Evercade

That CodeMasters one that Pengilly linked to was a bit odd, and I kept thinking about it. It's good that some Oliver Twins stuff is being released, and no-one makes adventure games like Dizzy any more. I just really wish they'd put it on Steam / Epic / itch.io / PSN / eShop / something that isn't a niche console.

Also at the time we were trying to work out why they were sort-of NES games; I've realised now that, not only have other publishers been able to reproduce their NES games in the last few years thanks to patents changing etc., but also: CodeMasters NES games were never "official" - you had to have that Plug-Thru thing! No wonder they never say NES on that press release. Although that does raise an ethical question of playing unofficial NES games on a completely different console designed to replicate that era anyway. Or does it? I dunno, it's late

That's good to know more carts are planned and that not being able to get one till August is I guess a good thing.

Jim, they've never really mentioned which consoles unless they've had like when it comes to Atari games and that's due to some having 2600 & 7200 versions available and of course the Lynx sets, unlike Earthworm Jim doesn't say if Mega Drive or SNES.

I’ve bought a couple more cartridges since my last post. Argos had an offer where you could buy two for £25, so I picked up what I could, which was the Interplay Collection 2 and the Data East Collection.  Everything else is almost completely out of stock. Anyway, I’ve put a decent amount of time into the Data East cartridge, completing several of the games. I’ll maybe do some short reviews in the Last Retro Game You Finished thread soon.

But my big issue with the Evercade has really come to light during these play sessions. Simply put, I don’t think I’ve spent any time with the Evercade and not thought ‘I’d rather be playing something else’. I’ve had a decent time with some of the games, true, but even the absolute best ones don’t really stand up next to their more famous 8 and 16 bit counterparts. Case in point: I think the very best game that’s available on Evercade is Earthworm Jim, that’s a really good game. Yet there’s at least ten 2D platformers on Nintendo Switch Online that I’d rate as being better.

Really, I’ve not discovered anything that I feel was fully worth my time. There’s too many games that don’t have much lifespan beyond the first few minutes either. There’s a quality concern as well: there’s several games which just plain bad, and simply wouldn’t be good enough for something like, say, Nintendo Switch Online. At this stage, I just feel like I’m trying to get my money’s worth.

I have ordered one as a treat with my savings I'm getting soon but no idea when it will arrive

Cappa, you've summed up something there that I didn't realise I was thinking. I wasn't interested in this anyway, as I refuse to buy another piece of hardware to play a limited subsection of games that could have just been released for the hardware I already had. But I hadn't even thought about the fact that they are going to mostly be arcade games, and those generally aren't designed to be thoughtful game experiences that you sit and think about, they're designed to be weird flashy things you put a few (in my day) 20p pieces in.

It's gone virtually silent from Evercade these last four weeks. I know know that the console and cartridges are mostly out of stock all over the world, but all the same I've been disappointed by how little they've done to keep their momentum going, and by how little they've tried to engage early adopters and future buyers.

The two Atari Lynx cartridges are coming out on November 6th and are going up for pre-order at midnight: https://www.evercade.co.uk/atari-lynx-1-and-2-evercade-cartridges-pre-order-date-confirmed/

They've not announced anything else beyond these, but their Twitter administrator said that they'd "very likely" have something else for Christmas. 

On another note, I've just realised that I haven't played my Evercade since Jimbob's post.

Mines still not arrived but till I saw pre-orders of the Lynx games (the ones I want) I totally forgot about it.

Also, I didn't realise that none of the cartridges were of actual arcade games, but ports of them. Sorry, I know it isn't for me, and I shouldn't keep trying to dig my foot in.

Nintendo Life wrote:

Quote :

Jaleco Collection 1 is perhaps of most interest; it comes with Bases Loaded, Astynax, Brawl Brothers, City Connection, Earth Defence Force, Super Goal! 2, Totally Rad, Rival Turf, Operation Logic Bomb and Ignition Factor – if you're an old-school Nintendo fan, then you'll recognise a lot of those names.

The Piko Interactive Collection 2 includes: Power Football, Hoops Shut Up and Jam, Hoops Shut Up and Jam 2, Summer Challenge, Winter Challenge, Brutal Sports Football, Eliminator Boat Duel, Full Throttle All American Racing, Top Racer 2, Soccer Kid, Football Madness, World Trophy Soccer and Racing Fever.

