I've been interested in these cute little things since they were first announced, but I still haven't pulled the trigger on the 229 USD price tag. Apparently with the education discount they're 195 USD, which still feels steep. But hey, given that the dev tooling is all free (including simulators), it would be fine to play around with game development even without buying the hardware.
larrry•Apr 16, 2026
I played with mine for a couple months, put it down for a year, and played it for a couple more months recently. There are some good games and the device just oozes fun, I haven’t regretted it
throwway120385•Apr 16, 2026
The Playdate looks like what you'd make if someone only described the games kids made and shared on the TI-83 graphing calculator and then asked you to build a device.
bigiain•Apr 16, 2026
You say that like it's a bad thing...
It fits, in my head, very much in that same toy niche as Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operator series of music making devices: https://teenage.engineering/products/po
It’s for Gen-X dads to buy and pay themselves on the back about “productive constraints” while they play games that suck.
chip_franzen•Apr 16, 2026
Very cute, but $229 is a WILD price point.
hyperbolablabla•Apr 16, 2026
It's very low volume, sadly this was unavoidable I think, given the extremely custom nature of the input
AFF87•Apr 16, 2026
I was thinking the same. Read the article, thought about getting one and then thought again
Loughla•Apr 16, 2026
It's actually worth it if you have any kind of a commute. There are a lot of very fun games for it. And it's nice having a thing that isn't connected to the Internet to avoid the temptation of doom scrolling.
I bought mine pre release so it was like $50 cheaper even with the cover I think, but I would still pay the increased price for it. I thought it would collect dust, but it really is a great way to pass the time on the train. It scratches the original Gameboy itch for me without the needless stares from actually carrying a Gameboy.
I just wish they would release the docking station for it. I charge it next to my bed, so it could serve two purposes.
AFF87•Apr 16, 2026
Any game recommendations? You may have convinced me
Bought mine for $179 when they were new, hadn’t realized the price went up so much.
nekooooo•Apr 17, 2026
tariffs!
rtpg•Apr 16, 2026
If its any solace the screen is very good and the build quality is very high. You also just get a good set of games "for free" as part of the system.
I do think it's beyond "impulse buy" for sure, though.
tombert•Apr 16, 2026
Yeah, I've thought about buying one in the past, but $229 is kind of rich for my blood.
I bought an ODROID-Go Ultra a few months ago for about $70. This can emulate the NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and oodles of other consoles, and can play what are arguably some of the best games ever made. The Playdate is three times that price, and while I'm sure that some of the games are fun, I would have a hard time believing that any of them are beating Donkey Kong Country or Phantasy Star IV.
It might be an apples and oranges comparison, but in my mind they still occupy a similar niche.
socalgal2•Apr 17, 2026
Yea, you could get a similar experience (for some definition of similar) with Pico-8 which is also a constrained system.
Even better, the creator supports educators super cheap
Yea, it's not custom hardware, but you can share your creations with everyone since it runs on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and there are lots of cheaper devices that will run it if you want a handheld.
galleywest200•Apr 17, 2026
Also mentioning Lexaloffle’s most recent project the Picotron which is a fantasy workstation instead of just a console.
With no technical upper limit on file size (as well as being able to export for other OSes) you could, in theory, publish a full game from this.
hyperbolablabla•Apr 16, 2026
Having made multiple (dare I say) fairly successful games on the Playdate, I can attest to how fantastic the developer experience has been and how easy it was for my non dev collaborators to get going. Pulp was a great in road for them to get started with game dev, and it's been a blast (despite how limiting Pulpscript is for a professional dev)
oidar•Apr 16, 2026
I love the aesthetic of the playdate, the educational outreach, and how easy the whole platform is. It’s just so well designed all around. But the only way I am able to play it is by casting the screen to my computer, the screen is so tiny. Otherwise, I love it.
Not to mention that they just announced season three of games!
fn-mote•Apr 17, 2026
Re: price point
HN readers who can write a console game before bedtime are not the target audience. A handheld device that Just Works and creates an authentic experience is worth a lot.
For a college class, a $200 textbook isn’t out of line (the ones people still buy…), which makes this a very reasonable investment in one’s education.
Are there other, cheaper routes? Of course. For an introduction? Fewer, and nobody wants to be told to use learn the principles using Scratch - even if that can actually work.
Making something real is inspiring, and this feels real.
jubilanti•Apr 17, 2026
A $200 textbook should absolutely be out of line
Wololooo•Apr 17, 2026
As an educator I always make a point to give the resources to the students and or give avenues to it that are not paywalled.
Knowledge is the only resource that only becomes greater the more is shared because people share back what they learned. Mind you this only works if people are paying it forward. But often the educator gets more from teaching than the student does.
omoikane•Apr 17, 2026
Playdate development has been a great experience. The limited colors and RAM helps me reduce my project scope such that I would actually finish them, and the limited CPU makes optimization exercises more rewarding. And it's not just all constraints either -- the sound/synth system is quite nice, and the crank is fun input method that takes some hands-on experience to fully appreciate.
The only downside is that there are still relatively few people with Playdates, and that puts an upperbound on how many people get to play your games.
