DF Retro Hardware - Evercade Review: The Cartridge-Based Retro Handheld That Works
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- We've had a ton of requests to take a look at Blaze's Evercade - a cartridge-based retro handheld. It's certainly a fascinating device with a unique game delivery mechanism, and the emulation is strong. DF Retro's John Linneman gives the device a thorough road-test.
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Thank you for taking the time to review our console. Great to see it put through its paces. 😊
The little retro booklets it comes with in each collection really makes me want it more. These days console gamers get just a thin sheet with warnings printed on them or DLC codes.
Or more often, NOTHING AT ALL. Even in special editions. Here is all this KAK but we can’t be asked to even give you a single piece of paper showing the controls. Just a blank empty space. Boo.
I can't get enough DF retro! Thank you, John
I watched a few videos regarding the Evercade, and yours was by far the best one and super informative.
You just got another subscriber.
Thanks for the helpful video!
The Evercade was quickly dismissed by regular people and CZcamsrs when it was first announced but now Blaze are smashing it out of the park. Great stuff. Also Boogerman is totally underrated.
Many still are dismissing it. Why? Because when you can pay $80 for a RG350 that will play games from far more systems, why would you pay that same amount for a far more limited handheld? Then you have the pleasure of having to pay $20 for each game selection that is curated solely on if they could get the licenses for them.
The device may be well built with very accurate emulation but most people aren't going to notice that difference.
Being a collector of physical games, I'm actually intrigued by those cartridges :)
Yes.
The ad worked. You've sold another Evercade. Thing looks really good!
Really cool little handheld, I’d love to get one but I know I’d never use it, so it’s not really worth the investment, but the idea of a cheap, high quality Lynx option is really enticing
It's worth the investment for others
Buy it but never play it. Just like most Steam games I own.
blitzcaster i know the feeling
Maury J. For sure
@@UltimateAlgorithm I was thinking about the hundred or so dollars on spent on mini consoles. I'd rather not think about the huge amount of money I wasted on steam games, even with the sales...
They should have added an Evercade logo to the place of the Nintendo one in Earthworm Jim, cuz this looks a bit awkward.
I don't imagine this thing selling very well but God damn do I love the visual design of the console and the packaging of its games.
Seems more of a niche thing to me. Although, if they did a cartridge with a large Speccy or Amiga collection I'd be highly tempted to get one for it's price.
lwaves that’s the great thing about it, if they can get the license they could release a pack for any system 👍🏻 Yeah would love an Amiga, Atari ST, Neo Geo if it’s powerful enough. Though highly doubtful I’d love some 3DO games like PaTaank, Return Fire or PO’ed 😁
If someone could do a cartridge with sd card slot and free to load any game... one can deam
@@hb1949 If you want that there are better handhelds out there for less money, that emulate more systems. This one's main selling point is the cartridges. The Evercade is not bad at all, but the cheap Chinese handheld market has really gotten much better over the past year or so.
If you don't want it fine! It'll make it easier for me to get one! I'm definitely buying one!
Hey John, can remember some comments you made in the past about feeling unsure about continuing to make video content because of people making negative comments about your appearance. Just wanted to say you're looking great, don't know if it's the haircut or you've been losing weight or something, but whatever it is is working.
People who take the time out of their day to intentionally insult someone based on how they look are insecure twats. Low tier trash. John should ignore them. He is a fine looking gentleman.
i dont get why some folks would do that.. the passion for video games should bring us together; no matter how one does look
Who gives a shit about how he looks,we are all here for the games
Is this really a thing? Why would anyone do that? This is a gaming channel not a beauty contest.
The people who take the time to judge others' looks aren't worth it. John looks like a perfectly fine normal dude and he does amazing work.
Got an Evercade for Christmas and I own all 14 cartridge collections. I absolutely love it. It does have some minor issues such as the screen viewing angles being limited, and very sensitive shoulder buttons, but honestly for a £60 system it is excellent. I am looking forward to the other collections due this year, and then the announcement of the Evercade VS on 23rd April. Good times :)
Ordered mine... thanks for the review!
