Comment by xstas1
18 hours ago
I had never heard of the Playdate but it looks like a very interesting device... and... I want it? Would you suggest getting one?
18 hours ago
I had never heard of the Playdate but it looks like a very interesting device... and... I want it? Would you suggest getting one?
I would've got one if it wasn't so pricey for these specs. You can get a cheap Anbernic for 40-60$ running linux, with decent ARM CPU and a good backlighted screen.
...but what do you do with it? Play emulators? The Playdate has bespoke games designed for it, and many people say it's worth the price.
Tbh I find it a bit weird to talk about leisure devices like a handheld in terms of pure specs as if it was a server for number crunching. I use it to have fun, and (for me at least) a huge part of that is UI and ease-of-use.
> but what do you do with it?
Yes, emulators up to PS1/NDS. There are also many bespoke and commercial linux games that run on these devices via portmaster[0] (for commercial games you need to provide your own files).
I use my 34XX clamshell to listen to podcasts and audiobooks in rockbox [1].
If you take some time to setup alternative OS (e.g. MuOS) there is a good video player and even terminal emulator available with root shell.
And of course, you can write your own games and apps to run on it (SDL, pico8, Godot, Love2D, etc).
[0] https://portmaster.games/
[1] https://portmaster.games/detail.html?name=rockbox
> ...but what do you do with it? Play emulators?
Yep!
> The Playdate has bespoke games designed for it …
Not quite as many as [every 2D home or portable console]. For instance, I enjoy [dozens and dozens of Nintendo games], but there are thousands of others to choose from.
It's a neat piece of hardware, but honestly I never wanted to play any of the games. I don't really know for to do discovery for it, and none of the ones I tried stuck for me, honestly, I prefer to emulate games from my childhood, or retro/indie games I already have on my back-log.
I really like my playdate! Lots of indie games, and their Lua API is very good, coming from someone with no prior experience with Lua or games programming.
I was given one and it had some fun gimmicks but if doesn't really last beyond a few sessions. The ecosystem is strange and I just went back to a "real" device a bit after.
The games are quirky and too many use the crank, IMO. That said, if you want something a bit more unique than everything else it’s a fun toy.