[HN Gopher] The Playdate store is now open
___________________________________________________________________
The Playdate store is now open
Author : ChrisArchitect
Score : 125 points
Date : 2021-07-29 17:07 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (shop.play.date)
(TXT) w3m dump (shop.play.date)
| ravenstine wrote:
| Why does it require wi-fi? (it's an honest question, don't just
| downvote)
| mortenjorck wrote:
| So that you don't have to download games over USB like it's
| 2005.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Ahh, that makes sense. I guess I'm an old man in that I still
| see games as something you load through a disc or a cable.
| sp332 wrote:
| To be clear, you _can_ load games via USB. It exposes a
| filesystem with a games folder that you can just drop code
| into. The required wifi might be for license checking for
| the games in the subscription or something.
| tylerchilds wrote:
| games ota
| TheDudeMan wrote:
| Wait, why would the crank not charge the battery? That's insane.
| kemayo wrote:
| Just guessing, but presumably it'd involve more hardware to
| support the charging, for a small increase in
| price/size/complexity, and (probably more importantly) change
| the feel of the crank to be much more resistant, which would
| change how the games that use it felt to play.
| noway421 wrote:
| Doesn't ship to New Zealand :(
| temp_account001 wrote:
| What's the point of this when a Switch Lite is $20 more?
| read_if_gay_ wrote:
| Clearly meant for people with sufficient disposable income and
| not the mass market.
| temp_account001 wrote:
| But... why? It's so janky. Looks painful to hold, the games
| look like crappy flash games in monochrome, and the crank is
| just going to break off. What am I missing?
| porkloin wrote:
| It's a combination of nostalgia for a (largely imagined)
| bygone era of handheld devices, plus the fact that two
| relatively famous boutique hardware
| manufacturers/developers are involved (Panic! and Teenage
| Engineering). People will buy this for $180 for the same
| reason people still buy TE's OP-1 synthesizer for well over
| $1k when there are more feature-rich devices available for
| half the price or less. They're paying for the design, the
| ecosystem, the aesthetic, and to some extent, as a
| "lifestyle" purchase.
| temp_account001 wrote:
| Thanks for explaining that. I've never heard of any of
| those things or brands, so I guess I'm not the target
| market.
| smoldesu wrote:
| I love Teenage Engineering, but talk about a horrible price
| point. $200 can buy you a Nintendo Switch these days, or half a
| Steam Deck. Without the viral marketing/limited supply, this
| wouldn't have moved half the units it did.
| paxys wrote:
| Honestly if you "love" Teenage Engineering then you should be
| willing to fork out $200 for this. Think of it more as the tech
| equivalent of a sneaker drop. No one asks why Yeezys go for
| thousands while you can get an equivalent running shoe for $50.
| Dayshine wrote:
| > No one asks why Yeezys go for thousands while you can get
| an equivalent running shoe for $50.
|
| People spend thousands on shoes?
| kemayo wrote:
| Sure, even if we ignore the sneaker thing. You've always
| been able to buy fancy dress shoes and boots for a lot of
| money. Granted, getting to thousands _plural_ is a sure
| sign that you 've gone over into excess, but...
|
| The kind of weird thing with the "sneaker drop" phenomenon,
| as I understand it, is that it's shoe companies releasing
| fairly small batches of all their products at not-insane
| prices, and there being a fully developed secondary market
| of shoe reselling where the demand-based price inflation
| kicks in.
| sosborn wrote:
| If you want to play steam games or Nintendo games this isn't
| the device for you. If you want to play Playdate games then
| this is your best bet. In other words, apples and oranges.
| antidaily wrote:
| Thanks for clarifying.
| fumar wrote:
| It still a video game playing device, no? We still compared a
| game gear vs a gameboy in the 90's or a DS vs a PSP in the
| 2000's.
| sosborn wrote:
| It's like a contractor who needs a truck wondering why
| someone would buy a Mini. They are similar, but the market
| needs they solve are totally different.
| whoaisme wrote:
| It's not like that at all, because in this case the
| market needs are the same. It's more like a contractor
| who needs a truck wondering why someone would pay half of
| a full truck for a truck made of paper.
