Playdate Review - What were they thinking?!? 

I would rather pay for the games separately or subscribe to the game service than blow it all on the games and device at once. It really drives up the cost of the unit

It would also be great if hardware was just FREE! Launching new hardware as a small company that has never developed any hardware before ISN’T cheap or trivial. Nintendo has enormous pricing leverage with suppliers because of their reputation, production volume, and decades of experience managing supply chains. Nintendo can issue a PO for millions of dollars to any supplier, and the supplier would have no qualms about getting paid due to established credit. A small company doing it for the first time has none of those things, so they likely need to pay for everything upfront, and inherits an enormous amount of risk by doing something like this. Supply chain and assembly is a gnarly task for a small company without credit and established relationships. Panic has only ever been an indie Mac software developer that began dabbling in indie game publishing. For their first crack at launching a hardware platform, I’d say they’ve done a damn good job. We, as users and enthusiasts, should support these kinds of gambles in the gaming industry if we ever want to see small companies take these kinds of risks. I truly hope the PlayDate succeeds because frankly Panic deserves success and I don’t want to see the industry continue to stagnate around 3 companies. Same goes for the Steam Deck. Experiments with new hardware products is vital for keeping the industry interesting and healthy.

@@Millahtime I don't get why people don't understand this.

@@Millahtime You support this kind of gambling (great analogy by the way) if you want to. I'll pass on this.

@@Millahtime Dude, you can tell when a product is going to tank, just like Google stadia, Nvidia, NGage, and all those hip and cool handhelds than never went anywhere.

Pretty sure a fishing game was announced. They had a Direct-like announcement video a couple months back

@@fullriver1234 Better late than never, I suppose!

I was looking for this comment and thinking the exact same thing :D

there will be a fishing game :)

Or a console with a steering wheel without any racing games.

It's probably a case of "we expect you to be touching grass when playing this.

No surprise. Panic has decades of experience there.

Yeah but it's almost 200 dollars.

@@fastestdino2 Flaws aside

@@fastestdino2 more reading comprehension pls

@@fastestdino2 and Nintendo's game and watch that only has one NES game and one game and watch game is $50. This has far more in depth games and you can cast it to your PC, create and share games for it, and it is made by a small company, not a giant like Nintendo.

TE was also involved.... Form over function is their specialty.

"Hipster idiot-land" has a ring to it.

Being from Oregon, I can safely say most of us are fed up with Portland lol.

That’s what I said. 🤣

@@CalQaida 😂👌🏻

Get wario ware

Can you not game on your iPhone?

@@bitcoinfox376 iphone sucks

no Teenage Engineering product is ever going to be cheap, unfortunately... :(

Idk if that's stupid or playing to their audience really well

@@primepikachu5 Probably the latter, but apparently it is a passion project more than anything. The whole console was designed around that particular reflective screen. They mentioned the Game And Watch as their source of inspiration (as in the original from the 80s), so I get why they would go that route.

As retro gamers we all like a certain degree of nostalgia, but after a certain point this “member berry” stuff goes too far. Might as well require double AA batteries too if they want to be that “authentic.” That kind of screen is fine for calculators, but for gaming? Just no.

i think that the screen is terrible they could've achieved the same effect with a gpu shader very stupid especially if it raised the cost and is why i cant even buy one. when they make the color screen backlit version of this ill buy it day one

@@someguy3186 Yeah, no one should have nostalgia for something that sucked ass. Who has positive memories related to the lack of a backlight? Like what? Oh man, It's so awesome I get to relive the horrible experience of having to try an adjust the lamp in my room at night to the exact right position to play my gameboy before giving up after 10 minutes because I can only just barely see what the hell I was doing. It's like being nostalgic for burning through 6 AA batteries for 3-5 hours of play on a game gear. It's something that was objectively bad, we can leave that in the past.

After Microsoft Penguinvator 2002 there really hasn't been any good options.

