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The Playdate on the iFixit operating table.
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The system is smaller and much more high-tech than an older Game Boy, but there are some undeniable similarities.
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Panic trusts you to do the repairs, so it won’t void the Playdate warranty unless you break something.
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Removing the battery from the system is relatively straightforward once the sticker is removed.
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The Playdate’s screen is glued to the front of the system, so if your screen does break, you’ll probably need a new front case as well.
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Sam Mashkovech has his own Playdate, but he hasn’t opened it yet. At the very least, it can attest to the build quality of the system’s signature crank.
Sam Mashkovech
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Start in downtown Seattle.
Sam Mashkovech
The iFixit teardown artists got their hands on the Banana Yellow Plastic Playdate, the retro hand-cranked handheld gaming system that we previewed last month ahead of its launch later this year. And just as the Game Boys of yore were easy to take apart, repair and rebuild, the Playdate will be relatively easy to repair should you ever need to replace its battery or buttons.
Most Interesting Findings: The Playdate’s signature crank uses a Hall-effect sensor rather than a spring or other type of physical mechanism that can wear out, so it shouldn’t suffer from drift over time as some console controller joysticks do. And while there is a warranty sticker inside the Playdate, it specifically says that you will void the system warranty if you break anything inside, not that you will undo it simply by dismantling the system. It strikes a good balance between ‘don’t come here if you don’t know what you’re doing’ and ‘we trust you to do your own repairs if you need them’.
The teardown also gives us some details about the Playdate’s intentionally low-powered hardware, which includes a 216MHz ARM Cortex M7 processor, 128MB (or 16MB) of RAM, and 4GB of eMMC storage. The only major complaint from iFixit is that the LCD screen appears to be stuck to the front of the Playdate – replacing the screen will likely require replacing everything else in the case. But since the front of the Playdate is yellow plastic rather than metal and glass, this part shouldn’t cost as much as when your phone’s screen shatters.
This do-it-yourself repair mentality aligns with how Panic, the producer of the portable system, advertised the coder-friendly system ethic. Once the portable system is released, enterprising game makers can use Lua or C – or a beginner-friendly web development platform – to code games, then freely download and test on real hardware with an included SDK.
We had a lot of fun with the Playdate in our hardware overview. the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck. The Playdate is currently available for pre-order for $ 179, which includes hardware and a total of 24 games. Some orders will ship later in 2021, but pre-orders placed today won’t arrive until next year.
Listing image by iFixit
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