| zepto wrote:
| > $200 can buy you a Nintendo Switch these days, or half a
| Steam Deck
|
| If these could play the playdate's games, you'd have a point.
| As it is they are not substitutable products, so price is not
| the only factor determining sales volume.
| speedgoose wrote:
| All Teenage Engineering products are overpriced. They are some
| kind of premium / luxury brand.
| smoldesu wrote:
| I own a few Pocket Operators, and I'd daresay that they're
| underpriced.
| knownjorbist wrote:
| Those are basically the exception.
| sp332 wrote:
| The price also includes 24 games delivered over the first year.
| Also the SDK will be free.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Maybe so, but at the end of the day it's still a Gameboy with
| updated internals. Even if Apple made this thing, it's a hard
| sell at $199.
| w0m wrote:
| Apparently not _that_ hard of a sell if it sold out in 20m.
| asadlionpk wrote:
| All CPUs are just rocks that we tricked into computing. Why
| buy a computer?
| mulderc wrote:
| The Gameboy was introduced in 1989 with a price of $89 USD,
| factor inflation and that would cost $195 today.
|
| None of the games on play date will be as good as the pack
| in Tetris game on gameboy but the price doesn't seem that
| bad when put into context.
| salamandersauce wrote:
| It's expensive when you consider you can get faster
| devices with better screens, more buttons etc. for less
| than half the price these days. A Retroid Pocket 2 is
| $80, has a 3.5" color screen, analog sticks, includes a
| 32GB microSD card, HDMI out and a quad core processor.
|
| When the Game Boy launched the nearest competitors were
| either technically better but far more expensive like the
| Lynx, Game Gear and Turbo Express or cheap terrible
| things like Tiger LCD handhelds. If the Game Gear was
| half the price would the Game Boy been as well received?
|
| Yes the Playdate comes with a bunch of games but most of
| them are unknown and the handful shown so far don't seem
| $200 worthy IMO.
| incanus77 wrote:
| I mean, a Tesla is basically a 70s Honda with updated
| internals.
| Nav_Panel wrote:
| Just wish I could get a Tesla that looks like a 70s
| Honda!
| Marazan wrote:
| You can unlock the back door of the honda if the
| electrics fail.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| Like he said, updated internals.
| imtringued wrote:
| You mean in the sense that both are metal cages on
| wheels?
| nimbius wrote:
| 400 x 240 1-bit display...and its pushing $200??!
|
| even Retroids cheapest pocket at $70 crushes this hipster
| garbage. what is the appeal of playdate?
|
| https://www.goretroid.com/
| kemayo wrote:
| This reminds me a lot of the famous Slashdot iPod comment: "No
| wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."[0]
|
| ...but, seriously, the selling point is the experience plus
| some fairly nice fit-and-finish. They're advertising it hard on
| the inclusion of a season of interesting games from notable
| developers in the price.
|
| Certainly, you could pirate a whole lot of ROMs and play them
| on that retroid device, but that's a different appeal.
|
| [0]: https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-
| releases-i...
| exolymph wrote:
| Wait till you hear about LVMH.
| paxys wrote:
| What's the appeal of a Supreme t-shirt, a Star Wars collectable
| figure, an NFT, a designer handbag? This is simply a famous
| brand which has looped in famous game creators and media
| contacts to generate buzz, and they are catering to people with
| a lot of disposable income who are into consumer tech - so, the
| exact demographic of this website.
| shaunxcode wrote:
| constrained mediums yield unprecedented content.
| dbeley wrote:
| There are exclusive games made by some famous people in the
| industry, and it features a new gaming device: a crank.
| nimbius wrote:
| you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this
| novelty garbage and you now have a multiplayer gaming
| experience and a linux environment with proven SDK's and
| interoperability but heres the dealbreaker: no crank.
|
| Nowhere does Playdate indicate it is anything but single
| player or that it currently has any games, but im sure 'some
| famous people' doing stuff is cool too.
| justwalt wrote:
| The things have wifi and Bluetooth. Why couldn't someone
| write a multiplayer game for the playdate?
