@@brutalmoosewhile I have you here would you do a full in-depth video on how you make your VHS videos? Would love to get into the style and feel like I almost have the setup. But I was wondering what VHS setup you use.
on the website, theres a section that says "is this a gimmick? NO!" but its literally the only thing interesting about it. its a gimmick. a two hundred dollar gimmick. 2023
I'm a game developer that's been focusing on the Playdate for a bit and I really do love it. I'm a fan of how it has made me work around the limitations and make some really unique stuff. Glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah wait a year or two and these will be going for much cheaper I reckon, once the initial hype phase dries up they'll likely have to start discounting it. I'm guessing that they're factoring the cost of the "free" games you get into the buy in price, but frankly I'd rather ditch the shovelware to get the console cheaper.
@@captainweekend5276The free games are supposed to be pretty good actually (developed by indie game royalty). If anything it got more expensive from when I first looked at it. Its nothing to scare Nintendo due to the Playdates niche market but somehow a small company in Oregon has made a successful handheld console.
for $20 you can get an Android box and play PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Android, PSP, DS, Dreamcast, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, Atari, C64, etc. All which individually have a huge library of games which have way more love and effort put into them than any of these toy games
@@skip485 for $200 you can get one of those powerful emulation handhelds with a full colour, high resolution, backlit screen, 8 buttons, bluetooth audio, space for like 1,000 games, etc. But you don't get pick pack pup 🤣
Apparently running traditional games on this device is a bigger task than you might imagine. Pokémon R/B barely run and Tetris of all things is unplayable. You can get Doom to run, but you'll be sorry.
Did it? If this were like, 2004, you'd maybe have a point. The graphics on P-racing look like a retro game. But a retro game that just came out, on a full priced console. P-Racing costs $12, on top of an already $200 console. For that money you could get a Switch lite and play F-Zero X at 60FPS.
Its so hard for me to justify telling anyone to spend the same amount of money on this (as neat as it is) then on a Nintendo Switch Lite. The price is really the killer here and might be why it dies out much faster than it probably should.
Idk their real killer may be their order compared to production capacity/company size. It is known that they are frequently backordered multiple months in advance and for a small company thats gotta be draining emotionally for the employees to have to continuously work on one produc and making sure orders are full from multiple months back.
@@chdreturnsas long as people aren’t waiting so long they’re cancelling, that’s a pretty good place for a company to be - it means predictable demand which they can account for months in advance rather than trying to do everything just in time. In some cases discussion of eagerly awaiting their product can also spur future orders, though I’m not sure if it has in this case. But when I first heard about it a few years ago there was nothing on itch and it was a way more dubious proposition to buy for just 20 minigames. So it seems more popular now than it was when it first launched! And that’s a promising sign.
Depends really a lot of people don't use the switch outside or the lite as they are both massive. Things like these smaller game boys have a place hence why so many are sold by countless different company's. This also being said this one looks like it comes with its own brand new legit games with more to come every so often, this is something thats not really done and thus the price is justified IMO, I would take this over a switch to use outside any day of the week; ill be dammed if I have to carry a bag around just to play my games on the go ill play on my phone before that.
@@morbidgull8922 Right, another alternative is the phone where 200$ worth of games is going to give you lots of options of much deeper games than those on the playdate, and it's probably hardware you already have in your pocket. Apparently the playdate has more games now, though a lot of those you have to pay for on top of the original purchase, like any console. I'm not saying there's no demand at all for it, or that the price is not justified by the company's costs, but it's going to be a tough sale for a lot of people.
@@morbidgull8922 the problem is that for the price of 60 bucks you can get a miyoo mini or rg35xx, which is pocketable and plays everything up to PS1 without issue. For the price of 150-170, you can get an rg405m or retroid pocket 3+/pocket flip, which will play up to PSP and Dreamcast with some support for GameCube and PS2 and also has video out and Bluetooth support.
24:59 The RAM is 16MB and the storage space is 4GB. We can only glean so much information from those numbers; they hardly paint a complete picture, but... it does seem like P-Racing's content could be expanded significantly without demanding more powerful hardware. Games used to be tiny in scale primarily because of storage limitations*, so it's interesting to see people creating these games that 80s processors could probably handle, while 80s storage devices certainly couldn't. *Fun fact: On the Sega Genesis cartridge for Sonic the Hedgehog, about 1/8th of the storage space was taken up by the SEGA vocalization that plays when you start it up. All of the other game audio was generated with the sound chip using what are basically MIDI files, whereas that opening "SE-GA" was a recording. (IMO they should've just incorporated that into the Genesis itself.)
Gotta say, that doggo from Pick Pack Pup is kind of adorable. Definitely a winning character design. I don't think I'd pay $200 for this, though. Maybe $50!
Not only no backlight / color, but only 4GB of flash memory!? What gives?? I can get a 128GB micro SD card for like $10 and they're saying 4GB is good?
@@Artanis667the biggest game you will see on Playdate will be around 40 mb, most if not all games on Playdate are quite small, ranging from as big as 30 to as little as 3, lack of flash memory sucks but the space available isnt so bad
It’s really refreshing reviewing a video game product, I missed these reviews, but I’m also glad you expanded upon other things too. Your videos are always S tier in quality.
That's actually the original version of Celeste adapted for the playdate. The one everyone is raving about has better graphics, longer playtime, and a story. I highly recommend you check out Celeste.
@@Gojoe107 The demake appears to be adapted from "Celeste Classic," which was a game built within the hardware limitations of the PICO-8 "fantasy console." I believe the PICO-8 version of Celeste was made for a game jam, and retroactively named "Celeste Classic" after Celeste was released. Celeste actually contains the PICO-8 version, playable in its entirety, as an easter egg. The full game is difficult, but in a way that feels fair (lots of checkpoints and good controls). It has speedrunning tech built into the movement, which is optional for completion but mandatory for 100% (particularly Farewell). It also has good music.
I've never even heard of this thing but I'm honestly pretty intrigued. The lack of a backlight on it is a bit of an issue and I wouldn't be excited to go back to anything without a proper backlight.
This type of screen works extremely well with ambient light (like reading paper), but doesn't work in darkness. It's not like the original GBA at all, this screen is actually easy to see in any mildly lit room.
@@vurpo7080 Yeah I got mine a few days ago and I was surprised by how much the lack of backlight doesn't bother me. I love the little device, I just hope it keeps getting support from indie devs longterm.
