Evercade: The Future Needs Upgrades

Yeah I'd buy and Evercade VS 2 in a heartbeat. It has to be back-compatible though yes.

I think they had to remake the exp so many faulty ones got out, hardy used mine and the batteries dead I go online and it's a common problem.

Thanks for the insight. I enjoy your perspective because I'm just now starting to get into Evercade. As a newcomer it's a fascinating corner of gaming. I'll admit, the Legacy of Kain game is the attraction for a newbie like me. Perhaps this will start a new wave of gamers which will help Blaze obtain more titles and perhaps new hardware? Just spitballing thoughts here. I have no arguments to your video.

At the moment Blaze are struggling to meet the pre-orders for the Evercade VS-R which was a zero effort re-release of the OG VS. I'd dread to think what issues they'd have trying to release new upgraded tech and it also makes me concerned about the EXP-R and Alpha festive period releases. Frankly, I think they're out of their depth. Let's see how they do with their current gen releases they've promised before thinking about what's next. Fundamentally I still agree with you that more capable hardware is needed, I'm just not sure that Blaze is the company to deliver it. Keep up the awesome work PK!

Glover really pee'd me off to the point I have not touched it after only playing it for 5 minutes!! It's NOT the N64 game we were promised, it's an exclusive version for Evercade. 😡

I haven't gotten to Piko 4 yet, but I had already ripped the cart, so I had to check if Glover was a N64 rom or not.... and it wouldn't run in a regular N64 emulator. It doesn't exactly mean it's running it natively (which it could be), but at the very least enough tweaking was made to the rom to make it unrecognizable without a custom emulator.

Personally, I'm not really interested in playing Glover or any N64 game on the Evercade. I'd be fine with it if they'd just stick to stuff that would run well on the system without giving us an inferior version of a game just because the best version wouldn't run well on it. Legacy of Kain is fine... but the PS1 version of Soul Reaver?

In regards to why would anyone buy certain collections on evercade. Referring to legacy of kain and tomb raider. Because Most of us evercade owners are going for a full set and it's about owning that physical media. Not to mention those sweet save states. I don't care to download them because I'm all about physical media. But I definitely agree on a much more powerful evercade someday. I'm beyond fed up with the constant never ending hardware variants. I have the original. The VS and The EXP. That's all I need. I have no desire to get the super pockets and I am never going to buy an Evercade alpha. Absolute waste of money. I know if I ever bought it. I'd play it for a few weeks then Most likely never play it again while thinking that was a waste of £200. I know some collectors are a bit ocd with wanting to buy everything evercade related but that is not the case for me. Just a full cartridge set and that's it.

Blaze seem to have stretched themselves too thin with hardware. They need to concentrate ensuring their core hardware works and good carts.

I'd have to disagree a bit only through my personal tastes, I'm so happy to get tomb raider and legacy of kain: blood omen, on my evercade. On the go on my Exp and the save on the cart to stick in my vs and continue. (that's the main pull for me) (don't care as much for soul Reaver though, it's just a nice bonus) And I'd rather the psone version too rather than the dream cast version. I love the wobbly walls!!!
Remember, Everyone complained when they thought blaze was bringing out a more powerful system. I would imagine if Evercade is still going down the line m, and people haven't got bored and moved on like they always do, we will get a more powerful machine, I would love one personally, but bear in mind when asked most fans DIDN'T want that.
I adore psone era so the more the better, for me personally. But thats just me. There's just something about the wobbly walls in psone 3d games that I can't resist. Love it haha.
I do have a ps3, but many don't nowadays, which is a shame as it was the best playstation in m book. Especially if you can score an original that plays ps2 games.

We do not need a more powerful evercade. We need more collections 10 a year is just not enough. Also dont compare evercade to digital as it defeats the point

Awesome video PK! I feel they need to move onto a 2nd updated console but have backwards compatibility with the OG carts.

You need to stop being a Whiny Wendel and become an Enthusiastic Ed, or you can do whatever you want.

Blaze should just go back to doing what there good at and that's just getting more games out , if we were going to get get an EXP 2 just use a H700 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53. with 1 GB of Ram , that would be more than enough processing power to emulate 80% of the N64 library as well as 70% of the Dreamcast library and PSP , instead we're just getting remakes of items we have already in a different colour , perhaps if the new EXP had an 8 inch screen it would have been worth buying but as it stands it's not worth it imo.

