You probably thought the crank arm was a thing of the past. A piece of an era long gone, when the slot machine was perhaps better known as the one-arm-bandit thanks to its mechanical appendage driving its reels. But such mechanisms were automated many years ago, the efforts of players purely focused on button-pushing and that next 10p bet. In the digital age that has become even simpler: bets placed and reels in motion at the behest of a thumb-twitch.

But as the movie Back To The Future reinvents itself as a musical for the stage, Star Wars brings back its fan-favourites from the 1970s to the silver screen, and Netflix’s most popular shows include countless hours devoted to the “Toys That Made Us”, it’s clear pop culture is awash with nostalgia. And in this era of re-imagination, retro is the new contemporary, and everything we thought was a thing of the past is prime for a 2020 update. Cue Playdate. A handheld console that reminds us of the old Gameboy and curiously boasts a mechanical crank arm.

The Past, the Present, the Future

It is the brainchild of Oregon-based software and video game company Panic. The quirky portable console represents the firm’s first foray into hardware. The Firewatch creators are hoping to change the way gaming will look in the future with a minimalist aesthetic. It features a 2.7-inch black and white 1-bit screen sporting innovative e-ink technology that conserves energy while helping the pixels load faster. And the impressive 170-degree viewing angle means it’s an adaptable handheld device, enabling players to enjoy the device outdoors in bright light or inside under artificial illumination.

A physically tiny player in a massive market, Playdate measures just 74mm x 76mm x 9mm. While its d-pad and pair of buttons might hark back to console gaming’s early golden years, it’s the crank arm, used to cycle through game options, that is most striking. The old-school mechanical arm will excite fans who crave the back-to-basics sensibilities of Playdate, while giving the device instant character. It’s also a telling aspect of Panic’s overall vision – to offer gamers something unique, nostalgic, and relatively simple while disrupting the way people play and experience games. That’ll be seen in the way games are released too. Each title will arrive as “seasons” composed of 12 releases each. And announcements won’t be made until a week before each “season” launches.  

Instant Appeal

The mix of retro and futuristic isn’t a new concept in gaming, of course. Chess enjoyed renewed appreciation after developers created digital kings, queens, knights, and pawns for the computer age, eventually witnessing the classic game becoming a major online attraction with a worldwide community of gamers.

Similarly, classic board games including Clue, Scrabble, Ticket to Ride and Monopoly have all found new lives as mobile apps. Equally, casino favourites like roulette have helped iGaming grow in popularity. Adapted for the digital age with contemporary graphics that recreate the traditions of the game, old and new come together with internet-age improvements like live stats for players to help them gauge their bets.

This sense of community gaming was also seen in Nintendo’s marriage of retro and new-age, with its update of Tetris in 2019 that allowed 99 players to play online simultaneously.

Readymade Audience

The present meeting the past works. That’s clear. Does this mean Playdate will be a success? Nicole Lee of Endadget.com thinks it will. One of the few people to see the handheld device before consumers, Lee found the “intriguing” retro-yet-modern design “charming”. She noted the black and white screen, while obviously a throwback, was far from the archaic screens of old Gameboy’s with its cutting-edge ARM-compatible processor, flash storage, 16mb of RAM, wi-fi, and Bluetooth. She also complimented the e-ink screen for its “surprisingly crisp” Sharp Memory LCD; the kind of display not often used in consumer electronics.

Time will tell if Playdate wins itself a hungry audience. But nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool. For the older generation it gives continuity and meaning, offering comforting gratification based on happy memories. Match it to something modern, unique, and quirky, and suddenly you’ve got a product that appeals to the younger generation’s thirst for exciting tech and cutting-edge ideas. Playdate has the potential to make a big splash in the market by capturing both the old and the new. Indeed, less than four months after it was announced in May 2019, 110,000 people had signed up to its waitlist. Now, the wait is almost over.