On Whitewater Wipeout, you can press the up arrow on the dpad as you come off the wave to lunge forward, kind of like doing an ollie when skateboarding to increase your height. You're right about the building up speed, but the Up Arrow is the other big thing you need in order to really get the height to do any significant number of spins.
Thanks for playing my game pack again, I laughed at you "swiping left" on all the dogs. :) I think my next game for PlayDate is going to be a text adventure dungeon crawler, but with a little bit of graphics. IDK that doesn't sound very interesting but it will be cool. xD I have been enjoying your videos for years!!
Finally a game reviewer that measures things the correct way: via Dave and Busters credit cards. As they said at the measuring conference: dabcc measuring is the best measuring.
@@milkmann-on1dqthat's a bullshit excuse. I've seen back-lit screens on thinner devices. And making the thing unusable in exchange for somewhat better battery life is a dogshit tradeoff.
I think this would sell better in the future if they gave you credits instead of preset games. I'd much rather be able to choose a game instead of being force fed something I may have NO interest in. Also, if they had a pay-per-month option for credits instead of the huge upfront cost, I think more people would have an interest in picking it up. It's hard to stomach the full $200 for something and then not even get to choose what you want to play on it or have to pay even more for games that are interesting.
I mean tbf that's how most consoles work, you pay $200-500 and you also need to pay for games unless you paid extra to buy a bundle. But yeah $200 is costly for sure.
@@aveaozso the handheld is about $100 tops,. the other $100 goes toward funding "seasons" of games. When the adventure game about being a postman is the best thing in there, then you're in trouble.
@@davefish2280 Panic has stated on multiple occasions the console itself in parts alone is already 100+ dollar. They let a niche audio equipment company design the thing, so they did the stereotypical niche audio equipment company thing and used niche components to increase perceived engineering quality (with a heavy emphasis on perceived). They also recently increased prices and already has had multiple manufacturing issues due to the (from a manufacturing of a consumer product perspective) poor design.
I like that it's more than just another brick with a screen and nothing else, the crank seems like a cool idea and seems like a really neat, analog input method that's also quite precise. $200 for a very long-lasting, connected console that easily fits in a pocket and allows playing the games through a PC if you really want to isn't bad. There's a huge amount of work going into creating an easy-to-develop-for platform, and if it's successful, I expect the price will come down or the hardware will improve, likely both. Also, since this isn't a heavily-DRM'd platform and normal people can develop for it, it's more likely to have a lot of games.
I suppose the inclusion of all the games makes up a good chunk of the price tag but even then it's kinda steep. I wonder if there's a way to buy Just the console and then pay for whatever games after
Not defending the high price point but there 3 things that I think raised the cost. One: 24 games included. Other playdate games are costing right now $3-5 a piece so that’s $72-$120 right there. Two: the cost of the development of the crank and special reflective screen. And three: the development of their (free to use) in browser game-maker Pulp.
@@paige_turnerplus it’s a small product with fewer economies of scale. I can’t imagine they’re selling it at a loss to make up later on games, like “real” consoles do (and still cost more in a lot of cases). I was actually expecting it to be like $300-400, especially given the CHIP stuff imploded due to selling it for less than the $150-200 it “should’ve” been. So being $200 makes me think their profit margins are probably still a lot slimmer than, say, Nintendo. Like, this looks much more appealing than a pocketCHIP to me.
I have been eyeing this thing for a while now. The fact that it doesn't have a backlight is a bummer but honestly it reminds me someone picking up a gameboy as a kid and taoing it around with you on roadtrips and things, which I think is a perfect use for the console.
I just realized what this is: this is WarioWare. This is like the in-universe game console Wario would make, and the games are like the micro-games Wario and his friends developed. I won't speak on anyone else's behalf, but I would gladly pay $200 to commit to this bit.
I was literally just thinking how cool a WarioWare style game would be on this console. You could use the crank to emulate the gyroscope from Twisted, the buttons for more classic WarioWare gameplay, and the accelerometer for something completely new!
The little ideas they had with how to use the crank is very Nintendo. I love seeing unique things in games and I can see why this got funded. I'm glad they deliverer a quality product!
At first I was like hmmm cool, this might be something fun to try for $20 or $30 or so. Then I saw the $200 price tag...WHAT?! That's insane. You could get a Switch Lite for that much, or a Retroid Pocket 3 Plus for $20 less.
Yeah.. and for 200$, you could do a lot better. It seemed cool but i am NOT buying a no color tiny prank device for 200$. this isn't worth 200 dollars..
A lot of people don't know that's just Teenage Engineering's business model. They've made a portable radio that is $1000, for no reason other than being a luxury design; they've marked up the prices of their synths by hundreds of dollars after doing this to reflect the fact that they're trying to be a luxury designer company (while their products are made with non-expensive materials). They have cool ideas, but charge WAAAAAY too much for them. They're infamous for this, amidst other things. They have a tiny computer case called the Computer-1 that's a build-it-yourself set of three little foldable & breakable plastic aluminum panels that stick together. Cool idea, right? It's $200, and $300 for the same thing but painted silver. This is the cheapest non-accessory product on their website. TLDR All of their products are clearly marked up by huge margins, never going on sale, to make it seem like they're a designer brand.
The reason it costs what it does it because it costs just a little more than the production costs. The parts are much higher quality than you can really tell from a video and it isnt produced in china the way pretty much all the retro handhelds are. Its entirely understandable that a lot of people dont think its worth it for them, but as far as everything I have learned about it, the company is barely making a profit from it as is.
@@zanthiablue5254 It most certainly does not, lol. This company has a reputation for selling products for way more than they are worth. This system is barely worth $50
Yo at the end you ask how long its going to last, and though I don't really know, I want to say that as a developer this thing is *awesome*. Not only is pulp (the browser based tool you mentioned) really cool, easy to use, and fun (and pretty flexible, Eyeland is a pulp game), but the other tools for developing games are really straightforward and well documented. So on the developer side, I think people are going to keep making games for it if only because its so much fun. Either way, really cool to see one of my favorite creators do a video on one of my favorite things.
This is a console *made* for those creative weird as hell indie mini-games you’d find on itchio and as a fan of those creative weird as hell indie mini-games you’d find on itchio this seems really cool
Yeah if I spent 200$ on a non backlit handheld that came with a game containing the sentence "I've definitely heard these little bird-o's before, but IDK if I've ever seen one." I would personally seek out everyone involved and sue them for causing severe mental trauma.
