Evercade?!

[+LS650]

My C64 Collection cart has shipped as of this morning.

[Reaperman]

On 7/5/2022 at 9:28 PM, jgkspsx said:

 

Dual cart #2: Alwa’s Awakening (NES) and Cathedral (Native!).

Not sure how I missed that being our first(?) official native game, but that certainly is big news, that makes it much more interesting to me. I didn't know until about 6:05 in the below vid. 

 

I guess that's why I'd never heard of or purchased cathedral before--I'm not usually a fan of fakey pixel "retro-style" games.  This time I'll sure give it a go, since this time it's probably not the epic waste of current-gen hardware that I normally consider them to be.

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Reaperman

[7800Knight]

So the first game of 2023 has been announced.

 

Indie Heroes Collection 2!

 

Indie Heroes Collection 2 Coming January 2023 - Pre-order November 4th - Evercade : Evercade

 

 

[Reaperman]

EverCanadian on youtube shows us a secret code that comes with the c64 pack, and I can confirm that it doesn't need the c64 cart to play--which is good, since amazon hasn't shipped mine yet .  Probably needs one of the more recent firmwares, I'm guessing. 

 

Is somebody collecting all these secret codes into a wiki or something?  I do wish they'd stay unlocked after the initial unlock, but that certainly is not the case with this one.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Reaperman

[+jgkspsx]

That looks awesome!!!

 

oh. Uh. I mean… no spoilers for me, of course 👀

[Reaperman]

I give it a bit of a play in the below vid, and every time I think I figure out something about it, it turns out I'm a bit wrong

 

The weirdest thing is movement:

• Much of the terrain is lethal when bumping things in 'jet pack' mode.
• But is weirdly safe to pass through when walking on the ground--including things I would think are obstacles. 
• But the walking animation also includes a freakishly high jump/bounce, that does not obey any jetpack lethality rules.
• And as lethal as the terrain is, many of the enemies seem to pass though harmlessly?

^I may need some help with this one.  Time for me to 'RTFM'

 

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Reaperman

[Songbird]

Preorders are open for Indie Heroes 2 at Songbird!

 

https://songbird-productions.com/product/evercade-indie-heroes-collection-2/

 

[+jgkspsx]

I may have to wait on this one for another game to split the shipping with.

[Reaperman]

the new gamecase renders are more reddish than brownish.

I figured maybe it was more red because cathedral was native, so new color,

but the unboxings shows them the regular brownish color and indie heroes 2 looks the new red.

 

Not that I really have anything to say beyond that, just an observation. for now it helps them stand out from the older ones for preorder eye-catching, I guess.

 

anyway it's NOV 4th, and my preorders haven't shipped from amazon--this isn't the first time I've mentioned exactly that, so you'd think I'd learn by now. 🙄

 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Reaperman

[+jgkspsx]

Got a box o’ joy from @Songbird!

[Reaperman]

Cathedral is really good. It came in last night and is already in my top 5 games on evercade--from somebody who generally doesn't like pixel platformers. I spent probably an hour or more on it last night which is a pretty long evercade run. I expected to be grabbed more by the c64 collection, and maybe, but wouldn't you know, that cart's still shrinkwrapped 😜

 

Speaking of, that alwa's/cathedral shrinkwrap really put up quite a fight compared to other carts. Not a huge complaint, but it was unexpectedly stretchy enough to prompt an audible 'jeez really?' out of me. Maybe that stretchiness will age better on sealed games without shrinking/splitting?

 

I ended up moving my amazon order over to songbird to get those games, since the amazon 'preorder' was just not going to come through. You'd think I'd just learn my lesson already. I talked to amazon support who couldn't give me a date, but did advise it wouldn't ship until the item was marked back in stock--so at least I can keep an eye on how much longer that'd be now.

[Songbird]

Thank you, and glad you're enjoying Cathedral! I plan to spend some time on that myself over the holidays...

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, Reaperman said:

Cathedral is really good. It came in last night and is already in my top 5 games on evercade--from somebody who generally doesn't like pixel platformers. I spent probably an hour or more on it last night which is a pretty long evercade run.

I'm happy for you but it was a real disappointment for me (on Switch). First I don't like the uneven pixelart (some parts use smaller pixels), but I got stuck at a boss that seems absolutely impossible. Moves all the time while you only have a short-range sword to attack him. 😬 So I left it unfinished -- from somebody who generally beats a game before moving on. 😔

[Reaperman]

5 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Moves all the time while you only have a short-range sword to attack him. 😬 

That quickly-floating purple gargoyle thing with about 3 flavors of long range flame attack?  That freaking guy... I had to strategically use my one and only health potion on him. Even then it took a couple tries and I had half a heart left. A few screens after him is the first batch of arrows, which are the usual 'legally-distinct from metroid's missile tank,' so I'm guessing that's the spot.

 

The guy I talked to at work today also said about the same about that game's difficulty, and it's balanced to set that tone right off the bat--I died almost immediately to spikes in the room immediately left of the starting screen. 🤣

 

I found a vid of Mr. Purple, below should start there. He's really where it started hurting for me. And of course the video-guy has almost no trouble with him--but that's just pro-streamer skillz.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Reaperman

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, Reaperman said:

That quickly-floating purple gargoyle thing with about 3 flavors of long range flame attack?

No, it was a guy with a top hat iirc. He moves way faster than the gargoyle, but from left to right only. Frankly it gave me the impression I was either missing the right item to fight him, or he was in the wrong video game, lol.

[Reaperman]

8 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

No, it was a guy with a top hat iirc. He moves way faster than the gargoyle, but from left to right only. Frankly it gave me the impression I was either missing the right item to fight him, or he was in the wrong video game, lol.

