Evercade: A new retro cartridge-based console | Ashens

[@mathieumarlaire]

It always catches me off guard seeing Ashens' face reflected as it reminds me that he isn't two disembodied hands who exist for the sole purpose of fondling tat on camera while a voice that comes out of thin air talks over it.

[@DoctorBastard]

I used to support a lad who was convinced that Ashens was a pair of talking hands, told Ashens about this when I met him and he goes: Don't spoil the magic.

[@ragekinhijikata1344]

@@DoctorBastard Yoshikage Kira approve this comment

[@SakuraAvalon]

I mean, I wish I could say I relate. But after seeing him in Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and other such movies. I've always known he was more than two disembodied hands.

[@faunatide]

@@SakuraAvalon that took me a second haha

[@subtledemisefox]

@@faunatide me too. I was about to look for an IMDb page lol

[@biscuitsalive]

I love how he still uses his ratty old couch to retain the lofi candid KZbin vibe, but we all saw the sound proofing and studio lights in the screen reflection, we are on to you Ashens. You pretend these are ad-lib and casually shot. But we know you have a team of 12 men writing your scripts and a director guiding your every finger/hand gesture.

[@elllieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

and a teleprompter to tell him when to sniffle

[@homelessdespot1697]

And here I thought it was black magic that helps him make the videos.......

[@GAMEPRODELTA]

@@homelessdespot1697 cthulu still helps upload them.

[@CannaCJ]

Don't forget the not-too-obvious hat-fishing, we baldies can recognize our own.

[@DisemboweII]

And we're watching the 17th take! What a sham, a fraud!

[@keithfulkerson]

Seems like it's destined to just be a collector's oddity.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Agreed 100%, and Joe who runs GameSack, and gets really technical compared to Ashens did not give this very high prase, and ran into every issue people are complaining about.

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

I plan to buy it when it's on clearance. Might even buy 2 and leave one sealed, just for the hell of it, really

[@UltimatePerfection]

@@OnlyEpicEmber BEGONE SCALPER! You will get one and one alone.

[@tncorgi92]

25 years from now, future Ashens will be reviewing it as a nostalgia episode. And he'll still have the same brown sofa.

[@Studeb]

Generally, things that are made to become collectible don't become collectible.

[@iNFiNiTY125]

Hmm you would think with a name like evercade it would emulate arcade machines. Also the speakers get blocked by your hands when you hold it.

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

any sane person would use their phone regardless for games ,then u got MAME ,

[@maplecinna3979]

Well, it is Evercade and not Evarcade.

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

@@MrBenvenuti it's called Bluetooth

[@jacobjb]

girlsdrinkfeck I just prefer being able to get the cartridges and legally getting games. I don’t need arcade games I’m fine with what Evercade has.

[@uoodSJW]

@@girlsdrinkfeck The PSP actually was a good MAME/Neo Geo Emulator.

[@mgthestrange9098]

His point about cartridges v download is the same as my DVD v streaming argument. Once you have it, it’s yours. Too often you hear people complaining about things disappearing from streaming service, you don’t get that with DVD!

[@octodionis]

Once you download something it doesn't go away, and it's not like these games are getting any updates. If you download a game, as long as your hard drive doesn't spontaneously die, you have it forever.

[@penfold7800]

Yes exactly. I totally agree. That's what worries me about cloud computing. I need to buy a new laptop, but there's nothing out there that allows me to fully own the software ON A DISK THAT COMES WITH THE MACHINE ...so I can use it forever, especially when I want to completely reinstall everything with MY CHOICES and not all the bloaty junk

[@penfold7800]

@@octodionis it doesn't always work like that. Try completely wiping and reinstalling an OS and then get that and the game fully working again WITHOUT THE INTERNET. software now always requires online activation. it won't work without it. So if the server goes down, disappears or your version is no longer supported, you're screwed. For example; try activating a fresh install of Windows Vista that you use for all your work with all your bespoke software that won't work on Windows10 (so the 'free' upgrade won't do you any good). I hate Microsoft for the mountains of landfill it's creating with its zero support policies. They suck. No wonder Bill left and went in to pharmaceuticals instead.

[@hikaru9624]

Tudor Razvan you mean like how my Xbox one x decided to shit out it's hard drive with an e105 error? (That's a faulty HDD error code).

[@Kumimono]

One thing. I like physical stuff, stuff I can touch. The satisfying clunk a cassette mechanism makes when a C-cassette is inserted. Tactile stuff, I suppose.

[@ShogunMongol]

I cower in fear whenever Ashens says "Do you see?" after the Valentine's day situation.

[@AndreiTache]

Right!? I was sort-of hoping he'd just scream "DO YOU SEE" for the remainder of the video. Or at the very least a hard cut to the credits and just upload a 30sec video

[@slik1977]

@Narcissist Its from Red Dragon

[@FIXTREME]

I just groan 😐

[@teleman07]

He sounds like he has ptsd from when her girlfriend asked where it was after not seeing something at first sight because of size issues. Then this "Do you see?" hysteria happened there and since then he gets the same ptsd symptom on his videos especially on valentines day time and time again.

[@Zu3sUK]

@@slik1977 No the quote is from Event Horizon hence the shouting of it, Red Dragon he just utters the words, Event Horizon at the end is where Sam Neill shouts it I.e. same way as Ashens.

[@SamLovesMovies25]

What you said about digital (non) "ownership" of movies is why I still buy films on physical Blu Ray/4K discs. It's not the perfect option since physical discs don't last forever obviously, but still, I OWN that copy of the film, and it is is **my possession** so I don't have to worry about it being taken away.

[@MemeLordCthulhu]

I feel like downloading a file is the same, except for stuff like steam and gamepass where they can actually take it away unless you find workarounds, which isn't possible on gamepass :(

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

The difference between piracy and archival preservation of media is the span of the decades.

