Evercade?!

[Steven Pendleton]

40 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

I got my EXP/Toaplan shipping notification from @Songbird! I am very sad for everyone spending their Christmas breaks without their LEs but I am still really going to enjoy mine. Hoping that everything gets put to rights sooner rather than later.

You know what that means: go play Hishouzame, Slap Fight, and Teki-Paki. Just remember that 1P Zero Wing and Get Star are significantly better balanced than 2P Zero Wing and especially Guardian, which is why it is disappointing that they didn't include those versions. Guardian kind of sucks due to how ridiculously hard it is, so if you play it and hate it, find some way to play Get Star and try that instead. The actual Get Star PCB is extremely rare, but it is on PS4 and Switch. I just played Get Star again last night on PS4 and it is a nice little game if you give it a chance.

 

2P Zero Wing is a game that has both instant respawns upon death and speed powerups = there is a potential to chain death your credit away from dying, losing all of your speed, respawning on the spot in a mess of enemies, dying mostly because you lost your speed but also partially because you also lost all of your weapon powerups, and repeating this process until game over, which probably will not take very long because the arcade versions rarely give extends unless you get the super lucky 10UP item. I imagine stage 7 will probably be where you chain death if you do chain death. 1P Zero Wing has checkpoints, which largely prevents this from happening, but then you might get stuck in checkpoint hell in that game too; the arcade version is way harder than the MD version that most people have played, so be careful either way.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I got my EXP/Toaplan shipping notification from @Songbird! I am very sad for everyone spending their Christmas breaks without their LEs but I am still really going to enjoy mine. Hoping that everything gets put to rights sooner rather than later.

Funnily I didn't receive any notification email from Just For Games but yesterday I got one from Chronopost that I will get a package this morning. If it's not the EXP, I have no idea what it is... 🤔

[Steven Pendleton]

16 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Funnily I didn't receive any notification email from Just For Games but yesterday I got one from Chronopost that I will get a package this morning. If it's not the EXP, I have no idea what it is... 🤔

If it is, I am very curious as to how it is, as I still kind of want one. It seems like it would be super awkward to hold vertically, though.

 

Oh damn, I just realized that this has 1944 The Loop Master built in! That's kind of an important game to me now for various reasons.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

If it is, I am very curious as to how it is, as I still kind of want one. It seems like it would be super awkward to hold vertically, though.

 

Oh damn, I just realized that this has 1944 The Loop Master built in! That's kind of an important game to me now for various reasons.

I'll publish a complete review (in French obviously) next week but here are my first impressions of the TATE mode:

I like the fact that you only need to press a button to change mode, but as I feared, the EXP is slightly heavy and holding it vertically, since your hands are at the bottom of the unit, skews the balance a little; it's better to put your index fingers at the middle of the screen to make it more stable. That being said, it works quite well and you get a much larger screen of course. The other (small) issue is that the menu button as well as Start and Select buttons (the latter to add credits) are above the screen in TATE mode so you can't reach them as fast for a savestate typically. And since there's no pause in arcade games...

 

That being said, I'm very happy with it. It's a bit too soon to know but the battery doesn't seem a lot better than on the original model, unfortunately. So it will remain its main flaw I guess.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by roots.genoa
added picture

[Steven Pendleton]

5 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I'll publish a complete review (in French obviously) next week but here are my first impressions of the TATE mode:

I like the fact that you only need to press a button to change mode, but as I feared, the EXP is slightly heavy and holding it vertically, since your hands are at the bottom of the unit, skews the balance a little; it's better to put your index fingers at the middle of the screen to make it more stable. That being said, it works quite well and you get a much larger screen of course. The other (small) issue is that the menu button as well as Start and Select buttons (the latter to add credits) are above the screen in TATE mode so you can't reach them as fast for a savestate typically. And since there's no pause in arcade games...

 

That being said, I'm very happy with it. It's a bit too soon to know but the battery doesn't seem a lot better than on the original model, unfortunately. So it will remain its main flaw I guess.

 

Great, thanks. I figured it would be at least a little awkward, but at least it doesn't seem too bad. Do you think that it would be feasible for them to add a third button on there or is it a bit too cramped? I'm thinking about vertical 3-button games and the only one I can think of right now is Dogyuun!!, but I'm sure there are more that I can't remember.