Waterluvian•Apr 17, 2026
My 9 year old is doing a game dev course in town where they use the BBC Micro Bit, a retro arcade peripheral (buttons, screen, sound, handheld), and some Microsoft game dev IDE. It’s incredibly compelling and feels a lot like this. But less than 1/3 the price and much more extensible and well-featured (the screen is colour!). I’m not sure I really see the value of the Playdate.
christophilus•Apr 17, 2026
That sounds rad. I’d love to get my kids into this. Got any links to your particular setup?
nickloewen•Apr 17, 2026
The game dev environment they’re talking about is MakeCode Arcade. I’m also a big fan of it.
There are a number of little handheld gadgets that you can use with MakeCode—scroll down on the homepage and there’s a section that shows them all:
Yeah that’s it! I recognize the Micro Bit Arcade Shield and the Retro Arcade as what he’s been using when he shows me demos.
I LOVE that he gets to code in Scratch but can jump into Python or JavaScript at any time without the IDE changing. It’s a clear stepping stone.
qrush•Apr 17, 2026
My playdate has been collecting dust since I got it and the initial few games I tried didn't stick. Any suggestions on good games for it?
somebehemoth•Apr 17, 2026
Checkout playdate season 2 roster of games. Each one is the kind of game I hoped would be in season 1. I did not dislike season 1 though.
stevewodil•Apr 17, 2026
In the end, my personal favorite game was selling it on ebay
sssilver•Apr 17, 2026
It’s a wonderful device and I own one but lack of screen backlight makes it practically unusable, and at its price point almost vulgarly expensive.
God knows how much I wanted to use and love it but it just started gathering dust in a closet after a week because of this.
Spinfusor•Apr 17, 2026
If it had a backlight, I would have bought one by now.
stevewodil•Apr 17, 2026
Sometimes I concede on this point with certain devices, but the screen on the playdate basically requires light at a specific angle for it to be at all discernible, so I don't blame you and can't recommend it as a result
sssilver•Apr 17, 2026
Do not buy one. You will regret it. Without backlight, it's a gimmick.
jmcgough•Apr 17, 2026
Panic had a booth at Portland Retro Gaming Expo last year, they were super nice and the Playdates were a lot of fun to play with. Nice to see that people are continuing to enjoy the console, the production process seemed like a nightmare.
gangstead•Apr 17, 2026
Everyone is talking about the Playdate but I have a related Duke story about undergrad classes incorporating new hardware. My Digital Signal Processing course (ECE major) made a big deal about using these new things called iPods for class. Everyone got an iPod... for the semester. Even at Duke tuition prices you only got to borrow it. My recollection of the class work part was using a little piezo sensor that plugged into the microphone/headphone jack and recording your heart beat as a voice memo while doing a couple different activities. Maybe ten minutes for the semester. Then back at the computer doing a FFT to determine your heart rate. The lazy kids just got a copy of someone else's recording. This would have been 2004 or 2005. I think it was the third generation with clickwheel and monochrome screen.
chirau•Apr 17, 2026
Was that with Lisa Huettel?
chirau•Apr 17, 2026
In my time at Duke, we used iPods in Pratt. And then in CS, we used Alice for complete beginners. This was in '06. Fun times.
14 Comments
It fits, in my head, very much in that same toy niche as Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operator series of music making devices: https://teenage.engineering/products/po
I bought mine pre release so it was like $50 cheaper even with the cover I think, but I would still pay the increased price for it. I thought it would collect dust, but it really is a great way to pass the time on the train. It scratches the original Gameboy itch for me without the needless stares from actually carrying a Gameboy.
I just wish they would release the docking station for it. I charge it next to my bed, so it could serve two purposes.
I do think it's beyond "impulse buy" for sure, though.
I bought an ODROID-Go Ultra a few months ago for about $70. This can emulate the NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and oodles of other consoles, and can play what are arguably some of the best games ever made. The Playdate is three times that price, and while I'm sure that some of the games are fun, I would have a hard time believing that any of them are beating Donkey Kong Country or Phantasy Star IV.
It might be an apples and oranges comparison, but in my mind they still occupy a similar niche.
Even better, the creator supports educators super cheap
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=schools
Yea, it's not custom hardware, but you can share your creations with everyone since it runs on Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and there are lots of cheaper devices that will run it if you want a handheld.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
With no technical upper limit on file size (as well as being able to export for other OSes) you could, in theory, publish a full game from this.
HN readers who can write a console game before bedtime are not the target audience. A handheld device that Just Works and creates an authentic experience is worth a lot.
For a college class, a $200 textbook isn’t out of line (the ones people still buy…), which makes this a very reasonable investment in one’s education.
Are there other, cheaper routes? Of course. For an introduction? Fewer, and nobody wants to be told to use learn the principles using Scratch - even if that can actually work.
Making something real is inspiring, and this feels real.
Knowledge is the only resource that only becomes greater the more is shared because people share back what they learned. Mind you this only works if people are paying it forward. But often the educator gets more from teaching than the student does.
The only downside is that there are still relatively few people with Playdates, and that puts an upperbound on how many people get to play your games.
There are a number of little handheld gadgets that you can use with MakeCode—scroll down on the homepage and there’s a section that shows them all:
https://arcade.makecode.com/
I LOVE that he gets to code in Scratch but can jump into Python or JavaScript at any time without the IDE changing. It’s a clear stepping stone.
God knows how much I wanted to use and love it but it just started gathering dust in a closet after a week because of this.