Personal SAM-Y

So Metronome isn’t the only thing I’d use the Playdate Stereo Dock for: there’s also this little guy. The star of Shift can now be your own tiny desk buddy. Unlike a Tamagotchi, you don’t have to feed him or clean up his digital poops, though. It’s more like having… a bird? A really low-maintenance, clean bird. And if you hold down B then speak into the microphone for up to three seconds, SAM-Y will repeat it back to you in his own voice – again, like a bird! But also a robot. I used it to talk to my cat and he’s like… I don’t like this, or vacuum cleaners. But I like it, so too bad, cat! And sometimes I have to vacuum; it’s good for you.

You can interact with SAM-Y by pushing A to make him cycle through random expressions (he’ll do this occasionally if you just let him sit there, too). And if you shake him, he gets mad, like many of us. You can switch it to “always on” and he will continue to sit there and stare at you, making little noises and expressions every once in a while, helping stave off the loneliness of a big scary world full of evil things. He has a clock in the corner that can be changed to a 24-hour display if you’re feeling particularly militant that day, and “always on” mode adds a battery level indicator on the screen so you know how close he is to death. (Don’t worry: you can recharge him with the cable included with your Playdate.)

You can turn off the sounds, too, if you want to have him keep shooting you expressions while you and/or your cat is trying to sleep. There’s the standard Playdate volume adjustment that can do this, too, but maybe you want other Playdate sounds, just not robot chirps. I’m not your boss.

Personal SAM-Y is just a cute little thing that is free and can make you happy for a while. Shift was originally made as almost a fidget spinner for this weird little device we call the Playdate, so why not turn it into a little bud, too? It’s not quite as extensive as an R2-D2 Tamagotchi, but you also don’t have to worry about feeding it.

(Released June 6, 2023, on Itch.)