“inside job”

“Blaze entertainment”

I have not been playing my Evercade much recently and I have not been buying any games for it.

I cancelled my Tomb Raider order due to the current unfulfilled order fiasco and nothing but silence about it from Blaze until the better part of a week later. I am looking forward to The Legacy Of Kain and Toaplan Arcade Collection 3 though, if we can actually get a copy before the end of the year. 🤞 (sigh)....

Evercade has been kinda meh this year. I'm bored. I have bought next to nothing this year. All this hardware is pointless to me. All the blue carts kinda suck. I want more modern indie games and more arcades.

If ed is saying it's a bad year you know it's gotta be bad. Ed is a super fan.

Glover was also released on the ps1. It could be that rom

I don’t mind what they’re doing. It’s majority pretty decent. Some of the collections aren’t for me, so I’m not going for a complete set at all.

I am one of the few that has a complete collection if not counting TR and Thalamus which i'm getting this week. I was raised in the 8-bit and 16-bit era and the nostalgia of having physical media and a manual is what got me in. I don't have a whole collection because of a completionist attitude but in discovering games that I either i've never heard of or games that I have heard of but never played. Blaze giving me that opportunity to do this is really unique and they have made a market for themselves because of this. Sure, some games aren't great, but you never know until you play them.

Maybe Evercade has just run its course? I became interested in one again after the Renovation collection came out. I totally don't need it but.... I notice the release date on the newest handheld just got pushed to late November.

I became a fan of Evercade quickly. I love retro gaming and I love the idea of an Emulation machine for official releases. Every game is licensed, meaning when you buy , you really own a copy of that game, compared to the chinese emulator consoles from wish. For me Duke Nukem was the Jumping in point. I even managed to get the special edition VS. I find it with evercade, that as the years go on, they are able to get bigger and bigger licenses (Duke, Tomb Raider, and Kain being to biggest so far), but it goes at the expense of the quantity of the collections. I have no problem with it though, because it's always going to be quality over quantity for me. As for the Console variant, I have to admit, I aggree with you, we don't really need 100 different console variants, but somewhere it is nice to have them, because without the Duke special edition VS i wouldn't have jumped in.

Evercade would excite me more if they shifted focus to arcade games from the 90s that never got a home release (imagine if they could work out a licensing deal with Sega). This push toward now becoming a PS1-lite isn't my jam.

I'm only buying the Evercade VS-R console for Legacy of Kain and save state function was a bonus, however my Evercade VS-R console is yet to be delivered.

Yea, i agree. I know that most probably they do NOT want to create second line of the products, with stronger cpu, with exclusive carts BUT imho, that's the way it should be.

If they could put a little bit stronger cpu, i don't know increase the price of ie. VS II, from 100 $ (VS) to like hmm 150-160 $, they could put the CPU that would be able to:
- play more amiga games (yea, niche but still)
- play 70-80 % of N64 library
- play 50-70 % of Dreamcast
- play 50-70 % of PSP
- play hmm 20-30 % of Saturn maybe

I mean, they should name current line something like 16bit and offer 8bit, 16bit systems carts BUT at the same time they should create stronger line called ie. 32bit and have exclusive carts there made from PSX, PSP, Dreamcast, N64 games etc.

Right now it seems that they got bored a bit with 8bit, 16bit, so they try to put some 32bit games on the platform that is simply too weak to handle it.

Ayyy another evercade hit, video!

Blaze are going to make a more powerful console, the new CEO at blaze did a interview and said he wants to make a console as powerful as the PS3 and Xbox 360 at some point.

i think youre missing the point of evercade...one of the items that makes it so special is the physical carts and option for collecting...there are a dozen ways to play the original Tomb Raider games (and most other games available on Evercade), some with enhanced graphics, extra features and such, so feel free to use any of them, but lets not turn Evercade into just another game system, pc, looking for the latest and greatest iterations of gaming, downloads, DLC, online requirement, etc but rather an alternative retro system that lets you own actual cartridges again...

They most bring out a brand new Evercade with a screen big like the Nintendo Swith and so fast also!!

