I received a wonderful surprise a few months ago from my good friend and all round technical grandmaster Wouter who also shares a love of gaming.
The Evercade handheld is designed to appeal to individuals who fondly remember cartridge based games from their youth, by providing a legal route to rediscover such memories.
Wouter has shared his thoughts on this device via a well crafted post which I broadly agree with.
There is a large potential market of individuals who fondly remember certain games from their youth, but without the means to easily revisit such titles easily.
Analogue occupies the high end of this space, for the connoisseurs who have the time, money and level of insight required to make the investment required. (Mostly money, in this case)
Another example is the MiSTer FPGA system which definitely requires time, money and insight to get the most from.
The Evercade handheld is from Blaze that caters more to people that want an quick and easy route back into retro games.
Looking at the actual device the design feels retro inspired in a non-specific way, whilst certainly not attempting to be seen as a premium device in the way the Analogue Pocket does.
Playing with the device is a fairly decent experience. The buttons feel pretty solid, not too spongy. However I’ve found the d-pad is a little indecisive, especially when it comes to accurately attempting diagonal movements.
One of the key reasons I was excited about this device was to play Cannon Fodder which I’ve long held a love for.
It appears they’ve ported the well received SNES port as part of the Codemasters collection. As far as a non-mouse controlled console port can handle, it does a pretty good job.
The graphics are as clear and vibrant as I remember, with crisp sound effects and pleasing familiar music.
Of course, it doesn’t quite match playing on the Amiga with an actual mouse - but then I don’t think anything other than the authentic experience could or should.
Overall I think the Evercade mostly delivers on what it has set out to do, which is provide a reasonably priced way to enjoy a wide range of retro games legally.
