Evercade Atari cartridges turning into legacy by end of 2023

[Dionoid]

https://evercade.co.uk/cartridge-news-atari-carts-to-enter-legacy-status-at-end-of-2023/

 

Thoughts?

 

[donjn]

Never been a big fan of Evercade especially with my Steam Deck.

Evercade carts always seem to have a small amount of games but the worst is the games are so completely random.

I mean Wizard?

 

I think this means Atari has seen the light and they want to keep things in house.

Edited October 2, 2023 by donjn

[famicommander]

The Atari Arcade cart is an embarrassment anyway. The games that rely on analog control (trackballs, spinners, etc) are practically unplayable on a d-pad and I think they advertised it coming with Asteroids and they gave you Asteroids Deluxe instead.

 

But if they're discontinuing the two Atari home collections and the two Atari Lynx collections because of this garbage MyArcade partnership, that's pretty sad. Because the Evercade carts actually have great emulation and the hardware on the devices is actually good. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by famicommander

[Giles N]

@TrogdarRobusto

 

Hi, do you know whether it’s true or not that Atari plans to discontinue their Evercade-cartridges?

 

Do you know which of the Atari-associated Evercade Cartridges that Atari are invested in (contra, say, - just licensing titles to others)?

 

Atari Collection 1 & 2, Atari Arcade, Lynx Collection 1 & 2?

 

- - -

 

My opinion on this is that it may not be so good an idea to at least completely abandon such a line.

 

In the Evercade thread, I suggested, asked around for opinions regarding an Atari Arcade 2, - but thought myself perhaps one or two small Anthologies, may sit better…

 

I’m of course in no position to guess at the financial side of things here, so I write from a gamer/user-perspective.

 

- - -

With Atari now doing/testing several avenues for modern Atari-retro-gaming, I’m not quite unsure whether it would be an impossibility to see some future VCS (with stronger hardware overall) having inbuilt slots for original 2600/7800 carts (why shouldn’t a future Atari console have particular features?), so why not build in Evercade-cartridge-compatibility too?

Then all Evercade collectors could also come to find an interesting use for such a device, in addition to whatever else a future gen.VCS would/could provide…

 

Again, these things are my own ideas, written ‘merely’ from a user/buyer perspective, and are very conceptual, and I guess we could all agree changes in the market and user-interests make these things relative.

 

However, I’m very satiesfied with Atari Collection 1 and 2, Lynx Collection 1 and 2.

 

I haven’t bought Atari Arcade. Guess too many overlaps with Flashback/50th Ann. + much retro stuff to choose between, just cannot get it all.

 

Greets,

 

- - -

Hope you’re the right one to ask, or point some other Atari-fella for info

 

 

[Flojomojo]

“To enter legacy status” is a strange way of saying going out of print. It’s pretty clear that Atari is done with Evercade after this. 

[TrogdarRobusto]

15 hours ago, Giles N said:

@TrogdarRobusto

 

Hi, do you know whether it’s true or not that Atari plans to discontinue their Evercade-cartridges?

I saw an article yesterday saying Evercade's Atari carts were discontinue and they would sell down inventory.
As for Evercade compatibility with the 2600+ that is a question best answered by Al or Ben.
Our goal with hardware is usually maximizing compatibility while maintaining a reasonable cost.


 

[JPF997]

13 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

“To enter legacy status” is a strange way of saying going out of print. It’s pretty clear that Atari is done with Evercade after this. 

I mean when you're releasing two new systems (gamestation pro and 2600+) why would you continue giving a potential competitor in the retro market your games, and before anyone says it no this previous partnership with evercade is not comparable at all with Atari's new partnership's with Anstream and Polymega,  because in those cases they actually own stock in those companies so they profit either way.

[Giles N]

3 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

I saw an article yesterday saying Evercade's Atari carts were discontinue and they would sell down inventory.

Ok, thanks for letting us know.

 

3 hours ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

As for Evercade compatibility with the 2600+ that is a question best answered by Al or Ben.

My idea was for future versions of the VCS to have both catridge slots for 2600/7800 game-catridges and evercade-carts, so that a future VCS then have funtions or a combination of functions, not found on every other console/gaming-platform.  
 

I guess I could’ve made it more clear, it was an idea, not a question or follow-up question as such.

I mentioned it as giving some contect to why continuation/discontinuation of such things would be of interest.

 

Thanks for answering.

[Giles N]

3 hours ago, JPF997 said:

this previous partnership with evercade is not comparable at all with Atari's new partnership's with Anstream and Polymega,  because in those cases they actually own stock in those companies so they profit either way.