I know you did a livestream on the VS, but with the updates and the EXP, I'd love to see a follow up one day. I think it's in a great place, and detailed feedback like this video helped it get there.
I just don’t understand the lack of button mapping. That is a huge overlook IMO and a deal breaker.
Just a heads up they have now released a button mapping update. If this was a deal breaker hopefully this gets you to give it a second look.
@@monkaWGiga It only swaps x with y and a with b. And if you want to switch back, you have to downgrade the firmware. And, for the Sega games, it does not have new mapping at all.
they fixed the sega buttons shortly after your comment
I'll wait for the Analogue Pocket that is out later this year.
Haha October 2021 now.
That Midnight Resistance music is an absolute banger
I relate to your game overload paralysis from typical emulation systems.
Dude, you sold me when I saw Weapon Lord. That was the game that prepared me for Soul Caliber. Ahead of its time indeed.
Thanks couldn't remember the name of the game. Remember having the game but not the title.
The background music makes me smile. John seems to really really like Cho Aniki :)
The Genesis audio emulation is by far the best I’ve heard on one of these handhelds. Coming from a profession musician who ADORES the original genesis sound engine. I will pick this up if it adds first party SEGA games. I need the Sonics, Toejam and Earl etc. fingers crossed!! I love the design, even the cartridge packaging takes me back. Do the box instruction manuals have that smell?? That new cart smell? That’s what I’m really after 😂
These companies need to start using 16:10 ratio as the fullscreen setting. It only puts two tiny bars on each side of the screen and the stretching is minimal.
thismeinteil do those come in mobile size? I think iPads are 4:3
I actually like the Play choice 10 palette over the more accurate one, it just pops more. Depending on the game of course.
I remember back in the days when Blaze used to do realistic like light guns.
Yo, shoutouts to that first stage theme from Burning Force.
Informative review.Mine's ordered.Its correctly priced.The possibilities are endless for this handheld
Man, Earthworm Jim still looks gorgeous after all these years
this is a cute little thing.
I wonder if they will have Amiga carts, because Amiga is still a bit of a hassle to emulate due to the disk switching and stuff. so an Amiga collection that does all of this in the background so games basically run like on any other 16bit console would be a neat thing.
I'm talking Lionheart, Turrican etc.
Never heard of whdload?
Never heard of it before but after watching I'm considering ordering one.
Watch a few more reviews. There's a lot of problems, sound issues, game crashes, etc. I cancelled my preorder
Thanks. Informative without exaggerating the positives or negatives.
Would love to see some love for the Master System. Hope they include some Sega Mark III collections in the future.
The same, I would love that.
I saw these at my local dollar market and didn't realize that they were really good?? Jeez, wow these are really cool.
Have they released to the general public yet
It hasn't been released yet and if anything the release date has now changed to a launch window of 22nd May - 6th June.
Joe from GameSack mentions quite a few emulation issues and problems with custom button layouts. Did you experience the same flaws, did you even test in that depth or did you just forget to mention it?
I find this DF review fishy.
I've been using mine for a little while now with no issues.
Great in depth video!
1:15 Skull Fang! What a kickass soundtrack
Midnight Resistance? Now we're talking. An audible delight on the Genesis.
Later iterations of this console fixed many of the issues, you are mentioning, including the video output format. Perhaps it could be worth a re-visit.
The Namco Museum Collection 2 Evercade cartridge will include the cult classic fighting game Weaponlord.
The background music under Jon sounds like my phone alarm and it's giving me flashbacks lol
Another great John Linneman video from DF!
That d-pad looks awesome! It's the one controller component which has clearly regressed since the 16 bit console era (genesis/japanese saturn the clubhouse leader)
John have been training some hand and head gestures from the legend itself
Excellent review! I've ordered the black version of the Evercade and I'm looking forward to receiving it. :)
I'm not a fan of constantly having to switch cartridges but I wouldn't mind having a cartridge for each system I wanted to play. Like a NES cartridge or a SNES cartridge with a large assortment of popular games. What would be really cool is if there was a website where you could custom choose the games you wanted to be on the cartridge and they would put them on it for you and you could purchase a custom-made cartridge with all the specific games you wanted to be on it
This device is magnificent!