| paulcole wrote:
| > you could buy two retroids for less than the cost of this
|
| Yes! I could buy many assortments of things for the cost of
| a Playdate but I want a Playdate. It sounds interesting to
| me in a way that 2 retroids or 200 packs of gum doesn't.
|
| > some famous people' doing stuff is cool too.
|
| Yes! I find it interesting and a project I'm interested in
| supporting even if it ends up being disappointing.
| gpt5 wrote:
| Tell that to Nintendo
| cpmsmith wrote:
| Their homepage[1] is pretty up-front about it:
|
| > The Season.
|
| > Here's the truly unique bit. Playdate isn't just an empty
| system. Once you set up your Playdate, you'll start to
| receive two brand new games... every week. For 12 weeks.
|
| Having novelty doesn't make it garbage, and yes, paying for
| 24 new games to get made is generally more expensive than
| pirating Dreamcast ROMs.
|
| [1]: https://play.date/#the_season
| warglebargle wrote:
| it's also designed by teenage engineering, which has made a
| name for itself in high quality niche synthesizers...
|
| Panic is also building an SDK and visual editor, and the games
| are included and time-released, so there's a lot of software to
| fund too.
| schappim wrote:
| I've been watching the launch process of Panic and it has been
| textbook awesome.
|
| If you're planning a HW launch, you should go back through their
| EDM and Social media accounts and take note of how they
| communicated.
|
| A word of warning, don't rely on an Apple Watch for important
| alarms:
|
| Set Alarm on Apple Watch 2.57am Sydney time (3min before launch).
| Kept watch on silent mode as to not wake wife with other
| notifications. Alarm didn't go off. :-(
| sp332 wrote:
| How would you handle the issue of the third-party international
| shipping plugin falling over during the first pre-order phase?
| Just curious.
| schappim wrote:
| Hopefully, this issue will go away soon.
|
| I'm uniquely positioned to talk about this as I provide a
| free Shopify Shipping App that I'd imagine would use the same
| APIs as the "third-party international shipping plugin" you
| talk about.
|
| Shopify has identified 3rd party app server capacity as an
| issue with "flash sales", and this is why they've been
| throwing a bunch of dev time in getting web assembly to run
| out of the browser and on the server. Their aim is that
| they'll run the App's code on the app dev's behalf. Web
| assembly was chosen for sandboxing.
|
| Here ends my knowledge!
| creinhardt wrote:
| This is a super interesting solution, i'll have to read up
| on it. thank you!
| filmgirlcw wrote:
| I don't know if there is a good way to mitigate that more
| than Panic tried. They said they warned the provider in
| advance, the provider wasn't ready. That's a complication on
| the part of the Shopify platform and moving to a self-
| hosted/managed platform (like WooCommerce) might have solved
| the third-party shipping thing but would have then put the
| broader load balancing stuff at much higher risk.
|
| The only way I think you could address it in retrospect would
| be to have separate launches for US and international -- or
| at least separate allocations (using registration data from
| interested users and traffic before lead up to help make
| estimates on demand) of units, say 15,000 US units and 5,000
| international or whatever, depending on how you want to mix
| it. That isn't a perfect solution either and you can either
| over or under allocate, but it would probably appear to be
| more "fair" to international buyers.
|
| But lbr, anyone buying stuff like this internationally is
| unfortunately always on the losing end. The same is true for
| US buyers who are after stuff primarily shipped in Europe or
| Asia or Oceania. It is unfortunate, but until you have the
| scale to truly have separate international storefronts and
| sales teams, people outside of the main market are always
| going to be lower on the list.
| creinhardt wrote:
| Setting aside today's issues with the Playdate launch, the
| fact that Shopify's plug-ins are setup this way has always
| seemed like a missed opportunity on Shopify's part. I used
| some plugins that were unreliable with only ONE user,
| nevermind thousands. Shopify should either provide standard
| infrastructure, or vet more legit plugin providers setups
| to handle X amount of concurrents.
| filmgirlcw wrote:
| Agreed 100%.