[@DimT670]

@@MemeLordCthulhu gogs for use. Also cracking a game you own? perfectly legal

[@ThePhxRises]

Dang, I thought it was going to be a hardware emulation device that played ACTUAL cartridges. Needless to say, I was supremely disappointed.

[@siegfriedmeyke6631]

You'll want the analogue pocket then. That's supposed to come out end of the year.

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

@@siegfriedmeyke6631 I second this notion

[@khululyp]

But it DOES play actual cartridges, they are all official.

[@DemonStink]

@@khululyp Official but not Original.

[@Sarge92]

revo k101 does that pretty much if your going to the hassle to get something beholden to cartridges get something fpga based though cause going to the hassle of getting a cart system just to have to live with emulation isn't worth it

[@TheTurnipKing]

18:51 I always remember "The Immortal" because it was one of those very early games for the Amiga/ST that actually required 1MB of RAM, and the magazine adverts made a big deal out of the fact you'd need to pay an extra £100 for a memory expansion to play it.

[@toxie83]

I had to have a break from playing my Evercade when I saw a notification that Ashens had reviewed the Evercade.

[@Kitsune0268]

As someone who has already bought _many_ of these game titles multiple times already over the years, I'm pretty okay with ROMs on micro SD chip handhelds these days. Especially since a lot/most of these game companies are defunct and any money being made is no longer going to the original game developers anymore.

[@laerin7931]

Even if companies aren't defunct, I find it very unlikely that person(or a few people) who've actually produced those games back in the day are still working there and if they are working there I have some doubts that they'll get anything out of people buying those modern versions.

[@Kitsune0268]

@@laerin7931 That's true. The game developers got paid for the work they did and that was that. Even if the license for the game continues to make money years up the road, none of it is going to anyone who worked on the game, only the license holder. Even if the company isn't defunct, I imagine few of the people who created the company are still there, either. In some cases the old company names are just resold as a license themselves.

[@jakublulek3261]

Pretty much. I can make exception if that particular game is still owned by that particular company and I don't hate that company (Compile Heart still owns some old Compile game IPs, for example) but if they are douchebags like Nintendo or Konami, no, I am not doing that.

[@DimT670]

@@laerin7931 but ppl who make games don't get any of the money you spend to buy the game anyway. They get salaries Surely by your logic we shouldn't be buying the games then if you truly went by "do the people who made it get any money" You buy the game because you buy the game. For the same reason you didn't pirate it day 1 . Also buying the game shows interest as well as open the possibility of sequels or remakes or enhanced editions (and makes sure a company you like stays in business and continues to make money) i understand not buying a game you already own and i also kinda get this debate if the company is defunct, tho its not as clear cut as when its not readily avialable, but otherwise its just piracy. I mean i pirate too but i dont pretend im in the right

[@laerin7931]

@@DimT670 They certainly get their salaries from the money that gets paid. It's just that it's future salaries. If the game doesn't sell, the studio gets shut down and those developers no longer get paid. After the game has recouped itself and helped the company keep running, it no longer contributes anything to the original creators. I'm also not saying that piracy is okay, but I find it extremely weird when people act like downloading a ROM is some morally repugnant act when the "legal" option is to buy second-hand cartridge from ebay. Neither option gives money to the people who have anything to do with making the game.

[@ExtremeBirdTypography]

This cartridge-based system seems less like an especially functional way to play the games, and more like... An image and aesthetic thing. You're buying into the classic feel of taking a cartridge out of a big VHS-like box, slotting it in and flicking the switch to get a little jingle and a logo. It's like your old Game Gear or Game Boy got propelled into the new decade... But the games just aren't there for it yet. (Honestly, if they start getting Game Boy Advance packs for this, I might eat it up.)

[@expendableindigo9639]

Why not just use a GBA?

[@jakublulek3261]

I would rather stick with my PS Vita. Not because I was developer for it and I have dev kits to load anything I want on it. Just because I really like PS Vita.

[@thenate5367]

The NES Billy sprite that exceeds actual NES palette limits hurts my soul

[@spartonberry]

20:13 NES color emulation is a real point to argue about, especially for NTSC (I hear PAL hardware didn't have the same issue) where even the same hardware on different TVs could produce different color results, making it harder to decide what is "correct" (I've probably just as often seen Mario with a lavender sky as with a blue sky. I mean, in that example we can guess one color was intended over the other, but in other games, harder to tell.)

[@TheHutchy01]

The only good thing is that most of the people who worked on the NES were fairly young, so at least in theory you could ask them

[@romankaplan666]

"I do like a coin" Me too, Ashens, especially the "In Tat We Trust" Ashens Grote you gave me at Insomnia that one time

[@kevinm5940]

I think that means you're part of his Cult now

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

@@kevinm5940 That's how these things work

[@Hamdad]

>All games are in 4*3 >Console has a 16*9 screen

[@obsoleteworlds]

Lynx games won't be in 4:3

[@RocketRoosterFilms]

These days, manufactures have totally discontinued making 4*3 screens. They all probably just had to make the most of it to keep the costs down.

[@Linkale_]

Also I wonder why all these emulation consoles have crappy low res screens when even the cheapest smartphone have a HD screen nowadays. I think manufacturers just think "old games have low resolution, who cares" ignoring the fact that, as the screen is not the original resolution those consoles had (how could it? they emulate many different consoles), all looks blurry. A higher resolution is neccesary to do pixel-perfect integer scaling.

[@dannooo548]

@@Linkale_ Even then, a TV is at least 400-500px tall. These sorts of things really need at least a 720x480 screen

[@wdfghjkl]

How close are you in teaching hamsters to play vidya?

[@LieseFury]

every time you say "do you see" my blood pressure goes up. because that one time was genuinely terrifying.

