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Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

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Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#161

Post by myhf »

bullfightonmars wrote: post #63

It would be so awesome if this worked with Pico 8 or a similar fantasy console. I will be much more interested if the barrier to entry for making my own games is as close to zero as possible. I want to make my own games for fun, but also to expose my son to the creativity and exploration of programming. A physical console would make this experience so much more real. https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Recent versions of PICO-8 support full controller operation (browsing cartridge PNGs, launching, and quitting) through EmulationStation.

https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3935

So you could use any Raspberry Pi enclosure as a physical PICO-8 platform.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#162

Post by speps »

RenRav wrote: post #152

Not too sold on the price but it will download 12 games every month for you, if I read that correctly. That is pretty cool. The crank mechanism seems silly but with some creativity perhaps you can do interesting things with it, like fishing.

I thought it was for charging it on the go. Is it just an input knob?

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#163

Post by beenBoutIT »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #42
jolmg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was a problem, wouldn't game controllers in general be a problem? There's always the assumption that left things (buttons, joysticks, etc.) are for movement and right things are for actions. Would it be better for a leftie if there were mirrored versions of game controllers?

You can get used to a game controller, or well, most of us do eventually. At anyrate, you can find left handed game controllers on the market. But that is a crank, it requires a bit more dexterity, like holding a pen.

That crank better be detachable in a slick way that keeps it from inadvertently popping out constantly or it's going to annoy the hell out of anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of the crank-based game genre. IRL it's probably not detachable and it's going to jangle around and annoy while gradually self-desructing in a way that leaves it useless yet permanently attached/annoying.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#164

Post by Zenbit_UX »

binaryblitz wrote: post #160
centizen wrote: post #157

Between Panic and Teenage Engineering I actually have faith in this being a worthwhile endeavor. From the face of it I would expect this to go the way of the Ouya, but with those two at the helm it could actually be something cool. It's a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant casual mobile gaming space.

> stagnant casual mobile gaming space Between Switch and a lot of great mobile games I'm not sure how it's stagnant.

Do people consider the switch a mobile platform? I mean it sort of is but... It's really a console. Depends how you define mobile, if mobile === carry in your pocket it's not. If mobile === independent from a TV then yes.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#165

Post by kweks »

cjdaly wrote: post #47

sort of related to this (indie gaming hardware), I recently got the Adafruit PyBadge. You can program it with CircuitPython, Arduino or MakeCode (a microsoft visual coding IDE). fun if your idea of fun is making the game and then playing it, or figuring out how to port some existing game.

And sprite_tm's PocketSprite (pocketsprite.com)

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#166

Post by frosted-flakes »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #150
crooked-v wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used 2DSes or 3DSes are ubiquitous and around $110 or so.

But $20-40 for each game.

A $40 game provides 20-100 hours of high quality gameplay, which I think is a good value.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#168

Post by dlp211 »

darzu wrote: post #83
tyleo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is awesome! Is MakeCode a subsidiary of Microsoft? It looks like it’s based on some Microsoft tech similar to Google’s Blockly I hadn’t seen before. I’m curious because I’m working on a product in this space.

Yeah, we're a team at MSFT (same org as VS Code). All* our code is open source. We use Google Blockly, and we've made a number of contributions upstream to them. What's your product? * Our server code isn't open source, but it's basically just a node app serving a SPA. Everything is client side. Works offline too.

Are you hiring?

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#169

Post by pvg »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #144
ddingus wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a great fishing mini game in one of the N64 Zelda titles. This crank would have ruled.

I had one of those dedicated fishing games back in the day with a crappy LCD display and a crank. Played it to death. https://i.imgur.com/tdESids.jpg

The Dreamcast had a game and controller to go with it.

https://i.imgur.com/6AGrtRy.jpg

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#170

Post by adangert »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #164
binaryblitz wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> stagnant casual mobile gaming space Between Switch and a lot of great mobile games I'm not sure how it's stagnant.

Do people consider the switch a mobile platform? I mean it sort of is but... It's really a console. Depends how you define mobile, if mobile === carry in your pocket it's not. If mobile === independent from a TV then yes.

yeah, I bring it around with me, as a portable gaming device. I consider it a mobile platform, plus I have big pockets.
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