@@AlienatedBronze it's literally not I literally have no lawyer of my own and they literally made a game that is literally cringe and I literally can not stand this is invention or its literal creators
Honestly when I first heard about this the itch and built in stores didn’t exist, so the proposition was $200 for the built in (“season 1”) games. I thought it was cute and glad the hardware was quality but wasn’t sure about it for that price. But I hoped it’d take off with low-spec indie devs and game jams and stuff, and from your video it seems that’s indeed happened! So honestly I’m a lot more interested in it now. Everyone saying it’s too expensive compared to consoles with economies of scale and often sold at a loss is kinda missing the point IMO. For one it’s clearly trying to avoid the problems the (pocket)CHIP faced, where they went bankrupt due to not charging enough. And this looks way more ergonomic than the pocketCHIP too. Of course it’s not quite the same, as the pocketCHIP ran Linux and stuff while this is purely a games machine with its own API, but they have a similar production size and CHIP were definitely targeting indie game devs. So this already seems more sustainable as a business than the earlier examples, and providing a great dev environment for people to make little games can’t be understated imo. If you just want to play games rather than make them I can understand why you won’t care, and a lot of comments view it purely as a consumption device and so don’t understand the appeal. And that’s fine. Honestly I’d rather the people who really want this kind of thing go for it rather than chasing mass appeal. The price does its job in that respect. But I’m definitely much more excited about this now, given the community software is now so numerous. I’m not sure it’s a priority to buy but I do want to get one sometime now, whereas when it was new I was thinking purely “that might be cool, later” rather than “that’ll be fun sometime”. Still prospective, but less distant.
I think $200 is a perfectly reasonable price for people like yourself(?) who are interested in _also_ making games for the device. But IMO, the majority of the market isn't going to be interested in the development tools, and will just want to play games on the thing. I think if they cut the price in half for just the device, and then sold the ability to publish games for the Playdate with official support from the company for another $100, that would be a much easier proposition for the average consumer while still helping the company make their money back from the development of the dev tools and supporting infrastructure.
It’s way too expensive for what it is. The thing is half the price of a PS5. I’d honestly expect a handheld with no backlight and black and white graphics to be like 50 bucks at the most. There’s no shortage of cheap handhelds out there that have more to offer than this
It's a gadget you'll play with maybe 5 hours for the novelty of it. It's the definition of hip and not made to last, even if the hardware itself isn't janky.
Bots? No. The Playdate handheld is what got me into game development. Pulpscript is very easy to get into. Is Pulpscript a bit too simple? Sure, but it also feels nice when you see your own games work on real hardware.@@Alex_Barbosa
I’ve had tremendous self control. I’ve been resisting cranking it. The demos were honest to show it’s limitations but all the potential. I was 80% sure it wasn’t a gimmick.
Great video, it was nice to have a look inside something I will never own. This legitimately looks neat and a lot of the games seemed fun, but I just can't get over that price. Especially not when I remember that the 2DS XL(RIP) was only $150. Meanwhile this doesn't even have a backlit screen.
@Octokaizer I can see where you are coming from with that for sure... but when you calculate for inflation (2ds xl released in 2017) the current going price if it were newly released today would be $187 which is still less than this playdate console and yes it does have a colored backlit screen, however it did not come with any actual games, and if you want to buy fun titles for a new Nintendo console you have to dish out $30-$80 for a single game whereas playdate will come with 24 games bundled into its price tag. I think with all that considered that the value of this console is actually about right especially if it sticks around and remains popular enough to continue having new titles released and other types of ongoing supports. Not saying any of this to convince you or anything mind you, I just got hyperfixated on this for a minute lol.
@@Ohtterz in 2020 before it was discontinued the 2DS XL was still $150 and came with Mario Kart which, while not the newest game for the system, was going for around $35 at the time. Plus he even said in the video he wasn't really into most of the provided games, and do games you will never play really add anything to the value? Not to mention you seem to be forgetting the eshop where there were tons of games for under $10 available.
@@Ohtterz I'm not a mobile gamer kind of person, but this thing seems like an awful deal. I mean, I get retro-games to some minor degree, but to this degree? Isn't this just a Gameboy, more or less? I can get modern games on my phone that looks a million times better. Although, admittedly, the gameplay is often trash in them,(which is why I don't play mobile in the first place) but the gameplay in these doesn't look all that better either. I'm honestly curious why people play stuff like this, much less pay so much money for it. I hate to be the diablo guy, but do you guys not have phones? What's the advantage to this exactly when I can get a phone for the same price? Is the crank really that nifty of a gimmick?
I think quite a bit of the price comes from the games and developers. If you're going to make games for this tiny niche little thing you'd probably want some good compensation, right?
I love the concept of a console that brings back the novelty of limitations pushing creativity and I’d love to see what devs do with it, but 200 plus is steep. I know devs could theoretically pump out something really unique and incredible, but it just seems overengineered. Battery life is cool, but why no toggleable backlight for user friendliness? Someone else said it was because they used a fancy screen, which looks slick, but probably has something to do with the price. More than that, I worry about great games getting trapped on it and being unplayable after the online market eventually shuts down.
swap machina and playdapon are worth noting, both on the device's catalog - i've got both and they're each real good puzzle league-style games in their own right (swap machina is largely based in pulp, and playdapon uses the device on its side). there are a lot of good original puzzle games too, shift and generations are two highlights from the post hero dev
@stuffbyrae I actually looked at the catalog myself and found those! XD I'm 100% sold, just waiting on my next payday. ;) Can't believe there are 2 Panel clones on this thing. Gonna be a trip learning to play without color though
Waking up in europe and seeing a new brutalmoose video posted is already a treat, but the first lines being about "cranking it" made me cackle. Great way to start my morning. Yes I am a simple man.
As a mail carrier, I need to know if Post Hero has a scene where you get back to the station and have to explain to your manager that you took longer to finish your route than expected because of vampires.
Holy shit yes, I preordered this two years ago and it's been such a shame to not see ANYONE know what the hell I'm talking about when I mention it. Super happy to see you do a video on this simply for the sake of publicity. Edit: Everyone in the comments is shitting on it. I'm guessing you did too. I'm sad now.