[@rudimentaryganglia]

What are you talking about

[@1Axonn]

@@rudimentaryganglia ashens repeatedly says "do you see"

[@nekomasteryoutube3232]

I wont be surprised if this thing gains any traction that someone will come up with a cartridge that lets you load games from an SD card. Than gain these carts probably are just flash memory carts as most modern carts are mostly flash memory in a propiretary cartridge format.

[@twoseventhree]

but i bet its the proprietary cartridge format which is allowing the cheap console production. my vita, with emulation can do everything that this unit can do.

[@wisteela]

I thought will this get hacked too.

[@davidmcgill1000]

Bit silly making this use "cartridges" when it's just a serial transfer like SD cards and not memory mapped to hardware like actual cartridges. Maybe if it actually had hardware...

[@ThePhxRises]

@@twoseventhree Funny you should mention the Vita, because its expensive proprietary memory cards were exactly why they could sell the consoles for so cheap. Funnily enough the game cartridges are almost identical to standard SD cards in every way tho. I second this tho, hacked Vita = greatest portable console of all time

[@RABBIDGamfan]

The SD card adapter that lets you turn this into just another Retroarch machine would be quite ace

[@CZpersi]

Theee years on in its lifecycle, this niche console would deserve a re-visit.

[@brandonhandymusic]

I was actually just looking into that. I like the physical collection aspect considering how that's unfortunately becoming a thing of the past, but considering I can perfectly emulate PS2 games and below on my phone, it seems very niche in an already niche market

[@Lucien86]

Know what these reminded me of in the end? - Just how massively overpriced so many games in the 80's & 90's were for what they were. (After I had looked at a lot of the videos on the Evercade site.) Things really are so much better now - as long as you avoid those pointless overpriced 'triple A' titles.

[@diegog1853]

Isn't it extremely dumb that the console is called evercade, and it advertises itself with arcade games, but it only emulates home ports of arcade games? Imagine if i buy an snes mini and when i go to play street fighter 2 is the game boy version.

[@Porkey_Minch]

Or the donkey kong land series instead of donkey kong country.

[@FIXTREME]

Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, and Stunt Racer FX GameBoy versions with Super Gameboy color filters. "SEE?! It's not legally false advertising." 😂

[@teardroptimothy5000]

good point I agree

[@mjc0961]

Everything about the Evercade is extremely dumb.

[@Shampoid]

Cool story quote boy

[@johnnyboyrebell]

Bought one on a whim ...the whim turned into a obsession ! its a great system ...of course you can download all the games ...but having the cartridges makes me feel proud !

[@Orpheusftw]

I'm several months behind, but the same story. Do you still enjoy yours, or did the feeling pass?

[@johnnyboyrebell]

@@Orpheusftw still enjoying ! what a great system !

[@artinyyk]

I was just thinking it’s been a while for an ashens video.

[@Hayatehiroyuki25]

Coming back to this review now that I've bought into the Evercade ecosystem. I wonder if Ashens will ever do a review on what Evercade is doing now? With them having proper arcade ports now and a few new handheld variations. Would love to see how this system holds up in his opinion.

[@TanookiSuit]

I know this video is a year and a half old, but about Piko Interactive. It was started and still run by a single person, it has grown though since. The concept of Piko was two fold... buy lost/dead IP or license a game to release it newly to the wild in the current market. The dig for it is a mix of unfinished or finished but unreleased prototypes, but also various homebrew. He has picked up quite a few gems and others and put them into various formats from old retro carts for the right system, downloads, and evercade. He's a friend from online of mine I'm guessing going back a decade now. The Piko releases largely on these carts are some of the best stuff.

[@UncleFeedle]

If there was a cartridge for every system (2600, NES, Mega Drive etc) and each contained all the games for that system, now that would be something pretty special.

[@Right_Said_Brett]

Or you could just buy a RG350 and do exactly that and have all of the games on a couple of SD cards.

[@iisogal2]

how many generic retro handhelds need to be made to play the same few games?

[@SlavTiger]

When will we get the full libraries for consoles instead of the same 300 of the tens of thousands of games out there

[@DimT670]

@@SlavTiger or you go to a nice site called nicoblog and you download all the roms and hack a psp

[@obsoleteworlds]

In fairness it's not just the same old games, they have a DIzzy collection, 2 Atari Lynx collections and a Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood cart all coming out in the next wave. Even in this initial lineup there are a lot of obscure games yo udon't generally get on the mini consoles etc. It may well be by necessity but I think one of the reasons I've played it so much over the past few weeks is to experiment with things I've never played before.

[@richardwicks4190]

One, it's called a raspberry pi 0.

[@leecroft1983]

Totally agree, more crap for collectors to buy or have review copies sent to for their KZbin channels.

[@farleysmoke5130]

Wow alot of negative comments but I absolutely love mine and surely anyone purchasing one will know what to expect games wise . Another great video my dude

[@jot2818]

"Won't be snug for long, not after you've slid things in and out a couple of times." - Me on a first date

[@jmckendry84]

@wakenbaker-uk whoa, a gay joke, very original

[@wheeledllama7907]

All i want is "GOG for roms", that way i can pay fot he games i want and run them on anything i want. As it is now i can choose between pirating roms and putting them on a single device, or pay to drag a truckload of devices with me when travelling, the choice there is pretty simple to be honest..

[@AsyrafFile]

Sega did that on Steam. Even you can get ROMs after buying and installing.

[@wheeledllama7907]

@@AsyrafFile I've never heard of it before, but if you can drag your roms out of it there certainly is a lot of potential. I'll have to check it out when i've got the cash.

[@TeflonSoul]

This. So much this. I've thought of an arrangement like this for a long time. No requirement for support or anything, just "person X has purchased a continuous license for their private use of Y game". It's probably a pipe dream, but one can hope.