Ever heard of attack of the mutant penguins?

@@flammenwaffle7976 It's not a cohesive title without those elevators. I have high standards, I know.

Have you tried snakes and ladders? It's sort of the pen and paper prototype for penguins and elevators.

lol yes

Same. Would you be able to power a device like this with a crank like that? Feel like even with the non lit screen it would require a fair amount of crank.

@@jameseden9380 Yes, you can power torches with old fashioned filament bulbs using a crank, so i'm sure you could top a battery on this a bit with a bit of crank.

the gimmicky crank is no different than spinning a joystick in circles

Same. Also look at how much the device moves as he uses the crank as a controller. A simple knob would accomplish the same thing without wiggling the devive in your hands while trying to keep track of a small nonbacklit screen. A hand crank to charge the device would be far better than a crank as a controller.

I mean can you imagine how much a switch light would be if it came with 24 console exclusives?

@@gir5o1 A switch console exclusive seems like much more advanced games, here you could argue spending $20 and getting the NES and SNES games would be a better deal.

@@gir5o1 yeah but these "games" are kinda shovelware, snake etc.. some are cool .

Do americans always call the switch lite, switch light?

@@ashborn5943 no, I just was typing fast and used the wrong lite.

Well, I bet it's alot of animation. Hence the size of these games....

Which is good, right? Plenty of headroom for fancy games with smooth animations. Personally I'm not a fan of monochrome. Basic GBA style colors would have been better.

What's the marvel cinematic universe got to do with any of this?

speed, not power, dolt

@@AmstradExin i don't understand how *anything* can be that big if everything is 1-bit(technically it'd be 2 bit to have transparency, but still). I don't know if people realise how absolutely tiny 1-2 bit graphic are to store, it was a trick they used on some old 16 bit where'd they'd store tiles that way and then palette swap them.

Agreed! I wouldn't want it.

The price doesn't matter, but the lack of a backlight is embarassing and really shows how hard this company is trying to squeeze us.

@@Hyperbolic_G The price might not matter to you, but for someone like me, who only has a limited budget to spend on their hobby of gaming each month while supporting a family, paying bills, etc.. then yeah it does matter.

@@CommodoreFan64 So if it was reasonably priced right now, would you buy it? The thing is garbage with that screen at any price which is the point im making.

@@Hyperbolic_G Maybe if this was under $50 I'd consider it, and give the flaws a pass calling it a novelty, otherwise no!!

Well, they could have maybe used the crank as a backup charging system or something like that

They could have sized up the screen, body and battery (for a light) and the crank charge should be restricted to the locked mode or something

Using the crank to actually charge the device is unrealistic, but I think keeping the B&W display and adding a manually-switchable EL panel or some LED lighting would make a huge difference without draining the battery too much. US$180 is just way too much, though. Even though it comes with 24 games, I'm only interested in 2 or 3 of them.

@@tylern6420 it would be 10 times thicker for the charging system

It's not unlikely we're gonna see a "travel/night kit" for this thing down the line that includes a hefty battery pack and a little light, just like those weird gameboy light/battery kits of old...!

you can't even charge the device with the crank

Why the fuck would you be able to charge it with the crank lmaooo

@@dissraps Tell me you don't understand kinetic energy without telling me.

@@dissraps take a science class kid. A crank can release energy when turned. My dad had torch with a crank it didn't need batteries

Same reaction

I was just going to suggest the same thing.

This man went to damn MIT

As well use the crank as a way to recharge the battery

For $180 it really should just work, shouldn't it?

Or making a USB crank for phones lol

Same! I was confused when he mentioned charging it

Thought the same

Eugene represent!

The fucking BRAND is a deal breaker. avoid those idiots. TI is NOT GOOD. They are... sinister and deceptive. (in my opinion, and fictional thoughts...)

