Playdate

I might have said Super Crank Bros. But crankbrothers is a great MTB pedals and parts brand and I have their pedals on both my bikes.

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12th title is a port

crankpscsaas

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couple a cranksters right there

Which indie darling should they ask to develop a tie-in game for the Jason Statham action vehicle Crank?

i like everything about the idea of a new game just appearing on your device and having a physical object to actually play things on as opposed to whatever virtual morass most games appear on these days

but I kind of donā€™t trust teenage engineering to do this well; it worked in music because the space they jumped into was historically one reserved for super hardcore producers and the idea of music making as play is cool and fun but they did this by making a really expensive single piece of hardware that has very little ability to interface with anything else (unless you buy an 80 dollar thing that literally just gives you MIDI) and has a very strict workflow when it comes to actually laying out a track. itā€™s perfect in isolation and great for getting people into the idea of making music but you hit those limits pretty quickly and once youā€™re there youā€™re out a thousand bucks (for comparison, the digitakt has totally changed the way I make music and it is 1. cheaper and 2. has lots of connectivity and eight whole midi tracks for me to sequence other gear with)

and they just re-released the op1 for like, 400 dollars more for no real reason? like they havenā€™t announced any additions to it or anything, itā€™s just coming back but itā€™s more expensive now. thatā€™s it

so like, I dunno, I like the ideal situation theyā€™re going for but itā€™s still way too boutique imo.

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look this should probably be going in that music hardware thread but

novationā€™s circuit is also an all-in-one groovebox with synth capabilities but it interfaces with other things and itā€™s 300 bucks and novation has significantly updated it since its inception? like itā€™s almost a completely different instrument now

and the electribe 1s are still used these days and electribe 2s are kinda ass but mostly because theyā€™re punching way above their weight cost to capability-wise

op1 is really expensive with some amazing synth engines but really hamstrung by its reliance on tape loops and the opz requires you to have an ios only device for a screen

and like, I only know one person who uses pocket operators well

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No but Iā€™m liking what Iā€™m seeing!

part of me just wishes that instead of this gba dev tools got super easy to use and people started making gba games again

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I like everything about this except the price and that it isnā€™t open to homebrew, though Iā€™m guessing someone will make that happen fairly quick? Iā€™m temped to pick one up just to flip it on ebay later and make a profit, though.

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Ah, I didnā€™t check to see that it was a synth hardware company before making the comparison but Iā€™m glad that hunch paid off.

My outsider impression is that thereā€™s a spectrum from ā€˜boutique toyā€™ to ā€˜usable hardwareā€™ (and so much physical synth stuff has some connotation of ā€˜toyā€™ given the unlimited power of PC software) and so many of these devices are sold for people to show off and plink on as parties wind down at 3am, and

yeah, that sounds like a perfect little niche for boutique projects. Iā€™m positive these games are all about a month or two of work from these solo designers, which is to say, less than $250k laid out for games and no intention of expansion. It just is, and hereā€™s what you do with money, and~~~~

Signed up for updates, and checked the box indicating interest in developing for this thing, because why not.

Honestly Iā€™m more interested in handheld emulation systems and handheld homebrew systems, but this thing looks neat. Wish it were aiming to be a more open platform.

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extremely disappointed this is not the only purpose for the crank tbh

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If you want to play Gameboy roms on something thatā€™s kind of like a smartphone, youā€™re already well covered.

Bring on the quirky hardware and the crank-based games.

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iā€™m kind of not feeling this. like, itā€™s cute, but i can do a lot of things with $149. iā€™m not convinced this isnā€™t just meant to appeal to the nostalgia of people within my age demographic or very-specific hobbyists, and i guess iā€™ll make a real judgment call when i see what the games turn out to be.

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by the way, the other gimmick of this (that i donā€™t think has come up itt yet? i read fast) is that the games are ā€œsurprisesā€ that are delivered to the console automatically every week over a span of a few months. so the price also includes the cost of all the games. i wonder how it will work after the initial roll out.

it seems cute and fun and probably a little self indulgent. video games!

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I honestly feel like Iā€™m not? At least, my target isnā€™t GB, but GBA / SNES / MD, and aside from smartphone emulation (ew) or custom-building a raspberry Pi solution, thereā€™s really nothing.

Can e-ink refresh fast enough now to do this? Cause I find that very appealing.

I want to port my games to this, but Iā€™m sure I donā€™t have the programming chops to do it and Iā€™m sure they wouldnā€™t want me to.

I like a lot of the ideas about it and itā€™s probably worth $150 if I had more disposable income but I think Iā€™ll get a refurbished Switch instead.

Hoping any really neat exclusives find a place to call home after this thing flounders.

I mean, maybe it wonā€™t flounder.

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Thereā€™s no way this can sell like a traditional game platform on account of 1) admitted limited supply, 2) heavily curated library. But it maybe doesnā€™t have to in order to be considered successful?

Like, this thing could do worse numbers than the worst-selling console and still be a success on its own terms.

Yeah, I was being overly negative. I think this thing looks neat and there could be times in my life when Iā€™d be truly hype about it.

Firstly, Iā€™m not convinced this is an E-ink display. From the edge article:

Much like the E-ink screen youā€™d find on a Kindle, itā€™s not backlit ā€“ the difference is that itā€™s tremendously reflective, the visuals wonderfully sharp and clear in the California sunshine.

Emphasis mine, thatā€™s the only time they mention E-ink

Secondly: sort of? Even on old nooks and things you can basically just turn off the constant refreshing. Of course that means thereā€™s lots of ghosting, but it does improve the framerate significantly. I hacked my nook to play Angry Birds and it was actually decent.

Hereā€™s an e-ink monitor playing a video:

I donā€™t think this is good enough to play games though. This still looks like, whatā€¦10-15 FPS? And with a lower resolution it might be significantly faster, butā€¦yeah itā€™s not great. Itā€™s not an ideal experience.

Anyway my first reaction was ā€œOh, this looks pretty cool!ā€ But then the more I think about it being $150 and closed source, basically, the less interested I am.

still looks nice though.

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