First images and details released for the Evercade portable

A couple weeks ago a startup called Evercade announced their product of the same name: the Evercade portable, a handheld game console with similar TV output capabilities as the Nintendo Switch. The difference is that the Evercade focuses on retro gaming. Now we have the first pictures and concrete info on the device and the games it will support.

The Evercade itself has roughly the same horizontal layout and size as the PSP--down to the diagonal screen dimensions of 4.3 inches. It possesses a red and white motif that, frankly, I feel is sort of ugly, but does evoke the toy-like retro aesthetic of the original Famicom. The device is designed to be used with discrete, fully licensed cartridges that will contain collections of classic games. The first announced cartridge is Atari Collection 1, which contains 20 Atari 2600 games. Evercade promises several more cartridges from a variety of licensees and publishers, but I can all but guarantee that you won't ever see any first party Nintendo games on the platform, for obvious reasons.

There still isn't a launch window announced for this hardware, but they do have a price. The standard bundle includes 1 cartridge and will run you $79.99, while the premium bundle has 3 carts and costs a cool $99.99. 

A lot remains to be seen about the Evercade. Its battery life, quality of emulation and the size of its library will determine just what kind of adoption it will have in the retro gaming community. Evercade promises the console will support save states, but details are still thin on the ground. I admit to being intrigued; I've wanted a retro focused, all-in-one console-hybrid for years now and $80 is a very tempting price tag. That said I want to see how this thing performs in action, and just how many games it will support.

Thanks to Nintendolife for the heads up.