So are my pimples.
Excellent video
BlAZE are fully smashing it with this one, I just might pull the trigger on one
I'm going to ask, did you guys have a video on the polymega console? I could have sworn that you guys did a video on that but then immediately pulled it from the channel for some reason
I've seen it before myself, but I can't seem to find it either? Maybe there was a issue with it and they pulled it.
@@deterlanglytone yea i thought i mistook it for another channel, but i recognized the font DF uses for its thumbnails, i also got a notification about it but it was early and didnt get to watch the video til later when it was gone.
i saw a preview on modernvintagegamer and with the issues of loading ROMs and number of emulators i can see why they pulled it, also, the console is still in beta and maybe the manufactures werent pleased with DF's assessment, it could be a number of things and it would be great to hear from DF about this, at its core, DF is an evaluation channel and im sure they did nothing wrong intentionally.
I wonder why it has the snes version of earthworm jim 2 instead of genesis
Some people find the snes version of earthworm jim 2 better than the genesis one. The sprites despite being smaller/stretched, the team that worked on the snes version put a lot of more effort onto the overall backgrounds, effects, palette, music and controls response.
It is kinda what happened on earthworm jim 1, where the genesis was clearly superior to the snes version.
Why not both
@@DespyCL then why has the Genesis version one more level, almost the same graphics and one of the few / only games that has better sounding music? Also it has more sound effects for Jim than the SNES version!
Edit: Oh I was referring to Earth Worm Jim 1. Don't know about 2 though.
@@nowonmetube Yup lol, that was 1. Earthworm jim 2 on the genesis only has better sprites/animations (a few extra frames on every sprite in comparicion to the snes ones) and higher resolution (whereas the snes one is stretched to fill a ctr screen). But again, the team worked better on the snes version, even more, it seems like the snes version was worked on first and then ported later to the genesis.
@@nowonmetube Not enough room on the carts!
Absolute blast watching. I’m now definitely interested. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I agree with the point you made of too many ROMS being paralyzing. I modded my PS Vita and put hundreds of GBA ROMS on retroarch and I barely play any of them because I can’t decide which ones to play. This system could definitely solve that issue plus I like the physical media and collectability.
Yeah I’m definitely picking one of these up now. Hadn’t considered the physical collecting aspect of it before 👍🏻
Joe over at gamesack just dumped all over this. Sound issues, high price and wrong button layouts. I'm confused
Spot the dog aye John actually went over control layout issues in his video. As for the sound issue Joe had, it does sound (heh) like he had a defective unit.
Maybe quality control isnt great where they build the evercade, or maybe it just doesnt bother this guy, or not every cart has the same emulator versions. It could be a lot of things.
He did not dump on it, he just told the truth. He did have some good things to say. But there obvious flaws with this product. Glaring flaws.
yea i was thinking this review was weird digital foundry ignored quite a lot of issue.
i tested the genesis emulator on pc and man this emulator is unstable.
@@Altseinx
If Evercade watched Game Sack, they would know sending them a defective unit is suicide.
I can't wait until he gets a Turbografx Mini to hear an honest review of the system.
I love how you slipped in Old Towers. That game is pretty sick, short but a solid feeling puzzle game.
Midnight Resistance OST Flood Of Power is such a phenomenal Soundtrack. thanks John, now this music is playing on an endless loop in my head :)
Doom 3 Retro please! Especially curious to see how they were able to get it running on the Xbox.
Also its a cool idea for Evercade cartridges having the 'brains' so to speak. Reminds me of the DSP chip on Virtua Racing back on Megadrive/Genesis
"sounds very close" ... so you're saying there's a difference?! I can't hear one.... Also, the editing to sync side by side, back and forth comparison audio like that... with one track dropping off and the next picking up without so much as a perceivable difference in track position... quite impressive. I'm sure that is pretty tedious.