It's probably a neat little device, but it's hard to justify the cost considering that you can get a Nintendo Switch Lite for that exact price. Sure, it doesn't come with included games (not counting the free to play games you can get in the eshop) but come on, do I need to list all the things it does better? You can even find in it better alternatives to each and every one of the games shown here, for very cheap prices, since the Switch has a really large catalogue of indie titles too. Plus, I feel like the Playdate's crank is nothing but a gimmick. I don't see how it makes anything even remotely easier or more fun to play and I feel it'd get old really quick. I think I had more fun watching this video than I'd have with the actual device. No shade to you or anything. I'm glad if you like it, and it sure might be neat to carry one around, but no way I'd pay that price for it. Also, if you like camera-based games (as in: the camera is a gameplay element and not some AR thing done with a real camera) I heavily recommend "Toem" (also available on Switch, btw).
I legit thought the crank was a means of charging the battery at first. I like how the graphics look like an old Macintosh with modern elements, but I can't justify paying $200 for it when I could get a Switch Lite for the same price.
Mine will be here any do now. I've had it preordered for a year and this video has me so beyond hyped to finally get to crank away at every opprotunity.
Ian trying his hardest to not say that some of the games make him cranky.
how did i not see this opportunity....
@@brutalmooseI was almost certain you were going to but then you said grumpy XD
@@brutalmoosewhile I have you here would you do a full in-depth video on how you make your VHS videos? Would love to get into the style and feel like I almost have the setup. But I was wondering what VHS setup you use.
You were too busy being Bweedy. @@brutalmoose
@@brutalmoosewe need a sequel video just for this joke
This made me realize how long it's been since I've seen such bravery.
I, too, am rooting for a partial return to his roots.
That and I want to see him go over search for dino again
Bionicle profile picture.
✝️🙏😩 let us pray
you know its a good brutalmoose video when he immediately talks about cranking it
I do crank dat soljia boi everyday
@@blametl4921 I can definitely watch you roll 🤣
@clownmoshpit2778 Golly! Neither was I!
LOL
Except it’s not a good video
I thought the crank was going to be to power it up so you didn't need batteries. A crank-based control system is really neat.
That would have been a _dynamo_ of an idea!
That's what I thought too, but it's just a fancy-looking analog stick.
I legit thought it was some parental control thing for the original game boy or something lol
on the website, theres a section that says "is this a gimmick? NO!" but its literally the only thing interesting about it. its a gimmick. a two hundred dollar gimmick. 2023
Should've made it do both. Charge up your system by playing the games!
I'm a game developer that's been focusing on the Playdate for a bit and I really do love it. I'm a fan of how it has made me work around the limitations and make some really unique stuff. Glad you enjoyed it!
I’m glad that Ian is supplying us with the crank based content we’ve all been asking for
As someone who is pretty much always cranking it in my free time, this was the perfect video for me
I love it, especially when I'm on crank and have been cranking it for the past 4 hours and need a break.
The marketing on this thing was so surreal. IT HAS A CRANK, BUY IT was an accurate summary.
Because quirky cranky gimmick!
...oh, & give it as a gift, maybe, plz?
And guess what, it's about to work on me
Shit I got it
A 199 price tag is pretty extreme.
Yeah wait a year or two and these will be going for much cheaper I reckon, once the initial hype phase dries up they'll likely have to start discounting it. I'm guessing that they're factoring the cost of the "free" games you get into the buy in price, but frankly I'd rather ditch the shovelware to get the console cheaper.
@@captainweekend5276The free games are supposed to be pretty good actually (developed by indie game royalty). If anything it got more expensive from when I first looked at it.
Its nothing to scare Nintendo due to the Playdates niche market but somehow a small company in Oregon has made a successful handheld console.
Seems like a novelty handheld you'd pick up for ~$40, not $200.
While it seems neat, I can't see spending more than $50 on it.
P-racing costs $12 plus tax
the thing is id get it if it was cheaper it looks neat lol
Interesting tidbit: at 22:45 the dialogue is in Esperanto. Translations: "I want to sleep," "I fought a dragon," "I succeed"
$200 is big price tag. Considering you can play so many games on your phone both new and old (including Steam).
Or on a modded old portable console, like a Vita or 3DS, for half that price and their full catalog of games
for $20 you can get an Android box and play PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Android, PSP, DS, Dreamcast, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, Atari, C64, etc.
All which individually have a huge library of games which have way more love and effort put into them than any of these toy games
@@skip485 for $200 you can get one of those powerful emulation handhelds with a full colour, high resolution, backlit screen, 8 buttons, bluetooth audio, space for like 1,000 games, etc. But you don't get pick pack pup 🤣
Brutalmoose dropping at 2 AM was not what I expected today but I'm more than here for it
Midnight his time. I live near his city.(near Seattle)
central time zone gang
CENTRAL TIME ZONE BEST TIME ZONE YEEHAW🤠🤠🤠🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭 (it's almost 3 am)
In my case he posted around 7 am for me 😂
It was fortuitous because I woke up an hour before he posted and can't fall back asleep.
Can't wait to see someone get Doom running on this thing.
th-cam.com/video/Kt4StVKLLdI/w-d-xo.html youre in luck
Imagine pulling down the crank to simulate dropping the chainsaw
Apparently running traditional games on this device is a bigger task than you might imagine. Pokémon R/B barely run and Tetris of all things is unplayable. You can get Doom to run, but you'll be sorry.
I can't play fucking Tetris? How does Tetris not work? It's like the simplest thing to make.
@@azazellon I imagine they mean doing so through an emulator, not done from scratch
New Brutalmoose video at 3AM? Yeah bed can wait.
wtf Hi italk, i didnt expect you to be a brutalmoose fan. Also i can relate lol
@@LittlePawPup why can't they be a... ohh I didn't notice the checkmark; my bad! ✔
Sup italk
oh boy, 3AM!
need more games to have a completion screen that calls you a good boy. pick pack pup is innovating
The ultimate reward
I wonder if the sequel will be Criss Cross Cat or something lol😼👍
*bonk*
Make it at good girl and you'll crack eggs :P
@@Alice-May true although good boy can also crack eggs just for different people
2 Brutalmoose videos within a month?
He be crankin' out them videos!
He be like: 🦌🌀📼 FTW
Brutalmoose returning to video game content? I've not seen such bravery
The ability to get solid 3D effects on that screen is incredible. Hats off to the programmers of p-racing. That game looked great
Did it? If this were like, 2004, you'd maybe have a point. The graphics on P-racing look like a retro game. But a retro game that just came out, on a full priced console. P-Racing costs $12, on top of an already $200 console. For that money you could get a Switch lite and play F-Zero X at 60FPS.
