Evercade?!

[Hydro Thunder]

I have had terrific luck with Songbird for most of my Evercade stuff.  Went to Funstock for the Namco carts since they're not technically distributed to the US, and had a good experience with them also.

Best Buy is throwing their hat in the ring more than previously (they used to just have the Premium system IIRC, now they have more carts and take pre-orders for future ones).  I'd support a small business run by a game industry veteran like Songbird before any of the other options though.  ?

[Songbird]

Thanks, I appreciate that! I am doing my best to keep Evercade items in stock, but my presales are fairly small so I don't get a large allocation at distribution. It's a finely tuned, highly chaotic process.

 

[Songbird]

Good news: I just got a small resupply on Indie Heroes and Worms. I'm also expecting a few more next week, but once they are gone, I can't restock until November when the VS launches. Grab them if you need them!

 

 

[wolfy62]

On 8/10/2021 at 5:15 AM, jgkspsx said:

I have started ordering exclusively through Songbird, and have had no problems getting carts on time. Amazon is so weird about Evercade stuff.

Ditto on this!

Songbird has been excellent for me.??

[Swami]

Finally cancelled my Amazon order for indie and worms and ordered through funstock since songbird was out. I’ll just order through Songbird now, I expect. 

[Songbird]

We did sell out of our last Indie Heroes stock today, however I just posted the remaining units which will be available by Aug 20. Again, this is the last batch until November. Thanks everyone!

[Parker77]

I pre-ordered the VS Founders, and ended up picking up the handheld because it was on offer for £60.00 with three carts. The carts are a mixed bag - some of the stuff on the Piko Vol. 1 cart is truly dire, but the stuff included with the VS is solid, and the inclusion of some truly lesser-known titles on the Gaelco cart is really interesting. The new Renovation Collection has some brilliant stuff as well.

I got rid of my collection some 15 years ago, so for me this is just a nice, affordable way to build up a little hoard. Yeah, I've got a modded Wii U, but it's just not the same.

[roots.genoa]

Early on, the Piko Vol.1 was among the most popular carts because it features some nice stuff, but I agree it's a mixed bag and I didn't bought it at first. But compilations tend to inherently be mixed bags anyway, except maybe the Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood cart which only includes two games, but great ones (imho). But that's also part of the charm I guess, trying to find the sometimes unexpected hidden gems in each compilation.

 

Like I said, I was not completely sold on Piko Vol.1 at first but I was pleasantly surprised by Tinhead for instance. Dorke and Ymp is pretty but tedious, and even though I played Power Piggs a lot more than I should, it's rather forgettable. I spent quite some time with Switchblade too, which I found weird in an interesting way. But I'm not sure I even tried half of the games in there.

[wolfy62]

4 hours ago, Parker77 said:

I pre-ordered the VS Founders, and ended up picking up the handheld because it was on offer for £60.00 with three carts. The carts are a mixed bag - some of the stuff on the Piko Vol. 1 cart is truly dire, but the stuff included with the VS is solid, and the inclusion of some truly lesser-known titles on the Gaelco cart is really interesting. The new Renovation Collection has some brilliant stuff as well.

I got rid of my collection some 15 years ago, so for me this is just a nice, affordable way to build up a little hoard. Yeah, I've got a modded Wii U, but it's just not the same.

This is why the carts are so affordable,because a lot of the games are simply forgotten or not very good.

I personally love my Evercade for the hidden gems and the random games I do find that are mixed in on various cartridges that I do find to be a lot of fun.

Plus the whole nostalgic feel of a boxed cart with an instruction booklet is still fun to pick up for me.

Have fun,for the most part you will enjoy it!?

[+jgkspsx]

I love the majority of the games on Piko 1. Exploding Fist and Magic Girl are the only ones I really hate. Let’s go through the list to make sure I’m being honest.

 

8 Eyes - disgustingly cruel Castlevania clone. Save states make it more playable, but this is why Game Genies were essential.

 

Brave Battle Saga - fun little Final Fantasy clone.

 

Canon – Legends of the New Gods - surprisingly great strategy RPG

 

Drakkhen - I’m not going to claim this is great, but c’mon, it’s not as bad as it is reputed to be.

 

Dragon View - the best parts of Drakkhen with really solid beat em up battles. Really great game. 
 

Dorke and Ymp - unfinished but fun once you learn how to attack.

 

Iron Commando - overly difficult but good looking beat em up.

 

The Immortal - AWESOME but sadistic strategic action RPG.

 

Jim Power – The Lost Dimension - okay, this is miserably hard, but save states make it at least as playable as it can be without cheat devices.

 

Magic Girl - okay, this has no redeeming qualities.

 

Nightshade - hilarious and interesting point and click adventure with janky but manageable fighting sequences. Possibly the most fun NES game discovery I’ve made as an adult.

 

Power Piggs of the Dark Ages - unfinished and janky, this reminds me of Bubsy without the redeeming qualities. Yes, I meant what I typed. Still, it’s not without some fun.
 

Power Punch II - unplayably hard Punch Out clone. Or is that the Mega Cat one? I suck at both. But then I suck at Punch Out, so I’m loathe to call it awful.

 

Radical Rex - you are not actually stuck. you can bounce on the plants. I like this one a lot.

 

Switchblade - this is a fantastic game once you learn how to play it. Genuine classic.

 

The Humans - I prefer the Jaguar and Lynx versions, but this is fun particularly with save state abuse to save you from fiddly jumps.

 

Tinhead - overly hard in the late game, this looks, sounds, and plays great for most of the runtime. If you have a soft spot for Euro platformers this is a great time.

