if you're wary about the playdate handheld, why not try making homebrew games? given the prevalence of emulation for many consoles that are not playdate, and the fact that flash carts (for those who do insist on the real hardware) are more abundant than playdate and equivalently priced or cheaper, your game will be significantly more accessible
plus, you won't be supporting brushed-aluminum techbro shenanigans :^)
@typhlosion I wanted to say "you could just get a Pocket CHIP instead if you really want a tiny computer that can play tons of games, PICO-8 gives tons of options" but... the company seems to have died?
@yaodema it seems next thing co. died but there's still a shop at https://shop.pocketchip.co that sells, uh, i guess a limited inventory of new pocketchips? either way, tragic
context for kas grumbling
@wolfcoder @coda @yaodema it's a small handheld console in development by a company called Panic, in collab with (in)famous music hardware developers Teenage Engineering; it costs $149, has a snazzy brushed aluminum exterior (and a crank??), will come with twelve games, and supposedly will support some kind of custom software development but is ultimately closed-architecture hardware
@coda @typhlosion I'd never seen the ClockworkPi before! Oh, it's cute! ... but pricey. aw. I guess having it come in a nice package that's actually usable costs a bit.
@yaodema @typhlosion it’s also a fun DIY snap-together kit with easily replaceable components that can do emulators and various other things and can technically be a server kind of? I Just Think It’s Neat
@coda @typhlosion don't get me wrong there, it definitely is! I just wish there were a way to have a good retro-ish handheld that ran *nix and cost less than $100 USD. An impossible dream, probs. I'll keep this thing in mind for when I can spare for it.
@coda @yaodema @typhlosion damn this is cute as hell
@coda @typhlosion @yaodema yeah the keyboard on the pocketchip is.. functional but not great, and the unit doesn't feel all that good in the hands. it's a cool little device though, but i wouldn't recommend it for gaming
@xaphania @coda @typhlosion I honestly always thought it'd hurt to use, tbh. it's just what I remember existing
@typhlosion @yaodema for what it’s worth: i think the clockworkpi gameshell is way nicer to play pico8 games on. I own a pocketCHIP and from a usability standpoint i think it’s not very comfortable or pleasant to use and i wouldn’t go out of my way to get one rn