u/DarkerBulb

One of the things that I love about the Playdate - apart from the crank of course - is the ability to emulate literally thousands of games on it.

These two amazing emulators is really adding a lot of value - and fun - to the Playdate.

FamiCrank (NES emulation) by u/Pomettini

CrankBoy (GB (full)/GBC (limited) emulation by u/stonerl

I tried out CrankBoy a few days ago and had a great experience (see post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlaydateConsole/comments/1unjozg/wow_the_crankboy_app_is_just_amazing/ )

Tonight, I thought I'd give FamiCrank a go and see how it will do with these 'classic' NES game:

• Deja-Vu
• Earthbound/Mother
• Kirby's Adventure
• Metroid
• Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (of course!)
• Uninvited

Deja Vu

Along with Earthbound/Mother and Uninvited this was the stand-out game for me when checking out this lot. GREAT story and it plays really well in the FamiCrank emulator. If you like Disco Elysium - this is the one to get!

Earthbound/Mother

An adventure masterpiece and I'm happy to report that you can now play this very smoothly on your Playdate as well! The music is btw stellar.

Kirby's Adventure
Who doesn't love Kirby? :) The game 'suffers' from the same 'very detailed NES graphics displayed onto the Playdate screen' but the gameplay is again stellar is the music and sound effects. I found myself playing through quite a few levels on my first run.

Metroid

I've never been into Metroid but this one I really liked. Jumping, rolling and shooting my way through an alien landscape. Great fun.

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom

A cult-classic that played well on the Playdate.

Uninvited

This game is from the same MacVenture universe of games as Deja Vu (and Shadowgate actually) and if anything it is better than the Deja Vu games. A must game that looks great through FamiCrank!

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So how do I do all this then?

Surprisingly easy;

1. Download the free FamiCrank NES emulator

https://pomettini.itch.io/famicrank-nes-for-playdate

2. Grab your .nes ROMs and put them somewhere on your PC

a3) Start up FamiCrank.

- Connect your PlayDate.
- Set the Playdate to Disk Mode
- Copy any .nes ROMs you want to play to the directory the app tells you.

4. 'Eject' the Playdate from your PC and..enjoy!

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Attached photos, in order: Princess Tomato, Deja-Vu, Uninvited

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

I'm relaxing in the recliner, re-connecting with an old classic - Earthbound/Mother (Revisited) through an NES emulator (FamiCrank) on the Playdate.

I've missed this game...it must be at least 15 years since I played it last :)

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

I'm relaxing in the recliner, re-connecting with an old classic - Earthbound/Mother (Revisited) through an NES emulator (FamiCrank) on the Playdate.

I've missed this game :)

Another game I didn't expect to be able to enjoy on the Playdate was Earthbound/Mother (English) - but, alas, it's running great!

For those interested in checking it out on their Playdate it was surprisingly easy;

1. Download the free FamiCrank NES emulator

https://pomettini.itch.io/famicrank-nes-for-playdate

2. Grab your .nes English translated Earthbound (Beginnings) / Mother (Revisited) - either of the two will work even though I personally prefer the writing in Mother Revisited.

(There's also a "Mother 25th Anniversary Edition" that sports quite a few improvements that I'll be checking out).

3. Start up FamiCrank. Connect your PlayDate. Set the Playdate to Disk Mode and move any .nes files of games you want to play to the directory the app tells you.

4. 'Eject' the Playdate from your PC and..enjoy!

Played through the PC version of Disco Elysium some time ago and really enjoyed it.

Recently I got a Panic Playdate and when I more or less stumbled across that there was a Gamboy version of the game I immediately decided to see how well Playdate's CrankBoy (GB emulator) would run it - and, well, it runs it flawlessly.

As far as I understand it it's not the full game but rather cut down but what is here is a great fun.

So I'm having quite a blast seeing all these familiar scenes play out in this devolved few-bits graphics. Been alternating playing some Zelda Link's Awakening, Pokemon Gold and - Disco Elysium - tonight.

Have a great weekend all!

Played through the PC version of Disco Elysium some time ago and really enjoyed it.

Recently I got a Panic Playdate and when I more or less stumbled across that there was a Gamboy version of the game I immediately decided to see how well Playdate's CrankBoy (GB emulator) would run it - and, well, it runs it flawlessly.

As far as I understand it it's not the full game but rather cut down but what is here is a great fun.

So I'm having quite a blast seeing all these familiar scenes play out in this devolved few-bits graphics. Been alternating playing some Zelda Link's Awakening, Pokemon Gold and - Disco Elysium - tonight.

Have a great weekend all!

Played through the PC version of Disco Elysium some time ago and really enjoyed it.

Recently I more or less stumbled across that there was a Gamboy version of the game and I immediately decided to see how well Playdate's CrankBoy (GB emulator) would run it - and, well, it runs it flawlessly!

As far as I understand it it's not the full game but rather cut down but what is here is a great fun.