[@450AHX]

There's never going to be anything like that, because no one wants to navigate a copyright maze to sell a hundred copies, and then do that again for the next game, and the next... It's just not worth anyone's time.

[@TheBonkleFox]

There's a site called ROMstation that does something like that. Hell they still have AM2R up if you ever wanted to play that

[@RealGenericDemon]

i asked evercade via twitter about arcade releases, they said 2021. the emulation is on the cartridge not the handheld, but i think they are official licensing them too :-)

[@codemonster8443]

You sir are the oldest and one of the most regular posting KZbinr I've ever seen. Salute.

[@Suedeash]

it's hard to go down in quality when you're naturally funny + have a relatively simple style of content, god bless Ashens

[@harrygreenfeld4964]

Ah, 2020. When 'if you buy the thing, you own the thing' is a high selling point. Poop.

[@SolidSonicTH]

I definitely buy games where the publisher promises that there are no microtransactions up front. @_@

[@TomJakobW]

thats why GOG is my go to. Unless I missed something, it’s the entire game without any DRM whatsoever. Throw it on an external drive, store it for later - nice.

[@4rumani]

@@TomJakobW Steam will outlast your usb drive

[@David315842]

It took a long while but finally Ashens took the time to put a hat on and review the Evercade. Also while he pointed out that most games were home console ports, some games were exclusively made for the home market by certain companies like Mappy Kids on Namco Museum Collection 1, whoops.

[@digivince]

Take that cartridge apart and I'm pretty sure it'll just be an SD card shoved into an adapter with ROMs on it.

[@Right_Said_Brett]

Exactly. You're just paying for the privilege of doing something legally, when you could be doing it for free and actually choosing the damn games you want to play from a library of 1000s.

[@JasperJanssen]

It’s a lot cheaper to just solder a flash chip to the pcb. But I’ll grant you that they’re likely to be using flash. Even the Nintendo switch carts use chips that are mostly nand flash.

[@Claidheambmor]

Someone needs to open one up and see. :D

[@voteDC]

Apparently the actual emulators are on the cartridges and not the handheld itself to prevent people from just coming up with a flashcart.

[@omgiTzkitteh]

@@JasperJanssen its not that simple to just solder a flash chip LOL you have to be extremely precise with the pins, the flash chip has to MATCH what the device can accept, it has to be the proper type etc and there has to be a place for the flash chip to sit in the first place... lmao

[@chrisneale2036]

If the cartridge smells the same as when I used to pull out flashback from the megadrive after 6 hours then I'll believe it's a true emulator. God I miss that smell. And the smell of a new games instruction manual. Perhaps it's just me. It's likely just me.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Ah yes the toxic smell off gassing new plastic 😂

[@hound903]

I swear, it looks like Evercade sent one of these to every tech influencer on KZbin

[@BrokenCircus]

They didn't send me one :(

[@NicholasAdeptus]

He did mention that he bought it in the video.

[@krisraps]

Yessss. And payd good money to tell all the good things he said

[@knmonlinemedia]

I didn't get one 😒

[@mccobsta]

The ones they sent out had loads of issues

[@IvanovIvanAKrutoi]

The part where you skipped the Bad Dudes text made me die a little on the inside. You do NOT skip over the legendary "Are you a bad enough dude to save the president?" line! That's a crime punishable by death in some countries.

[@choppergunner8650]

"Maybe we should blame Michael Jackson for making the word "bad" sound so awesome. Or we should have never listened to Lucas about the Power Glove." - AVGN

[@comradeurod9805]

The thing looks cool, I hope it goes somewhere and it doesn't die at the side of the road

[@djaxisravenguard]

If it does, i feel like there might end up being a sizeable homebrew scene.

[@Becka_Harper]

djaxisravenguard even if it doesn’t die the homebrew and modding scene should be pretty awesome.

[@ArchangelExile]

Just it's physical appearance is compelling me to buy it.

[@leecroft1983]

Hmmm, not a great start. Honestly can't see this thing going anywhere... but the clearance bin.

[@CarrotConsumer]

People have so many avenues for playing old games these days I can't believe it's still profitable to make new devices.

[@nickgaurd]

I am in love with my little Evercade, Im not much of a retro gamer but this scratches a little itch for a little collectible.

[@blodguizer]

If you look at the site they are clearly marketing this to older gamers with nostalgia. They know we are used to physical cartridges with pretty boxes and that was their intention.

[@janlentan892]

My favorite part is how the game art on the back of the box is clearly just the box art from the NES/MD/SNES versions of the games with all the Nintendo and Sega logos and seals of quality removed.

[@DanafoxyVixen]

Why the bloody 2600 games.. why they never use the 5200 or the 7800 games beats me... some of those were actually good

[@CommodoreFan64]

I'll you why I think they don't 1. The developers are too lazy to write the emulators for the systems. 2. The 5200 needs a keypad for some games 3. There could be license issues because of their platform 4. There are a few games on the 7800 like Ball Blazer which use a custom sound chip in the cart, which is harder to emulate proper on some systems.

[@obsoleteworlds]

There are 7800 games on the Atari carts. You can see the Operation Wolf clone Alien Brigade on the first cart he loads up.

[@TroopperFoFo]

My guess is weird licensing things remember Atari has been broken up and sold countless times to different companies so who really owns what even the current Atari sold a bunch of random IP licenses. I know THQ Nordic got the Alone in the Dark IP from them.

[@misterpete8001]

I respect this channel for the total honesty . Some of the other channels haven't given this the honesty it deserves lol

[@Hawkster52]

This is impressive looking but I don't understand who this is for. Collectors? They most likely already have the games and original systems. People who wanna play 2600 games on the go? What is the target demographic for this? This just screams someone is going to lose their ass producing this for a non-existent playerbase.

