Evercade

It's a nice wee thing

Seen the new arcade series coming, really like the arcade games packaging and the VS is sort tempting that I might use more than plugging a handheld into a TV like a PSP.

However that's £90 towards a PS5, two or three Switch games, anything else.

...meaning that this year's releases are looking like this:


While there's plenty of good games Technos, Atari and Data East cartridges, they're mostly all very familiar to retro gamers - especially if you've got Antstream. Gaelco is the only collection that's presenting anything truly different - I'd honestly never heard of any of those games. Mind you, Evercade have shown that they've got an incredible knack for licensing some utter keech. No joke, that Piko Interactive 2 collection has three of the very worst games I've ever played on it. By that logic, maybe there's good reason why I don't know about these Gaelco games. 

I'm happy to read that the arcade cartridges are £14.99 as well, meaning that they're cheap enough that I'll be happy to pick them up. I'm not sure about the VS. console though. I've never been tempted to hook up my Evercade handheld to my TV via HDMI, it's strictly a portable for me. 

£90 doesn't seem too bad if it's coming with two of these four arcade collections, but you're right, that's money that can go on something else. Personally, I might use it towards a Playdate.

Some extra games on the VS

The Vs. seems to be a well-designed and intelligent piece of kit that’s had a lot of effort put into it. To be honest though, I’d just prefer an enhanced handheld. The technology inside the one that launched just last year already feels a bit ancient, with it’s low-quality display and it’s micro USB port for charging. I’ve got a really annoying and big speck of dust caught under the screen of mine, which shows that the build quality isn’t as tight as I’d first thought. Only having two shoulder buttons is clearly an issue for emulating PlayStation games too.

Still, £109.99 for the home console with two pads and two arcade cartridges is a good price – and it’s this price as well as the ricketiness of the original Evercade that might push me to get this Vs. console in the end, even though I’m not truly wanting it.

Although it's asking a lot right before Christmas, the six cartridges that are coming out on the same day next month have plenty of unusual and uncommon games on them, and I think that’s when the Evercade is at its best. I hope they announced much more like that in 2022.

There’s a new blog post on the Evercade’s website. It lists their plans for 2022:

https://evercade.co.uk/looking-forward-to-evercade-2022/

I’d say there’s more bad news than good here. Basically, four of the (best) cartridges are going out of stock because licenses are expiring, and all the others are going to see a price hike. The handheld bundles are going up by £20 too. I appreciate that parts are said to be expensive and tricky to source, but the Evercade is old technology that’s not extravagantly built.

The Evercade Vs. is out this month too, but there’s been all sorts of COVID-related problems with production, shipping providers and delivery dates. All my pre-orders for the six new carts were randomly cancelled on Amazon last month, but some of them have popped back up on store without an estimated delivery date. My local GAME doesn’t even have the Evercade Vs. on their scheduled stock list – when I asked about it, they tried to sell me one of those mini Amiga 500s.

Thanks on the heads up on the games going out of stock - I've had my eye on this for a while but never jumped in, and those Namco carts are part of the appeal!

Of all things, Evercade launched a gaming helpline earlier in the week:



I’ve read that it’s quite alike to the types of ones that were around pre-internet, with news stories, tips and high score challenges. I can’t think of anything that’s less pragmatic, but it adds to the Evercade’s authenticity, so fair cop.

They also announced another cartridge on that helpline, and publicly shared news of it today:



A Gremlin Interactive cartridge wasn’t too hard to predict. It fits the typical Evercade bill of being cheap and British but deeply nostalgic. But it’s a fairly uncommon and overall weird set of games too. Right enough, Zool and Premier Manager ’97 have been on Antstream Arcade another similar services for a while now, but I don’t think anybody’s thought about Actua Soccer or Hardcore 4X4 in about twenty-five years. I’d truthfully never heard of the other two until now. So, what’s here is a first-gen 3D football game, a first-gen 3D racer, a consolised football management simulator, a consolised God game, a Game Boy puzzler and a wonky 2D platformer that’s fuelled by Chupa Chups lollies.

Who curates this stuff? It's very hard to imagine anybody having much fun with that choice of games in 2022.

On one hand, I think it’s really poor that they’re sunsetting the original Evercade handheld after it’s next firmware update, barely two years since it launched. They’re not even guaranteeing that all the games from all their future cartridges are going to work with that firmware either. Also, the EXP is supposedly going to have bonus content that won’t work with the 2020 handheld, or even the 2021 Vs. home console. That console isn’t even six months out!

Yet on the other hand that original Evercade feels like a much older piece of technology than something from mid-2020. With a low-quality screen, a loose-feeling build, too few buttons and a micro USB port, it clearly needed a substantive upgrade. Do the upgrades seen in the video make it worth £130 though? I’m not swaying towards it just now.

I’m happy with those two newest cartridge announcements though, and the previous two as well. Lots of good stuff on the four of them. I can give Evercade credit for now focusing their products and games on retro enthusiasts who want a premium experience. I think they now understand that nobody is walking into GAME or HMV and thinking ‘wow, a cartridge console with City Connection and Boogerman!’ and impulsively buying one of these Evercades. It’s all engineered for collectors who want interesting and unusual experiences. I think their games choice on Jaleco Arcade 1, Gaelco Arcade 2, Irem Arcade 1 and Toaplan Arcade 1 better reflect that than does most of the utter mince that they included on Interplay 2 (groan), Atari 1 (shudder) or PIKO Interactive 2 (vomits).

The bonus content is these Capcom games

1942 (Arcade version)
1943 (Arcade version)
1944 : The Loop Master (Arcade version)
Bionic Commando (Arcade version)
Captain Commando (Arcade version)
Commando (Arcade version)
Final Fight (Arcade version)
Forgotten Worlds (Arcade version)
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Arcade version)
Legendary Wings (Arcade version)
MERCS (Arcade version)
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting (Arcade version)
Strider (Arcade version)
Vulgus (Arcade version)
Mega Man (8-bit)
Mega Man 2 (8-bit)
Mega Man X (16-bit)
Breath of Fire (16-bit)

Which, a bunch will take advantage of the TATE mode on the EXP.

Undermining the whole mantra of the Evercade (physical media for collectors) and splitting the userbase again (those games are exclusive to the EXP) isn't a good direction for them to take. It's undoubtedly a cool bonus, but I can see it pissing a lot of folk off too.

Does suck especially for someone like you. Who must have nearly all the carts (got the lynx one?) and likely to continue to do so, yet won't have some games that look decent as well.

Like for £120, I'm tempted by the EXP with those built-in.

It sets a bad precedent. It's very foreseeable that other publishers - like, say, SEGA or Konami - would only agree to these licensing arrangements too. Then what happens when the Capcom license expires? You'll never be able to get a full collection in the future, and that sort of knackers one of the main things about the Evercade.

It effectively ringfences some of the systems' best games to this new hardware too, and it leaves behind the folk who'd already bought the original handheld and the Vs. console. Combined with the fact that the EXP is the third iteration of the Evercade in well under three years, it feels like a bit of a piss-take.

As for me, I've got most of the carts (including both the Lynx ones) but they've hardly got pride and place in my collection. They're just sort of stacked up to the side of my box of Game Boy games, not in numerical order. It won't break my heart not to have The Capcom Collection physically, but not everybody will feel that same way.

I don't know if the EXP has any internal storage but could see hey the Konami pack is a download, or we get a EXP Konami Edition system which then it be well do I get the Capcom system or the Konami one as that has Castlevania.

When it gets to that stage it’s just becomes like any other retro emulation handheld, except you’re paying for the ROMS. By going digital-only ever again and then not offering a standalone physical cart as an option, it wouldn’t feel like there’s a point to the Evercade. You’d may as well just hack an old PSP.

£120 isn’t a lot of money for a lot of games, the EXP has that going for it. But if you’re genuinely tempted, I’d encourage you to look into the other cartridges first. There’s definitely collections that add a lot of value to the Evercade – in particular the Codemasters one is great, the Renovation one is brilliant value for money and the arcade ones are generally quite interesting and well-rounded. Beyond those though, there’s more misses than hits.

Unfortunately it looks like a very rough road ahead for the makers of the Evercade, as all their limited edition stock of their new console was stolen in transit.

https://www.eurogamer.net/over-500k-of-evercade-stock-reported-stolen-in-terrible-potentially-organised-attack

They're going to reproduce them and give a money-off coupon to the customers who made pre-orders. That's going to cost them a packet.

