Nothing but the Coronavirus can slow this handheld.
I pre-ordered the Evercade console back when it first came up for purchase and frankly I have plenty of things to distract me from the fact that this console has been delayed multiple times. Am I saying that I would turn down a preview unit? No, but here at MMO Fallout we don’t get those kind of things. Also I managed to order the black unit before it ran out of stock and come hell or high tide I’m going to get my hands on that black Evercade.
What the frick is the Evercade, I hear you asking. The Evercade is the latest retro handheld with a twist. It is in production by some folks at a place and the basic idea of the handheld is that it uses cartridges. Not old cartridges, but new cartridges. Yes, it is a handheld with actual legal licenses of games.
The cartridges are all collections by various publishers including a few really special ones. You’ve got the usual suspects; Atari and Namco have multiple packs coming out with a crapload of games on them. Atari has two carts coming out with 20 games per cart, at $20 per cart, it’s not a bad deal. The other names include Namco, Data East, Interplay, Mega Cat, and more.
What especially got my attention on the Evercade was the selection of games. Yea, we’ve seen Atari collections on every system going back to the Atari. But then you have Data East putting out two carts with games like Bad Dudes/Two Bad Dudes, Joe & Mac, Midnight Resistance, etc. You’ve got Interplay putting out carts with Clay Fighter, Earthworm Jim, Boogerman, and Incantation among others. Claymates. The Brainies. Stuff you don’t see packed into the usual classic collections as much.
And then you have Piko Interactive. Piko Interactive is a company that specializes in publishing games that were cancelled before release or were only released in certain territories, and also for bringing old games to new systems. So the Piko cartridge contains games you most likely have never heard of including Brave Battle Saga which is a really good looking RPG formerly only available in China. $20 for the cart, 20 games in the cart. Mega Cat Studios has Coffee Crisis, Little Medusa. All kinds of fun stuff.
Back in December the Evercade was delayed from March to April due to issues with the Evercade screen popping up alongside Chinese New Year when the plants were closed. Now that the screen is fixed, the problem is due to the Coronavirus (you’ll need to search deep into the news to find coverage of this) shutting down big parts of China. Nothing that could have been avoided. Now it’s not coming out until May. But all buyers get a shiny coin.
To soften the blow of this delay, Evercade has made a few announcements to soften another fear that customers might have, which is will this device have post-launch support or is the first set of carts all we’re going to get. The answer is yes and no in that order. The first post-launch cartridge is the Atari Lynx of all things. The Lynx cartridge contains 17 games including Dracula Undead.
The second cartridge is an oddity, a two-game mix of Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood. Neither of these games are retro titles, but they are modern games (2018-2020) built for the Sega Genesis and released on cartridges. It’s a good deal considering both games are roughly $20 on their own.
I want to make a regular column on Sundays for Retro games (because there isn’t much MMO news on the weekend), so I’ll talk about the Evercade more once I get my hands on it.
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