That may be so. But the Evercade emulations were very tight and solid, and gave me - mostly a 7800-retrofsn -, a very good impression of some top 2600 titles.

 

On Antstream the quality of the gaming experience is varied, from good to very, very poor.

 

Yeah, I managed to get a good hi-score at Scrapyard Dog 7800, but it was sheer torture, un-fun in all ways.

 

Playing it on original 7800 ntsc with crt-screen is a blast, except for the silly and frustrating Boss-Puzzle.

 

I sure hope that the 2600+ and Polymega will run things better, I’d say they just have to.

 

Atari, if they are interested and invested in giving gamers a quality gaming experience of their past games, they must do a lot better than AntStream (or all of Antstreams servers and streaming serrvice programs need to become much better.)

 

Some of these older games are tough as they are. What sort of impression does it give new players checking out these titles for the first time, making their entire bodies itch with frustrating and unfair gameplay?

 

They’ll learn to associate Atari with low-quality gameplay.

 

A lot can be overlooked, but very rarely gameplay; it has to be tight and/or fun, not shoddy and frustrating.

[roots.genoa]

10 hours ago, Giles N said:

My idea was for future versions of the VCS to have both catridge slots for 2600/7800 game-catridges and evercade-carts, so that a future VCS then have funtions or a combination of functions, not found on every other console/gaming-platform.

Unless Atari buys Blaze, I don't see how that could be possible. 🤔

[Giles N]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Unless Atari buys Blaze, I don't see how that could be possible.

So, the HyperMegaTechs were mostly possible as limited-runs…? Or is it just Blaze cooperating with another company…?

[Flojomojo]

58 minutes ago, Giles N said:

So, the HyperMegaTechs were mostly possible as limited-runs…? Or is it just Blaze cooperating with another company…?

Blaze's HyperMegaTech is Evercade handhelds in a different form factor. They have Taito and Capcom as software partners. I don't see how this has anything to do with the Atari deal? 

https://www.hypermegatech.com

[roots.genoa]

Yeah, it's confusing. I don't understand why Blaze had to create another brand since the Super Pockets are also compatible with Evercade carts. When they announced the HyperMegaTech brand, I expected it was for very different things, like (retro themed) merchandise.

[Video]

Bummer. I don't know the sales numbers for specifically Atari evercade carts, but I've got them all, and yes, the emulation is great. Unfortunately, evercade has no (and no desire to create) alternative controls, and many, especially arcade Atari games use alternative controls, paddles, roto, trackball.

 

The great advantage of evercade is its availability. Atari has a bad habit of making consoles and games and then making them unavailable for purchase through mainstream sources. Its what happened to vcs, it wasn't reliably sold anywhere, so didn't sell well, so got discontinued.

 

The 2600+ is at least preorder wise, available through Amazon, which is a major online retailer. I hope that helps them out, and perhaps well even see more Atari compilations for it. I'd like to see more 2600 carts, and their often forgotten 7800 games.

 

If they were to add a cart to a future revision of 2600+, it would make far more sense to keep it Atari centric and add say, lynx port.

 

Anybody interested in Atari probably already has one, if not all the evercade Atari releases.

[Zonie]

"Hypermagatech" sounds like something you would see on a cheap asian knockoff

 

[roots.genoa]

1 hour ago, Zonie said:

"Hypermagatech" sounds like something you would see on a cheap asian knockoff

 

Saw what you did there...

[TrogdarRobusto]

On 10/3/2023 at 4:08 PM, Giles N said:

My idea was for future versions of the VCS to have both catridge slots for 2600/7800 game-catridges and evercade-carts, so that a future VCS then have funtions or a combination of functions, not found on every other console/gaming-platform.  

I think this would more likely be a peripheral ... but I hear you.

[Giles N]

On 10/4/2023 at 9:57 PM, roots.genoa said:

 

Yeah, it's confusing.

 

^ that’s what baffled me…

[Giles N]

On 10/6/2023 at 8:50 PM, TrogdarRobusto said:

I think this would more likely be a peripheral ... but I hear you.

Do you believe that Evercade-compatibility (for the VCS) could be something Atari would look into as a future possibility?

 

Not asking for any kind of guarantees or promises here, just a guess, an opinion given the working-atmosphere from the sort of priorities Atari likes to make these days?

 

[Lord Mushroom]

On 10/3/2023 at 6:34 PM, JPF997 said:

I mean when you're releasing two new systems (gamestation pro and 2600+) why would you continue giving a potential competitor in the retro market your games, 

As long as you charge more in license fees than you lose in reduced profits from reduced sales, it is profitable.