[@stingersplash]

I don't have any of these games or the original systems, not any more. I'm happy getting this to scratch the occassional itch. But nostalgia is a big thing and buying retro games on cartridges from Argos in 2020 is enticing.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@stingersplashWhy? You can just load up your Android phone with emulators, and ROMS, and get a better emulation experience once you pair something like a MOGA gamepad(I can get the original version for $5 USD, and have a few for backups), plus no carts to worry about, and you can get all the games you want, along with the actual arcade versions for MAME

[@thecianinator]

@@CommodoreFan64 because downloading, setting up, plugging in, configuring, and lugging all that shit around is a giant pain in the ass and you know it

[@hikaru9624]

Commodorefan64 playing old games on a smart device doesn't feel the same as playing it on a console regardless if the console itself is an emulator or the actual console. And a physical library of games look pretty on a shelf.

[@richardbarth918]

@@CommodoreFan64 if your answer is just to steal intellectual property and not support the companies involved then you are an asshole.

[@UberNeuman]

Boy,this would have great. 20 years ago.

[@n30m84]

Yesh have would

[@DaybreakerRein]

Had to come back to this video because Evercade has definitely made progress! Soon in a few months they will be releasing the Evercade Vs., a home console that supports up to 4-Player Multiplayer, as well as releasing a set of Arcade Collection Cartridges! Hope to see you follow up when that gets released as I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well as the expanding libraries of games!

[@williamrennie9331]

I came back for the same reason! I'll definitely be getting one and the arcade carts to go with it.

[@upyoursdotcom]

I was born in 2001, I started playing Atari 2600 games in middle school. I love their simplistic charm and I have a lot of nostalgia for it now. I think Stuart's assessment that today's generation wouldn't really get into Atari 2600 games is fair, but there's always gonna be an exception.

[@masonasaro2118]

hello i am a fellow exception

[@Snickerway]

The biggest loss in the NES conversion of Bad Dudes was “President Ronnie”.

[@whatamalike]

Replaced with bush snr if I'm not mistaken?

[@shuntaro2408]

Damn Gamesack really stuck it to this system. Joe was much more critical than ashens was. I don't know why I'm so surprised but I am

[@10tonhamster]

shuntaro2408 - Joe has updated his video description to acknowledge that one of his quite major grumbles - keymapping - has been considerably improved with a firmware update, still doubt he would recommend it at all though.

[@shuntaro2408]

@@10tonhamster Hmm I remember him being most disappointed with the emulation. I believe he had sound and picture issues

[@10tonhamster]

shuntaro2408 his description update says no sound issues either once he updated the firmware, so it’s quite an important update. With emulation differing with each cartridge it will vary quite a bit with each game.

[@obsoleteworlds]

@@10tonhamster there are still some emulations issues, nearly all centreing around Megadrive games. But we are not talking Atgames like stuff here. Little bits of sound stuttering in certain games. It's not as perfect as all the KZbinrs have made out though. Neither is it as bad as Gamesack portrayed it to be.

[@hound903]

Because Stu and Evercade are both from the UK?

[@peterdoa1]

i never thought this would see the light of day

[@SionynJones]

So what your saying is: if the silver skull and Peter popoff had a baby this is the kind of pop station they'd produce. Its basically a upmarket pop station.

[@RevRaptor898]

Called the Evercade, can't play arcade games. Yep sounds about right.

[@pjmlfc05]

Arcade games are to be released in 2021. Yes it would have been nice if they come out this year.

[@culwin]

Finally! Where could we have played old Atari 2600 games up until now? Nowhere, that's where! That reminds me, somebody should really make a tape collection of classical music so we can play it on our Walkmans.

[@brushhhfires]

BLAZE also used to make a Gameboy save-backup tool that connected to your PC with IDE and if you had a flash cart could be used as a rom burner. it was the only device like that which could be purchased IRL, even EB Games sold it.

[@obsoleteworlds]

Evercade aren't actually Blaze. Blaze went into liquidation and for some reason this group bought the assets.

[@melcrose]

"If you're a collector, you'll love this obscure system no one bought! Otherwise, just buy something 4x better for 1/4 the price and load up all the roms you'd like! "

[@obsoleteworlds]

The Evercade has been consistently sold out since launch so it's hardly accurate to say no one bought it.

[@arwlyx]

@@obsoleteworlds But are they sold out because of people buying them up? Or are they out of stock because the units they had sold out so slowly that they haven't bothered to order any more? Amazon spain doesn't have any and I can assure you the market for these in Spain isn't all that hot.

[@obsoleteworlds]

@@arwlyx as I said they sold out at launch. Not sure what is unclear about that. You couldn't get one anywhere and new stock is only just arriving this month. I'm sure it would have come quicker in non-corona times but there is absolutely no denying that this sold far better than they were expecting. There are plenty of valid criticisms of the Evercade but idea that no-one bought it is ridiculous. How damaging the failure to keep that momentum going has been by being unable to restock for months remains to be seen.

[@voteDC]

@@obsoleteworlds Out of stock doesn't mean it is selling a large amount though. It could have been sold out for the simple fact they didn't make that many of them.

[@obsoleteworlds]

@@voteDC overall sales figures aren't what is being debated here though. The point is that statements to the effect that it is "an obscure product that no-one bought" are simply not true. Neither are statements that it "sold slowly". Its received a ton of coverage and clearly been a huge success for Blaze. If anything they severely underestimated demand.

[@ojbeez5260]

Retro collectors Pre-Order the items that are Retro that have not even been imagined inside the Brain of a creator yet before the Big Bang in the Pre-Time Multiverse ether. And they want it NOW - on release!

