Playdate handheld game system torn to pieces, crank and all

Summer is often referred to as "The Silly Season" and so it was with delight that we noted the iFixit team had turned their screwdrivers onto the gaming nostalgia-fest that is the upcoming Playdate. The colourful little handheld (colourful except for the screen) is a welcome respite from the likes of the Nintendo Switch and …

[DarkwavePunk]

I honestly thought...

When I first heard of this gizmo I did think it was crank powered like those radios and torches you can get. I'm mildly disappointed but it could make a neat nerdy present for someone.

[Version 1.0]

Re: I honestly thought...

I think that it's always fun looking a these old devices and then trying to get them working again - the iFixit folks are excellent at figuring out how to repair both old and new devices (icon to you guys) and anytime I have to fix something then they are the first place I go to.

[Skiron]

I don't understand - what exactly is an analogue crank and what does it do? What was it's equivalent on the older game handsets et al from the 80s'/90's?

[JamesTGrant]

Fishing, wells, car starting

Perhaps it’s a controller for the following fun games:

Pro bass fishing

Vintage car startup

Competitive well pail pulling

…erm…

School hall window closing

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fishing, wells, car starting

Keep one under the duvet just in case mum walks in without knocking?

"Aw, Muuu-um. I was just in the middle of playing with my Playdate!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fishing, wells, car starting

"Aw, Muuu-um. I was just in the middle of playing with my Playdate!"

Erm - isn't that kind of admitting to what you were doing???

[Mike 137]

"what exactly is an analogue crank"

Strictly according to its origin, the word 'analogue' means representative of something else (Shorter OED. 1933) so presumably an analogue crank is a crank that's similar to another crank.

I suppose a digital crank would be a crank you turn with your fingers. In this case it's probably really a digital crank. both in that sense and in the sense that it apparently generates a stream of discrete pulses when turned.

[Skiron]

Re: "what exactly is an analogue crank"

OK, fair enough, I got that bit at the beginning - but what does it do? Make a character run? Scroll the window? What ever it does, you wouldn't be able to do much else with the controls at the time?

[J. Cook]

Re: "what exactly is an analogue crank"

... it's not making you cranky, is it?

OW! I'm going! OW!!!!

[Jedit]

"what exactly is an analogue crank and what does it do?"

It's someone who thinks TV was much better when we only had four channels, and mostly they write letters of complaint to community newspapers.

[Blackjack]

I still have my Gameboy but the screen is so scratched with use that's almost useless unless you play something slow paced like a RPG and even then you kind of have to guess what's on the screen. Thankfully I got a Gameboy Pocket that works just fine.

[teknopaul]

The Silly Season

You learn a new thing every day. I thought silly season was from the first mushroom sprouting in North Wales until the first frost.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: The Silly Season

Also where the phrase (and title of the TV comedy show) Drop The Dead Donkey comes from. i.e. Parliament goes on holiday so there's (supposedly) no "real" news to report. Journalists fill the space with "silly" stories, often referred to as "dead donkeys" because they are unlikely to get printed unless there's nothing "real" to report. If something "real" does come in to report on, then the "dead Donkey" is dropped.

Pretty much the exact opposite of the "A good day to bury bad bad news" where bad news is released on a day with a major news story which is taking up all the main headlines so many will miss the "bad news" story because the media have bigger fish to fry and won't immediately dig into it/

[Mike 16]

128Mb or MB?

Considering the lineage, I half suspect the Mb is correct. AKA 16MB