Evercade

[Trebor]

It was news to me, and thought perhaps others may be interested as well, regarding this relatively new system.

 

There is a new ARM-based emulation handheld console which runs reasonably priced ($19.99-$29.99) cartridge collections, called Evercade.  It can be played on its internal 4.3 inch LED screen or plug to an HDTV via HDMI.

 

Off battery it runs for ~4-5 hours.  The list of games available are Atari 2600 & Atari 7800 first party, Atari Lynx collection, NES third party (I.E. Technos, Data East) titles, collections such as Namco Museum, and other developers (I.E. Piko, Interplay, Jaleco) that includes support for additional systems systems (I.E. Genesis, SNES).

 

The first two Atari collection cartridges - Collection 1 & Collection 2 ($19.99 each) - contain the following Atari 7800 titles:

 

Alien Brigade (7800) [Collection 1]
Asteroids (7800) [Collection 2]
Basketbrawl (7800) [Collection 2]
Centipede (7800) [Collection 2]
Desert Falcon (7800) [Collection 2]
Food Fight (7800) [Collection 1]
Motor Psycho (7800) [Collection 1]
Ninja Golf (7800) [Collection 1]
Planet Smashers (7800) [Collection 2]

 

There is an Evercade Premium Pack set available on Amazon that contains the system, plus three cartridge collections: Atari Collection 1, Data East Collection 1, Interplay Collection 1.  It is selling for $99.99 with free shipping currently.

 

Not too bad of a deal for those who want to play arguably some of the best retail titles for the 7800 with the advantage of handheld and console interchangeability, plus a bunch of good games for other systems.  Reviews have been solid both 'professional' and end user (Currently 149 ratings from Amazon with an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars), and state no lag or screen tearing.  While not perfect or ideal for all, figured it's worth a mention here.

[roots.genoa]

Since it's news to you, let me point out that there are already 3 topics about Evercade:

To be fair, the guy that created the third one didn't find the previous two while claiming he looked for them. AtariAge's search is quite efficient though...

[+chicgamer]

One interesting Evercade development is that someone is already working on a flash cart for it. Maybe this will mean that, at some point, the entire 7800 library will be playable on the Evercade.

 

 

[8th lutz]

I am an Evercade owner and I got it as a Birthday gift in August. The HDMI is not perfect all the time, but I have no sound issues for most of the time.  I played all the games on the 10 cartridges. The good thing with this device is Blaze Entertainment does firmware upgrades. There are some good games. 

 

I have Lynx Collections 1 & 2, Oliver Twins Collection, and Tanglewood/Xeno Crisis all pre-ordered.

 

 

[mckafka99]

Songbird Productions recently announced availability through their site:

 

 

[Trebor]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Since it's news to you, let me point out that there are already 3 topics about Evercade.
To be fair, the guy that created the third one didn't find the previous two while claiming he looked for them. AtariAge's search is quite efficient though...

Thanks for the heads-up.  The big emphasis here for me is the fact it contains Atari 7800 support with actual cartridges (albeit proprietary to the system) being manufactured, containing some of the more rare yet better titles for the console.  It certainly piqued my curiosity and thought it may have the same effect, or an even greater one, for those interested in the 7800 platform.

 

Quote

One interesting Evercade development is that someone is already working on a flash cart for it. Maybe this will mean that, at some point, the entire 7800 library will be playable on the Evercade.

Interesting, indeed...thanks for the info @chicgamer!

[Lord Thag]

I have a friend who has one of these I got to fool around with. I wasn't impressed. Awkward (and chunky) design, and the carts are full of questionable game choices, often only having a game or two per cart I wanted to play. Short battery life too. I was initially excited for this one but since I actually played it, my interest has pretty much waned. 

I could have put up with the weird colors and design if the carts had good game mixes... but most of them don't. May just be my tastes there though. 

I use one of the many $60 chinese emulator handhelds to play 7800 portably, works much better. 

[8th lutz]

1 hour ago, Lord Thag said:

I have a friend who has one of these I got to fool around with. I wasn't impressed. Awkward (and chunky) design, and the carts are full of questionable game choices, often only having a game or two per cart I wanted to play. Short battery life too. I was initially excited for this one but since I actually played it, my interest has pretty much waned. 

I could have put up with the weird colors and design if the carts had good game mixes... but most of them don't. May just be my tastes there though. 

I use one of the many $60 chinese emulator handhelds to play 7800 portably, works much better. 

I have an explanation with the game selection. The Chinese emulator handhelds get games illegally and Evercade gets their games legally. The problem with Evercade's route is there are companies that do not want their past games to be compilations at $20.00.  I don't think a lot can be done with getting more commercial Atari 7800 games. 

 

I think anyone who expects to play a lot of games that were released for classic game systems back in the day will be disappointed.

 

One of Evercade's strengths is the aftermarket games and I am referring to stuff like Mega Cat studios Collection.  The makers of Evercade last week announced they will be having October 7th announcement for a new compilation cartridge.  The makers of Evercade mentioned it is a cartridge that has brand new games for classic systems. 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by 8th lutz

[Lord Thag]

22 hours ago, 8th lutz said:

I have an explanation with the game selection. The Chinese emulator handhelds get games illegally and Evercade gets their games legally. The problem with Evercade's route is there are companies that do not want their past games to be compilations at $20.00.  I don't think a lot can be done with getting more commercial Atari 7800 games. 

 

I think anyone who expects to play a lot of games that were released for classic game systems back in the day will be disappointed.

 

One of Evercade's strengths is the aftermarket games and I am referring to stuff like Mega Cat studios Collection.  The makers of Evercade last week announced they will be having October 7th announcement for a new compilation cartridge.  The makers of Evercade mentioned it is a cartridge that has brand new games for classic systems. 

 

 

Yeah that makes total sense.

For me though, I have the actual physical versions of the games I want to play, so a chinese emulator console works much better as I have dumped or downloaded the roms for the games that I own. 

The Evercade also seems to favor types of games (NES/very speccy/British style stuff, platformers etc) I don't really care for, I'm more of a 16 bit shooter person if it isn't Atari era Arcade stuff. Also, the proliferation of the 'mini' consoles also tend to have much better licensed game selections, so I favor those.

That said, if they get some carts together that have stuff I actually want to play (new games are fine) I might bite, but so far, the $200 it would cost of the system and the carts puts me in Nintendo Switch Lite territory, and that has far more retro options I want to play than Evercade does.

If the game selection is your thing though, I would see how people could enjoy this little gadget. Wish I could say otherwise, I love the concept of a modern retro handheld with real carts, but the games just are not there for me.