There’s been zip all for Evercade this year. I want more Arcade compilations for big companies not Amiga games.

maybe some of us like the pixellated look of the PS1 ;-)
I am pretty sure the Evercade is strong enough for Dreamcast (easy to emulate) and security is no argument, as the roms of nearly all the games are already on the internet and cheap chinese handhelds. On Evercade, they can at least earn some money with the licensing

Seeing how we're about to hit the 5th anniversary of Evercade next year, I feel like they might be saving some good stuff, until then. That's just me speculating, of course.

And I'm speaking for myself here, but while I understand why some folks feel like 2024 has sucked when it comes to being an Evercade fan, I'm not really pissed or truly disappointed honestly.

Regarding hardware, I remember thinking that it was strange that Blaze announced the 'R versions' of the EXP and VS, but at the end of the day, they're both just refreshes they made, due to expired licenses, that they're not forcing on you and I can get with that. I own the original versions of both systems and I'm content with both.

And while the Evercade Alpha cabinets are not things that I plan on getting for myself anytime soon, I still think that they're cool and they may find an audience (albeit small) once they're released.

Now regarding the games output for Evercade this year, it has been pretty meh with all honesty, but for me, that's okay. My backlog's already huge to begin with for other systems I own, so taking a break from Evercade to play something else is fine with me.

Once Capcom announced the arcade collections and remembered that I owned the capcom arcade stadium, I cancelled my evercade alpha pre order.

The evercade fanbase set the quality bar so low you could give them a dumpster fire and they would buy it, they just want a reason to collect anything.

I think that the ONE thing Blaze need to do right now, is FOCUSING on their ecosystem itself and solidify what they already have. I've said many times in the past that Blaze need to STOP with all these variants and updated models and new things. They're NOT Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft. They have limited resources and they should be putting all their efforts into improving what they already have instead of trying to fire in all directions. Especially since every new thing they put out apparently need its own variant of the Evercade OS and all have their own issues to troubleshoot. They're just running a recipe that will continually result in more support needed without them having the resource to address everything. And it actually makes me LESS confident in their brand because of that. They litterally "jumped the shark" with the Alphas....

Why does the VS-R still use micro USB? We're in 2024, for F sake. Why can't they bundle a power adapter with the thing? At least they could sell an official one to avoid all the issues many people seems to have in finding a good one that works well (some will work for gameplay but will not provide enough juice for running updates and risk messing up carts or system). A decent company would have spent resources into improving its product over time. There is NO excuse for the VS-R not having USB-C. There is also no excuse for them for never improving their standard gamepads as well. They're ok, but come on, we all know they can be better. Also, where are the official wireless Evercade gamepads? And most people would've LOVED an official Evercade arcade stick instead of seeing those Alphas.... And why are they still using TRS audio jacks on their portables instead of TTRS like every modern device since 20 years?

And don't get me started on them using el-cheapo chinese flash memory prone to failure. Anyone having experience with buying cheap flash USB units in bulks from chinese vendors will tell you that there is a HUGE percentage of failure rate on those. Why can't Evercade put some resources into quality control instead of developping new consoles that nobody asked for and then having the need for people to support all those systems and their firmwares and issues?

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE what Blaze set out to do for retro gaming, but it looks to me like the business is run by an amateur, given they're driving themselves directly into an unsustainable model.

The only new VS or EXP we needed were not "stripped down" versions. We needed "deluxe", modern versions made for retro-gaming fans living in 2024. We needed Blaze to fix all those little quirks their systems had when they were released.... years ago. Modern revisions that are more reliable and work better. Not "cheaper" versions that are the same things only in a different colour, with no built-in games (EXP-R).

I feel sometimes that chinese manufacturers like Ayn, Retroid and Anbernic gives us better build quality hardware than Blaze, which should'nt be the case as Blaze touts themselves as a "legit" retro company that sells "licensed" games. People who encourage companies like Blaze should get something that feels BETTER than chinese companies putting consoles for "unlicensed" play.

I don't know if we actually need a more powerful platform. I mean, It's nice to have more power of course, but there's still so much they should FIX RIGHT NOW that they didn't, that I don't really trust them to actually deliver a true upgrade.... without it feeling a bit too little too late....

Sorry for the long rant... ;)

Glover on Piko collection 4 is actually an N64 ROM and is run with the mupen64 core. You can check the cartridge files and see for yourself.