@davefish2280 Ok buddy. Game still looks great.
Using a crank for reading is actually pretty neat.
It made me think of one of those old microfilm readers that some libraries have for reading archived newspapers and such. Seems like a fun feature.
Its so hard for me to justify telling anyone to spend the same amount of money on this (as neat as it is) then on a Nintendo Switch Lite. The price is really the killer here and might be why it dies out much faster than it probably should.
Idk their real killer may be their order compared to production capacity/company size. It is known that they are frequently backordered multiple months in advance and for a small company thats gotta be draining emotionally for the employees to have to continuously work on one produc and making sure orders are full from multiple months back.
@@chdreturnsas long as people aren’t waiting so long they’re cancelling, that’s a pretty good place for a company to be - it means predictable demand which they can account for months in advance rather than trying to do everything just in time.
In some cases discussion of eagerly awaiting their product can also spur future orders, though I’m not sure if it has in this case. But when I first heard about it a few years ago there was nothing on itch and it was a way more dubious proposition to buy for just 20 minigames. So it seems more popular now than it was when it first launched! And that’s a promising sign.
It's a novelty item lol I'm sure they aren't expecting it to become as big as the Switch. Just a cool thing for game enthusiasts and collectors
200$ seems like an insane price tag for something like that. You can buy a Switch Lite for that amount.
It only makes sense that Teenage Engineering had a hand in the Playdate, then. Everything they touch just seems to explode its price.
Depends really a lot of people don't use the switch outside or the lite as they are both massive. Things like these smaller game boys have a place hence why so many are sold by countless different company's. This also being said this one looks like it comes with its own brand new legit games with more to come every so often, this is something thats not really done and thus the price is justified IMO, I would take this over a switch to use outside any day of the week; ill be dammed if I have to carry a bag around just to play my games on the go ill play on my phone before that.
@@morbidgull8922 Right, another alternative is the phone where 200$ worth of games is going to give you lots of options of much deeper games than those on the playdate, and it's probably hardware you already have in your pocket. Apparently the playdate has more games now, though a lot of those you have to pay for on top of the original purchase, like any console.
I'm not saying there's no demand at all for it, or that the price is not justified by the company's costs, but it's going to be a tough sale for a lot of people.
Yes, but the controls don’t drift!
@@morbidgull8922 the problem is that for the price of 60 bucks you can get a miyoo mini or rg35xx, which is pocketable and plays everything up to PS1 without issue. For the price of 150-170, you can get an rg405m or retroid pocket 3+/pocket flip, which will play up to PSP and Dreamcast with some support for GameCube and PS2 and also has video out and Bluetooth support.
Less than a minute in and Ian is telling me about cranking it in front of me. Great
24:59 The RAM is 16MB and the storage space is 4GB. We can only glean so much information from those numbers; they hardly paint a complete picture, but... it does seem like P-Racing's content could be expanded significantly without demanding more powerful hardware. Games used to be tiny in scale primarily because of storage limitations*, so it's interesting to see people creating these games that 80s processors could probably handle, while 80s storage devices certainly couldn't.
*Fun fact: On the Sega Genesis cartridge for Sonic the Hedgehog, about 1/8th of the storage space was taken up by the SEGA vocalization that plays when you start it up. All of the other game audio was generated with the sound chip using what are basically MIDI files, whereas that opening "SE-GA" was a recording. (IMO they should've just incorporated that into the Genesis itself.)
Gotta say, that doggo from Pick Pack Pup is kind of adorable. Definitely a winning character design. I don't think I'd pay $200 for this, though. Maybe $50!
You can actually get more games and sideload them onto it. Theres a decent dev community for it on Itchio with I think about 200-500 games.
Cool concept but wayyyyy too expensive imo
$200 is crazy when a switch is a similar price.
@@DKF_oliSwitch Lite's the *same* price, and goes on sale for slightly more than this thing cost when it came out.
Not only no backlight / color, but only 4GB of flash memory!? What gives?? I can get a 128GB micro SD card for like $10 and they're saying 4GB is good?
@@Artanis667the biggest game you will see on Playdate will be around 40 mb, most if not all games on Playdate are quite small, ranging from as big as 30 to as little as 3, lack of flash memory sucks but the space available isnt so bad
@@Artanis667 You could fit hundreds of Playdate games in there. It's not a limitation.
It’s really refreshing reviewing a video game product, I missed these reviews, but I’m also glad you expanded upon other things too. Your videos are always S tier in quality.
That's actually the original version of Celeste adapted for the playdate. The one everyone is raving about has better graphics, longer playtime, and a story. I highly recommend you check out Celeste.
I'm confused, same name , different game?
@@Gojoe107same game, but simpler in most aspects. im pretty sure theres a version of this mini-celeste on an arcade cabinet in the full celeste game
@@Gojoe107 The demake appears to be adapted from "Celeste Classic," which was a game built within the hardware limitations of the PICO-8 "fantasy console."
I believe the PICO-8 version of Celeste was made for a game jam, and retroactively named "Celeste Classic" after Celeste was released. Celeste actually contains the PICO-8 version, playable in its entirety, as an easter egg.
The full game is difficult, but in a way that feels fair (lots of checkpoints and good controls). It has speedrunning tech built into the movement, which is optional for completion but mandatory for 100% (particularly Farewell). It also has good music.
Excited for the eventual Playdate Color, the Playdate Advance, and especially the Playdate Advance SP.
I've never even heard of this thing but I'm honestly pretty intrigued. The lack of a backlight on it is a bit of an issue and I wouldn't be excited to go back to anything without a proper backlight.
I’ve heard that the screen is made to work well even in low light, but a backlight woulda been nice. I can’t wait for mine to arrive!
This type of screen works extremely well with ambient light (like reading paper), but doesn't work in darkness. It's not like the original GBA at all, this screen is actually easy to see in any mildly lit room.
@@vurpo7080 Yeah I got mine a few days ago and I was surprised by how much the lack of backlight doesn't bother me. I love the little device, I just hope it keeps getting support from indie devs longterm.
@@vurpo7080 that sounds like the type of screen used in the kindle and other e-readers. those are not backlit either and I think they work well.
