this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2025
120 points (99.2% liked)

RetroGaming

25544 readers
575 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

  1. Be kind.
  2. No spam, AI slop, or soliciting for money.
  3. No racism or other bigotry allowed.
  4. Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Yes, you read that right. In a world of cloud streaming and teraflops, a gamer from New York is striving to release their own 8-bit home console with its own gaming infrastructure. Meet the GameTank, its simple controller, and its chunky cartridges that are looking to bring 8-bit gaming back

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

It's cool as a fun project, but I don't see how this could possibly be commercially viable, especially with cartridges. The need for physical distribution alone is already a huge money burden on both the producer and the consumer.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 8 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Why does it need to be commercially viable? What's wrong with doing it for love of the game?

[–] markz@suppo.fi 1 points 10 hours ago

It's a product for sale.

There are tons of people who are fine not profiting from their cottage industry projects, but it's not expected that someone wants to lose money on them.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world -3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

no, this is earnest anti-commercialism

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

I don't think that's a great model for the maker who is clearly trying to SELL things.

Seems that might be a competing idea...

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I mean, we have Evercade and it's not failed yet.

[–] i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk 12 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Evercade has the advantage of a huge software library to draw from (they have a few native games but the majority are emulated), whereas this will only run it's own software, which puts it at a disadvantage.

Mind you, the Playdate seems to be going well.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I think one of the things playdate has going for them is they are portable.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 11 hours ago

Good point. With the specs fully open, hopefully we get a portable of this, at some point.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Evercade distributes digitally though.