The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. Development began in 2018, and the console was released in May 2020, after a few delays. Upon its launch, the console offered 10 game cartridges with a combined total of 122 games.
Arc System Works, Atari, G-Mode, Interplay Entertainment, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Piko Interactive have released emulated versions of their games for the Evercade. Pre-existing homebrew games have also been re-released for the console by Mega Cat Studios. The Evercade is capable of playing games originally released for the Atari 2600, the Atari 7800, the Atari Lynx, the Intellivision, the NES, the SNES, the Sega Genesis and the PlayStation as well as arcade games, and home computer games for the Commodore 64 and Amiga.
On 31 May 2022, Blaze announced that the original handheld console would be discontinued, with the release of the improved Evercade EXP during winter 2022-23.
History
The Evercade was developed by the UK-based Blaze Entertainment, which had previously produced Atari-related products and the Game Gadget. Blaze began development of the Evercade in 2018, with the intention of creating a console superior to plug-and-play devices. The Evercade was announced in April 2019, as a portable retrogaming console with the ability to be connected to a television screen. The console would play emulated video games, with a focus on the 8-bit and 16-bit gaming eras.
The Evercade was initially scheduled to release in the fourth quarter of 2019, before being delayed to 20 March 2020. The release was later pushed back to 22 May 2020, although this was expected to be delayed up to two additional weeks in some areas because of shipping delays, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The console retailed for £60/$80 with a pack-in game cartridge, while a premium edition retailed for £80/$100 and included three game cartridges. The console is white and red in color, for a retro appearance like the Nintendo Famicom, although a black edition was also sold in the United Kingdom. Andrew Byatt, the Evercade's development director, hoped to sell hundreds of thousands of units within the first year.
On 31 May 2022, Blaze announced that it would discontinue the Evercade in favor of an upgraded version known as the Evercade EXP.
Hardware
The Evercade has a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 processor, and it uses a Linux base. The Evercade is just over seven inches long, has 256 megabytes of RAM, and has a horizontal 4.3-inch LCD screen, with a resolution of 480x272 pixels. The screen uses the 16:9 aspect ratio, as some of the console's games were originally released for systems – such as the Atari Lynx – that use a wider screen ratio than 4:3. The player can switch between the two aspect ratios.
Like the Nintendo Switch, the Evercade can be connected to a television, however with a mini-HDMI cable, as opposed to a normal HDMI output. The Evercade offers a television output of 720p, and supports high-definition upscaling on all games when the console is connected to a television. The console has a rechargeable 2,000-mAh battery that lasts four to five hours. A 3.5 minijack for headphones is located on the bottom of the console, along with two volume controls. The cartridge slot, power button, and the mini-HDMI port are located on the top of the system. A MicroUSB port is used for charging the battery. Unlike modern handheld consoles, the Evercade does not have a touch screen or Wi-Fi connectivity.
Blaze Entertainment developed 20 versions of the Evercade D-pad before settling on a final version. The design is based on the D-pads featured on the Genesis and Saturn controllers. Aside from the D-pad, the console includes four action buttons on the front and two trigger buttons on top. It also has "menu", "select" and "start" buttons. The layout of the four action buttons was determined after Blaze conducted an online poll, which found that 68 percent of people wanted a layout like those used on modern game controllers. However, this created confusion, as in-game prompts never match the buttons (a player may need to press "B" when prompted to press "A"). As the console launched, Blaze released a firmware update for the layout issue, requiring the user to connect the console through USB to the Evercade website.