If you’re looking for a new handheld, your only option is Nintendo’s various Switch consoles. The 3DS is dead as far as new releases are concerned, and Sony’s PS Vita was discontinued almost as fast as it was released. As a result of low support from big companies, we’re starting to see small startups take a crack at handhelds.

Panic Inc, in collaboration with Teenage Engineering (the folks behind popular music devices such as the Pocket Operator series and the OP series), is releasing the Playdate. The company’s first handheld features a 1 bit 400 by 240-pixel screen, a 180 MHz Coretex M7 processor, Game Boy-Esque controls and strangest of all, a crank that we’ll get back to in a second. Those specs might not sound very impressive, but a lot can be done with it considering the 1-bit screen. The benefit is also a battery life of 8 hours and 14 days of standby time. The display isn’t particularly impressive, as pixels can be only on or off with no in-between, but it will definitely get the job done. The most important thing, however, is the software.

Promising 2 new games every week for 12 weeks as well as a developer studio for community builds, the Playdate has one more trick up its sleeve. Using the Playdate’s developer studio, James Daniel recreated the DSi’s Flipnote studio on the new handheld. Using that magical crank, you can scrub through each frame at a speed set by your cranking hand! Unfortunately, you must retrieve the files from a DSi as the Playdate doesn’t have a touchscreen but it’s possible Daniel releases some kind of compromise, be it either a desktop studio like the one he’s already created, or some kind of D-pad and crank etch-a-sketch style drawing studio on the Playdate itself.

Set to launch later this year, the Playdate can be had for $179. Are you interested in this device at all? Do any of the games look interesting? Let us know in the comments!

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With the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S now on the market (well, if you can beat the scalpers), it’s that time of the gaming cycle when gamers are all abuzz about the latest consoles. While Sony and Microsoft’s latest offerings have been nothing less than smash hits, there’s a new contender on the block that’s set to carve out its own little niche in the console market.

The Playdate is a unique micro-console from Panic, the publishers of indie hits Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game, marking their first foray into the console market. It’s small, handhold device, making use of old-school, 2D black-and-white graphics. With a similar button layout to the Nintendo GameBoy (featuring a fancy crank-like controller), it’s not cutting edge technology or innovative hardware that’s the main selling point for the Playdate – it’s the method of game distribution.

Rather than purchasing individual games either physically or on an online store, purchasing the Playdate will give you access to 24 games in ‘Season One’, with two games being released every week. The titles on offer in Season One include Bennett Foddy’s Zipper and Serenity Forge’s Flipper Lipper. While it’s not quite clear yet whether or not later seasons will require further payment, we can be fairly sure that they’re coming, barring some catastrophic failure – the creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, Lucas Pope, is currently working on a title for the console called Mars After Midnight. Panic have also promised a few ‘surprise games’, developed in-house and released alongside Season One. We know for a fact that the console can run Doom, so we’re excited to see what these indie devs can do with the Playdate’s limited specs.

The Playdate was initially scheduled for release in 2020, but was delayed to this year last October. Pre-orders for the Playdate will begin this July.

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