are just trying way too hard and donāt work at all. Thereās a lot of cool graphic design and music that really sells the vibe. You can also log into an interactive terminal type system where you can read newsletters, look at missed connections, stuff like that.
Taken as a whole, it has this kind of mild late 80ās nerd/hacker counterculture sensibility that Iāve been enjoying. Kind of reminds me of like, BBS humor, discordianism, Church of the Subgenius, early cyberpunk, those kinds of vibes, though definitely watered down. Iām probably dramatically overselling this, but I was surprised by how much I liked it. There are rumors that Blippo+ will keep getting new content as the season progresses. Thatād be nice.
But yeah, very strong start to season 2. If they can keep this up, the Playdate might actually justify itself to some degree.
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39 BUCKS?!?!
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in this posterās opinion if panic admin had any sense they would have long ago gently lowered a unit into your waiting hands from a large construction crane along with a fat cheque and zero obligation. immaterial of whether or not they know about your work, they really fucked this one up imo !!!
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My friends made this and ive been so nervous to see what people here think of it since everyone shits on the playdate all the time lolā¦ Iām glad u like it 
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