@@HolyShintait’s LCD rather than e-ink but yes the effect on the eyes is very similar to an e-ink screen
On Whitewater Wipeout, you can press the up arrow on the dpad as you come off the wave to lunge forward, kind of like doing an ollie when skateboarding to increase your height. You're right about the building up speed, but the Up Arrow is the other big thing you need in order to really get the height to do any significant number of spins.
Thanks for playing my game pack again, I laughed at you "swiping left" on all the dogs. :) I think my next game for PlayDate is going to be a text adventure dungeon crawler, but with a little bit of graphics. IDK that doesn't sound very interesting but it will be cool. xD
I have been enjoying your videos for years!!
BARS @ 12:04
that was a fast 30 min - great to see a return of some video game content!
Finally a game reviewer that measures things the correct way: via Dave and Busters credit cards. As they said at the measuring conference: dabcc measuring is the best measuring.
For $200 it should have had a backlight.
The lack of a backlight is a conscious decision to improve form factor and battery life
@@milkmann-on1dqthat's a bullshit excuse. I've seen back-lit screens on thinner devices. And making the thing unusable in exchange for somewhat better battery life is a dogshit tradeoff.
Realistically this thing should be like 40 bucks. Asking 200 is absolutely insane.
@slipmagt it's made by Teenage Engineering who's bread and butter is selling overpriced, slickly packaged BS to hipsters
@@SweatyHatManyou can have it thinner and be more expensive with less space for games and memory sure bro
I think this would sell better in the future if they gave you credits instead of preset games. I'd much rather be able to choose a game instead of being force fed something I may have NO interest in. Also, if they had a pay-per-month option for credits instead of the huge upfront cost, I think more people would have an interest in picking it up. It's hard to stomach the full $200 for something and then not even get to choose what you want to play on it or have to pay even more for games that are interesting.
I mean tbf that's how most consoles work, you pay $200-500 and you also need to pay for games unless you paid extra to buy a bundle. But yeah $200 is costly for sure.
@@aveaozso the handheld is about $100 tops,. the other $100 goes toward funding "seasons" of games. When the adventure game about being a postman is the best thing in there, then you're in trouble.
@@davefish2280 Panic has stated on multiple occasions the console itself in parts alone is already 100+ dollar. They let a niche audio equipment company design the thing, so they did the stereotypical niche audio equipment company thing and used niche components to increase perceived engineering quality (with a heavy emphasis on perceived). They also recently increased prices and already has had multiple manufacturing issues due to the (from a manufacturing of a consumer product perspective) poor design.
at the end of the day I feel like i'd rather have a backlight instead of a crank
The crank is the only unique selling point. Without that it's just another gameboy knockoff with "quirky" design and without any good games.
I like that it's more than just another brick with a screen and nothing else, the crank seems like a cool idea and seems like a really neat, analog input method that's also quite precise. $200 for a very long-lasting, connected console that easily fits in a pocket and allows playing the games through a PC if you really want to isn't bad. There's a huge amount of work going into creating an easy-to-develop-for platform, and if it's successful, I expect the price will come down or the hardware will improve, likely both. Also, since this isn't a heavily-DRM'd platform and normal people can develop for it, it's more likely to have a lot of games.
One of these things is $200. That's absolutely insane!!!!!!
Can someone please tell me what makes this thing worth $200? I must have missed something.
It isn't.
I suppose the inclusion of all the games makes up a good chunk of the price tag but even then it's kinda steep.
I wonder if there's a way to buy Just the console and then pay for whatever games after
Not defending the high price point but there 3 things that I think raised the cost. One: 24 games included. Other playdate games are costing right now $3-5 a piece so that’s $72-$120 right there. Two: the cost of the development of the crank and special reflective screen. And three: the development of their (free to use) in browser game-maker Pulp.
@@paige_turnerplus it’s a small product with fewer economies of scale. I can’t imagine they’re selling it at a loss to make up later on games, like “real” consoles do (and still cost more in a lot of cases).
I was actually expecting it to be like $300-400, especially given the CHIP stuff imploded due to selling it for less than the $150-200 it “should’ve” been. So being $200 makes me think their profit margins are probably still a lot slimmer than, say, Nintendo. Like, this looks much more appealing than a pocketCHIP to me.
@@paige_turneractually fairly imformative. i would not drop 200 bucks on this but i can see why someone would fork it over
I'm convinced Ian sets his videos up to render and upload while he sleeps so he is deep in REM sleep when these go live
if so, its a smart move to save his mental health. cant fixate on the Numbers if youre knocked out when its posted
Finally, the perfect time to cranking it to a Brutalmoose video!
Finally, a product that I can crank in public and in my pocket!
Maybe one of the next releases will allow you to play pocket pool! 🤞
this was posted at 2 am for me and the first thirty seconds are about him cranking it EVERYWHERE. this is gonna be a good video i can feel it
200 bucks is called the "gaming hipster tax".
I have been eyeing this thing for a while now. The fact that it doesn't have a backlight is a bummer but honestly it reminds me someone picking up a gameboy as a kid and taoing it around with you on roadtrips and things, which I think is a perfect use for the console.
"Oh heck! Look at these heckin' ding-dong birderinos! Better snippity-snap a picky mcpickerson to get those wholesome chungus updoots on rediterino!"
This.
very disappointed to find out its not a gameboy powered by a crank
I just realized what this is: this is WarioWare. This is like the in-universe game console Wario would make, and the games are like the micro-games Wario and his friends developed. I won't speak on anyone else's behalf, but I would gladly pay $200 to commit to this bit.
I was literally just thinking how cool a WarioWare style game would be on this console. You could use the crank to emulate the gyroscope from Twisted, the buttons for more classic WarioWare gameplay, and the accelerometer for something completely new!
wake up babe! brutalmoose is crankin it!!
The little ideas they had with how to use the crank is very Nintendo. I love seeing unique things in games and I can see why this got funded. I'm glad they deliverer a quality product!
Pick Pack Puss sounds like a great game to crank to!
I like the detail of how every game has their own startup animation the moment you choose them, that's pretty cute!
Hell yeah, always a fan to see more gaming content on the channel.
At first I was like hmmm cool, this might be something fun to try for $20 or $30 or so. Then I saw the $200 price tag...WHAT?! That's insane. You could get a Switch Lite for that much, or a Retroid Pocket 3 Plus for $20 less.
Yeah.. and for 200$, you could do a lot better. It seemed cool but i am NOT buying a no color tiny prank device for 200$. this isn't worth 200 dollars..