[@GmodPlusWoW]

After all these years, I still feel like the mission briefing guy from Bad Dudes looks like Duke Nukem. "Are you a bad enough dude to save the President?" Not really, 'cause IIRC in DNF the President is a dirty rotten traitor who sets Duke up. Honestly, Doctor Proton was a better human antagonist. Shame that they relegated him to the DLC, even though funnily enough The Doctor Who Cloned Me was apparently much better than the main game, for the most part.

[@TheHutchy01]

I mean the President from Bad Dudes is Reagan who did a little treason.

[@Zycyzyx]

For me, Double Dragon's NES versions are *the* versions. I played DD1 in a skating rink once as a kid and that was it. By the time you could emulate them, I had no memory of whether all the weird slowdown was an issue with the arcades originally... and it always bugs the shit out of me trying to actually play them. Even if you got those on there, DD2 NES would still be mandatory since it's one of the series creators' favorites. It would be nice to get the excellent PCE CD version on something eventually though. :P

[@shadzsta]

Just a matter of time before someone makes a cartridge with an SD slot in the top

[@Grizzermacht]

This. This console was doomed the moment they were going to push expensive carts to force you to pay for roms. If that wasn't the case, all the other glaring issues with the thing would have been somewhat more acceptable. Seriously, 9 carts listed for sale on amazon right now for $20 a pop. Nearly $200 if you want the whole set. And some of the carts have really weak libraries, making it not worth that even.

[@MarquisSmith]

If that happens, I'll grab one. Otherwise, the limited games for fifteen quid a pop is just bollocks, especially given the competition.

[@gorgeluis]

Lol yeah, wait until this flops and gets cheap as fuck on clearance, somebody will create custom firmware to run other emulators and will become a pretty good retro handheld

[@JanPospisilArt]

Or you could get one of the many Chinese retro handhelds that are built to run from an SD card, have proper 4:3 IPS screens and don't cost 200 USD.

[@Grizzermacht]

@@JanPospisilArt Except the majority of the chinese made retro handhelds are very low quality, only supports certain systems with whatever emulators they chose that could have massive emulation bugs and errors, and massively underpowered for what you might want to run. NVIDIA shield used to fill this niche, but then they killed that off not too long after and replaced it with a console based version. It's starting to get real depressing that modded second hand PSPs are still the king of portable emulation, and can emulate up to the PS1. I hope someone can prove me wrong otherwise, because I've been in need of a portable to tinker with that can handle up to PS1 with no issue (and for a fair price).

[@DocHackenbush]

When it comes to retro arcade-gaming I'm very much in love with my RG350. Atari 2600 is cool though. It was my first playing-device. And being spoiled by the arcade of its time the feeling of disappointment comming along with it was a constant thing. Then I switched to the C64 and still no match to my favorite arcade-versions of games but there was other good stuff. Later I learned via emulators that even on the Atari 2600 there were actually really good games and I fell in love with it again. Nowadays I get impressed by well executed little ideas through limited hardware which is a form of art to me. Current games on the other hand don't catch my interest anymore. Except for VR-stuff. I'm bored by the visual overkill of new games and am already for quite some time. When you can do everything you reached the end. My last "big" console was the PS2. From there I went back to the glorious past again. Almost the same thing with movies. Being technically limited yet still achieving things is just more interesting to me I guess. And leaving things to your imagination is a way to make you a part of the process. New games don't do that. They sedate by throwing boring perfection at you at a very high rate.

[@f4rr3r]

I’d rather have imperfect arcade emulation than perfect home console emulation for most of these games. The decision to have literally no arcade emulation on a device called the Evercade is puzzling.

[@razerow3391]

There is now a Data East Arcade cartridge!

[@VinchVolt]

The American Saturn also used the thumb-carving D-pad at first before switching to the Japanese variant.

[@davidlevy706]

Yeah, I believe that applies to the Western release in general. Fun fact: the good D-pad can be used as a drop-in replacement for the bad one (but not the inverse). The Japanese controller is still much better, but that narrows the gap a bit. (I've never seen anyone mention this, but I did it in 1997.)

[@zgillet]

You mean the thumb carving D-Pad Nintendo invented on the NES... in Japan?

[@VinchVolt]

​@@zgillet I don't see how that's relevant to the conversation considering that Sega's D-pad designs were considerably different from that of the NES. The "thumb-carving D-pad" being referred to here is the one found on the first American and European models of the Saturn that consisted of an awkward and uncomfortable mess of bowl-like structures on top of a raised bump; the Japanese variant is more or less just an updated version of the Genesis/Mega Drive D-pad.

[@zgillet]

@@VinchVolt Where do you think they got the idea? Or for that matter, all of their ideas? Sega always copied Nintendo. Hell the Dreamcast D-Pad DESTROYED my thumb.

[@VinchVolt]

@@zgillet I'm not really sure if you're attempting to shift blame onto Nintendo for Sega's mistakes or if you're trying to accuse Sega of never having any original ideas, but either way saying that Sega *always* copied Nintendo is hugely misleading. Nintendo did invent the D-pad as we know it, yes, but to say that Sega making their own, better version of the D-pad for the Genesis is plagiarism is somewhat ignorant of how technological development works. There is no Toyota without Ford, there is no Apple without IBM, and there is no bicycle without a wheel. Innovation requires not just coming up with brand new ideas, but also elaborating upon older, more thoroughly pre-established ones. There is nothing truly new under the sun, after all. Furthermore, while the Master System and Game Gear were indeed directly influenced by the NES and Game Boy, most of their other systems were meant to compete more with the TurboGrafx (which was a huge success in Japan despite flopping everywhere else and directly led to the creation of the SNES) and the PS1, both of whom were bigger sources of inspiration for Sega than any of Nintendo's systems (the PS2 doesn't factor into this though, as that was first announced after the Dreamcast had already released). Hell, the Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast all predate Nintendo's competing systems within the same respective generations by a considerable amount (1988 vs 1990, 1994 vs 1996, 1998 vs 2001). I like Nintendo and all, but to say that Sega were always copying them is giving too much credit to Nintendo.

