UPDATE: There is a firmware update coming at launch that will fix the more egregious button mapping issues I described in this video, especially the likes of Double Dragon 2 and Renegade. I have tested this update and it's easy to install and works great. The SNES button mapping is also now 1:1 to a real SNES pad... the names of the buttons may be different but they are in the correct locations. I have also not encountered any sound issues over HDMI since installing the update. It's a start and it shows that they are listening!
Is it true the sound issue only appears when you use a video capture hardware ? I mean, when you using the evercade as portable or when you use it with the hdmi directly to your TV, do you have the same issue ? Thanks in advance.
That's nice but what about the sound issues? Will they fix them with the firmware update, too? Because in my opinion that is the most annoying thing about the Evercade and after your video I think about to cancel my pre-order.
The official Evercade Facebook page and is followers are sure attacking Joe for giving his honest opinion. If that's the way they handle skepticism, then my intrest in the Evercade is gone. Joe and Game Sack all the way!
@@OwtDaftUK So you was there when he tested his unit? Otherwise you're misinforming people. His review didn't change my opinion on buying the evercade. The fanboys attacking him on personal level made that decision for me. Plus I don't need another emulator based system. The market is overflowing with enough of them already.
@@OwtDaftUK I review what they send me. There is no correction to be made as the problem 100% exists. Evercade even sent me a response e-mail saying that their engineer had experienced the issue in the past but the PR guy was unaware of this. Then they asked me to try playing it directly to the TV without a capture device in the middle (they asked me today, after the video was released). It is not my job to troubleshoot their hardware. It is their issue if they can't implement HDMI correctly, which seems to be the case. The only other time I've had an issue with HDMI was with the Neo Geo X which (surprise surprise) was designed by Blaze. I have had no issue with any other HDMI connections other than that. Again, I review what they send me and if they send me stuff that doesn't work in one area or another, I'll mention it. The problem is theirs, not mine. EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION.
@@GameSack I come from the gun world, where the expectation and common practice regarding review units is to hand pick them to ensure that they are PERFECT. Every single mm is gone over with a fine tooth comb before that unit is sent to a reviewer. As far as I'm concerned, the Evercade that they sent you was hand picked, this was their best, and it was lackluster. The button assignment issue is also unforgivable and demonstrates a clear lack of playtesting. There's 0 reason to buy this over a RG350. None. That's the bar that all these handheld makers have to beat. If it isn't better than a RG350 then they shouldn't even bother bringing it to market.
@@DrGamelove there are no sound issues. Please see any of the other reviews on UA-cam - this is an isolated incident, potentially down to game capture. We are considering a fix for the button mapping 👍
Evercade oh that’s good to know! Wonder if Joe is aware it might have been on his end. If those aren’t issues the price is definitely right and I hope the library grows.
Yeah wtf. I was actually leaning hard towards getting one but having the a/b/x/y like that is really putting me off. I've been interested in this for months and just noticed how annoying that would probably be...I hope they revise it cuz that basically fucks this thing for most games! What were they thinking!
Investing in a PSP is the obvious logical thing to do here. It has way more quality emulators, it can play PSP and Ps one games and with a 5 dollar memory stick duo adapter from Amazon you can use a 20 dollar 128 gb micro sd to load the thing with thousands of games if you wanted to.
I like so many things of this episode: 1) You wired home setup and "In the wild" footage captures your games de-casing and jumping into there appropriate systems. Probably thinking "stay a while, it'll be fun" 2) The candid prompt at the beginning about missing emails and such was perfect. Very cavalier. 3) Always keeping it fair. Considering prices, etc. Another solid episode. And to answer your question: I am putting Tanzer on my Gensis Mini
We need fewer youtubers blatantly ripping off the Angry Video Game Nerd (James Rolfe, who was originally the Angry Nintendo Nerd), who is better than all the clones. There are plenty of retro reviewers who are more original in their delivery (like Joe)- come up with your own schtick! Sad to hear that there is yet another unoriginal copy out there. :( And as an aside .. "It's ass!" is something the avgn was saying YEARS before this "exasperated gamer" was even on youtube.
Same. I dont even mind if there is a shimmer or that its emulation and I really really like the look of it but the button mapping literally RUINS it and all they need is a setting menu to change it around and fixed but sheesh...unless the revise the design I will not be buying this thing.
@@EvercadeRetro will there be firmware updates to fix audio problems and button swapping? Can't find anything on these two things that are putting me off picking one up on the 22nd May...
There's something special about the way the cartridges go in, combined with the switch. It's so much more satisfying than the spring-action business we've had for the last few generations.
