Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System • Hacker News Board

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#271

Post by culturestate » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:25 AM UTC

littleweep wrote: post #230

keyle wrote: post #80

Panic never stops surprising me. You'd think you had them figured out, they keep jumping onto another shelf. It must be fun to work at Panic. It reminds me of how tech companies were in the 90s. Clear mission, but open horizon.

To me it seems like very unclear mission

Their mission, as far as I understand it, is to make software that they enjoy making and do it really well. They had an idea for a software gaming platform and decided they needed hardware to support it, which seems to fit nicely within that goal.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#272

Post by cpach » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:26 AM UTC

_lbaq wrote: post #258

keyle wrote: post #80

Panic never stops surprising me. You'd think you had them figured out, they keep jumping onto another shelf. It must be fun to work at Panic. It reminds me of how tech companies were in the 90s. Clear mission, but open horizon.

It is partially designed by https://teenage.engineering of Sweden, they apparently among other things came up with the crank.

I was really surprised to hear this. Although I live in Sweden I don’t think I’ve ever heard about TE before. Usually Spotify and Klarna gets the majority of the tech news coverage around here. TE seems like a really interesting company!

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#273

Post by cududa » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:34 AM UTC

bredren wrote: post #176

chaostheory wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah same here. I'm not sure I really buy it as control mechanism for playing though.

The Digital Crown on Apple Watch is a thing though. I’m ready to give it the benefit of doubt.

Most apps don’t use it and Watch OS 2 introduced the ability to scroll with your finger instead of the crown, since no one was using it

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#274

Post by cududa » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:36 AM UTC

revax wrote: post #246

muthdra wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a meaningful amount of charge from gameplay, I agree. But it could have a "charging mode" where the screen goes off and you just turn the crank for 5-10 minutes to get a substantial charge because it already has the hardware thingie built-in.

You overestimate how much energy you get from cranking

Tell that to the Boeing 737 Max geniuses that included a handcrank to restart the engines.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#275

Post by Doxin » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

rossy wrote: post #105

dstaley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're using a transflective LCD, so it should be plenty visible even in lower-ambient light conditions. Nothing like the original Gameboy.

Doesn't a transflective LCD have a backlight? The media/FAQ page says pretty clearly that the device has a re flective LCD with no backlight, same as the GBA, which the parent comment was referring to.

As far as I'm aware these LCDs switch between black or very reflective silver and not so much black and white. Doesn't really matter what the ambient conditions are since the black is always reflecting way less light than the silver.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#276

Post by huhtenberg » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

duxup wrote: post #75

I love seeing products like this, but I fear 150 is a bit beyond the impulse buy price that probably is needed to get big sales. Having said that it looks neat.

The audience with required cash reserves is there. It just that it has higher standards and needs to see consistently glowing stream of reviews to trigger an impulse buy.

Not impossible by any means, but still rather unlikely.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#277

Post by bbx » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:50 AM UTC

cpach wrote: post #272

_lbaq wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is partially designed by https://teenage.engineering of Sweden, they apparently among other things came up with the crank.

I was really surprised to hear this. Although I live in Sweden I don’t think I’ve ever heard about TE before. Usually Spotify and Klarna gets the majority of the tech news coverage around here. TE seems like a really interesting company!

Very well known in the music/synth world thanks to their OP-1, which I bought 2 weeks ago: https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1

It looks like a toy, and kind of plays like one, but it's actually a marvellous piece of gear, very capable musically, and providing a fantastic user experience. There's just nothing else like it out there.

The company itself is very unique. Just look at what they came up with [1] for OP-1 accessories: brick LEGO shafts, a bender, and a crank, like the one for Coda.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COVNwdMld8Q

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#278

Post by PostOnce » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

lostmymind66 wrote: post #177

This is going to be a tough sell. $150 dollars is very expensive for a portable game system, which will compete with any tablet/phone that can play games that have better graphics and game play. The problem is that this is competing with entire ecosystems of games that have been around for almost a decade.

Mobile games:

1] are infested with IAP/psycho crack time gates

2] cant cost more than a dollar or so, no one will buy them

3] have no buttons, and the number of games that work well without buttons is few.

4] have a horrible reputation, people discount games just for being mobile

5] ridiculously fragmented hardware, who knows what screen size or device type you're targeting if you develop for mobile?

6] are too high res. All new game systems are. Low res games with few buttons can be developed cheaply and quickly (i.e., 20k instead of 5M)

I want some simple games with real buttons. I want to make some. I'll pay for it. I think others will too.

I do think $150 is a little high, but that might also convey a sense of value, rather than "another crappy emulator box thing"

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#279

Post by meheleventyone » Thu, May 23, 2019, 7:59 AM UTC

someexgamedev wrote: post #77

This will sell to indie gamedev scenesters and they have the perfect designer roster to hit that audience. From a commercial success standpoint, I'm bearish. Common pitfall in comedy is to make jokes for comedians. This scene has a similar problem where they love to make games for game devs.

I totally agree and as a gamedev really want one. A decent handheld with development as easy if not easier than PICO-8 will be a lot of fun even if the community is niche.

Re: Playdate – A New Handheld Gaming System

#280

Post by naraic0o » Thu, May 23, 2019, 8:13 AM UTC

jchampem wrote: post #251

Pimorini (I think they are quite famous as Raspberry Pis retailers in Europe) recently started a kickstarter for another handheld console: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/32blit-retro-i...

i don't like that these devices don't use any sort of graphics accelerators though. that seems to be the most "fun" part of programming the retro architectures these things are inspired by. it's a pity there isn't any market for such chips anymore. i guess an FPGA is an option.