[roots.genoa]

I was thinking about that but it seems that, fortunately, most shooters only use 2 buttons. Clearly the buttons are already quite small (a bit bigger than Switch's buttons though), so three buttons would be a lot.

[famicommander]

My EXP and my Toaplan cart preorders at Amazon didn't ship on time and they don't have a timetable.

I shouldn't be surprised I guess, it has happened before, but it still sucks. I fall for the free Prime shipping every damn time.

[roots.genoa]

By the way, I'm not sure how it works on the VS, but there's a secret games section in the EXP section of the main menu alongside the Capcom games.

I unlocked a secret game on the C64 cart thanks to the code in the box (nice but a little easy to decypher), and it's available in this section. So I don't know if the VS also has that section, or if games are only unlocked with combinations of two carts... Anyway, the section only contains 5 slots, so maybe you can only have 5 "secret games" at a time (which would make sense I guess).

[famicommander]

31 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

By the way, I'm not sure how it works on the VS, but there's a secret games section in the EXP section of the main menu alongside the Capcom games.

I unlocked a secret game on the C64 cart thanks to the code in the box (nice but a little easy to decypher), and it's available in this section. So I don't know if the VS also has that section, or if games are only unlocked with combinations of two carts... Anyway, the section only contains 5 slots, so maybe you can only have 5 "secret games" at a time (which would make sense I guess).

There are several secret games you can unlock on both VS and EXP:

https://evercade.info/vs-secrets-and-easter-eggs/

[Steven Pendleton]

18 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I was thinking about that but it seems that, fortunately, most shooters only use 2 buttons. Clearly the buttons are already quite small (a bit bigger than Switch's buttons though), so three buttons would be a lot.

Okay. I thought so. Of course just now I remembered Battle Garegga, Armed Police Batrider, and Battle Bakraid, but most of the earlier stuff is 2 buttons. Then you get weird stuff like Mars Matrix, which is a (very difficult) 1 button game that is vertical but played in 4:3.

[+jgkspsx]

14 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

So I don't know if the VS also has that section, or if games are only unlocked with combinations of two carts... Anyway, the section only contains 5 slots, so maybe you can only have 5 "secret games" at a time (which would make sense I guess).

The VS does have a password box! There are several more VS hidden games coming to EXP soon.

[+GoldLeader]

On 12/15/2022 at 2:14 PM, roots.genoa said:

 

 

Still,  what I Don't get is why they didn't jazz up the "Superior" model a bit?

 

Just from this pic alone,  I'd guess the Cadillac model would be the one above,  not the other way 'round.

 

Seriously,  one of those looks like a race car and the other looks like a suppository.

 

[roots.genoa]

24 minutes ago, GoldLeader said:

 

Still,  what I Don't get is why they didn't jazz up the "Superior" model a bit?

 

Just from this pic alone,  I'd guess the Cadillac model would be the one above,  not the other way 'round.

 

Seriously,  one of those looks like a race car and the other looks like a suppository.

 

I understand why would you would think that, even though I know a lot of people that didn't like the look of the original model. What you can't see in the picture is the new one feels less like a toy, not just because of the lack of color but the feel of the plastic.

[Hydro Thunder]

22 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

 

Still,  what I Don't get is why they didn't jazz up the "Superior" model a bit?

 

Just from this pic alone,  I'd guess the Cadillac model would be the one above,  not the other way 'round.

 

Seriously,  one of those looks like a race car and the other looks like a suppository.

 

Couldn't agree more, GL!  I like every single thing about the appearance of the original better than the suppository model.   It's got flair (lol), but not Jin disguised as a 80's Camaro flair.

 

[Reaperman]

I'd just like to point out how neat those buttons are in the original model and VS controllers with that recessed printing. It's a stylish bit of branding that I like, and it's a shame to see the EXP looking so plain without all the 'company grill' bits that the other models share. Probably going to pass on that EXP for the forseeable future unless my original one turns up dead one morning.  

