Apparently not a joke, even though you’d think so after seeing the video of the controller.
Purchase will include twelve indie games, released one per week after console launches.
Has Sega Bass Fishing been confirmed yet?
I wish I was a fun millionaire so I could also make things like this happen for people.
This looks almost as great as the Gizmondo. But nowhere near as cool as the Phantom.
Reminds me of this thing:
Not sure the OLPC was ever successful in meeting all its initial goals.
It’s cute and seems like neat goofy thing but that price strikes me as way too high.
Considering it’s the price of a Nintendo 2DS, which has a library of approximately eleventy billion games, yeah.
Maybe at $39.99.
Panic? I’m in.
It didn’t and the crank was a gimmick that was almost immediately dropped.
Well, I hope someone found the thing useful, and the whole thing isn’t a gimmick. (Though worse hardware was popular among consumers in the ~1980s.)
A lot of people did, and it was a noble goal, but as it turns out you can’t make a computer for less than $100.
I think I’m down for this, *if* they explain whether and how you can get new games for it. What does “Season 1” mean?
The crank is definitely unusual. But I like the potential of it as a unique input mechanism. Little less in love with the placement of it. Feels like I won’t be able to use the crank and the buttons at the same time, and I think doing that would be better than the crank and the d-pad. But maybe I’m wrong.
UPDATE: Some more details on the FAQ.
Oh, also, the guy in charge of Panic is also the guy who made Buggy Saints Row. So I probably owe him $150 for that.
The company seems like pro’s doing a passion project… such a niche one.
So you get 12 (mini)-games that are likely experimental. If it sells really well, maybe you will be able to buy another season.
That first game it comes with better be really cool.
I thought the crank could be used to charge the device, but no dice.
It also looks painfully uncomfortable to hold with hands any larger than a toddler’s.
Oops! I thought so too.
That’s exactly what this is. Panic is pretty popular in the Apple world, so all the Apple sites/blogs/podcasts are all excited by this. I already had about a half dozen articles about this in my RSS feed and one podcast that talked about it.
This link is on PlayDate’s page, but if you want to jump to lots more details:
The name is suggestive of an onahole device. Don’t Google that if you don’t know what it is.
I too expected that the crank would charge the device. Nope.
I also saw the name, Playdate, and automatically assumed the device could connect via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to other Playdates nearby to create a cool little on-the-fly multiplayer gaming environment. Nope.
So basically this is a tiny black & white Gameboy with slightly better resolution, wonky controls and a subscription-based game library of indie/experimental games that will fit both the little screen and the wonky controls. For $150.
Hard pass.
It also reminds me a lot of this for whatever reason:
