Evercade?!

[+jgkspsx]

 

I'd like to know what the non-limited edition of the EXP will look like; this looks like a generic Anbernic etc device that is a lot less fun than the original unit. I will probably get one (how can I say no to a proper TATE mode?) but I do have concerns. I loved the buttons and d pad on the original and these look like low-profile low-travel buttons as on joycons and I don't like those nearly as much. At least the dpad looks nice if not quite as good. Presumably this will get the game of the month program as well.

 

I really hope they update the old units with tate mode even if the screen angle isn't as nice; I after all am used to playing an OG Lynx in tate mode.

 

Super excited about the new cartridges, though. Now that it has Toaplan and Irem collections I am waiting for @Steven Pendleton to get one.

 

I was really hoping for an online play announcement for the VS. I hope even more that it's in the cards now that the EXP is coming.

 

EDIT: here is the white one. It's less dour than the black one but I miss the red trim. It looks thinner than I'd like, though - the chunkiness of the original was a big part of it's pleasant hand feel. I am so tired of thin gaming devices I have to use external handles to play comfortably. At least it's still rounded and not squared off like the Switch.

 

 

5 minutes ago, famicommander said:

The carts look great and I'll happily buy them both but Irem and Toaplan aren't exactly household names. They probably won't move the needle much.

Normal people don't buy video games anymore except maybe the occasional Switch game. This is targeted at aficionados who certainly do know these names. It may only sell a thousand or two units, but if it sells cartridges to half of them it will be a big win for the Evercade's continuing future.

[7800Knight]

I'm excited about the Toaplan and Irem releases; the former has the arcade Snow Brothers!!

 

I'm not happy about the new Evercade EXP model.  They announced the original 2020 handheld is being discontinued.  This reminds me of the joke about how one should never by the first generation IPod, IPad, IPhone, etc.

 

With that sleeker design of the EXP, I have to wonder if they are mimicking the Nintendo Switch.

[+jgkspsx]

To be fair, Nintendo have been releasing new versions of their handhelds every two years since 1996.

[famicommander]

A new handheld was necessary, especially if they're going to keep releasing arcade games that don't fit well on the old handheld's screen.

[+jgkspsx]

Game lists for the new arcade cartridges:

 

Irem 1:

 

R-Type

Moon Patrol

10-Yard Fight

Battle Chopper (aka Mr Heli... the new name is silly)

Lightning Swords

In The Hunt

 

Toaplan 1:

 

Tiger-Heli

Alcon

Guardian

Flying Shark

Truxton

Zero Wing

Snow Bros

Teki-Paki

 

I really hope they offer both Japanese and Western versions of the Toaplan games, as often one or the other is unplayably hard.

[8th lutz]

Irem Arcade 1 and Toaplan arcade 1 & 2 are great additions to Evercade. I recalled last years mentioning Irem and Toaplan being arcade cart possibilities. Those collections help out people that are fans of shoot'em ups like myself. Snow Bros. is one of my all time favorite games.

 

The handheld announcement caught me off guard. I am not pleased with the handling of the original Evercade. While the original can play upcoming games, not able to update it if the upcoming games have glitches is a big grip. I know the final update is coming up later this year, but this concern is with future collections.

 

The Evercade EXP is a nice upgrade in terms of what is known about it before September. I like the wifi feature for able to upgrade firmware with it because it beats the original Evercade handheld for that. The resolution change and the amount of buttons is not a shock considering the Evercade Vs. has. That being said, having a vertical mode on the Evercade EXP is a great future considering the nature of some games.

 

I am likely to get the Evercade EXP due to the final firmware update coming later this year for the original handheld.

Edited May 31, 2022 by 8th lutz

[famicommander]

According to the Evercade twitter, the new model has a 3000mah battery as opposed to the 2000mah battery on the original. No word on if the new screen uses more or less power than the original though, so we don't know what the actual battery life will be.

[omf]

15 hours ago, famicommander said:

According to the Evercade twitter, the new model has a 3000mah battery as opposed to the 2000mah battery on the original. No word on if the new screen uses more or less power than the original though, so we don't know what the actual battery life will be.

if you upgrade your existing evercade handheld screen to an IPS screen it does consume more power, so i would think that the one in the new handheld will also consume more power

 

[+Intellivision Master]

19 hours ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I agree regarding the handheld. I personally think it's a little early to have a revised edition, but I can see were other people would be excited. I'm more interested in the VS home console.

 

The two new carts they announced though, those are fantastic.

I was surprised about the new handheld.  But it's nice that a new model is coming.  I never had the original.  I do have the VS which I'm sticking with.  No need to get the upgraded handheld.  Plus is costs more than the VS.  Also, it's good to see more carts coming out.

[Hwlngmad]

20 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

 

I'd like to know what the non-limited edition of the EXP will look like; this looks like a generic Anbernic etc device that is a lot less fun than the original unit. I will probably get one (how can I say no to a proper TATE mode?) but I do have concerns. I loved the buttons and d pad on the original and these look like low-profile low-travel buttons as on joycons and I don't like those nearly as much. At least the dpad looks nice if not quite as good. Presumably this will get the game of the month program as well.

 

I really hope they update the old units with tate mode even if the screen angle isn't as nice; I after all am used to playing an OG Lynx in tate mode.

 

Super excited about the new cartridges, though. Now that it has Toaplan and Irem collections I am waiting for @Steven Pendleton to get one.

 

I was really hoping for an online play announcement for the VS. I hope even more that it's in the cards now that the EXP is coming.

 

EDIT: here is the white one. It's less dour than the black one but I miss the red trim. It looks thinner than I'd like, though - the chunkiness of the original was a big part of it's pleasant hand feel. I am so tired of thin gaming devices I have to use external handles to play comfortably. At least it's still rounded and not squared off like the Switch.

 

 

Normal people don't buy video games anymore except maybe the occasional Switch game. This is targeted at aficionados who certainly do know these names. It may only sell a thousand or two units, but if it sells cartridges to half of them it will be a big win for the Evercade's continuing future.

I am glad that they are updating the handheld as there were some necessary changes needed to it for future gaming purposes.  However, I, like you, am not in love with the design.  One would think it could be a bit more flashy and/or more colorful at least as the original unit looked pretty cool I thought.  However, I do wish them the best as I feel they have been doing a very good job with the carts they have been releasing.

[Steven Pendleton]

On 6/1/2022 at 5:28 AM, jgkspsx said:

I really hope they offer both Japanese and Western versions of the Toaplan games, as often one or the other is unplayably hard.

There are very few instances in which the Japanese 1P arcade version is not the definitive version of the game, and almost all of those are the Mega Drive versions: Zero Wing, Same! Same! Same!, Snow Bros, and possibly Hellfire and Slap Fight MD. Tatsujin Ou is a broken mess of garbage game design no matter which version you play, sadly (there is an excellent ROM hack that fixes a lot of the game's many problems, though, and you should definitely play it), and arcade 1P Same! Same! Same! is... yeah. Other than those few exceptions, Japanese 1P arcade version is the way to go for everything. Toaplan's design philosophy is 1P + checkpoints, and that is what represents the original vision of the games' creators.

 

Hellfire on the MD is an interesting case because it has a lot of changes, and I'm not sure who is responsible for those changes. If it was Uemura, then the MD version is likely the definitive version of the game, as I don't think he would have added all of those things to his game if he didn't think they were good additions. If not, if it goes against what Uemura wanted for the game, then maybe I'd say otherwise, but the additions are very interesting anyway. Then again, the creator going and changing/adding stuff to subsequent releases isn't always the best thing. That's you, George Lucas~

 

Anyway, this thingy is way too expensive for me even though I do want it, especially given the exchange rate, which is absolutely not in my favour. It also seems to unfortunately be using the 2P version of Zero Wing instead of the 1P version. If you want portable Toaplan, M2 has something way better on Switch: same games (eventually), but with online leaderboards, reduced input lag, training modes, custom modes, home versions, etc.. Only downsides are that it will take several years to release them all at this rate, so they won't all be available for some time, and that those collections are expensive at 7480 yen each for 2 STGs + extras.

 

Now R-Type is different, as there has never been an arcade-perfect release of R-Type at home for various reasons, one of which is the refresh rate, which is something that concerns me with this thing in general. R-Type's refresh rate is about 55Hz. Toaplan's Hishouzame, which I see is included, has a refresh rate of about 54.7Hz or something like that, and it looks jerky as hell on a standard NTSC 59.94Hz display because of that. Have they said anything about doing anything to compensate for this? If not, and assuming these use 59.94Hz displays or something, expect a jerky mess for R-Type, Hishouzame, and basically anything else that runs at lower refresh rates than NTSC standard. At least Slap Fight and Tiger-Heli should be mostly okay, although they run at 60Hz according to MAME, so they might drop a frame occasionally or something to compensate.

[+GoldLeader]

On 6/1/2022 at 7:41 AM, Hwlngmad said:

I am glad that they are updating the handheld as there were some necessary changes needed to it for future gaming purposes.  However, I, like you, am not in love with the design.  One would think it could be a bit more flashy and/or more colorful at least as the original unit looked pretty cool I thought.  However, I do wish them the best as I feel they have been doing a very good job with the carts they have been releasing.

 

I agree with you.  Although I think the design is fine,  I feel they could have jazzed it up with some racing stripes or something...

 

The Best example of this,  (and I'm not saying Evercade has the resources,  but,  you know,  in a perfect world...) would be how SNK handled the NEO GEO Pocket;  Remember all those cool color options?

 

Then again 3 days after I bought my NEO GEO Pocket,  SNK pulled out of America and all the games disappeared from store shelves,  except for game stores which also happened to sell used games...(So maybe I better be careful what I wish for...)

[Bill Loguidice]

While I ordered the Evercade EXP Black Limited Edition and I'm happy with most of the much-needed upgrades, I'm disappointed there's no Bluetooth. I hate using wired headphones these days. Maybe in the third iteration.

[famicommander]

Screw the headphones, Bluetooth would be great for controllers.

 

Then you could plug the EXP into a television and play multiplayer. In fact, that's probably exactly why the EXP doesn't have Bluetooth. It would make the VS redundant, except for accessing the games only available via certain two-cart combinatios.

Edited June 2, 2022 by famicommander

[+GoldLeader]

Other than PS3 controllers,  OK and 8BITDO stuff (Usually) which actually work...Not a fan of Bluetooth  ...  Maybe if it worked like advertised rather than the reality of it...Every once in a while it works for me...But such a PITA.

[Cobra Kai]

Sorry, I'm having trouble following the discussion. Is it not a good time to buy the handheld right now? It sounds like there is a newer, better unit in the works?

[+GoldLeader]

3 hours ago, Cobra Kai said:

Sorry, I'm having trouble following the discussion. Is it not a good time to buy the handheld right now? It sounds like there is a newer, better unit in the works?

 

I'd say check the video in Post #1051, top of the page.  Now,  I haven't had time to check it out yet, **So why am I answering?  I don't know, killing time I guess**...And I think the current handheld is just fine.  But if I understand correctly the new system can be rotated to a vertical orientation for certain arcade games*...Maybe someone else can answer;  Does it do anything else (differently)?

 

 

 

*TATE mode?  Like in roTATE?? Who came up with this dumb word?  Those TATEr Tots over at Nintendo?  Probably from the Switch...A console without even a proper D-Pad...

[+jgkspsx]

3 hours ago, Cobra Kai said:

Sorry, I'm having trouble following the discussion. Is it not a good time to buy the handheld right now? It sounds like there is a newer, better unit in the works?

It might be a good time to buy one on discount, haha. Yes, the EXP refresh is coming, but I would be surprised if it ships any sooner than 9 months from now.

 

The screen is improved, it supports wifi updates, it has two additional shoulder buttons, and most importantly it has built in support for vertical games with two dedicated buttons just for tate mode. All historical tate mode games including Atari and Data Easy arcade games are supported, along with all the new ones in the future.

[+jgkspsx]

2 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

*TATE mode?  Like in roTATE?? Who came up with this dumb word?  Those TATEr Tots over at Nintendo?  Probably from the Switch...A console without even a proper D-Pad...

It’s apparently the Japanese word for “vertical”.

[Bill Loguidice]

If you don't mind waiting, absolutely pre-order the new version of the handheld. There are too many improvements to ignore, not the least of which is the quality of the screen.

[+GoldLeader]

24 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

It’s apparently the Japanese word for “vertical”.

The Hell you say!

 

 

 

OK

 But I think Nintendo has Bewitched us all with this TATE business

 

 

 

Get it?   That's Larry TATE!

 

HahAhAhAhaaaa!

[famicommander]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

 But if I understand correctly the new system can be rotated to a vertical orientation for certain arcade games*...Maybe someone else can answer;  Does it do anything else (differently)?

-As you said, can be rotated to a vertical orientation

-Built in WiFi so you no longer need to physically connect to a PC to update the firmware

-IPS screen, big improvement from the TN panel in the original. Vastly improved viewing angles.

-Higher resolution screen

-Improved battery capacity (3000mah on the new one vs 2000mah on the old)

-Four shoulder buttons instead of two

-USB C for charging instead of micro USB

-Improved video output

-On par with the VS home console as far as internal specs

-"Bonus Content" to be announced at a later date

[+jgkspsx]

For what it’s worth, I am certain I will still be playing my original unit even after the new one comes out.

[+Intellivision Master]

20 hours ago, famicommander said:

-"Bonus Content" to be announced at a later date

I'm curious what this bonus content will be.  

[famicommander]

3 hours ago, Intellivision Master said:

I'm curious what this bonus content will be.  

Likely more hidden games like what we saw in the VS and/or some more online features. Seems doubtful they included WiFi solely for the purposes of firmware.