So I'm having quite a blast seeing all these familiar scenes play out in this devolved few-bits graphics. Been alternating playing some Zelda Link's Awakening, Pokemon Gold and - Disco Elysium - tonight.

Have a great weekend all!

Played through Disco Elysium some time ago and really enjoyed it.

Recently I got a Panic Playdate and when I more or less stumbled across that there was a Gamboy version of the game I immediately decided to see how well Playdate's CrankBoy (GB emulator) would run it - and, well, it runs it flawlessly.

As far as I understand it it's not the full game but rather cut down but what is here is a great fun.

So I'm having quite a blast seeing all these familiar scenes play out in this devolved few-bits graphics. Been alternating playing some Zelda Link's Awakening, Pokemon Gold and - Disco Elysium - tonight.

Have a great weekend all!

Hope everyone gets both some time to relax, have fun - and play an RPG - this weekend!

I'm taking care of at least a couple of those things playing Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening on the Playdate and loving it (it's optimized for the Playdate in that some on-screen elements are moved around to fully utilize the screen).

There's no shortage of native, great game for the Playdate but learning that it was also perfectly capable of emulating GameBoy games (through the CrankBoy app) I decided to check it out - and I'm so glad I did.

I don't have a heap of GameBoy Roms (about 15) but loaded them all up using the CrankBoyManager (that again is so well designed that even I figured out how to use it in near seconds) and they all ran beautifully!

All were a lot of fun to return to but if I had to pick three that were especially fun, for me, it would be (see screenshots);

- Birdie Bartender

(This was Root Bear before Root Bear on the PlayDate😄 )

- Lucky Luke

(I grew up with the comic books but apart from that this is a highly underrated platformer with a lot of fun packed into it)

- Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening

(Maybe the best game made for the GameBoy). I was also surprised that this game was especially optimized for the Playdate with navigational/on-screen icons moved around to utilize all of the device's screen. Great work!

As it's a 1:1 emulation the crank on the playdate is not used a lot in these games but there is some very interesting time-shift development being made where you will be able to use the crank to 'rewind' your game :)

Feature video:

https://packaged-media.redd.it/4jgid1e7utah1/pb/m2-res_1080p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&var=sgpssan&v=1&e=1783213200&s=ea16df4fef7dfc95f41566ef3b9782b9b5587ccb

Decided to check out the CrankBoy app (GameBoy emulator) to see how games would look, sound and perform on the Playdate and - holy smokes - it is just a near flawless experience!

I don't have a heap of GameBoy Roms (about 15) but loaded them all up using the CrankBoyManager (that again is so well designed that even I figured out how to use it in near seconds) and they all ran beautifully!

My humble Gameboy ROMs collection goes as follows - and they all worked;

• Asterix & Obelisk
• Bamse
• Beavis and Butt-head
• Birdie Bartender
• Dragonborne
• Final Fantasy Legend
• Gargoyle's Quest
• Hunt for Red October
• Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening
• Lucky Luke
• Pokemon - Blue
• Pokemon - Red
• Sword of Hope

All were a lot of fun to return to but if I had to pick three that were especially fun, for me, it would be (see screenshots);

- Birdie Bartender

(This was Root Bear before Root Bear 😄 )

- Lucky Luke

(I grew up with the comic books but apart from that this is a highly underrated platformer with a lot of fun packed into it)

- Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening

(Maybe the best game made for the GameBoy). I was also surprised that this game was especially optimized for the Playdate with navigational/on-screen icons moved around to utilize all of the device's screen. Great work!

Anywho, if you haven't given CrankBoy a chance - it might be something to do this weekend!

https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-ereader-magnetic-reading-light

15% Sale on www.xteink.com right now making both the X3 and X4 $58.65 each

(The sale it site-wide so it's accessories as well, making things like the cases $7.65).

My sincerest apologies. I never intended to post too much here.
I guess I was just excited to share things.

Have a fantastic week all. Bye.

I have fond memories sitting in my room as a scrawny kid typing in BASIC codes from magazines only to after two hours getting a heavily pixelated ball bouncing on the screen :) But I also remember all the hundreds of great ZX Spectrum games I devoured on my 16K Spectrum (later upgraded to 48K) - games like Sabre Wulf, School Daze, Chuckie Egg, etc.

I'm curious if any of the Spectrum games have been ported/re-written for the Playdate?

Really enjoying this little, yellow bundle of joy.

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For those curious;

I don't get out as much as I'd like these days but it does happen.

Things that ended up on my body, in pockets or in a bag today;

- Xteink X3. Reading "Old Man's War" and "Have spacesuit will travel"

- Old, old bifold wallet by PopovLeather

- Old, old brass-aluminum fidget spinner that I use quite a bit for finger dexterity

- Panic Playdate. Playing "Post Hero" on it which is great fun

- Brass keyholder by Raven workshop from, oh, 20 years ago

- Tag Heuer that I bought on a trip with a fiancee decades ago. Ended up with just the watch

- Baby-insect designer toy. Can't remember the artist.