Ah, looks like he's the next one for me:

I think the boss patterns in the game are no more difficult than standard NES-era bosses, at least the three I've seen now, but the health gauges in this game are the part that seem less forgiving (both player and boss gauges). The health potion recharge is a bit generous to somewhat balance. But this guy clearly 'gets' the pattern for tophat, and that thing is still taking just forever to go down. 🤣 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Reaperman

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, Reaperman said:

But this guy clearly 'gets' the pattern for tophat, and that thing is still taking just forever to go down. 🤣 

Yeah, I'm already amazed he manages to hit him when he's on the wall, I didn't realize you could jump that high. 😅 Also when he jumps on him with the sword down a la Shovel Knight, it's so tight the knight doesn't even bounce. 😰

[Reaperman]

Looking at this vid of custom carts, I very much want in on it.  A while back I tried making myself an sd to evercade adapter and failed miserably, but that may have been the cart slot I chose to use. Now that I've got a few doubles or defective evercade carts, I can't think of a better use for them. 

 

 

an attempt was made:

 

Edited November 12, 2022 by Reaperman

[Reaperman]

[HackerVoice] I'm in. [/HackerVoice] 

 

2nd attempt at the adapter works. Now I can try my hand at custom carts, and maybe getting games running on my FPGA options.

First up is figuring out what's up with the Arkagis on one of my two MegaCat #2's. It's either the rom or the emu, and at this point it should be SUPER easy to fix that since I have a known-good one. That's also the cart I opened to check the slot's pitch/line-up.

 

New vs old attempt:

 

(embiggen)

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Reaperman

[+jgkspsx]

Holy crap. A targeted robbery has taken all UK and US black limited edition Evercade EXPs: https://evercade.co.uk/important-annoucement-evercade-exp-limited-editon-units-stolen-in-robbery/

 

EU units were not included and will ship as intended.

 

If you see anybody outside of continental Europe selling black EXPs, please contact Blaze and Funstock immediately!

 

Affected people are getting this offer in their email:

 

[+LS650]

From the website:

Quote

 

Dear Evercade customers and fans,

I’m writing to inform you of some very sad news. In the early hours of yesterday morning, a lorry carrying Evercade EXP Limited Edition stock was subject to a suspected targeted robbery. Nobody was hurt in this criminal act, but a theft of our Limited Edition stock was carried out.

This stock was moving between warehouses for despatch to all UK, USA, and rest of world customers – all of the stock was taken in this terrible, possibly organised attack. EU stock was not affected and has arrived in Funstock’s European warehouse successfully.

Since learning of the crime, we have been tirelessly working behind the scenes, liaising with the Police, evaluating the situation, and defining a plan of action that we can communicate to our customers and fans as accurately and as quickly as possible.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by ls650

[Bill Loguidice]

Definitely bad news. I happened to pre-order from Funstock, so perhaps my delivery to the US will still happen, but hopefully everything is fully insured, etc., and they can recoup their losses.

[+GoldLeader]

20 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

Definitely bad news. I happened to pre-order from Funstock, so perhaps my delivery to the US will still happen, but hopefully everything is fully insured, etc., and they can recoup their losses.

 

I was really wondering about that too.  I mean,  I have no ideas how the laws in Europe work...Like as far as what's insured, who's liable, etc.  I saw no mention of insurance in the story,  but just because we wonder,  doesn't mean it will be addressed.   It's likely one of those "behind the scenes" parts of a story that may never be told...

 

On the plus side,  they are starting production on replacements...So it may just be a delay.  I sure hope it doesn't hurt their company too bad.

[Bill Loguidice]

The email that just came from Funstock:

 

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Evercade EXP Limited Edition

We write to you with some unfortunate news. As you may now be aware, stock of the Evercade EXP Limited Edition was subject to a suspected robbery. Unfortunately, your order is one of those affected by this theft. This is a terrible situation and we can only apologise to you that this criminal act has affected your order. We know you are excited about your Evercade EXP Limited Edition and we are doing everything humanly possible to get this to you as soon as we can. Blaze Entertainment is already hard at work getting their production facilities to start re-producing these units to replace all affected orders, and will ship these by air for speed.  They have advised that all orders will be met as soon as is humanly possible. We expect these to be fulfilled in early 2023 and we will keep you updated on their progress.  Please note: the stock that is being shipped from our EU warehouse has been unaffected. Funstock and Blaze will continue to honour the orders placed and no extra charges or transactions will ever be asked of you for this order. If you have other hardware items on your order, these will be shipped separately to you. As an offering of exclusivity to you and your order, Blaze has kindly offered the ability for you to leave your mark on the Evercade EXP. Much like the Evercade VS, Evercade is now opening its credits to Limited Edition purchasers to help them stay involved with the product. Like before, you can submit your name and it will appear in the credits of all Evercade EXP systems, which will be added via an update in January 2023. You will be listed as “Heroes” as a thank you for sticking with us in this difficult time. We’ll be sending this link at the start of 2023 to submit your name. We are also adding a screen protector as part of the package at no extra cost and also 20% off your next Funstock purchase with a code included in the box. So the package now also includes:  Your name in the new “Heroes” credits   Free Screen Protector   20% Discount Voucher for Funstock  We hope this will help in some way to limit the impact of this news. If you would like to talk to us about your order then please do via our support team. We will keep everyone up to date with information as soon as we have it. Please note that Funstock is the only place where the Evercade EXP Limited Edition was sold. If you find any third-party sellers or retailers online selling this item then it is stolen goods. Please highlight this to us to it can be reported Funstock Team.

[7800Knight]

I heard.

 

Given how people (and the authorities) will be on the lookout for these stolen units, how will these be sold?  The perpetrators can't just list them on Ebay.