You might have figured that the days of the cartridge-based game system were coming to an end, especially with the proliferation of cheap hard drives and disc-based media. The Nintendo Switch being the only outlier because of its portable nature and Nintendo, well, being Nintendo.
But things are about to change as a new gaming handheld is entering the gaming scene this year. The Evercade is a portable console that uses physical media to play games both on the TV and on the go. We’ve seen lots of these types of consoles over the years in many forms, but the Evercade is the first in a long while to require game carts to be inserted to play games.
This is clearly a console aimed at retro enthusiasts as most of the games that are currently on tap can be found in a digital format on one, or all of the major consoles of the day. Still, as someone who worries about the availability of games I enjoy being gone, vanishing from the cloud as if they never existed, the Evercade has piqued my interest.
One of the neatest things is that the games being released are all coming from major and classic third-party publishers. But instead of a single game coming to a cartridge, we are getting game packs from a few specific publishers. Reports indicate that each pack contains between 6 – 20 games for around $20.
In time for launch users can expect to see packs from Namco, Interplay, Technos, and Atari, with some of them getting multi-pack sets. For more modern flair there will be packs from independent retro publishers Mega Cat Studios and Piko Interactive. Each cart will also come in its own clamshell case with art and instruction book.
People who love boxes on their shelves are going to really love this. As for specs you can enjoy on-the-go gaming on the 4.3″ screen with a battery life of 4 hours. But while not on the go you have the option of using an HDMI cable to plug the console into your TV.
The console also features dual speakers on the front and what the makers claim is a “responsive D-pad” that is designed to feel like classic consoles. I’ve said for years that console manufacturers have seemed to forget how to produce a good D-pad, so I can’t wait to someday get my hands on this little thing and find out.
The Evercade is set for release in April of 2020, so you won’t have to wait all that long before getting your hands on it. It’s a busy year for gaming consoles so this one might get lost in the shuffle. Still, it’s one to keep an eye on and maybe we’ll get our hands on one around E3 time.
You can pre-order the Evercade here: https://evercade.co.uk/
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