 

Anyway, my songbird package arrived today, so I've got two new arcade carts to get to. Really looking forward to Moon Patrol. That's my jam. 👍👍

Edited December 20, 2022 by Reaperman

[+jgkspsx]

I strongly prefer the looks of the original, but evidently some killjoy reviewers harped on it looking like a toy. I am probably going to paint red racing stripes on with model paint.

[Defender_2600]

This reminds me that I have to buy an Evercade VS, before they make it all white.

[famicommander]

I don't care the least bit what a console or handheld looks like. If it were 5 dollars cheaper I'd buy the ugliest version imaginable as long as it played games just as well and was comfortable to use.

[Reaperman]

Got to say, this latest round of arcade carts is a pretty amazing lineup.

 

I've never played the arcade version of any of those toaplan games, so this is a nice change. Zero wing is quite busy compared to my memories of the genesis version. Over on Irem, In the Hunt is super fun but amazingly hard--I haven't even seen the first boss yet.

 

So since there are Intellivision carts...and an Irem cart...any chance of the zazzed-up amico Moon Patrol from that demo I never got to play?

 

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Reaperman

[+Charlie Cat]

10 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

Got to say, this latest round of arcade carts is a pretty amazing lineup.

 

I agree Reaper. I just gotten into it and have to say I'm impressed bro. 

 

Anthony...

[7800Knight]

I am looking forward to 2023's releases.

 

On a Q&A session on the Evercade Discord, the Evercade crew said that a TG-16/PC_Engine catridge was likely as the system can emulate that console.   

[Steven Pendleton]

Now that I think about it, if it only has those 2 buttons, how does it work with weapons that break with autofire? Autofire breaks the Thunder Laser in Tatsujin and the laser in Slap Fight, and I'm assuming and hoping that you have autofire on there because playing without autofire on console-style controls sucks, but...

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Now that I think about it, if it only has those 2 buttons, how does it work with weapons that break with autofire? Autofire breaks the Thunder Laser in Tatsujin and the laser in Slap Fight, and I'm assuming and hoping that you have autofire on there because playing without autofire on console-style controls sucks, but...

Actually that's one of my problems with this. I like when there's a second button for autofire like on the Astro City Mini and Egret II Mini. Most of the Toaplan games have autofire, but it's very slow, so you have to manually mash the button I'm afraid.

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

Actually that's one of my problems with this. I like when there's a second button for autofire like on the Astro City Mini and Egret II Mini. Most of the Toaplan games have autofire, but it's very slow, so you have to manually mash the button I'm afraid.

You mean the built-in autofire that fires once every 2~3 seconds when you hold the button? That's supremely disappointing. I play both Hishouzame and Slap Fight without auto with arcade controls, but with a console-style controller you basically need auto. You only need like 5Hz on Hishouzame outside of bosses, so while it's not too bad to play the stages without auto on a controller, the bosses will still be a pain.

 

I want nothing to do with a no-autofire Tatsujin; the game has super resilient minibosses every 30 seconds or so and they are tough without auto. You could use the Thunder Laser, but it's pretty well-known for being super weak unless you do the trick where you switch weapons after a (mini)boss appears on screen, as their HP is at least partially determined by what weapon you have when they appear, so if you switch after that point, they die stupidly fast.

 

Zero Wing without auto isn't exactly fun, either, as it has a rather large amount of relatively tough enemies. The 2P version on here also has a reduced shot limit per player, almost certainly to avoid sprite limitation problems from having 2 players at once; you can have a rather large amount of shots on screen at once in the 1P version.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[8th lutz]

21 hours ago, 7800Knight said:

I am looking forward to 2023's releases.

 

On a Q&A session on the Evercade Discord, the Evercade crew said that a TG-16/PC_Engine catridge was likely as the system can emulate that console.   

I would expect a TG-16/Pc Engine cartridge to be much different than the games on the TG-16 Mini.  I think Blaze getting an agreement with Konami is not going to be easy without certain stuff in an agreement like what happened with Namco and Capcom. Konami owns Hudson Soft. 

 

A Tg-16/Pc Engine game cartridge would have games from Telenet, Data East, and Irem. I mentioned Telenet because the company that has rights to Renovation IP games also has rights games that Telenet published in Japan.