Source: https://play.date/

This new project almost passed by without ending upon our radar screen. And that would have been a pity. Playdate is a tiny handheld game-system developed by Panic Inc.

And what a beauty! It comes with a black/white screen, which is not backlit, WIFI, Bluetooth, speakers and: A CRANKSHAFT!

Holy moly, finally a device which can be powered by my small human hands? Not so quick young Padawan said the voice, the mechanical gimmick is not meant to make electrons run around in copper wires.

But: it makes up for a whole new kind of gameplay. Playdate will come with 24 games, 2 games every two weeks. And more games are in the planning. Will this indy console be a gamechanger? If the beautiful render graphics on their landingpage actually crystallize into a real world product at only $179, then ... maybe. At least it could be an interesting target to hack with, based on it's 180 MHz Cortex M7, 16 MB RAM and SDK, that supports Lua and C.

However, we are not affiliated with the project or team, hence this is no recommendation to buy. And since pre-orders only start in July, it is possible, you go on a very early X-Mas shopping trip here.

Decide for yourself.