In July 2021, I pre-ordered a Playdate, promptly forgot I did so, then moved to another country. We’ve all done it. I was finally able to pick it up this January. I set it up, charged it fully, and it crashed repeatedly, presumably in disbelief its neglect was at an end. Customer service was able to provide me with a utility program that reset the device, and I’ve had no problems since. After several rain checks, I was ready to go on my Playdate.
To catch you up, the Playdate is a bright yellow gaming handheld with an unlit black-and-white display. The system is about half the size of a modern smartphone. D-pad, two face buttons. So far, so Game Boy, but the big twist is an analogue crank. Think like the bit on a fishing rod that you use to reel a fish in (apologies for the technical jargon). Upon registering your system online, two games are automatically unlocked as part of a ‘Season One’ of games, with a further two made available each week. In addition, there’s an online store where more games can be bought, and the system is open-source, so games and homebrew can be sideloaded by USB.
It’s a great bit of furniture. Whack the purple cover on it, put it on a table, and someone will ask you about it very quickly indeed. While there’s no backlight, the LCD screen is much like that of an e-reader. You’ll need an external light source, but you shouldn’t be having to crane your body around to keep away glare like we did back in The Good Old Days. I’m not sure what the resolution is exactly, but if you’ve got your reading glasses on, some games are able to pack in some surprising amounts of detail and remain legible. Unsurprisingly for something that was developed with the involvement of Teenage Engineering, the single speaker has a real punch on it when turned up, but you know what? Even this thing has a headphone jack on it. Everything should still have headphones jacks on them. Machines that don’t output sound should have headphone jacks. I will never not be angry about smartphones that don’t have one. It’s a lovely looking bit of kit, though it’s probably not going to worry your Switch or Steam Deck for things to play. What can you play on it, though?
This was originally going to be a Twitter thread going through the games, but I thought this system and these games do deserve at least a little bit better than the kneejerk reactions to media I usually toss out on there, so here we go. All the dignity that blog posts can afford. Join me, won’t you? Yes.
Shrunken Shrine 