 

Top Racer - great racing game, better known as Top Gear.

 

Way of the exploding fist - broken NES prototype, beatable by simply jump kicking endlessly.

 

Water Margin - a really fun Taiwanese beat em up.

 

Yeah, I stand by my earlier statements. Without save states I would have had a lot less fun, but why not use them?

[Video]

With getting stuff once ordered, I've had no problems with Amazon. That's how I've gotten the bulk of my stuff. Now finding a game is another matter. You just have to go back week after week until it goes to an actual preorder, instead of the "preorder, currently unavailable" thing they do for week, or sometimes months at a time. Remember, most new games are just a preorder and will come out like six months from now. Still, a bit weird to have a preorder be 'unavailable' (the whole idea of a preorder is to determine quantity needed, having a preorder you can't, makes no sense)

 

Space cat is a definite favorite so far, but I'm a big puzzle fan anyhow so...:p

[+jgkspsx]

I haven’t played everything on the Indie Heroes cart yet but so far Flea is by far my favorite. Great game feel.

[BrianC]

The soundtrack is the best part of Jim Power. Is Pyramids of Ra on any of the carts? The NES version came with my Everdrive N8 Pro from Stone Age Gamer. Nice game, but I was disappointed with how it was "finished" compared to the prototype. No sound effects, a SGB style palette (honestly, the grayscale of the NES proto looks better), and a single tune taken from the GB version that plays non-stop with no way to turn it off since the sound menu from the proto (which is silent, but has a sound menu similar to the one in the GB version) was removed. 

[7800Knight]

Soon, I'll be pre-ordering the Intellivision and Bitmap Brothers collections via Amazon.

 

I will also be keeping my ears open for what's next; I am eager to see what Evercade has in store for us next year in 2022!

[King_Salamon]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:17 AM, jgkspsx said:

I haven’t played everything on the Indie Heroes cart yet but so far Flea is by far my favorite. Great game feel.

All I've managed to do with Indie Heroes so far is read the manual for a short bit.  I've been busy that I haven't had a chance to try out the games and there are a bunch I really want to play.  Quest Arrest and Anguna are two at the top of my list.

 

I keep pre-ordering the new releases and during the winter months I'll have more time to play my Evercade.  Speaking of new releases... did you see the packaging for the Founders Edition of the VS?  Looks pretty cool... I'm going to have some serious fun with that system this winter!  And to think I wasn't going to get a Founders Edition but decided to get one instead of a regular one... the black console with the red looks pretty sharp.

[Tanooki]

Which Jim Power is on that?  Each console got their own stylized version, not just lousy straight ports.  I have the NES one and it's not impossibly hard, but it is a very high quality release I could totally see being out back in the early 90s on the NES it's that well made.  I just don't give that level of credit but rarely to homebrew projects as most are just lacking sadly.

[+jgkspsx]

SNES one, I believe.

[RREDDWARFF]

I just purchased this a couple of days ago. I saw it on eBay with all of these games (1-16) included, so I figured it would be a good jumpstart to my collection. I didn't plan on getting the portable console, just the VS system, but when I saw it matched my pre-ordered VS Founder Edition I couldn't resist.

 

I must say that so far I'm really impressed. The screen looks great and it's much larger than I expected. Anyhow, happy to join the party although a little late.

[+GoldLeader]

2 minutes ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I just purchased this a couple of days ago. I saw it on eBay with all of these games (1-16) included, so I figured it would be a good jumpstart to my collection. I didn't plan on getting the portable console, just the VS system, but when I saw it matched my pre-ordered VS Founder Edition I couldn't resist.

 

I must say that so far I'm really impressed. The screen looks great and it's much larger than I expected. Anyhow, happy to join the party although a little late.

 

Nice!

 

Can't beat that!

[+jgkspsx]

Funnily enough, I am keeping the VS white console to match MY handheld

[RREDDWARFF]

11 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Funnily enough, I am keeping the VS white console to match MY handheld

Right, makes sense to me. ?

Edited August 26, 2021 by RREDDWARFF

[King_Salamon]

10 hours ago, RREDDWARFF said:

I just purchased this a couple of days ago. I saw it on eBay with all of these games (1-16) included, so I figured it would be a good jumpstart to my collection. I didn't plan on getting the portable console, just the VS system, but when I saw it matched my pre-ordered VS Founder Edition I couldn't resist.

 

I must say that so far I'm really impressed. The screen looks great and it's much larger than I expected. Anyhow, happy to join the party although a little late.

Welcome to the world of Evercade!  Seems like even though I played a ton of games over the years.... there are always some gems to be found in these carts that you had no clue about.  I even had a few games that I dismissed because I thought the game wouldn't be good and when I gave the game a few minutes, it turned into an hour or two.  lol

 

Enjoy the fun!!

[King_Salamon]

3 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Funnily enough, I am keeping the VS white console to match MY handheld

I went and got the Founders Edition of the VS but have the standard handheld... I guess I'm weird.  lol  

[Tanooki]

@RREDDWARFF Wow what a snag with 16 games too.  I imagine that didn't come cheap seeing as I haven't seen a bunch of the things change hands and sales don't happen a whole lot either on the new stuff.  Good eye and timing.

[RREDDWARFF]

1 minute ago, Tanooki said:

@RREDDWARFF Wow what a snag with 16 games too.  I imagine that didn't come cheap seeing as I haven't seen a bunch of the things change hands and sales don't happen a whole lot either on the new stuff.  Good eye and timing.

Thanks, actually it ended up being quite a bit cheaper as a bundle than if I had purchased the console and all the games new. Everything is in excellent condition too. The previous owner took really good care of it.