| [deleted]
| ramses0 wrote:
| The Apple Watch is such a terrible product. If it's "connected"
| to your phone, then any alerts that come through buzz your
| wrist (but don't turn on the watch screen), and also suppress
| the _phone_ screen from turning on.
|
| Use case of: "VPN authentication notification" coming through
| that I want to approve, and when I have the Apple Watch on my
| wrist, it's actively _harder_ to use both the phone and the
| wrist version of it.
|
| Don't get me started on the screen and use of detailed touch in
| an area that it quite literally the size of two thumbs.
|
| Pebble: "Back" => "Up, Select, Down" ... glorious utility!
| Nobody wants to make e-paper (ahem: transflective) watches, and
| they all want to make touch screens the mechanism for
| interaction. Ugh!
| Jtsummers wrote:
| That's not true, at least not always. I have an Apple Watch
| and have to do the VPN authentication thing for work via a
| phone app. Both the phone and the watch display the
| notification (because I haven't turned that notification off
| on my watch). It doesn't hide it just because it shows up on
| one or the other. The only notifications, other than that,
| that I receive on either my phone or watch are messages
| (SMS/MMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, because we can't have
| enough messaging apps) and phone calls. They display on both
| devices. And I mean display, my phone display turns on and
| shows me the message, and my watch buzzes and shows it as
| well.
|
| I'm wondering if there's a setting that would cause this.
| mbiondi wrote:
| I find the Apple watch to be super annoying. Out of the box
| it reminds you to breath, stand up, go to sleep, etc. Like
| I was never able to do these things before by myself. Once
| I turned everything off it's a bit more reasonable doing
| the only things I really needed, which was to tell time and
| maybe let me know my pace when running.
|
| IMO, getting any notifications (VPN included) on a tiny 1
| inch screen are stupid and that's what I have a phone for.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| It really sounds like you bought the wrong device.
|
| Even Garmin's less expensive GPS watches would give you
| exactly what you wanted for half the price (maybe even
| less) of the Apple Watch and without the notifications.
| hutattedonmyarm wrote:
| I was very impressed by their queuing system at first. Shop
| loaded quickly, I got added to the queue and was able to start
| shopping soon enough. However international shipping broke (not
| their fault) spewing out wrong error messages. That got resolved,
| but by then 2021 orders had been sold out. I received a ,,item
| out of stock" error (even though they promised it won't sell out)
| until I realized I had to remove and re-add the playdate to my
| cart (switching from the 2021 batch to the 2022 one).
|
| Better error messages could've saved me a lot of frustration!
| gregsadetsky wrote:
| The first 20k units (which will ship in late 2021) sold out in
| about 20 minutes. Exciting to see. Can't wait to get access to
| the SDK...!
| solenlyser wrote:
| Yeah, all sold out after like 17 min, can't wait to crank that
| crank :P
| schaefer wrote:
| So, I tried to place my order 16 minutes after pre-orders began.
| But I did not get into batch one.
|
| I've been on the aspiring developer's mailing list for _years_.
| /sigh.
|
| Super bummed that this means missing out on enjoying season one
| "live".
|
| As it stands I'm not going to order until the unit is in stock.
| I'm so burned out on the chip shortages.
| arthurcolle wrote:
| seems like a really long lead time to get 20K devices
| manufactured, but I'm not in the hardware world. Is this
| normal?
| temp_account001 wrote:
| Covid and chip shortages prob
| adamrezich wrote:
| does anyone know if there's going to be some kind of preorder
| cutoff? I've been waiting to get my hands on one of these for
| development but I can't afford one right now.
| warglebargle wrote:
| it sounds like they don't intend to declare "sold out" but
| delivery is at a slower pace because they're facing the same
| hardware shortages as everyone else
| schaefer wrote:
| There is no preorder cut-off. [1]
|
| [1]: https://help.play.date/orders/when-will-units-actually-
| start...
| seanalltogether wrote:
| I can't find much information about the screen other then the
| fact that it is 1 bit. Is this purely an aesthetic decision or is
| there some sort of interesting tech going on that requires it to
| be 1 bit for now?
| asperous wrote:
| I believe it's the same as this:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seyQpWf6i60&t=2s
| creinhardt wrote:
| The panel itself is 1-bit, and is definitely a concious choice
| they made. I can't remember where I read it, but the screen was
| the most expensive component, and was likely pricier than color
| options. It's also super-reflective, so apparently very visible
| in a lot of lighting conditions, sort of like e-ink but with a
| great refresh rate. I beleive it's the same panel as this:
| https://www.adafruit.com/product/4694
| AlanYx wrote:
| Is there a difference between the tech used in the panel you
| linked to and RLCD panels, or are they the same tech?