[@relentlesslycheerful]

7:06 - I've listened to this couple of seconds over and over, it's hilarious

[@cholohd32]

Trouble here is that its competing against all the official "mini"s as well. Its nice seeing a proper quality Blaze handheld with correct sound & controls. Also its really nice that everything legal & i really try my best to stick to the legal was like Anstream & the official mini's. But that dosnt mean im not tempted by the neverending "questional legal" open source handhelds that china seem to pump out a new version off every couple of month. As you mentioned there is a demand for playing the arcade game still (and not really the home conversions).

[@xyanide1986]

The two oldschool games consoles I own are an NES and a 2600. I was born well past the 2600 heyday and never owned one myself. Maybe one of my friends had a hand-down, can't remember. I really like how rudimentary and stone-age it all feels. It really has its own charm.

[@brianoconnell6459]

Go with the Swordquest game on the 2600, the crusher of dreams of every kid thinking, "I can get a sword worth thousands of dollars!", only to be smacked down when it turned out the math games were only solvable by college students, and then Jack Tramiel bought out the company, and stole the prizes, with a rich "Nyah ha haaaa" in the mid 80s.

[@6581punk]

They never even made the last game. And yeah, people did say they'd seen the sword hanging on the wall at Jacks house.

[@FIXTREME]

I wonder how many parents just went to the flea market and bought a 20dollar tai chi sword just to make little Jimmy think he actually won

[@awwrelic]

@@FIXTREME I could imagine handing that sword to little Jimmy, who likely knew what the thing was supposed to look like, and Jimmy would act as if, instead of a Power Ranger for Christmas he got a Combat Force Ranger (almost as good, and his chest lights up!) in the package.

[@Chaos89P]

I read somewhere that almost every prize was just melted down.

[@blacknote6945]

the angry nerd talked about this before right?

[@Ariel233CB]

I love your reviews man, thanks for sharing!

[@delmonti]

just not good enough, even for half that price with all the carts. If woolworths was still around, it'll be in the bargain bin by xmas

[@laurafear3853]

Woolworths indeed

[@DanaTheInsane]

In the US we lost our Woolworths a LONG time ago, really miss it.

[@exmaarmaca]

For some reason in Mexico there still exists some Wollworths stores as Radioshack and Sears; I think they sold the name to the owners of the stores so they could cash a last buck.

[@odoggow8157]

@@DanaTheInsane u do know there is a big big world outside of the usa, Woolworth's died everywhere

[@odoggow8157]

@@exmaarmaca u need to stop thinking u struggle with it

[@johnsmith-sp6yl]

in 2005 my family had a working atari 2600 which we would play on our CRT tv. i was about 4 at the time. imo i think that there's a small but very happy group of people that are gonna get this one, including people from my generation.

[@aserta]

There should be a law added to everything from games to music, where by, if the people who worked on them are dead (it's the age old discussion of copyright of authors vs copyright of bullies and corporations), there shouldn't be a copyright anymore. Sure, there could be on significantly changed variants, because there needs to be such a thing so that others can't claim ownership because they changed a fart sound, but then that rendition should be forced to say "altered copy of the original, made by bla bla, found for free, or with no cost" etc. And certainly after 40 years, or 50 corpos shouldn't have property values over non proprietary systems (trade secrets, actively used systems etc).

[@davidalves6813]

I think that law exists. It is particularly notable regarding books, which become automatically public domain 70 years after the death of the author. Not sure how that would go for video games, since the concept of authorship is different for them. I've noticed, however, that they rather quickly (some in less than 20 years) become not exactly public domain, but rather those who produced stop worrying about it. PC games made in the 90s, particularly Doom and Diablo 2, are examples of such, as they are now considered abandonware and have been pretty much been appropriated by modders.

[@LastBastion]

Naj, Disney wouldn't like that....

[@isabellamorris7902]

...have you seen that recent Tom Scott video?

[@DimT670]

Used to be like 25-30 years, and then Disney Fucked us over.

[@fandangobrandango7864]

@@LastBastion Disney didn't create 95%of their stories, they just bought the rights to them.

[@TommyDeonauthsArchives]

It's funny that Blaze was able to get the license to put Earthworm Jim on the Evercade, when Sega themselves couldn't get the license to make a Sega Ages version of the Sega CD port of EWJ1.

[@brandonhoward3672]

I got an evercade and I really like it. I have no nostalgia for any of these games, my first system was the Wii. It is a great way for me to play a lot of older games without pirating. I already have other ways to play Nintendo and Sega's first party stuff so it doesn't bother me at all that they aren't on it. Also I'm way excited for the Lynx collections.

[@realnews7799]

It's a cool little machine. I am really enjoying it so far. Gotta catch em all!

[@joerhorton]

If it had the Arcade versions, I would of bought it. Still waiting for the day I can play Choplifter and Chase HQ on a handheld (Dig's out PSP).

[@entity972inc.2]

Ah Ashens, he guy who brought back noseybonk

[@michalgajdos7575]

arcade versions is WHAT EVERYBODY WANTS.I almost went to get device. There is always snag...

[@BritishAdam]

damn, Barshens reference. Now I shall mourn the loss of that again like it was yesterday :(

[@massivepileup]

Odd that the Atari collection is just console games, the one they sold me on Steam includes a bunch of arcade versions. AFAIK the 2600 has some sliders or buttons or something to select game modes, how are those implemented here?

[@theweatherdude]

The irony... I just watched Rich (ReviewTechUSA) and his Exposed podcast featuring you as his guest just last night (had no idea you two had filmed a podcast until I just happened upon it...definitely a must watch!), and you brought up how rare handheld reviews are becoming since Android-based machines have become so cheap that are actually not shite. Now here you are not even 24 hours later reviewing a handheld. God bless you, sir.