I'm sympathetic towards them, but it's not likely at all that I'm going to order an Evercade EXP at all. Three new consoles in less than three years still strikes me as a piss-take, and I'm not that impressed by what they've got planned for 2023. All that's known so far is that they're releasing another Indies compilation in January, a second Toaplan arcade cartridge at some point, and that there's going to be more collections for British home computers. The current Commodore 64 collection might be my least favourite Evercade cart yet, it's full of old foosty shite.

Evercade had a showcase this evening with not a lot part from two Duke Nukem collections and a special edition VS system themed around Duke.

Also a second showcase will be in July with even more carts for this year.

It feels a bit unkind to say that they announced “not a lot” – I’d say six new cartridge reveals, partnerships with four new licensees, a limited edition console bundle, the rollout of per-game button mapping and a date for even more announcements was pretty good going.

I’m still playing my Evercade from time to time and I’ve bought all the cartridges that have come out in 2023 so far. The second Toaplan Arcade Collection from a couple of months ago is great, and I just took delivery of the PIKO Interactive 3 and Team 17 Amiga Collections the other day. I’ll start pottering about with those this weekend. 40 Winks is on that PIKO one, it’s a 3D platformer from the PSone that I completely missed back in the day, I’ve been looking forward to it as it should be right up my street.

I’ll likely get all six of these upcoming ones too. The PIKO Arcade, Delphine Software and Sydney Hunter Collections are all pretty much brand new to me, I’ve only got very little experience with a couple of those games across those three compilations. The Sunsoft one disappoints me a little bit, not just because the feature game (Aero the Acro-Bat) is a bit mince, but it’s because I don’t think it represents great value. Just four NES games, a Game Boy game and SNES game on a cartridge that plainly has the memory space to store a lot more – poor show.

While stuff from the likes of Jaleco, Data East and Team 17 isn’t hard to imagine, at no point since the Evercade was announced have I ever thought about a Duke Nukem collection being a possibility. It’s a connection I never made, but it’s a nicely surprising one. I’ve never played those original MS-DOS games and most of my experience with Duke Nukem 3D comes from its altered N64 port. I’m very curious to see what Time to Kill and Land of the Babes are like though. Those were two games you’d see on clearance at the shops all the time – I have hazy memories of Land of the Babes being permanently under a fiver at my nearby Blockbuster. I hope that wasn’t indicative of their quality…

Okay maybe not a lot, maybe should have said not a lot for me to buy a Evercade VS or EXP from that showing.

Always liked the idea of the Evercade for the game preservation side of things, I just don't know how I'd find the time to play these games.

masofdas wrote:

Okay maybe not a lot, maybe should have said not a lot for me to buy a Evercade VS or EXP from that showing.

Ah right, I see where you’re coming from.

Not much for you, fair enough, and likely many others as well. But I’d say the Duke Nukem license is probably the Evercade’s biggest ‘get’ since their initial announcements all the way back in 2019. Output from the likes of Atari, Namco, Capcom is well and good but you’ll often find their games on any given plug ‘n play retro console, there’s not much new (old?) ground to cover from those developers. Collections from Codemasters, Renovation Products, Toaplan and from the Atari Lynx distinguish the Evercade from the rest to a degree, but I’d predict Duke Nukem is going to be the first one that’ll make a noticeable difference to the Evercade’s sales.

What kind of showing do you think it would take for you to get an Evercade? That’s not me trying to be a salesperson by the way – there’s been lots of times when I’ve wondered why I’ve bothered and I think anybody would need to think more carefully about getting one than I did.

The_Jaster wrote:

Always liked the idea of the Evercade for the game preservation side of things, I just don't know how I'd find the time to play these games.

I find the time by not playing all the new, exciting and good stuff. I’ve not played a single minute of Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West or Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, but you better believe that I’ve played and completed both the NES and arcade versions of The Astyanax, all the games from the Rushing Beat series and the first Actua Soccer game on the PlayStation 1. It’s been a very questionable use of my time.

In all truth though a big proportion of the games are ten minute curios, tried out but then never revisited or even thought of again.

I’m realising as I type this that the money I’ve spent on Evercade and it’s cartridges could have more than paid for a PS5 with a stack of games.

Ahh that will definitely do it. It probably just fits better how you tend to play games though, right? Apart from you getting stuck into TotK everything else is usually on the arcade/short side of things that don't usually go past 10 hrs.

Hmm maybe more things like Duke or instead of a Lynx collection what about a TG-16 one for instance.