How can anyone release a handheld device without a backlite these days? Like wtf even the original gameboy had a backlite version

@@valletas The lack of color is a deal breaker

I agree. Ever since the GBA SP came out in the early 2000s we have never looked back. It was a total paradigm shift.

No

@@SqwertSoda yeah I'm with you. No back light in 2022? That's embarrassing.

Cranks to charge can be used, but they require some gear conversions to make your movement generate electricity efficiently. That means it would not be as smooth as the one they have it and it could make it hard or unfun to play. And also it would make a lot of noise. The crank they added is very smooth, with precision sensors. I don't think they could add a feature to charge with that same crank

@@SqwertSoda OH WOW EXPERT OPINION MY B DUDE

@@astropgn yeah I'm not an engineer I was just giving my remarks that when I first saw it had a crank and a non backlit screen my first thought was "you crank it to charge it maybe, thats why it is saving energy with the screen". But as I also said, its not! Thanks for clarifying though.

They said they want to recapture the old school feel. I feel like MJR is missing the point of the play date almost entirely. It's NOT a smartphone, it's it's own niche product.

@@holdencollins1462 I mean, of course they have some nice sounding excuse. It's still ridiculous.

I really like the display and could imagine my eyes having no trouble with the clear reflective look, but the price is rough

@@holdencollins1462 I agree with the old-school feel and the reflective screen is something I lust after in any device I can get, I just love it when they don't need to be lit to be seen. Still, locking you out of that forcefully is kinda crap, I doubt anyone loved all of the the Game Boys up until the SP _because_ they couldn't be seen without external light. If the screen technology makes it impossible to put a light through the back, put one on the front, simple as that. Amazon has been doing it on the Kindle Paperwhite since 2012 with impressive results, and I doubt they were the 1st either. (EDIT: like the GBA SP AGS-001, but I do mean as well as the Paperwhite quality wise)

@@jackiechun6540 the gameboy was $90 when it came out in '89, adjusted with inflation that's $200 in today's money.

The Playdate seemed kind of neat until I realized it's about the same price as a Switch Lite. To be competitive, the Playdate would have to be priced more like last year's Game&Watch, which was $50 and had a color screen.

@@ToyKeeper It's just not possible though. They are super expensive to produce because they are not produced _en masse_ like the Switch, not to mention that Nintendo (and Microsoft, and Sony) sell their devices at a loss and a make all their profit by selling games. As expensive as it is, the device is being sold for as cheap as possible.

@@ToyKeeper And besides I don't think they're trying to be competitive. It's intentionally made for a niche market.

It's expensive to produce and they're selling for as cheap as they can without going bankrupt. If that's what you call overpriced, welp, guess we have a different definition of that word. People keep bringing up the Switch Lite, and forget that Nintendo sells their consoles at a loss and profit from game sales. I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch Lite is being sold for less than half of what it costs to manufacture.

@@QuotePilgrim Many sources report Nintendo makes a healthy profit on each Switch. I think you were spot-on with the part about Teenage Engineering not trying to be competitive though. This is the same company which sells a white t-shirt for $490. Most of their tech items sell for at least twice the price of anything else in their class... and the Playdate is no exception. Because it's a fashion company, not a tech company.

lol... you expect it to make it that far? These will be on clearance by xmas

Waiting for a v2 that may never exist

@@evodgamehunter4290 lol doesn't hurt me either way xD

@@ZombieZifiction 😢

@@evodgamehunter4290 lol the pre-orders sold out within minutes and people have pre-orders that won't ship for months. Don't hold your breath

That's what I thought it was at first when I saw him cranking it really fast. One of those cranks to provide electricity. Then as I got further into the video and saw him turning it slowly it back and forth, that's when I realized it was being used to control the games.

that´s what i thought when i first saw this months ago too. kind of useless garbage but at least it has a little gimmick and a novelty factor you don´t see on other hand helds. maybe i´ll get one for 30-40 bucks. that´s would´ve made the non backlit screen alright with me too, since it would be befitting of it´s main crank powered usp and not just some hipster bullshit. but seeing that this costs 180 bucks plus the crank is just a completely pointless gimmick without any real function, makes this completely pointless.

i indeed thought this was how it was going to be powered!!!!!! and it was the gimmicky way of saving battery life????

