Pondering Playdate

“Never having owned a dedicated video game system” might be a peculiar distinction, but I don’t dwell on it too often. However, seeing announcements on some of the Apple-focused weblogs I keep up with about a software company preparing to launch a new hand-held console called “Playdate” did get my attention and amuse me. “It has a crank on the side,” as some of the comments had it, although I gather it’s an input device a little reminiscent of the “paddles” attached to some early systems and home computers rather than something the Playdate can be recharged by turning. When it comes down to it, though, to try and order one of them means I can no longer bring up “not owning a dedicated video game system.” It has been a while, of course, since my family owned a “home computer with a keyboard, not a Nintendo,” and yet there can be unfortunate thoughts too getting into something (more?) that from the inside seems a harmless pastime but which, when criticized from just outside, sets those receiving the criticism off... Anyway, with stock said to be “very limited” I can at least hope Panic won’t be in a situation where it has to sell a vast quantity of devices to not go out of business; I did happen to recall seeing the game developer Epyx had tried to develop the portable machine that became the “Atari Lynx.”