I made a web browser for the Playdate: CometBrowser
https://i.redd.it/4fpbks8h9hjh1.gif
CometBrowser:
https://github.com/bdwandry/CometBrowser
Latest release / download:
https://github.com/bdwandry/CometBrowser/releases
I got bored and wanted to make something for my Playdate, so I decided to see how far I could push it. With a lot of help from AI, I ended up building CometBrowser, a general-purpose web browser for the Playdate. Yes, there is AI all over this project. I was just having fun and wanted to create an app.
CometBrowser can:
- Navigate to arbitrary URLs
- Search the web
- Follow links using the D-pad
- Render HTML including headings, paragraphs, lists, code, tables, and images
- Render images in 1-bit
- Use the crank for smooth scrolling
- Save bookmarks and browsing history
- Strip out a lot of the JavaScript, CSS, and tracking that makes modern websites difficult to handle
- Run directly on both the Playdate and Playdate Simulator
Also, the name CometBrowser is mostly because the other Playdate browsers have space-themed names, so I figured I might as well keep the tradition going. lol
I also want to give credit to the existing Playdate browser projects that inspired this.
ORBIT by Remy Sucre:
https://github.com/remysucre/ORBIT
Constellation Browser by Particle Studios:
https://particlestudios.itch.io/constellation-browser
Both projects helped demonstrate that web browsing on the Playdate was possible and were a big part of the inspiration for me to try building my own take on it.
CometBrowser is open source, so feel free to check it out, try it on your Playdate, or poke around in the code. It's definitely not meant to replace a modern web browser. The fun was seeing how much of the actual web could be made usable on a tiny 1-bit handheld. I'd love to hear what other Playdate users think, and especially what sites or features you'd like to see supported.