I had a coffee at a coffee shop. Coffee was $4 and when I looked at the touch-screen the proposed tip was 30% making it $5.20. I paid the $4 and dropped a couple of quarters in the tip jar. Remembered another reason why I don't go out much.

I hope I am not the only one who didn't figure this out weeks after owning the light but here we go!

As you most likely know you can press the button on the lamp to toggle between different colors/hues of light...but...did you know....that if you HOLD THE BUTTON IN you can set the intensity, individually, of the light for EACH of the three color-modes?

The light will flash a few times when you've reached the max high or low light setting but you can release the button at any time and it will remember your preference.

Blew my mind lol

Now, granted, my list is based on a very short experience with the Playdate but after spending way too much time trying out games and apps (and having a blast doing it) - I have a list of ten that I, at least for now, consider to be solid keepers as I know I will be coming back to them.

* Note: I included the current prices as of June 29th, 2026. Also, some of them are listed as 'Free' but if you truly enjoy a game or application do consider donate/pay what you consider it is worth to you.

In alphabetical order;

A Balanced Brew ($8)

The ultimate hipster game. I didn't think I would like this but the graphics pulled me in but what makes me come back to it is that it is fully crank-played. It gets, to me, really hard further into the game but I keep picking it up to see if I can beat one more level.

Direct Drive ($10)

Old-timey music, great graphics and a super-fun way to use the crank made even someone like me - that normally is not into 'rhythm games' a near immediate convert. I've already completed all tracks and going back to get full three-stars and to nail those achievements.

Down the Oubliette ($5)

Super creative dungeon crawler with the addition of only being able to see so far out. It's sort of if a dungeon crawler and a tower defense game had a baby...it might not sound as if it would work...but biology aside...it really does!

Eyeland ($2)

This might just be one of the coziest adventure games ever. While the game is ever so adorable...there's a deeper meaning and message behind it all. Takes about an hour to complete but even after having done that I can't see myself letting it go from my Playdate.

Overseer (Free)

I have no idea how a game as incredibly polished as this is offered for free but it is and that's amazing. Just as I am not really a rhythm-game kinda game...I am also not really a platformer kinda guy....but like Direct Drive won me over in the first genre...Overseer did the same for me here. The graphics are SO good and the gameplay is fun, easy and just 'fluid'. A strong recommendation!

PlayNews (Free)

I'm somewhat of a news junkie so this one really grabbed me. Essentially it quickly downloads the news - with images - so that you can crank your way through them. If you want to do a deeper dive into a story you can scan a QR code and boom, you can read the whole story on your phone. The ability to customize the news - or blog - sources helps in making it a personalized experience.

PointlessQuest (Free)

It's an "M"MORPG!! Holy cow! This one blew my mind! It's an RPG adventure - complete with vendors, gears, quests - and it's multi-player! I am having SO much fun in this game. I am am humble level 7 right now and busy killing huge scorpions for a quest. When I was online earlier today there were four other players online. I hope the developer continues this effort as it's really a unique experience and I can't wait to get back to it and explore more of the world.

Pour Over (Free)

Out of all the games and apps I have - this has so far been the app that I have spent the most time with. This past weekend I every morning tuned into my local news channel and listened to the news - Live - while chowing down on some breakfast and getting ready for the day. There's a slew of channels to choose from and even the great, hourly Top of the Hour segment. I don't think this app will ever leave my Playdate.

Read Watch Listen Play (Free)

The concept behind this application is so novel to me and I feel really grateful that I came across it! In essence it's an application that every day..goes out and grabs one thing for you to read, one thing to watch, one thing to listen to and one thing to play. This morning it got me a mini crossword that I had fun completing and an hour's worth of reading of a classic work. Not all of these 'daily gifts' are always going to be up your alley but be open minded and explore as much as you can/want. This is a brilliant idea.

Sight Blight (Free)

40 levels of fun-filled elf-freeing drama! It up to you to, with your beginning magic spells, free as many of these elves as possible, You do so by applying magic spells like cloud to obscure weapons but that might not help when you get to the...exploding elves. Love the graphics and the crank-based gameplay is a such a great example of the type of games I was hoping to get to play with my PlayDate!

Looking forward to exploring more games and apps on this yellow little funbox!

Some great are amazing but the interest might fade after a while - I'm curious if there are any games that you will most likely never uninstall from your Playdate as they are the ones that you keep coming back to..again...and again....

So essentially games with very high replayability and, I guess, simply fun :)

What a great way to start a Sunday.

Brewed some coffee (I still insist on using a ceramic hand grinder), toasted an Onion bagel ($1.99 from Amazon Fresh for six of them).

Plunked down in the recliner. Put my feet up.

Streamed the latest news update through the Playdate using the free "News Now" app.

Picked up the X3 and read another 10 pages or so of "Old Man's War" (man, I'm loving this book).

Ate the bagel. Oh, it had 'onions and chives' cream cheese on it.