That's probably Evercade's most unimpressive announcement yet. That Jaleco collection is stuffed with uninteresting and low-order games, and three of them are already on Switch Online (City Connection, Super E.D.F. and Brawl Brothers, happening to be three of the worst games on Switch Online). That Piko Interactive collection is really strange, as it's all sports games with a couple of racers. Football Madness is a PSone game and Racing Fever is a GBA game, but I mean, who gives a toss about Football Madness and Racing Fever? The PSone and GBA are two of my favourite consoles, I read all the magazines when they were current and I've still collect for both, but I'd never heard of these games. A quick look on YouTube suggests that these aren't diamonds in the rough.

The hardware is decent and the price of the cartridges is cheap, but somebody needs to have a word with whoever's curating these games. There's probably a couple of hundred games on Evercade by now, but there's more 'eh?' and 'meh' than good or bad.

I can't wait for the Cryo Interactive and Data Design Interactive bundles.

Soccer Kid is the only game out of that last bundle I even recognise - or is the Hoops Shut Up and Jam the Charles Barkley game with no license? I guess some people might have nostalgia, but that's got to be the sort of "There was nothing better" Stockholm Syndrome that I fall victim to with the old crap I talk about. Surely the only people buying box no. 16 are the sort of people who have to have a complete range of boxes on a shelf with no concept of what product they contain.

Look, Evercade owners... you've been had I think

I'm starting to wonder if they'll plunge to the depths of Cyro Interactive and Data Design Interactive. You just know that if they could get Wii games running on it, there'd be an Evercade collection for Ninjabread Man, Billy The Wizard, Action Girlz Racing and all that bollocks.

Those Hoops titles are the old Charles Barkley Mega Drive games, aye. I've never played them, but both look considerably more fun than most of the stuff I've been playing on the Piko Interactive Collection 1 these past few days. When Radical Rex is the most accomplished game out of twenty, you know you're in trouble. 

I've been had. 

Jimbob wrote:

Surely the only people buying box no. 16 are the sort of people who have to have a complete range of boxes on a shelf with no concept of what product they contain.

Look, Evercade owners... you've been had I think

That's me as I currently have all the games because I bought the big bundle and have the four carts coming this year pre-ordered.

As the two indie Mega Drive games on the one cart do interest me, so do the Lynx collections, the dizzy one not so much but because got the other 14 might as well have 15 & 16

Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood, Oliver Twins Collection and the Atari Lynx Collection 1 and 2 have had their release dates delayed by two/three weeks, according to a statement Evercade have put out on their own Twitter page. 

I've got seven of the ten just now, I'm missing the Technos, Atari 2 and Mega Cat Studios collections. There's no difficulty in getting them, it's just that most of the Technos games are on Switch Online and the other two have bugger all I'm interested in on them. There's not a whole lot that's interesting me with the six that have been announced since it's launch...

There's not much happening with the Evercade on a week-to-week basis, but over the last couple of months a few things have gone on.

First was the announcement of a new Indie Heroes cartridge for early 2021, with fourteen new retro-inspired indie games:



Secondly was a big firmware update. There's lots of bug fixes, new features and little quality of life improvements - I assume that they're a big improvement, but I can't download it. 

Lastly was release dates for the Piko Interactive Collection 2 and Jaleco Collection 1 cartridges. They're out on April 1st. What Evercade have planned between the Atari Lynx cartridges this month and these two on April Fool's Day, I've got no clue. It's hard to see that Indie Heroes collection coming out in early 2021 - everything has missed it's release window so far.

Happily, two cartridges came out at the end of last month:



I'm fairly enjoying these. Xeno Crisis is properly good arena shooter, and Tanglewood is an interesting puzzle/platformer that was made entirely with actual Mega Drive tools. The Oliver Twins cartridge is more of a mixed bag for me - I don't quite enjoy Dizzy as much as other retro gamers, and there's a couple of titles here that are badly affected by the Evercade's inability to play in multiplayer. Still, two of the stronger cartridges so far: more of this type of quality, please.

Both Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood (hear it's the best Evercade game part from Tanzer) are on Mega Drive, even nearly bought TW for my MD.

Has reminded me to maybe preorder the new arcade racer for Dreamcast.

I'm playing more Tanglewood, and it's certainly good. I feel it relies a bit too heavily on being a Mega Drive game though, that's basically it's whole character right there. I've not got that Mega Cat Studios cartridge so I can't comment on Tanzer. It looks properly good though. For me, Earthworm Jim 1 is the best Evercade game yet.

~

Evercade spent the last few days promoting this...



Fair enough. They made the announcement this morning...

