• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

New handheld game console announced: the Playdate

iconmaster

Banned
It's... cool? But really bizarre.



You get several games included in the price but each unlocks on a certain week, and is apparently delivered over wifi.

The crank isn't for charging the battery, it's a kind of analog input device.

It comes in yellow.

$149, early 2020. 12 games in "season one," so perhaps they plan for more games down the line?

A few more details from https://play.date/edge/:

- 2.7-inch black-and-white screen, not backlit
- resolution of 400 × 240 – around four times the pixels of the Game Boy’s screen
 
Last edited:

GamesAreFun

Banned
Beautiful design, but looks like it would be uncomfortable to hold - the d-pad is too near the bottom of the device and the side edges aren't rounded. The crank as a controller is neat, assumed it charged the battery at first.

I bought an Ouya at launch, so I'll be more cautious next time...
 

GamesAreFun

Banned
Odd choice, I tried playing an original GBA and it's difficult...

Is there a backlight?
No! Wild, right? In daylight, the reflective layer makes it look spectacular. At night, you can sit by a reading lamp and bask in how incredibly beautiful a modern, sharp, highly-reflective black-and-white LCD can look. It’s great.
 

iconmaster

Banned
Odd choice, I tried playing an original GBA and it's difficult...

i-TdpmdWX.jpg
 

Pallas

Member
Looks interesting but what are the games? And it’s blackmsnd white? That may me interesting if the picture and graphics are sharp.
 

Shifty

Member
Aesthetically, I like it. Might have picked a different colour given the choice but it's not the worst.
Ergonomically, hmm. Unsure. The crank is certainly novel.

It looks like something I would really want root access to.
Pretty much this. It's intriguing enough that I'd want to fiddle around with a SDK and build something for it.

*sigh*

Game Boy Light - 1998
Game Boy Advance SP - 2003

And a black-and-white screen? It's like they never heard of Nintendo.
Cost saving measures, most likely.
 
Last edited:

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
I wish playdate all the best, maybe they could of handled some aspects a little better (backlit screen, color etc.) so without being to critical I still see this handheld struggling given the handheld numbers.
 

DiscoJer

Member
I could see $50. It's hard not to compare it to the Atari Flashback Portable, which is $45. That has no wi-fi but does have an sd-card slot.

I also wonder if Sony will allow this? I think they probably have "Play" in the the hardware name of a video game device locked up.
 

Vitacat

Member
I'm old. I love retrogaming. But, I don't get this device. Especially at that price.

It does remind me of another device, though... The LDK Game. This costs about $50 shipped (from China of course), has a backlit 2.6 inch color screen, emulates everything 8 and 16bit, plus even some PS1 pretty well. In fact, I have one on order, albeit in the transparent shell. Plenty of reviews on youtube if you're curious.

LDK_OpenDingux6_2000x.jpg


Here's the transparent shell version:

4_6519c366-6059-4f59-a653-0dd956aebd9e_1024x1024@2x.jpg
 
Last edited:

Rodolink

Member
The crank as a charging mechanism as well as an input would be amazing. And might forgive the no backlight. But is not so thats a big sin.
Great overall design though. But very expensive for an experiment. Its a $60 thing tops.

Edit: just read the website, didn't know they made Firewatch, that's crazy. Changed my mind, I might give it a go. Gave me ideas for making something for it.
 
Last edited:

BunzLee

Member
So, don't get me wrong, but... What or who is this product for? Considering it has no backlight and will be playing their own games, I really don't get who they're trying to reach with this. When it comes to handhelds they're competing with Nintendo and the regular phone, so they'll need a few good arguments to get people to buy into this at a regular price. Also the image looks like a rendering, and I don't trust unfinished products.
 
Top Bottom