PlayMini for Playdate

A port of JustBurn's PokéMini emulator to the Panic® Playdate®. Plays Pokémon® Mini cartridges (and homebrew). Most titles are very playable, fast-paced action games can run a few fps below native speed.

ROMs are not included. The bundle ships with FreeBIOS only.

Install

1. Download PlayMini.pdx from this page.
2. Sideload via play.date/account.

Adding ROMs

1. Launch PlayMini once. If you have no ROMs yet, you'll see a message with the folder path. The folder has been created.
2. Connect your Playdate to your computer via USB.
3. On the Playdate, go to Settings → System → Reboot into Data Disk Mode. The device mounts as a USB drive on your computer.
4. Copy your .min ROM files into the Games/Shared/Emulation/pm/games/ folder on the mounted drive.
5. Eject the drive and reboot the Playdate.

Saves

Your progress is saved automatically when you switch games or quit the app. Save files are stored in Games/Shared/Emulation/pm/saves/ on your Playdate.

Controls

Playdate	Pokémon Mini
D-pad	D-pad
A	A
B	B
Crank pointing down	C
Shake the device	Shake

Options (found in Playdate system menu)

• LCD Mode: Fast (default) is slightly faster (duh!) but greys will flicker. Soft smooths the greys, to mimic the original screen.
• Scale: 3.75x (default) fills the screen vertically but stretches. 3x is pixel-perfect with a black border.

Credits

• PokéMini core: JustBurn (2009–2015).
• Playdate port: Giorgio Pomettini.
• Graphics assets: Noemi Frulio.
• FreeBIOS: Team Pokeme (2009), freeware.
• PDLL library and advice: Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH).

Source code, roadmap and dev notes: github.com/pomettini/pokemini.

License

GPLv3. See LICENSE inside the .pdx bundle.

Legal

PlayMini for Playdate is a fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nintendo® Co., Ltd., Game Freak® Inc., or The Pokémon Company®. Pokémon® and Pokémon® Mini are trademarks of Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company; all rights belong to their respective owners. Playdate® is a registered trademark of Panic® Inc., with whom this project is also unaffiliated.

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This Playdate port was developed with assistance from generative AI, specifically Claude Code. Use of generative AI in the upstream PokeMini emulator has not been disclosed.