Technologies

Panic Playdate Has a New Wave of Games, and a Price Bump

The still-hard-to-get indie handheld gets an app store with separately sold games, and the price goes up to $199.

My favorite little gaming handheld last year was the Panic Playdate, a tiny yellow crank-enabled pocket console with its own included library of weird indie games. Even though the Playdate launched last year, shipping delays and shortages have meant many people still haven’t been able to get one. But the handheld just added its own on-console game app catalog with a bunch of new games… and along with it, a price increase for anyone who still hasn’t preordered.

The Playdate cost $179 before, but the price is going up to $199 starting April 7. Preorders before then will get locked in at the $179 price. Price increases for products are becoming common right now (it happened to the Quest 2 last year). The Playdate’s unique games (it comes with 24 of them) and tiny design still make it worth the price for a curious indie handheld fan, but it also pushes this experimental device to the same cost of more versatile handhelds like the Nintendo Switch Lite.

See at Panic

The season-based game library approach for the Playdate, which launched with its own catalog of included games that auto-download to the device two at a time, once a week, is being shifted up with the handheld’s new Catalog. The games in the Catalog are sold separately, although two are free to download. The games are welcome additions: There are 16 to start, 10 of which are new. The other six are familiar hits that have already been available to sideload from itch.io, an indie gaming hub that’s been a great source of other experimental Playdate games.

The game prices vary from $1 to $15. I’m just playing through them now, but I wish some of these games also had free demos to understand how they work. Taking a plunge on a $1 game is fine, but $15 isn’t quite an impulse purchase.

Using the Catalog feels like an on-Playdate extension of the games I can already get through itch.io in many ways, but with a more curated focus. Itch.io is fun to browse, and has many games that are totally free, but is a more unpredictable mix of experiments and more polished products. Those games also need to be downloaded and then reuploaded through Panic’s own website, which sideloads the games to the Playdate, while the on-Playdate catalog just adds them instantly. (The 4GB of onboard storage may seem small, but I’ve stored dozens of games already and still haven’t used up half of it.)

Panic Playdate game handheld in yellow, with a black and white screen showing games for sale — Scott Stein/CNET

What I was really hoping for was a true season 2 of Playdate games, but that’s either not here yet, or the planned rollout for future games is changing. Either way, it’s still a promising sign that future indie games will be easier to find on the Playdate, and that hopefully a steady flow continues. Also, hopefully, the Playdate will finally be easy to order. According to Panic, Wave 4 preorders are now shipping, but eventually the hope is that the handhelds aren’t backordered at all. Valve fixed its Steam Deck supply issues; hopefully Panic will do the same.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 6, #999

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 6 #999.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. The purple category is a real tricky one. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Don’t be a deadbeat.

Green group hint: It hides things.

Blue group hint: A symbol used on social media.

Purple group hint: Keep it together.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Freeloader.

Green group: Concealing cover.

Blue group: Ways one might refer to #.

Purple group: Words for lucidity, in the singular.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is freeloader. The four answers are leech, mooch, parasite and sponge.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is concealing cover. The four answers are blanket, cloak, curtain and layer.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is ways one might refer to #. The four answers are hash, number, pound and sharp.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words for lucidity, in the singular. The four answers are faculty, marble, sense and wit.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 6 #733

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 6, No. 733.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has an unusual topic. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: That’s dedication.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: I’m cheering you on.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

LORE, REST, RESTS, ROTE, ROTS, STORE, TENT, DOVE, DEVOTE, STEW, LONE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

STAN, LOVER, DEVOTEE, FOLLOWER, ENTHUSIAST

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is YOURBIGGESTFAN. To find it, start with the Y that’s three letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind down, up and over.