By all accounts, I should be smack dab in their target demographic.

Yet, for some reason I don't fully understand, I have no interest in the Playdate.

The design of the main device is super slick. I want to want to play games on it. Even the idea of the crank has some appeal. I can imagine Stardew Valley style fishing, or some Zelda mini games fitting right in with it.

Then I look at it all together and my heart gives it a big old meh that I can't explain.

Also, some of the hardware choices are really stupid. No LCD backlight is ridiculous. Playing to nostalgia goes only so far. When it actively hinders the enjoyment of the product, the product just isn’t very good.

I'm a bit confused here. In the beginning of your comment, you imply that you haven't used one. Then at the end, you state that the lack of a backlight "actively hinders" the product.

How would you know if the lack of a backlight actively hinders the product, if you haven't used it?

The review indicates that the lack of a backlight isn't a problem at all. That's from someone who's actually used it. How is it that you know more about this product's usability when you haven't used it?

31 comments in, and 90% of the posts here are people who have never used the product complaining how bad it is based on their pre-conceived assumptions, or making wild guesses.

I miss the old days of HN when people would post when they had something substantive to add, not just to slake their vanity by seeing their words in print and pretend they're an expert on things they know little about.

Is it your “take” that without testing just about every product out there, people are not allowed to form and opinion, and post about it on the internet?

Edit: as for why there isn't a front light (like the first GBA SP):

> So unlike an LCD, which has transparency to let a backlight shine through, ours is extremely reflective on the back and lets NO light shine through, so backlight isn’t possible! We tested a front light solution and it was… not great. But we’ll keep researching for future models!

https://www.twitter.com/playdate/status/1131736869153017856

That's a good point, but how fair is the comparison really when the Gameboy's screen is at least 20 years old and has surely degraded during that time? With that said, neither look great under the dimmer lighting even if the Playdate is a step up.

Informed opinions are awesome. Uninformed opinions are not. They're just noise.

The fact that you think this is anything like the Gameboy screen shows that you not only didn't read the article, but that you haven't used the product. Therefore your "opinion" is uninformed, and therefore nothing more than what the children today call "a hot take."

>"the contrast ratio on this screen is magnificent, which means ambient daytime light will generally do the trick, as opposed to needing a Game Boy-esque light bulb bolted over the screen"

Think I'm gonna pass on this one; my money is better spent on an Analogue Pocket or something.

I also ordered one because it looks neat and I can probably make my own games for it.

Still, I love that we live in a world where making such an open device with 24 included games is possible. Consumer hardware at scale is quite hard and capital-intensive, so kudos to Panic on shipping. I might end up getting one at some point…

My intuition says that, for the given spec and abilities, I would not feel bad paying 60 to 80 Euro. Add 10 Euro shipping to that, plus the games, and what I'd call a fair price is already 140 to 190 Euros. (Mind that my intuition is not yet calibrated for the current supply shortage).

And yet they sold out 40K units in a matter of a couple of hours.

So the demand is clearly there regardless of how it compares to rational alternatives.

I also found the marketing campaign had a quite good execution for something in such a niche.

All that tells you is that 40K people knew about it, wanted it, and had the disposable income to purchase it.

I bet sales slowed pretty quickly after that.

It sounds like you love the idea of it (I do too), which I think is true of a lot of failed products. I'm not saying that you should buy it or that it will fail, just that there's an interesting lesson there for creators — loving that something exists isn't enough.

If that gets you excited you should check out the Funkey S. Same open hardware and open software and included community games, but also with the ability to emulate your favorite handheld consoles.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console) [2] https://github.com/Upcycle-Electronics/game-and-watch-hardwa...

If we assume 4 bits per pixel for the NES (it offers 56 different colours but not all at once) That's 245.760 bits for the Game & Watch versus 96.000 bits for the Playdate, a significant difference.

I think the console might be too small for crank + buttons usage. If it'd be bigger, it could probably rest comfortably in the palm. In it's current form you'd probably need to have it rest on your pinky slightly elevating it up to use the dpad with the thumb.

And so, there are no fishing games :D

> I had a little technique where I would grease it just enough for it to feel really good

Dude! Really? lol

I agree you don't need a slew of buttons for a good game, but a lot of that design space has been explored already. I've seen some clips of the games in action, and it doesn't look like anyone is really using the crank or accelerometer in fun enough ways (after all, accelerometers have been on AAA console controllers for a while now and are relatively underutilized). I know this is subjective though :)

Pico-8 is known for it's openness to hackability, and users have implemented features that aren't originally provided by the API like sprite dithering and 3D rendering.

But looks like the device has really under-powered hardware to provide that, especially given the price.

If the playdate SDK doesn't allow poking around into raw memory, it's wasted potential in my opinion.

It’s a shame they’ll be snapped up by people three times their age and used for twenty minutes before becoming a shelf ornament.

I ordered one because I'd like to build a simple game for it, my dev career started in z80 assembly building monochrome games for the TI-83+, so 100% nostalgia for me.

I grew up mostly on the NES and earlier systems, and IMO from approximately the Super Nintendo on, game system generations have all delivered about the same amount of happiness (though some individual systems were major duds, of course). It's just a matter of what you're used to. Admittedly, the frustration level of average games on the NES and other earlier systems kept them from being quite the joy-generating devices that later ones would be.

Even at the time, the screen on the GameBoy was such garbage. The lack of a light didn't help either. But even with a backlight, all LCD screens were bad. I remember how washed out the Lynx and GameGear screens were.

The replacement screens you can get for them now are amazing.

If you want a cheap, simple distraction for your kid, there's a ton of used Nintendo DS units out there with an expansive library of games.

Kids these days have access to far higher fidelity, and engaging, experiences. The novelty of a small, quirky, severely limited little device would be passing.

A bit like poking at a Tamagotchi after playing The Sims, Nintendogs and Pokemon Go for years.

> api.uat.loopring.pro

You could argue they quickly abandoned Steam Machines, but they didn't actually make any, they were just branded PCs (so they didn't need active support from Valve), and barely any sold. They still support the SteamOS some ran on, because the Steam Deck also runs SteamOS.

It's a PC so there's no need for "support" from the manufacturers... at least on windows.

With Linux the manufacturers have to update the drivers. Maybe one day Linux will get a stable driver API?

For once Windows users spent a few days in the shoes of a Linux user.

Remember that it is not mandatory to buy it. You may not like it but some other may do.