It's great that the handheld is getting a decent upgrade, however:
it's a bit sad that the original device will apparently only receive one more firmware update and then be canned entirely, especially considering they only recently released that limited purple edition;
the EXP is pretty expensive compared to both the original Evercade and the VS;
the home button is placed in a bit of bizarre spot;
the design of the EXP, though nice, doesn't match that of the VS;
therefore it seems clear that they're going to do an Evercade VS2 next year with a design similar to the EXP, and probably drop support for the original VS as well.
I do hope that the design isn't finalised and they'll readd the coloured accents.
I managed to snag an Everdrive VS on the cheap and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the device. The controllers feel really good, the interface is nice and snappy, and hot-swapping cartridges works perfectly, although I don't understand why they chose to use a MicroUSB cable to power it instead of one of those round plugs like the PSP and such. Of course everyone has a hundred MicroUSB cables around the house, but the ports are notoriously flimsy and not built to last.
Some game cartridges I really wonder who they're supposed to appeal to, but most I think are pretty good, and these look like some pretty good additions to the library as well. Like many of the cartridges I haven't heard of or played most of the titles before, but they look interesting and I wouldn't mind playing them for a bit. I do wonder why they wouldn't use the CD version of Sol Feace, it's not like it would run any worse because the Evercade is more than powerful enough to emulate it. Edit: and come to think of it, this is not the first of such strange decisions to include an objectively inferior version of a game when a better version would work just as well. Maybe it's something to do with the licensing.
I know a fair few people snicker at the Evercade because it's "just ROMs on a cartridge", but the original cartridges (or discs) those games were released on were also "just ROMs on a cartridge". Some things still benefit from being played on the original hardware (like Mega Drive games, which never sound as good if played on anything other than a Mega Drive), but otherwise modern emulation outclasses the original way to play in every way.
@X68000 The clones are almost literally identical to the original GDEMU. The only differences are a tiny crystal that doesn't affect anything, and that they can't be updated to a newer firmware. Not that you'd need to, because everything already works. Edit: oh, looks like @Reprise already said this.
@Damo The great thing about modding the Dreamcast with a GDEMU is that you no longer hear the RRRRRRRRRRRRRR of the disc drive. The bad thing about modding the Dreamcast with a GDEMU is that you suddenly hear just how loud the fan is. Luckily that can also be modded with a quiet modern fan. You can also replace the massive power supply with a small one, and in the end your Dreamcast is an almost empty shell. I definitely recommend it.
@roadrunner343 'Knockoff' strongly conveys that it's of lesser quality, though, that's all I was really trying to say. It's honestly the guy's own fault for making it ridiculously difficult to buy his creation, and being extremely rude to people who asked him to please stop doing the limited time limited edition ordering. People kept telling the guy "we love what you've created and we'd really like to buy it", and he kept telling them to go to hell. If he'd just said "yeah sure, you can order whenever you want", there wouldn't really have been a market for the clones. Well, I suppose they're a bit cheaper as well, but I do think the majority of people, especially the kinds of people interested in getting their retro consoles back up to snuff, would prefer to buy one at a slightly higher price from the creator, than buy a somewhat cheaper clone that doesn't put any money into the creator's pockets and doesn't fund any possible future creations. Oh well.
@roadrunner343 Well, 'knockoff' is a bit harsh considering it's the same board, the only thing is you can't update the firmware, but considering all games ever released (and even those that were never released) work perfectly, there's no need to do so anyway.
Personally I'm glad to see the Saturn will now have an easily available ODE, although the price is quite steep (but then it does technically work with two systems, and it's cheaper than their MegaSD). Hats off to TerraOnion!
Comments 6
Re: Evercade Is Getting An "EXP" Upgrade, Complete With Irem And Toaplan Collections
It's great that the handheld is getting a decent upgrade, however:
I do hope that the design isn't finalised and they'll readd the coloured accents.
Re: Evercade's Latest Carts Offer Inexpensive Access To Yet More Retro Classics
I managed to snag an Everdrive VS on the cheap and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the device. The controllers feel really good, the interface is nice and snappy, and hot-swapping cartridges works perfectly, although I don't understand why they chose to use a MicroUSB cable to power it instead of one of those round plugs like the PSP and such. Of course everyone has a hundred MicroUSB cables around the house, but the ports are notoriously flimsy and not built to last.
Some game cartridges I really wonder who they're supposed to appeal to, but most I think are pretty good, and these look like some pretty good additions to the library as well. Like many of the cartridges I haven't heard of or played most of the titles before, but they look interesting and I wouldn't mind playing them for a bit. I do wonder why they wouldn't use the CD version of Sol Feace, it's not like it would run any worse because the Evercade is more than powerful enough to emulate it. Edit: and come to think of it, this is not the first of such strange decisions to include an objectively inferior version of a game when a better version would work just as well. Maybe it's something to do with the licensing.
I know a fair few people snicker at the Evercade because it's "just ROMs on a cartridge", but the original cartridges (or discs) those games were released on were also "just ROMs on a cartridge". Some things still benefit from being played on the original hardware (like Mega Drive games, which never sound as good if played on anything other than a Mega Drive), but otherwise modern emulation outclasses the original way to play in every way.
Re: Hardware Review: Terraonion MODE - The Ultimate Upgrade For Your Saturn And Dreamcast?
@X68000 The clones are almost literally identical to the original GDEMU. The only differences are a tiny crystal that doesn't affect anything, and that they can't be updated to a newer firmware. Not that you'd need to, because everything already works. Edit: oh, looks like @Reprise already said this.
Re: Hardware Review: Should You Ditch Your GameCube Discs For The GC Loader?
@Damo The great thing about modding the Dreamcast with a GDEMU is that you no longer hear the RRRRRRRRRRRRRR of the disc drive. The bad thing about modding the Dreamcast with a GDEMU is that you suddenly hear just how loud the fan is. Luckily that can also be modded with a quiet modern fan. You can also replace the massive power supply with a small one, and in the end your Dreamcast is an almost empty shell. I definitely recommend it.
Re: Terraonion Is Releasing An Optical Disc Emulator For The Sega Saturn And Dreamcast
@roadrunner343 'Knockoff' strongly conveys that it's of lesser quality, though, that's all I was really trying to say. It's honestly the guy's own fault for making it ridiculously difficult to buy his creation, and being extremely rude to people who asked him to please stop doing the limited time limited edition ordering. People kept telling the guy "we love what you've created and we'd really like to buy it", and he kept telling them to go to hell. If he'd just said "yeah sure, you can order whenever you want", there wouldn't really have been a market for the clones. Well, I suppose they're a bit cheaper as well, but I do think the majority of people, especially the kinds of people interested in getting their retro consoles back up to snuff, would prefer to buy one at a slightly higher price from the creator, than buy a somewhat cheaper clone that doesn't put any money into the creator's pockets and doesn't fund any possible future creations. Oh well.
Re: Terraonion Is Releasing An Optical Disc Emulator For The Sega Saturn And Dreamcast
@roadrunner343 Well, 'knockoff' is a bit harsh considering it's the same board, the only thing is you can't update the firmware, but considering all games ever released (and even those that were never released) work perfectly, there's no need to do so anyway.
Personally I'm glad to see the Saturn will now have an easily available ODE, although the price is quite steep (but then it does technically work with two systems, and it's cheaper than their MegaSD). Hats off to TerraOnion!