That would be a way better use, this is really silly. a Dynamo charger makes worlds more sense

Reminds me of the spinners from arcade games like Tempest, Arkanoid and Discs of Tron.

I was just thinking the same thing that they can add on a pad with extra buttons etc.

Agreed! I did the same exact thing lol

Lmfao... same

Same, i'm waiting for MJR to review the steam deck. Just like with @8bitguy i appreciate the passion and how genuine it is, It is easy to differentiate someone who is being paid to say something vs someone who speaks from a passion they have.

Same here 😂

MJR complained about the screen for 15 minutes.... great review?

Just need to play it outside or get a Worm Light.

@@DauntlessDamian i could totally see myself cranking this thing on a hike

Need a worm light for that extra authentic feel lol

I would have been happy to pay and extra $2 for a backlight lol

The reason it isn’t backlit or frontlit is because it would’ve been more expensive.

@@Omega_Mart_Employee_K1Z Nah, backlight-wise, it’s because it’s impossible to add a backlight to a Sharp memory display. They’re entirely opaque.

@@wiiu42 ooohhhh

oh indiglo would look soo cool on an old school gameboy

The Apple Watch has a crank, and I started a gaming company back when it first launched because all the games were terrible.

only black and white as well. screen smaller than the original gameboy. low resolution. can only play 24 mysterious games. can't even play retro games. must connect to the internet to download the 24 games that you own, have to wait 1 week to get 2 games every week. you don't even know the games you're getting. could be good or crap. storage is only 4 GB even though it's freaken 2022. there's a gimmick crank that gives your hand a cramp after a while. also the screen shakes as you're rotating the crank (because the whole unit shakes) making it hard to see what's going on in the small screen. who in the right mind would buy this? i get it's a cool idea and they're trying to different. but why this? why not a slightly bigger unit, with colored backlit HD screen, with 24 pre-downloaded known games (not mysterious) with new games you can get from their online store for free or to buy. and add a micro-SD card slot to expand the storage space. instead of the crank, use a wheel like the mouse middle wheel. and add a 3.5mm headphone jack. that'd be a device worth buying

It's a reflection screen. It takes the light and reflects it back to mimic backlight. Works well.

@@watch_kitty I watched the video. As soon as he left a light area it was a crapshoot. Completely unreasonable.

​@@bradford433 Well yes, a backlight would be nice, though it would drastically cut the battery life I imagine, but it seems like a fair compromise that makes it VERY easy to use outdoors, whereas most handhelds and phones are pretty hard to see in the sun. They could have put some tiny LED on the side of the display that would shine inward if you turned them on, but maybe that resulted in weird glare with the reflection screen, idk..

@@EileenTheCr0w All im saying is 180 dollars and nothing to light it up in the dark

BAHWHAHAHAHAHAHA! My favorite comment so far! 😂

I loved those things it was the only things to keep me entertained at my grandmas... ((besides one of those old hand held racing games called digital derby that the road went around like a treadmill and the car was essentially a picture lol))

We know where your profile pic is from...

Console and 24 games is a good price.

@@David-uc6sg Nope.

@@David-uc6sg Nah. "Console" is a bit of a stretch if you're comparing it with what we mean when we say and hear "console".

$20 more and you can get a switch lite

Almost two thirds the cost of a series s

Yes. They include free software called Mirror that allows you to send the display over the USB-C cable to PC or Mac. Works really well actually. All the full screen footage in my video was captured this way.

It will fail in 6 months tho.