[@rchaffer]

"Very nice box" "Top hole" "Don't think it'll be very tight for long" "Once you've slotted things in and out a few times" I'm 35. You made me 12.

[@samvimes9510]

In the 90s my dad had a Compaq with Windows 3.1, and we had this one collection called Microsoft Arcade. It came with Asteroids, Centipede, Battlezone, Tempest and Missile Command. They weren't console ports, they were built from the ground up for Windows with the goal of replicating the arcade gameplay and graphics, and they did a great job. These days we have good MAME emulators, so how hard is it to include something like that in a handheld instead of giving us subpar console ports?

[@superranderman1905]

Anyone else bugged by the "C" and "A" in "Evercade"?

[@lighterinthestorm]

Yeah, makes the logo look out of balance

[@animewolfOtakuwolf]

Metal Jesus had a talk with the developers of this machine and the reason about those games being the console version was something related to the aspect ratio of an arcade cabinet ported to a portable console screen. I preordered the Evercade myself and been loving it since I got it home.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I like Metal Jesus when he talks about old systems, and games, and I could be wrong, but I feel like when he's given product for free, he's not always giving an honest opinion for fear of not getting products in the future. So when it comes to this sort of stuff I trust Joe who runs Gamesack way more!!

[@Right_Said_Brett]

That doesn't make a lick of sense. I pretty much guarantee the reason why there's only home ports and not the arcade versions is because of licensing issues. I'm able to play arcade games perfectly well on my RG350 via MAME. If the developers of this handheld told him that and he believed it, then he's a gullible fool.

[@211inprogress]

Great timing. ☕

[@LovableAmy]

I grew up in the Super Nintendo era and love retro games, but like almost everybody else is saying. This really isn't something to spend money on when you can emulate games on every device nowadays. Back in 2018. I find a portable Atari system at Target. It had 60 or more Atari preloaded. Was about 20 bucks. Almost brought it, but then I remembered I had a PSP, 3DS, Wii U, and a laptop at home that all could emulate the Atari. I really do like that companies are making retro portable systems, but in the long run. It's just better to emulate the systems on something you already own.

[@stingersplash]

Saw Metal Jesus look at this 6 months ago I think. I was very interested. Unfortunately missed the delayed launch but got this system and all the games being delivered tomorrow from Amazon.

[@Hex51]

You trust that e begging shill lol enjoy your trash evercade

[@PkGam]

Kind' of weird it implies it'll do "Arcade" stuff by the name Ever"CADE". But from what it can do, it looks amazing! Given the limitations licenses have, it would be very unlikely to see the entire library of a console though. In fact, it looks like the games are mostly re-ports that were already being re-released in droves across many different manufacturers. Data east for instance got Retro-Bit and My Arcade, plus ported to the Wii as well. Those being just off the top of my head. Though from your review, they probably don't have as good of emulation. So if anyone were to pick one, it would be this.

[@spartonberry]

18:00 No, Piko Interactive is a company that it seems bought publishing rights to a lot of games by dead companies.

[@einstein951]

Mostly games that were never released, then "finishing" the publicly leaked prototype

[@goodolddoug889]

Thank God you pointed out it's all console ports of the games. Someone else who reviewed this didn't mention it so it was way more tempting.

[@lShishkaBerryl]

Idk, I think people are done with paying for the same game 15 times over the past 30 years. The internet is here, no reason to not go digital.

[@jimmygillard]

It's a collectors toy. First time since TLOU on PS3 I shall be buying physical again. I miss feelys.

[@stingersplash]

I don't think I've paid for any of these before.

[@Brorrowind]

>Idk, I think people are done with paying for the same game 15 times over the past 30 years. You say that, but remasters and remakes sell like hotcakes and are the current trend

[@GreatSageSunWukong]

Don't like it, thats why

[@DimT670]

@@Brorrowind yes but the whole idea with those is that they are upscale and hd or even with new textures.

[@Dar_Paz]

4 hours 20 minutes? That's lit bro! And look at that BLAZE logo on the cartridge, nice.

[@liverush24]

I'm 50-years-old and I hate Asteroids.

[@DeckerFI]

You're wide open for a dinosaur joke.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I'm 39, and always found Asteroids boring AF!!

[@tncorgi92]

They make an ointment for those.

[@swanningabout]

@@CommodoreFan64 I'm 39 and enjoy it!

[@richardwicks4190]

Remember when Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pong were basically the ONLY thing in the video arcades. God I was sick of those games.

[@Mad.maiden.miriam]

"I don't think it will be very tight for long once you start slotting things in and out" now I know why Stu refers to the evercade as a "her"

[@brianartillery]

No 'ET' game on the Atari? Denied.

[@Syntek-Alba]

Hahaha I'm sure you could dig one up.

[@bensspaceagency4606]

Hauzen Literally

[@RocketRoosterFilms]

To be fair, Universal would kill them if they tried to remind the public of this whole...adventure.

[@UnbelievablyBased]

What? You mean the game that buried the Atari?

[@swanningabout]

@@bensspaceagency4606 yes. That's the joke

[@therunawaykid6523]

A really cool idea to have cartridges with multiple games on and I really like how the carts fit flush to the back of the console. I know there are people who love old retro games but I prefer more modern up to date games so I will be getting the steam deck next year

[@paulnash9851]

Im saving my cash for the VIC-20 MINI. (Seriously, thats a thing now.) Im still pissed however there no AMSTRAD 464 mini, y'know, for the greatest home micro of all time !!!...... Why isnt someone making the damn thing ???

[@couldntmixapotnoodle]

i see these game packs in game and cex every so often, i have never seen a console in the flesh

[@jaym8299]

Do more Pound Land reviews.... PLEASE!