John puts an insane amount of quality and attention to detail in his videos
He is most likely listening using studio monitors on an editing rig. Much more transparent and you can hear small differences.
@@UltimateAlgorithm I doubt that the speakers on this thing would even let you hear the difference.
Only audio I could even notice a difference in was the NES, and if they weren't side by side I would've never even noticed anything.
I was cleaning my glasses while John ran the side by side comparison and I was thinking "How on earth doesn't he see that the emulated image is WAY brighter?" before I put them back on and realized it was just to make it clear which was playing. I thought John's eyesight was failing him.
Are updates to introduce new settings impossible due to the emulation software being on each cart?
When it comes to retro gaming I can't help but think how much better these game would've been had they been remade for the 32 bit systems. It's almost depressing. The Sega Saturn could've been a port powerhouse for alot of games with added frames of animation and higher quality music. Instead, the Playstation dominated the market with early 3d polygonal games. Sure, it was decent back then but nowadays.....damn.
There was the shitty industry push to make every 2d franchise into 3d (some turned out great like Mario, Zelda, Metal Gear... most were terrible)
5th gen should have been the generation of ultimate 2d gaming, with limited dabbling into 3d
Cool. Kinda reminds me of a Tiger Electronics Handheld. I am grateful for this channel and all of the content you guys give us. Thanks. Actually, I'm getting Famicom vibes. Game and Watch too. I like it.
You're definitely right in saying that there'll be an audience for this but for me, the Vita is the way to go for what I'd like to emulate on the go. Lovely direction though!
There will be an audience but is it going to be large enough to make it a success? You can pick up an RG350 from Aliexpress for around the same money and it can play games from far more systems, and the games aren't going to be limited because of the licensing issues that the Evercade has to deal with.
I had some concerns about this before but after watching this video I think it looks pretty decent and with a fair price point.
“By focussing on a smaller selection of games, it became easier to enjoy each one” - this.
Do people really have that short of an attention span that they can't play a game unless they are artificially limited to it? Like many I have a large selection of ROMs and once I've started a game I like to finish it, with the occasional dive into Tetris on the Gameboy.
@@voteDC same here.
It's also such an easy "problem" to solve too... most emulator frontends like Retroarch will have a favorites or folders feature, where you can make a smaller selection of your favorite games or by genre, or whatever other criteria you want... so just use those if you want a small list, no need to delete your entire rom collection.
I pre-ordered one with all the available carts. I don't know if i will continue collecting the carts as they release but i think this is a nice way to play old games in a very focused way. With emulators i get easily distracted and never beat any thing. Here i can focus on a few games at a time and beat the games that can be beaten. Its cheap too. $20 per cart, $80 for the device. I can cherry pick future carts if i want.
Hey Digital Foundry, have you ever played Earthworm Jim?
stumbled upon this system just today and it seems very intriguing
(especially with the new firmware update for button mapping)
I don't know, if they can't be bothered to put a 4:3 screen in what is supposed to be a retro device, then to me it's a non-starter. Also the A-B-Y setup for Genesis games is terrible - wow, that is terrible. Again, that's a non-starter and such an easy issue they would have fixed.
I mean it's not THAT bad, far from unplayable, but yes not ideal. But what else could they have done, have a row of buttons on the bottom just for Gen/MD? That would have been silly.
@@retrosoul8770 What about a button layout like the Saturn 3D control pad (6 equal sized buttons on 2 parallel, diagonal rows)? This would suit SNES, PS1 etc as well (by just ignoring the two buttons to the right).
@Rod Munch Yeah, seems like a dumb decision to use a 16:9 screen on a retro handheld. This isn't going to be running PS2 or GC games anytime soon. It just means there's permanently black bars to the side of the screen. The non-symmetrical case graphic bothers me too - if the screen were 4:3, the lines could go vertical on the left as well.