A lot of people don't know that's just Teenage Engineering's business model. They've made a portable radio that is $1000, for no reason other than being a luxury design; they've marked up the prices of their synths by hundreds of dollars after doing this to reflect the fact that they're trying to be a luxury designer company (while their products are made with non-expensive materials). They have cool ideas, but charge WAAAAAY too much for them. They're infamous for this, amidst other things.
They have a tiny computer case called the Computer-1 that's a build-it-yourself set of three little foldable & breakable plastic aluminum panels that stick together. Cool idea, right? It's $200, and $300 for the same thing but painted silver. This is the cheapest non-accessory product on their website.
TLDR All of their products are clearly marked up by huge margins, never going on sale, to make it seem like they're a designer brand.
You can tell this project was made by some annoying californian gen-x'ers
The reason it costs what it does it because it costs just a little more than the production costs. The parts are much higher quality than you can really tell from a video and it isnt produced in china the way pretty much all the retro handhelds are. Its entirely understandable that a lot of people dont think its worth it for them, but as far as everything I have learned about it, the company is barely making a profit from it as is.
@@zanthiablue5254
It most certainly does not, lol. This company has a reputation for selling products for way more than they are worth. This system is barely worth $50
Yo at the end you ask how long its going to last, and though I don't really know, I want to say that as a developer this thing is *awesome*. Not only is pulp (the browser based tool you mentioned) really cool, easy to use, and fun (and pretty flexible, Eyeland is a pulp game), but the other tools for developing games are really straightforward and well documented. So on the developer side, I think people are going to keep making games for it if only because its so much fun. Either way, really cool to see one of my favorite creators do a video on one of my favorite things.
It's very strange that there's not a fishing game. That seems perfect for the crank
This is a console *made* for those creative weird as hell indie mini-games you’d find on itchio and as a fan of those creative weird as hell indie mini-games you’d find on itchio this seems really cool
Yeah if I spent 200$ on a non backlit handheld that came with a game containing the sentence "I've definitely heard these little bird-o's before, but IDK if I've ever seen one." I would personally seek out everyone involved and sue them for causing severe mental trauma.
IDK that's kinda mean TBH
@@AlienatedBronze it's literally not I literally have no lawyer of my own and they literally made a game that is literally cringe and I literally can not stand this is invention or its literal creators
Sounds lit
Wow what a heccin wholesome birderino picture. Here's some birdit gold!
came out swinging in this one brother 10/10, this is why you're the boss
Thing I love about this channel is that I am can cover just about anything and I'll be completely entertained.
Honestly when I first heard about this the itch and built in stores didn’t exist, so the proposition was $200 for the built in (“season 1”) games. I thought it was cute and glad the hardware was quality but wasn’t sure about it for that price.
But I hoped it’d take off with low-spec indie devs and game jams and stuff, and from your video it seems that’s indeed happened! So honestly I’m a lot more interested in it now.
Everyone saying it’s too expensive compared to consoles with economies of scale and often sold at a loss is kinda missing the point IMO. For one it’s clearly trying to avoid the problems the (pocket)CHIP faced, where they went bankrupt due to not charging enough. And this looks way more ergonomic than the pocketCHIP too.
Of course it’s not quite the same, as the pocketCHIP ran Linux and stuff while this is purely a games machine with its own API, but they have a similar production size and CHIP were definitely targeting indie game devs.
So this already seems more sustainable as a business than the earlier examples, and providing a great dev environment for people to make little games can’t be understated imo.
If you just want to play games rather than make them I can understand why you won’t care, and a lot of comments view it purely as a consumption device and so don’t understand the appeal. And that’s fine. Honestly I’d rather the people who really want this kind of thing go for it rather than chasing mass appeal. The price does its job in that respect.
But I’m definitely much more excited about this now, given the community software is now so numerous. I’m not sure it’s a priority to buy but I do want to get one sometime now, whereas when it was new I was thinking purely “that might be cool, later” rather than “that’ll be fun sometime”. Still prospective, but less distant.
I think $200 is a perfectly reasonable price for people like yourself(?) who are interested in _also_ making games for the device. But IMO, the majority of the market isn't going to be interested in the development tools, and will just want to play games on the thing. I think if they cut the price in half for just the device, and then sold the ability to publish games for the Playdate with official support from the company for another $100, that would be a much easier proposition for the average consumer while still helping the company make their money back from the development of the dev tools and supporting infrastructure.
I love your review-in-a-skit formats, they're my absolute favorite videos on the entire World Wide Web
I always appreciate things that are built to last rather than being flashy and "hip". I'll be sure to check this little gizmo out later.
It’s way too expensive for what it is. The thing is half the price of a PS5. I’d honestly expect a handheld with no backlight and black and white graphics to be like 50 bucks at the most. There’s no shortage of cheap handhelds out there that have more to offer than this
It's a gadget you'll play with maybe 5 hours for the novelty of it. It's the definition of hip and not made to last, even if the hardware itself isn't janky.
Great video. I'm a Playdate game dev and find the Playdate to be a fun platform to dev for.
What's it like?
I've seena couple people say this and it's kinda sus. Are there bots for this thing? Lol
Bots? No. The Playdate handheld is what got me into game development. Pulpscript is very easy to get into. Is Pulpscript a bit too simple? Sure, but it also feels nice when you see your own games work on real hardware.@@Alex_Barbosa
Holy crap I just got my playdate 2 weeks ago and absolutely adore it so much fun!!!
The intro is perfection, that sponsor transition is also really great.
I almost had a panic attack seeing Bennett Foddy being the developer of The Zipper.
The dog in Pick Pack Pup is so adorable, I just wanna hug him!
I’ve had tremendous self control. I’ve been resisting cranking it. The demos were honest to show it’s limitations but all the potential. I was 80% sure it wasn’t a gimmick.
i am great from a distance thank you for noticing
top 10 video titles to read half asleep at 3:11 am on a school night
Great video, it was nice to have a look inside something I will never own. This legitimately looks neat and a lot of the games seemed fun, but I just can't get over that price. Especially not when I remember that the 2DS XL(RIP) was only $150. Meanwhile this doesn't even have a backlit screen.
@Octokaizer I can see where you are coming from with that for sure... but when you calculate for inflation (2ds xl released in 2017) the current going price if it were newly released today would be $187 which is still less than this playdate console and yes it does have a colored backlit screen, however it did not come with any actual games, and if you want to buy fun titles for a new Nintendo console you have to dish out $30-$80 for a single game whereas playdate will come with 24 games bundled into its price tag. I think with all that considered that the value of this console is actually about right especially if it sticks around and remains popular enough to continue having new titles released and other types of ongoing supports.