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Silly question - what does "Super reflective" mean in this
| context?
|
| I always assumed "reflective" is "bad" when it comes to
| screens, and contrast in variable lighting conditions - it
| would reflect too much of background, other lights, etc. Best
| screens for variety of lighting conditions (as opposed to
| dark room) seem to be matte.
|
| Any thoughts / anything I'm missing?
| creinhardt wrote:
| Sorry, reflective was the wrong choice of words, I think
| technically 'transflective' is more accurate. I don't think
| the screen will have much glare, it's more that it is
| visible with a small amount of light, despite not having a
| backlight.
| terramex wrote:
| No, 'reflective' was the right word.
|
| 'Transflective' means that display has both backlight and
| reflective layer (Pebble used such technology). Playdate
| has no backlight, only reflective layer so it is
| 'reflective', not 'transflective'.
| vinay427 wrote:
| FWIW, many fitness watches that are designed for outdoor
| use (e.g. most Garmin or Amazfit models) still use
| transflective displays. They work flawlessly in bright
| sunlight, a backlight works well in the dark, and the
| battery life benefits compared to AMOLED or similar is an
| added bonus.
| [deleted]
| bwbmr wrote:
| You're thinking of backlit displays where a reflective
| front (between the user and the display) hurts screen
| visibility in bright light conditions. In this context,
| "super reflective" is referring to _behind_ the pixels of
| the display. There is no backlight, so the screen is lit up
| by ambient light. Increasing that reflectivity aids in
| contrast of the screen, since "white" pixels will be
| "whiter" (in this case they are actually grey but lighter
| grey if the screen is more reflective).
| jffry wrote:
| Just a guess but maybe it means that the "on" pixels will
| reflect back more ambient light, thus appearing brighter
| and having better contrast with the dark "off" pixels under
| marginal lighting conditions?
| seidoger wrote:
| The Game Boy Advanced SP had a reflective screen and it
| played _better_ in full sunlight. It was quite a remarkable
| display.
| sp332 wrote:
| It's partly aesthetics and partly making the programs simple
| and small. It also helps to keep contrast at a maximum with no
| backlight. Ars Technica got some hands-on time with it
| https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/playdate-preview-you-...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| I don't know why they made the decision to eliminate any of
| their marketing pages/not provide an index of their blog posts
| up til now
|
| here's a one sheet FAQ etc https://play.date/mediakit/
| lucasmullens wrote:
| > Requires Wi-Fi.
|
| > Requires USB power source.
|
| Somehow they invented a non-portable handheld device. It doesn't
| even have a battery! Was there really no way to make these games
| work offline? Or at least some of them?
|
| Edit: I'm wrong, it both doesn't need wifi and has a battery.
| Website text wasn't phrased too well but that's partly on me.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| > > Requires USB power source.
|
| > It doesn't even have a battery!
|
| It has a battery, it doesn't come with a wall wart or other
| device to drive power over the provided USB cable to do the
| charging.
|
| Specs are on this page: https://help.play.date/hardware/
|
| With regard to wifi, I think they worded that poorly. It has no
| other network connection (not even bluetooth to connect to your
| phone or computer, though bluetooth will be eventually capable
| of supporting audio) for receiving updates and new games. You
| won't need that in general unless the specific game or device
| feature (like system updates) you're using requires a network
| connection.
| lucasmullens wrote:
| Thanks, judging by the thread I'm not the only one who got
| confused by that. Thanks for the clarification.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-07-29 23:00 UTC)