My guess is based on what I've heard from other handheld makers. It's a necessary evil to help keep costs down. Getting good 4:3 screen nowadays is very expensive, since there's very little need for them. Since screen manufacturers produce 16:9 screens almost exclusively, it's far cheaper and easier to just use them, and set aspect ratio through software. Just be glad they cared enough to offer 4:3 and not take the lazy way out by auto stretching everything.
Rod Munch I suspect it was to support PSP games, which is also why the screen is 480x272p. Also, 16:9 screens are super common these days and really cheap, but 4:3 screens are rare and expensive.
Out of all the new retro offerings that have come out in recent years this is the one that piques my interest the most. I haven't really felt compelled to buy any of the retro systems as I have a rpi. However this one seems to offer a lil more. An experience thats unique enough to stand out with a gimmick that actually appeals to me with the offering of carts from all sorts of systems and developers. It just feels like it was made by enthusiasts who "get it" and that matters. I'll be picking this one up forsure.
Seems to me like it offers less than anything else as far as flexibility and features. If it took an ever drive or SD card it would be a day one purchase.
I wonder how long it will take someone to release an SD cart for it.
or make an Evercade emulator
yea i was thinking this review was weird digital foundry ignored quite a lot of issue.
i tested the genesis emulator on pc and man this emulator is unstable.
to my ear, the audio from the Evercade has less dynamic range/more compression than the real hardware, however the Analogue consoles seem to be in the middle regarding this.
Excellent content as always!
The everCADE with home console ports instead of the arCADE versions. Ummm. Anyone see the problem here?
My Sega Master System has been retro for decades and uses cartridges. Whoop Dee doo.
Finally a hand held that lets me play inferior versions of arcade games. My dream has come true.
"Inferior" is actually relative. Sure, the visuals and audio are below the standard of the arcade originals, but the difficulty of console ports is often balanced to be playable with the alloted number of credits (or with one credit), while arcade versions are designed to be coin hogs.
@@jamyskis Agree. I always walked away frustrated at the arcade because I never had enough quarters or tokens to beat any of them. They always seemed more difficult in sometimes cheap ways than the console versions. They looked so good, though!
PLEASE do a DF Retro on DOOM 3!
Ah Burning Force, one of my favorite Mega Drive games. It's a great arcade port and have a soundtrack that fits the console sound hardware perfectly. No way in hell that could be ported to the SNES and sound as good.
the snes had far superior sound chip to the genesis so i think it would of been more than possible.
@@Fezzy976 Yeah, as great as the Genesis can sound, the SNES uses PCM, so literally any sound is possible.
Check out Best of Super Sonic, by Mathew Valente. He recreated a bunch of Sonic tracks from the Genesis and Sega CD on the SNES, and they sound remarkably close.
@@Fezzy976 Show me a Snes game with music as good as Streets Of Rage 2.
SNES and its S-SMP sound chip was great at original music, but it struggled with certain arcade ports.
Genesis rarely reproduced arcade sound 100% accurately, but was the closest of the two since the hardware was the similar X68K/Z80/Yamaha combo found in arcades of the day
Finally some Lynx love. Such an underrated console. (Albeit a little googling reveals their first Lynx collection is super-random and doesn’t contain any of the system’s most iconic or launch titles. We need Electrocop, Gates of Zendocon, Chip’s Challenge et al.)
Lynx collection 2 announced for evercade. Later this year.
There are 2 deal breakers for me. It should have a 4:3 screen, and it should charge via usb-c.
4:3 wouldn't really have worked given they want to more than just console platforms. Like vertical shooters from the arcade will be better played with this arrangement, the same with the planned Lynx games that are coming to the platform.
If this was just for 8bit/16bit console games, then I would've agreed with you but since it's not, I don't. But you're right about usb-c, I wish that manufacturers would just abandon the micro, c is just better from a durability and a power viewpoint.
Nice handheld, didn't know about this one. When do you review the MiSTer? 🙂
It's an interesting handheld for sure. It would be good if they released a more powerful one in the future that was compatible with those cartridges so that it would have better graphical effects and also have a better screen as well with a button remapping option included. Also putting the ability to play more powerful consoles on it as well, such as Dreamcast, Gamecube, PS1, PS2, Xbox, Saturn, 32X, Jaguar etc.
