If your Playdate wishlist is anything like mine (endless), here’s a good excuse to actually go ahead and free some of those games from limbo: Panic is running a sale across the Playdate Catalog to celebrate its three-year anniversary. Sure, the majority of Playdate games are pretty cheap as is, but they can still add up when you’re on a wild purchasing spree. Ask me how I know! The sale started on March 5 and goes until March 19 at 1PM ET (10AM PT), so take advantage of the discounts while you can.

There are 423 games available in the Catalog now, according to Panic, so if you’re having trouble deciding on which you should go for, I’ve got you covered with a few recommendations right here.

Season Two

If $39 felt like too much to drop on Season Two when it came out last summer, now’s the time to get it. Playdate’s second season had only half the number of games as its first, but it still felt like a much stronger collection. Each of its 12 games is really solid, and there’s plenty of variety in terms of genre and style, from puzzles and hours-long adventures to fast-paced action games that are great for bursts of intense play. And, it comes with Blippo+ — an oddball cable TV simulator that’s unlike anything out there right now.

All of these games are worth playing, but there were definitely some standouts from the bunch: The Whiteout, a post-apocalyptic adventure that’ll surely hit even harder now considering the winter we’ve had; the puzzle platformer Taria & Como; the arcade action game Fulcrum Defender; the climbing adventure, Tiny Turnip. I also really enjoyed Dig! Dig! Dino! for something on the chiller side.

Outside Parties

I have not been able to shut up about this game since it came out. It’s unique, it’s creepy, it’s completely engrossing and it really pushes the limits of what the Playdate can do. Outside Parties is a horror scavenger hunt, presenting you with one massive picture to scrutinize and find hidden scenes within, using the crank to adjust the brightness constantly so you can find anything that may be buried in shadow. As you find these targets, more and more of the game’s story comes to light through eerie audio clips. It is such a cool experience and the atmosphere of it all is incredible. You’ll get many hours of playtime out of this one too, with over 150 targets to find and lots of lore to uncover.

Crankstone

A full-blown western for the Playdate! Crankstone is a gallery shooter with minigames mixed throughout, and between the aesthetic, the music and the activities, it’s a lot of fun. You can choose the story mode to get right into the shooting and defending the town from outlaws, or head to the saloon to pick from the handful of mini games individually, including some fast-paced “spot the correct card” deck shuffling games and a few mimicry games involving the crank. It’s like a wild west theme park crammed into the Playdate, which is to say, it’s wonderful.

Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll

This is one of my all-time favorite Playdate games. Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll is a metroidvania without the usual combat, focusing entirely on exploration and puzzle-solving in a vast network of subterranean kingdoms. In this game, the Blight has forced civilization underground, and you play as a child who has been sent on a mission to deliver a scroll from the bottom-most territory, where the humans live, up to The Archives.

There are all sorts of treacherous environments underground, including magma lakes and areas filled with hostile vegetation, making for what is at times a challenging platformer that requires lots of creativity to make your way through. The tone is a bit somber, but quirky characters — like a frog prince with a bouncy belly — keep things from getting too dark.

Carte Blanche

This one’s for lovers of classic card games. There are six games in this virtual card game parlor (which is run by a bird named Blanche): Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Spades, Cassino and Spite & Malice. It’s great for if you already know what you’re doing, but I found Carte Blanche to be a really good introduction to these games for absolute beginners too, thanks to the easy-to-follow tutorials. When you win games, you’ll be rewarded with coins that you can spend at Blanche’s slot machine, which is stocked with little trinkets she’s collected.

Castle Kellmore

Castle Kellmore absolutely rules. This first-person action game puts you in a series of mazes where you have to fight off floating-head-style monsters as you hunt around for keys and try to find the doors and portals to your escape. There are sixteen levels, and upon finishing each one you’ll get a little summary of how long it took you to complete that area and what percentage of the level’s enemies you killed. I also really get a kick out of the sounds in this game. The enemies slurp and squelch, and your character will let out a hilariously passionless, “Ah” or “Ooeuugh” after picking up a health boost or getting injured. Great for fans of dungeons!

Piña Rollada

If you’ve ever played any of the Super Monkey Ball games, the gist of this one should be pretty familiar: roll the ball through the course and collect all of the fruits before reaching the exit. Don’t fall off the edge, and do it all in as little time as possible. Piña Rollada makes use of the Playdate’s accelerometer, which means you control the ball’s movement by tilting the console (there is also the option to use the D-pad instead). The courses start getting tricky pretty much right away, with thin paths that don’t have any guardrails, obstacles to avoid and moving platforms. And, just going near the exit will result in the ball getting sucked in, so you have to keep that in mind as you collect any surrounding fruits if you don’t want the level to end prematurely.

