Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by smusamashah 37 days ago
Is there any dumb LCD console like that available these days for kids? (not those retro gaming consoles). I want to buy one for my kids. It looks so good, specially because it is a dumb and simple device.

I found Pixter online but are there a little bit more capable systems like this for kids made today?

EDIT: Looks like devices by LeapFrog and VTech are the closest alternative these days so far.

6 comments

Check this out: https://play.date/
Or https://www.arduboy.com/. (Though both of these are "more capable" in the sense of kids being able to make their own games for them; not necessarily in the sense of the games having even the fidelity of a Gameboy Color.)
Pimoroni Presto (https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/presto) + some firmware you can write for fun :)
Not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but the playdate is pretty neat.
What are you looking for them to be able to do? I feel like everything these days is just some form of an iPad
Just play around and learn perhaps. My kid like drawing on his LCD drawing tablet. This is more fun than that. It's like Paint Delux but in physical form. And it has games too.

I think I am going to buy a Pixter itself. Everything else today is either too limited (vtech is buttons only and its screens are too tiny for example) or too powerful.

No, but realistically it wouldn't be hard to make something with a Pi and a touch screen of some kind
Nobody makes stuff like this anymore. You can vibecode your own using an Arduino and a pixel LCD.