Nice camera, man. Very high quality DF Retro.
This actually got me interested. Would there be world wide shipping?
For me:
Pros: -Good choice of emulators.
- Its aesthetics and design.
Cons: -Weird button mapping (For example, in a 3DS always choose the Y, B & A for Genesis emulators A, B, and C)
-Its screen but in new versions can be replaced.
- Lack of options for scaling and the previously mentioned.
- Some hadware and software flaws (Joe from Game Sack exposed more)
The price can be good, but having a lot of chinese handheld consoles that can have more options, do more things and sometimes better than the Evercade, maybe it doesn't have a lot of chance. Maybe they will release fixed version in next cartridges, allowing more options.
BTW, I'm suspecting they're using the CSNES for SNES emulation, made by Near (formerly Byuu) for commercial use. It aims for speed and performance while maintaining a high level of accuracy
Nice review which I originally watched back in April 2020.... a couple of firmware updates have fixed a few bugs, and added button mapping to certain games.
However, I think that certain issues you brought up such as changeable scaling options are more for the companies behind the cartridges to sort out if they feel it necessary, as that's the medium where the emulator for the particular collection of games lies..... The cartridge needs to set the resolution/scaling as it's surely emulator bound, whereby the Evercade console is just the medium for those emulators/games to play within...?
Maybe as more games get released these things will improve....
I got my Evercade Premium pack a few days ago, and I must say that so far, I'm very impressed - just using the built-in screen - and have a couple of extra cartridges bought seperately, and should have the new Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood tomorrow.
It's a great 'retro' system, at a good price, and with a great tangible way to collect both old and new games. :-)
I thought it was $100 just for the unit but finding out it also includes 3 games it's definitely a day one purchase. I hope we get to see more obscure titles or those rare games that are to expenses in the retro scene.
I say it's not worth it I rather have a handheld console that has 500 games on it.
JUST ...
John have you ever done a room tour, would be cool to see your setup, tv, reciever speakers etc
That's a great idea! Showing an ideal setup for retro gaming.
If he's anything like me, a tour would be out-of-date within a few days :)
3.5mm headphone jack. 3.5 inch would be something!
We've made a video on our channel if you're experiencing issues when using HDMI mini cable on the Evercade. So audio and video issues are resolved , hope it helps anyone
I find it odd that Digital Foundry of all people don't mention whether all the games are running at 50hz or 60hz, you'd think that this is a big part of the emulation quality. It's super important to us PAL users.I know they did some music comparisons, but that doesn't mean all games run at 60hz, some games show letterboxing as well.
And you still haven't addressed the #1 issue with this entire machine: lack of 2-player mode. I'd think that would have been the very first thing you'd talk about, and at least mention it in the intro as the primary drawback to the system. Do the carts themselves have 2-player mode built in, leaving open the possibility of an Evercade 2 supporting multiplayer? I wish that were addressed.
I have mine preordered and am really hoping more old school license holders jump in! I'd love some NeoGeo (hopefully it can handle them) and CPS2 titles here. However, the micro USB charging port is disappointing. They really should have gone with USB-C. It's 2020!
That death in Dig Dug though.
wait how is that possible concerning the legal issues with copyright infringement by most of the company like Sega, Nintendo and Sony? do megacat evercade company make a deal with them first or just doing it illegally??
This was also my big question while watching this. I would hope they're licensed, but I don't see Nintendo wanting to play nicely in that regard.
The lines running up next to the side of the screen was a bad decision.
I think the Playchoice-10 palette is a proper RGB palette for the NES. Composite video and its muted colors aren't exactly what you want.
Love it. Ordered it!
0:55 Wow, which version of Magical Chase is this John?
savaged regime's mega drive cover
I like the look of the D-pad, always preferred floating Dpads to the cross type
I got very distracted when you started using music from the amazing double dragon neon soundtrack