Not saying any of this to convince you or anything mind you, I just got hyperfixated on this for a minute lol.
@@Ohtterz in 2020 before it was discontinued the 2DS XL was still $150 and came with Mario Kart which, while not the newest game for the system, was going for around $35 at the time. Plus he even said in the video he wasn't really into most of the provided games, and do games you will never play really add anything to the value? Not to mention you seem to be forgetting the eshop where there were tons of games for under $10 available.
@@Ohtterz I'm not a mobile gamer kind of person, but this thing seems like an awful deal. I mean, I get retro-games to some minor degree, but to this degree? Isn't this just a Gameboy, more or less? I can get modern games on my phone that looks a million times better. Although, admittedly, the gameplay is often trash in them,(which is why I don't play mobile in the first place) but the gameplay in these doesn't look all that better either.
I'm honestly curious why people play stuff like this, much less pay so much money for it.
I hate to be the diablo guy, but do you guys not have phones? What's the advantage to this exactly when I can get a phone for the same price? Is the crank really that nifty of a gimmick?
I think quite a bit of the price comes from the games and developers. If you're going to make games for this tiny niche little thing you'd probably want some good compensation, right?
I agree with you, unfortunately this video has paid review written all over it. I don't think Ian would giving it any praise otherwise.
Perfect for our favorite childhood Casino Gambling Binge memories!
22:46 (estimate translation) “i want to sleep, i fought a dragon, i succeeded”
Not even a minute into the video, and Ian is already threatening to shit his pants after screaming about "CRANKIN' IT" without my consent.
holy shit brutalmoose is looking at videogames again
its been 8000 years...
i can tell from the first 30 seconds that this is going to be good
I love the concept of a console that brings back the novelty of limitations pushing creativity and I’d love to see what devs do with it, but 200 plus is steep. I know devs could theoretically pump out something really unique and incredible, but it just seems overengineered. Battery life is cool, but why no toggleable backlight for user friendliness? Someone else said it was because they used a fancy screen, which looks slick, but probably has something to do with the price. More than that, I worry about great games getting trapped on it and being unplayable after the online market eventually shuts down.
This is the closest (& classic) thing of Ian playing video games on his channel again.
who would watch a sudden Brutalmoose upload at 3am?
me. (its actually 1am here at the time of posting)
Wow, wasn't expecting to be getting a new BrutalMoose video this late at night. Let alone one on THIS thing! Quite a unexpected surprise there.
The edits at 4:40 are way too good for the 1 second visual gag they are andbsbdbdb truly the reason this channel is the best
P-Racing nearly has me convinced. All I need is an action puzzle game like Puzzle League or Puyo Puyo and I'll be completely sold
swap machina and playdapon are worth noting, both on the device's catalog - i've got both and they're each real good puzzle league-style games in their own right (swap machina is largely based in pulp, and playdapon uses the device on its side). there are a lot of good original puzzle games too, shift and generations are two highlights from the post hero dev
@stuffbyrae I actually looked at the catalog myself and found those! XD I'm 100% sold, just waiting on my next payday. ;) Can't believe there are 2 Panel clones on this thing. Gonna be a trip learning to play without color though
@@BusterBeachside bit of a curve but i def got used to it fast lol. welcome to the club! 👉😎👉
Waking up in europe and seeing a new brutalmoose video posted is already a treat, but the first lines being about "cranking it" made me cackle. Great way to start my morning.
Yes I am a simple man.
Not gonna lie this is a cute little gimmick! All these games look cool stylistically and i appreciate think its cool how they integrate cranking
As a mail carrier, I need to know if Post Hero has a scene where you get back to the station and have to explain to your manager that you took longer to finish your route than expected because of vampires.
For $200 US??? That shit had better crank ME for that price.
Whoa this console is so cool!! I have been influenced. It makes me feel nostalgic for games I haven’t even played.
Ian's right. There needs to be more cats in these games. Can we get an RPG featuring MJ?
“I wish i wouldnt look at me like that” - me, after i catch myself grimacing at myself in the mirror
You lost me at $200 and I only stayed past the phrase "season 1" because I love you so much. This is, like, a cool idea 20 years ago
I was hoping the crank charged the batteries but apparently not, would have been a neat little thing for the bus, train or during a power outage
Holy shit yes, I preordered this two years ago and it's been such a shame to not see ANYONE know what the hell I'm talking about when I mention it. Super happy to see you do a video on this simply for the sake of publicity.
Edit: Everyone in the comments is shitting on it. I'm guessing you did too. I'm sad now.
22:45 It's Esperanto. "I want to sleep. I fought a dragon. I succeeded!". She deserves a high five I tell you what.
thank you for cranking this out at such an early hour. ❤
You're my favorite youtuber, man.
Please never stop being yourself.
It's probably a neat little device, but it's hard to justify the cost considering that you can get a Nintendo Switch Lite for that exact price. Sure, it doesn't come with included games (not counting the free to play games you can get in the eshop) but come on, do I need to list all the things it does better? You can even find in it better alternatives to each and every one of the games shown here, for very cheap prices, since the Switch has a really large catalogue of indie titles too. Plus, I feel like the Playdate's crank is nothing but a gimmick. I don't see how it makes anything even remotely easier or more fun to play and I feel it'd get old really quick. I think I had more fun watching this video than I'd have with the actual device.
No shade to you or anything. I'm glad if you like it, and it sure might be neat to carry one around, but no way I'd pay that price for it.
Also, if you like camera-based games (as in: the camera is a gameplay element and not some AR thing done with a real camera) I heavily recommend "Toem" (also available on Switch, btw).
I legit thought the crank was a means of charging the battery at first.
I like how the graphics look like an old Macintosh with modern elements, but I can't justify paying $200 for it when I could get a Switch Lite for the same price.
God after the terrible week I've had so glad to see Ian is back
I absolutely adore the idea of an indie micro console like this, full of small yet very clever games. I would love to see more stuff like this.
I really thought it would be charged by the crank like a radio
I think that was the initial plan, but they couldn't get enough power from the crank. So they made it into a useless controller thing.
Mine will be here any do now. I've had it preordered for a year and this video has me so beyond hyped to finally get to crank away at every opprotunity.