This is another one of those games that is both frustrating (in the fun way) and totally addicting. Expect to yell a lot.

Other games to try

These are just the games I’ve been enjoying lately, but there are tons of other Playdate games worth checking out during the sale, like these cheese games and Spilled Mushrooms. And if you need even more recommendations, take a look through our list of the best Playdate games, where you’ll find gems like Summit and Bwirds. There are quite a few I’m planning to finally spring from my wishlist too, including The Shape That Waits.

Update, March 15 2026, 7:15 PM ET: This story has been updated to include additional game recommendations.

Photo credit: Yanko Design
Apple’s MacBook Neo has clearly struck a nerve, and it isn’t hard to see why people are already wondering what those same ideas might look like in a desktop form. Designer Sarang Sheth had exactly that thought, and the result is the Mac Neo concept, a compact desktop that takes everything that makes the laptop so compelling and reimagines it for the desk

This design is focused on sleekness, as it is noticeably thinner than Apple’s smallest existing desktop, allowing them to completely eliminate moving parts for cooling. Instead, they use basic passive airflow to keep it quiet, even if you’re hammering away at it for hours on end.

Apple 2026 MacBook Neo 13-inch Laptop with A18 Pro chip: Built for AI and Apple Intelligence, Liquid…

• HELLO, MACBOOK NEO — Ready for whatever your day brings, MacBook Neo flies through everyday tasks and apps. Choose from four stunning colors in a…
• THE MOST COLORFUL MACBOOK LINEUP EVER — Choose from Silver, Blush, Citrus, or Indigo — each with a color-coordinated keyboard to complete the…
• POWER FOR EVERYDAY TASKS — Ready the moment you open it, MacBook Neo with the A18 Pro chip delivers the performance and AI capabilities you need to…

The color palette is quite welcoming and approachable, since they use the same four options as the laptop line, so you can have soft blush pink or citrus yellow, all in a smooth aluminum finish, which is a break from Apple’s customary plain metal tones. It gives the Mac Neo the impression that “this is a device that was picked, not just plopped on a desk,” and it would look just as good in your living room or dorm room as it would in the office.

The power comes from the same A18 Pro processor that powers the new laptop. So you’ll have six CPU cores, five GPU cores, and a dedicated neural engine to make it sing. Eigh gigabytes of unified memory makes everything zippy enough, and you won’t have to continuously swap files to and from storage. Testing the MacBook Neo indicates that it outperforms a slew of entry-level Windows machines in everyday use, and with so much more room to breathe in this desktop architecture, the processor stays nice and cool for longer.

They estimate the price to be roughly $400. This is primarily aimed for students, families, and anyone who is just getting into the Mac pool for the first time, putting it in line with many of the more basic laptops from other brands. As an aside, a separate power brick is included, which is beneficial because it allows them to manage heat better than if they put everything in a battery-powered laptop.

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 is a fun and easy one if you love college basketball, and a certain big event that’s about to begin. 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: The Big Dance.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Tourney time

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:

• MARK, BRACK, RACK, RACKS, CADS, CRAM, MOVE, MUTE

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:

• CHALK, BUBBLE, CINDERELLA, OVERTIME, BRACKET

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is MARCHMADNESS. To find it, start with the M that’s four letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind across.

To capitalize on Claude’s recent spike in popularity, Anthropic is offering a limited-time promotion that doubles usage limits for anyone using its AI chatbot during off-peak hours. From March 13 to March 27, users on Free, Pro, Max, and Team plans will get double the usage limits in a five-hour window when using Claude outside weekday hours between 8 AM and 2 PM ET. According to Anthropic, the promotion is automatic, and users don’t have to enable anything to get the benefits.

Anthropic said that this promotion applies to anyone using Claude on web, desktop or mobile, but also with Cowork, Claude Code, Claude for Excel and Claude for PowerPoint. Previously, Anthropic offered a similar event from December 25 to December 31, doubling usage limits for Pro, Max 5x or Max 20x subscribers. However, Anthropic is targeting an even wider audience with its latest promotion since only Enterprise users are excluded this time around.

Anthropic is marketing the promotion as a “small thank you to everyone using Claude,” but it’s likely tied to its ongoing battle with the Department of Defense. After refusing to remove certain AI safeguards for the Department of Defense, Anthropic was listed as a supply chain risk and lost its contract with the federal agency. In turn, OpenAI signed a deal with the Department of Defense, leading to many users deciding to boycott ChatGPT in favor of Claude and other AI chatbot options.

Refresh