@@tmbrwn i mean not exactly, the idea is to build a community around a gaming device, after 12 weeks people will want more games, and new games will drive new unit sales. It may make a few dollars as a "one and done" but people are buying into it for more than that. The commenter was likely correctly saying it will be dead in 6 months, meaning the entire project of a sustainable community will indeed fail. This is largely due to the lack of any mass market appeal, and developers realizing they can make an android app and make twice as much money.

@@thebeatles9 But they don't want to drive new unit sales, they can barely fulfill the preorders they already got. They have said that there is no production quantity limit and everybody who orders a Playdate will get one, but if you order one today you will have to wait until 2023 to get it.

bruh, i don't care how niche of a community you have. ignoring the fact you can't see the screen outside of a sunny day is cray-cray. They could easily sell the system with a worm light accessory upgrade like everyone who had a gameboy owned. It's completely asinine to make out like this somehow isn't a huge issue, even for a super niche community. The super niche community will still need to buy a flashlight, it may as well be a Playdate brand flashlight that had a modicum of thought put into it.

Yeah it seems fun, if the price drops I'll get it for the joy of it all

I am curious why the preference of non-backlit displays? The only time I remember using one was with my original Game Boy Advance but I don't remember what the advantages of using a non backlit display are over a backlit one.

@@casedistorted There aren't any advantages , he's trying to appear cool

@@Goliath1337 haha oh, well that makes sense. I can assume 99% of what people do in the world is to try and appear cool.

And that is why the developers are making money on their product and you are just sitting their bitching with your dead end job.

Yeah, spinner means it can never be happily emulated. I'm not even clear how you'd develop for this platform.

designed by Portland hipsters, puts nostalgia/gimmick over QoL... yeah nah sucks because it does look so cool otherwise, a simple bluish blacklight and a bit more height would have made a world of difference.

Backlight is good when it’s dark but these devices aren’t meant to be used by 30 year olds trying to relive childhood in their basement they’re meant to be used by people who go outside and walk a lot that’s why they’re portable lol

@@TheFloodFourm You're right, it's not like every other handheld console made in the past 25 years has had a backlit screen or anything. But I guess this is the first handheld that's meant to be portable, and all the others are meant to be played in a dark basement.

not for me , you can get a switch for 200

@@TheFloodFourm umm..ok? 🤣 hope the rest of your day gets better?

@Gabriele Squaratti optional.

That’s what I assumed it was - a crank to charge the battery, like some emergency weather radios have.

You’re a real gamer and that should be enough of a dealbreaker.

@@ActionJacksonForever haha true... true!

It's not efficient at all. The RPM's you need to generate any significant amount of electricity is very high, and that's also with a large amount of copper wiring and sizable magnet. Including even a small hand cranked generator into this would at least double it's thickness and probably the price as well.

​@@digiquo8143 That is good information. Thank you.

@@digiquo8143 not true necessarily I have a battery pack that has solar charge, hand crank or plug in and has multiple lights built in as well but you don’t have to turn crank fast to make power. yes it would make device thicker but depending on design can change how crank charge works

@@Thumper68 running a single led is significantly less power than even a cheap gaming computer with LCD screen.

@@michaelsorensen7567 ok who said anything about running a single led? Or running a gaming computer?

Exactly. Or like I mentioned in the video: charge a little more to give people the option who are willing to sacrifice battery life for a better screen. 👍

Build quality.

@Russell White truth

Be I stopped listening after the price

I’m not sure where I remember seeing it but somewhere I think I read the screen alone cost $50 so I mean with being a relatively small company I can see how between hardware and development time they weren’t able to price it super competitively.

This feels like the hardware/console version of those indie walking simulators that get made by teams that "OOPS! All artists!" and 0 game designers, you know what I'm talking about: small girl MC, not very many mechanics, themes of anxiety and depression, and 90% of the reviews are about art instead of content. This thing: all novelty, no practicality

So much potential with two buttons and a monochrome screen. No other device has rivaled the potential

monika better.