DP

I believe you might have all the collections Cappa and I know you've done some grand reviews, yet having a look on the EC site of the carts then these I've got my eye on, any insight be great and of course I might be able to get some for £14.39 a cart if in my local GAME (think some were £13 then 20% off on top)

Data East Collection 1 for Bad Dudes, Midnight Resistance, Magical Drop 2 and Two Crude Dudes

Interplay Collection 2 more Earthworm Jim and Clayfighter

Mega Cat Studios Collection 1 and Mega Cat Studios Collection 2 indies getting a physical is neat, and I hear Tanzer is great

Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood, both games look great

Indie Heroes Collection 1 and Indie Heroes Collection 2 mostly for indies on a cart same for Morphcat Games Collection 1

Worms Collection 1 just for Worms Blast

Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 just for the Speedball 2 and 2100

Data East Arcade 1 umm Chain Reaction any good

Gaelco Arcade 1 the World Rally looks good and maybe play Snowboard Championship

Gremlin Collection 1 mostly for 4x4 as I remember playing it on PS1 and maybe play some Zool

Gaelco Arcade 2 if I like World Rally is the second worth playing also what about Maniac Square

Toaplan Arcade 1 it has Zero Wing on it, sold

Alwa's Awakening and Cathedral, I feel Alwa is meant to be rather good

Team17 Collection 1 for the Alien Breed games

Piko Interactive Collection 3 mostly for 40 Winks, but I think Punch King and Radikal Bikers look neat

Delphine Software Collection 1, I really should give Another World and Flashback a bash

Duke Nukem both collections

Legacy ones if I can find which are Namco Museum Collection 1, Namco Museum Collection 2, Piko Interactive Collection 1, Technos Collection 1, The Oliver Twins Collection and Codemasters Collection 1 before they become too hard to find.

Any I'm missing, or I shouldn't both with at all?

The_Jaster wrote:

Ahh that will definitely do it. It probably just fits better how you tend to play games though, right? Apart from you getting stuck into TotK everything else is usually on the arcade/short side of things that don't usually go past 10 hrs.

Aye that’s true. If Monster Hunter were either a 16-bit caveman 2D platformer or an hour-long Golden Axe clone, I’d have been co-hosting Monster Mash with you.

masofdas wrote:

any insight

Top of my 'to buy' list is definitely Codemasters Collection 1, as it’s not only one of the most generously loaded cartridges but it’s got several of the Evercade’s best games too. By that same token I was maybe a bit hard on the PIKO Interactive Collection 1 when I gave it a 3-or-4/10 drubbing on here a few years ago, with twenty games (including a handful of well-regarded ones) it’s pretty good value as far as Evercade compilations go.

I think all the purple-boxed Arcade collections are worth getting, except maybe the Atari one that’s available. Of those, I’d say Toaplan 2, Jaleco 1 and Gaelco 1 are the best of the bunch.

Indie Heroes 1 and 2 are all right, but I’d recommend Tanglewood/Xeno Crisis and Morphcat Games Collection 1 ahead of those though.

Of the discontinued legacy carts, The Oliver Twins Collection is unsurprisingly focused on Dizzy Egg games, and unsurprisingly I’d say that the value of that depends on how much you like Dizzy Egg games. Surely there’s a C64/Amiga-focused Dizzy Collection already in the works though. Technos Collection 1 is by far the most valuable Evercade cartridge, recent sales on eBay have been for anywhere between £50 and £100. If GAME or anywhere else have any, buy as many as they’ll sell you. Neither Namco Museum cart will work on an Evercade Vs, you’ve no point in buying those.

Everything else is a mixed bag and you’d best be guided by what you yourself fancy playing/collecting. I’ll add that PIKO Interactive 2 and C64 Collection 1 are badly curated and mostly poor quality, and I don’t think Gremlin Collection 1 and Bitmap Brothers Collection 1 are much better. Also, Interplay Collection 2 only has three good games on it and those are a part of Nintendo Switch Online too – I think you’d be wasting your money getting that. Same principle with the red-boxed Jaleco Collection 1, six of it’s ten titles are also on Switch Online.

I’ve not played the Team 17 Collection, nor the second C64, Atari and Intellevision Collections, the Alwa’s Awakening/Catherdral Collection, or either of the Mega Cat Studios ones. I’ve discounted the five that you’ve already bought as well, but I think they’re all good choices that you’ll enjoy well enough.