Spoiler:

There was more Evercade news just before Christmas, with the announcement of their eighteenth cartridge:



I'm quite up for that. Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder will surely be worth another playthrough, even if they're the inferior Mega Drive versions. Super Skidmarks is basically RC Pro AM with cows, and Psycho Pinball is still one of the best pinball games out anywhere. That's all supported by some interesting-ish stuff that I've never played before. That tennis game was later rebranded and released as Pete Sampras Tennis, which is a decent game too. All in all, I'm liking the look of that cartridge.

The Evercade Twitter held a 'Ask Us Anything' sessions last week too, chatting about various deals they're working on and plans they've got for 2021. It all sounds fine, but truthfully if you look at what's already on Antstream then you'll likely have a good idea of what's coming to Evercade soon. Ergo, I'd be very surprised if games from SNK, The Bitmap Brothers and Taito weren't coming to Evercade in 2021 or 2022.

Lastly, Menkind are selling all their Evercade stuff for cheap, with games under a tenner and the Starter Pack down to £44: https://www.menkind.co.uk/evercade-retro-games-console-starter-pack

Just me? Just me.

Evercade made a ‘surprise’ cartridge announcement this morning:



It’s the first of two Intellevision compilations, featuring a (pretty measly) total of twelve games. It’s fair to say that on it’s own, this is a very unexciting reveal.

Yet someone on the Evercade Discord channel pointed out this new Intellivision/Evercade partnership might work two ways. They suggested that the upcoming Intellivision Amico console might end up having a wee Evercade cartridge slot on it somewhere. I think there might be something in that idea. Blaze Entertainment have been harping on about an Evercade home console for months, and the Intellivision Amico is looking like it needs any sort of support it can get. Let’s face it, neither brand has a chance of getting anything close to the user base needed to have a successful home console by themselves. I think they’re both deluded, but together? Probably still unsuccessful and deluded, but at least it won’t be as shite.

The Amico I’m waiting for an Amazon Black Friday type sale in about 6 months after release when it's about £99 as I do think the controllers look neat

I think they'll make and sell so few Amico that it'll never come down in price. Happy to be wrong though, as a heavy discount is the only way I'd ever think about getting one. For me, I wouldn't be arsed if it became an Evercade home console either. I think the Evercade is okay for what it is.

The Intellivision is too old and crap for me, even.

I would like to get an evercade, just never been exactly pressing and it is pretty expensive

Aye, there's nothing must-own about it and I'm sure that those Starter and Premium bundles will go on clearance at some point. All these new retro handhelds do. Menkind had them on sale before Christmas, and I'm sure Argos have shaved a few quid off their cartridges and consoles in the past as well.

I thought I was getting a couple of new carts in the post this week, but it turns out that Brexit has delayed that. Who’d have thought that you’re noncey next door neighbour voting to leave the European Union five years ago would have delayed the 2021 re-release of Full Throttle: All-American Racing on the SNES.

Anyway, an AMA was held on the Evercade Discord page last week. Apart from teasing new hardware, them saying there’d be arcade games this year and someone getting told off for swearing, not much happened. They teased an N64 game coming to Evercade though. Unless it’s Rampage World Tour or some basic and utter mince like Virtual Chess 64, I can’t think what it would be.

Lastly, this visual popped up on the Evercade social media pages a couple of hours ago:

 

From what I can find, people are thinking the VS is either for multiplayer support, or that it stands for ‘Video System’. Truthfully, I'm not looking for a home console or multiplayer here, I just want more games for the system that they’ve already got. They’ve only released four more cartridges since the Evercade first came out in May 2020. Six announced ones and six unannounced ones seems like decent going, but as I've said before I'm hoping for higher-quality licences.

The Evercade VS. turned out to be a home console.

 

The big selling points are that it supports multiplayer for four folk, that it works with any USB controllers and any old Evercade cartridges, that it has in-built WiFi for updates, and that it gives 1080p output. It’s coming out in November for £89.99.

The four shoulder buttons on those new controllers open up lots of possibilities for PSone games, and in the past they’ve confirmed that arcade games are coming (arcade Double Dragon can be seen in that trailer regardless). I hope this is well supported – for all their talk, it’s been a pretty quiet start to the Evercade’s life over the last year. After going six months without any new releases and despite being available for pre-order for even longer, the Jaleco and Piko Interactive 2 collections only came out today. They also announced a new Mega Cat Studios collection for August, but that still means there’s only four announced cartridges for the next while.