@@imgladnotu9527 😭

Wait till the tinkering community get their hands on these. Maybe they will make a mod that uses a backlight or some sort

@@EmberGyaru Yuri better

@@GentleMannOfHats 🥰

I think it's going to result in the company getting in hot water with Nintendo. Forcing them to take that thing out.

I miss flipnotes :( really good memories from my childhood, best thing the dsi had going for it by far

@@GatorRay maybe it will not be in the official store but you can download anything that you want

I also saw a person doing a gameboy emulator, so thats another thing. Personally im excited for all the things im seeing the community doing

@@ManuelRoddy Good point.

For real, a bunch of cry babies in the comments

@Russell White Genuinely curious, what do you have against the Playdaye? Do you not like indie games or small companies trying new things? I just don't get why anyone would be predispositioned to hate the device before it has even come out. If its not your thing just don't look at all the reviews and comments of people excited for it?

@@ZombieZifiction all the haters are the same one that buy COD very year lol

@@CaptainMonocle07 either can't afford it, jealous, or missed preorder window for this year

it's not that bad

What's so special about the screen?

@@SparkY0 If you had ever tried to play a game on a Kindle screen, you would understand how unique this screen is. Unfortunately, it makes the device too expensive because it's new and exotic.

The kindle was literally an electronic book. You still needed a light to see it. Kindle sold lights to go with it, and eventually built one with a glow option. This device mimmicks the gameboy, but everyone who bought a gameboy also bought a worm light or one of the magnification screens with a light on it. And as 8 year olds, we weren't too picky about having to sit under a lamp to see it, or hold a flashlight under our chin. But we are adults now, and expect products to be well thought-out and not create hassle. There is no reason they do not also have a glow light, front lit option, or literally anything meaningful to go along with this device. It's incomplete except as a novelty item. Which is fine, but even the super niche community that wants this product, will be sorely wondering where the fucking worm light is, and will have to go to barnes and noble to buy a book light for it. That's missed income for playdate, and a bad experience for the customers to not have something built for the device readily available.

This seems like someone designing in a technology because they thought it was cute without really asking if it was the best choice. The outstanding point of those memory LCDs is that they are completely static and the display state is stored inside the pixel driver on the glass. The practical impact of this is that if you have a static image that's not being updated then the current consumption is measured in microamps. They can also in principle (unlike e-ink displays) be updated very quickly. These are nice features - but in a typical game application where there are frequent screen updates the advantages immediately evaporate - you still have to maintain the screen state in external RAM (presumably in your MCU) but in addition to this you either need to update the whole frame or maintain some sort of "dirty area" list so you can update the affected areas in blocks. If you are constantly updating large portions of the screen then the power consumption advantage over the "dumb LCD" approach where you just store the image in internal RAM and send it out each frame drops to pretty much zero. Also note that you can get very thin frontlights for these displays, so the lack of any illumination has to be considered a deliberate choice.

What a lame excuse. "Actually this screen is more advanced because it lacks functionality." No it's honestly a piece of crap. This is a handheld game console, not an electronic book. You need light to play a game.

It would benefit from being twice the height, they could fix basically all the issues. Larger, backlit screen, bigger battery, more comfortable to hold, etc. Hope to see an improved version

@@alexnolasco1339 that's a great point. It's not like any of this stuff isn't easily fixable. Maybe they're really sold on this being retro in that the handhelds of the 80s and 90s often had severe limitations, be it the non-backlit screen of the Gameboy or the short battery life of the Atari Lynx. Sure, make it retro, but at the same time realize that it's 2022 and there's some stuff no one, not even me, a guy who's been gaming since the 80s, has any nostalgia for.

@Russell White looks like it still has potential especially if small developers get on board but in all honesty my second thoughts were for that price I could get a Switch lite.

In a world where you can get a color smartphone a few years old for the same price, the screen and memory size seems obscenely priced

Battery life.

I think just adding a pop socket or ring grip like you see on phones would solve the issue.