Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Playdate pre-orders begin in July

play.date

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 215 posts

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#131

Post by IggleSniggle »

flanbiscuit wrote: post #129
fumar wrote: post #50

I am always impressed with the design of Teenage Engineering’s products but they have an air “pure consumerism”. I think this is that taken to its extreme. A toy that has a crank, retro screen, design-driven accessories, and the games are there but not promoted. Compare that to the gameboy which put its games front and center with the selling point of being handheld. Admittedly, I would get the Playdate to put on my…

My initial gut reaction to this product is that I must have it, but I know myself well enough that this would also just sit on a shelf somewhere looking cool but I would never touch it. The games look nice but I'm not a huge fan of it being black and white (just my personal taste). Plus I want to know that there will be a strong community making games, one that won't fizzle out too quick. it's great that Panic is rel…

PICO-8 compatibility would be a killer feature even without color support.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#132

Post by deergomoo »

Wheaties466 wrote: post #86
ngngngng wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two personal use cases 1) Myself, I grew up on a game boy color and I have a nostalgia for playing games where the developers were so bound by compute resources on the device they were developing for. It allowed smaller teams to be very competitive in game design but also enabled a different sort of creativity than what is commonly seen today in game design where resources are virtually unlimited. I've also be…

ok I can see that. Its just if I came across this website and didn't know any better. I'd 100% think this is some elaborate April fools prank. look at the game titles. Forest Byrnes Up in smoke Casual Birder Executive Golf It just seems like they're trying to hard not to be "cool" and trying not to take themselves seriously.

> It just seems like they're trying to hard not to be "cool" and trying not to take themselves seriously.

This is worded like a criticism but it’s exactly why I can’t wait to get one of these.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#134

Post by vmception »

philistine wrote: post #124
hobofan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if you are really really cynic: It's like one of those knock-off consoles that your tech-oblivious grandparents would get you, that comes preloaded with a bunch of no-name games of questionable quality, only with a bright coat of color and a cool marketing page!

Execution is everything. While Panic's initial idea is no different than a no-name console, with the reputation and pedigree of the people involved, I wouldn't be surprised Panic has a commercial and artistic success on its hands.

You've got to be kidding me

It will be a success for them selling overpriced hardware during the presale

and thats it

even the kids obsessed with the 90s because they were too young to remember it or too young to be born yet wont even use their chance to actually buy a “retro” product that is reminiscent of the 80s and 90s

DOA DNR

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#135

Post by deergomoo »

elliekelly wrote: post #128
amelius wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is this built for? I don't know, but it seems buying a standard console would get you more games and less e-waste.

I’m a bit shocked at the price! It’s the same price I recently paid for a switch lite. I don’t understand how it can be so expensive.

Economies of scale. Nintendo has decades of hardware expertise, industry weight, and manufactures several orders of magnitude more units.

I think the price is pretty fair for a neat, boutique thing.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#136

Post by elliekelly »

an_opabinia wrote: post #70
fumar wrote: post #50

I am always impressed with the design of Teenage Engineering’s products but they have an air “pure consumerism”. I think this is that taken to its extreme. A toy that has a crank, retro screen, design-driven accessories, and the games are there but not promoted. Compare that to the gameboy which put its games front and center with the selling point of being handheld. Admittedly, I would get the Playdate to put on my…

> Teenage Engineering’s products but they have an air “pure consumerism”. I got bad news for you buddy, video games don't have a functional purpose any greater than beautiful design. You're sort of barking up the wrong tree if you wanna take a dump on something. But I think this was said in good faith, and you should just consider that Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operators have a totally different, literally unpolis…

Aside from entertainment video games are increasingly used as a sort of virtual socializing. Especially among Gen Z with Minecraft and Roblox. Microsoft has been tailoring the Xbox experience to be way more social-oriented and I think it will pay huge dividends for them.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#137

Post by deergomoo »

ryanmcbride wrote: post #87

I hope I'm actually able to get one. New game hardware has been such an absolute nightmare to get the past few years.

In their video earlier they said they plan to ensure everyone who wants one can get one. Later orders might take a while but they’re not going to stop taking orders like Analogue does.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#139

Post by zepto »

Wheaties466 wrote: post #79

Who is this built for? Serious question. Yeah it looks cool but in a joke sense. It doesn't really look like it is going to do anything well. The accessories look even more like a joke. Obviously im not the target customer, but im trying to figure out who is?

If the games are good, then it’s for anyone who enjoys good computer games.

If they are not, then it’s not for anyone.

Re: Playdate pre-orders begin in July

#140

Post by cableshaft »

nickflood wrote: post #120
ianai wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree - like they should want people developing to it before it's released. This effectively gives them a rather odd lock-out period from the larger community.

They addressed the SDK availability here - https://twitter.com/playdate/status/1400849495198289920?s=19 Basically, they don't have resources yet to open it up and support it enough for people to have good experience with it.

I don't think that's a good enough reason. They could make it a 'use at your own risk' type situation and/or let people band together in a group and talk out and try to work through any issues they have without their involvement.

You need to let people start getting ready for this any way you can, especially as this is a potentially niche product that's not going to have any major developers working on it.

Best I can do right now is work on game logic elsewhere and try to be ready to do a port when they finally go public with it, hopefully before its official release.

Post reply on HN