This was a more thorough review than I've seen elsewhere. No one else I've seen had mentioned the screen shimmer or audio problems at all, and the button mapping issue was consistently glossed over to the point where I had never guessed it was that extensive. I've been excited for this system, though, and I don't know if these issues are complete deal breakers for me- but suddenly it seems a lot more overpriced then it did before. I guess I believe in the potential for this system- as a way of accessing physical, collectible versions of homebrews, indie games and hidden gems in a legal, relatively affordable way. But that potential may never be realized if the system has too many downsides. Future firmware updates, if they happen at all, may be what saves this whole idea.
A thourough review would of tried to debug the audio issues first to make sure it was the device in the first place and if so checked with evercade if the device was faulty or not rather than just reviewing the system like this is how it will be for everyone. This so far is the least thorough review for that reason.
@@OwtDaftUK Joe, basically, responded to this in another comment. Joe - I review what they send me. There is no correction to be made as the problem 100% exists. Evercade even sent me a response e-mail saying that their engineer had experienced the issue in the past but the PR guy was unaware of this. Then they asked me to try playing it directly to the TV without a capture device in the middle. It is noy my job to troubleshoot their hardware. It is their issue if they can't implement HDMI correctly, which seems to be the case. The only other time I've had an issue with HDMI was with the Neo Geo X which (surprise surprise) was designed by Blaze. I have had no issue with any other HDMI connections other than that. Again, I review what they send me and if they send me stuff that doesn't work in one area or another, I'll mention it. The problem is theirs, not mine.
@@EvercadeRetro Reading around, it does seem like the audio problems may be unique to Game Sack's situation. I'm also encouraged by how much your company is communicating with the customers. The button mapping does still seem like an issue to me. In many cases it's not simply a matter of getting over old muscle memory, because a poor configuration limits the way your thumb rolls over the buttons (trying to jump and shoot simultaneously for example- this was a problem in Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Gamecube that I remember), making the entire game a chore to control in every moment. It seems like your company is aware of this gripe though, so I'm still overall optimistic.
It’s good to know that updates they made to the Evercane consul and with the verses came out they fixed a lot of control, mapping issues and the sound problems
what on earth possessed them to include any of the swordquest games?!?! without the comic book manual, you cant find the clues too.....actually you cant do anything with it since the contest the clues go tword are completely useless, so why include it at all!?!?!
Loved the unbiased review. Seems like some other well-respected reviewers were a lot more generous than they should've been (cough, cough, DF, cough, cough).
Evercade just answered me about this on their Facebook group: " We can show people how to do a FW update and we can add button mapping " ... so let's wait and see.
@@madcrowmaxwell The sound issues hasn't happened with any other reviewer and looking through the comments it appears to be a capture or HDMI cable problem. Would make sense if the lead is coming loose.
A lot of other channels don't seem to notice things like shimmering or integer scaling issues, however, I would have expected Digital Foundry to mention stuff like that. Also, the button issues definitely should've been brought up for sure. I wasn't planning on buying one of these anyway and after seeing Joe's review, it seems like a pretty mediocre product.
Almost makes me wonder if Joe's unit has a hardware defect that's somehow causing the audio issues. Or maybe the other streamers didn't test the HDMI output for a longer time.
Makes me not trust their ability to be thorough. I'm not saying other Tubers are being dishonest but the problems presented here will determine if someone buys a product. And ya I'm really shocked John from DF didn't mention these problems.
This is kind of true. I mean playing from the system when hooked at the Tv is silly. A wireless controller is a must. And i don't think they should make their own but just do something to make established controllers work. This is also very important to those who care about system life. Since control buttons break and if they break on this system then the whole system is dead. But if you could still play with a controller while connected to a TV then it would have more life.
We suspect the audio issue is either a cable or capture issue. Nobody else has had this issue. We have tested for thousands of hours. There are many, many other reviews on UA-cam and there's already been many live streams using the console. Not a single other reported issue.
Can agree on that and really can't hold it's own against Nintendo either or any actual video game handhelds from history like Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear that were crushed by Nintendo Game Boy. Which for all 3 can crush this thing in fact there's a story that Nintendo Game Boy survived a bomb blast in a war don't think this Evercade can do that. Anyway Google and UA-cam the history of those systems. These guys behind this just are too much looking for a quick buck and seem shady.
Whoa! Holy Smokes! You are THE ONLY GUY they mentioned the button issues. I was actually interested in buying one until this review. Jesus thats absolutely inexcusable! Your comments on it at the very end sum up my thoughts exactly. I liked the concept honestly, but the executions is tragic.
It's ridiculous in this day and age to have any games without remappable buttons. And if they weren't going to let people remap the buttons, they could have at least had the same layout as the originals. It's not that hard.
@@AverageMetalDrummer we are considering a FW fix for button mapping. Regarding the audio. We have spoken with our engineers and the only isolated incident this has ever happened, was also during game capture. Never when only connected directly to a TV 👍
@@EvercadeRetro Listening to the community???? How was this not fixed right away? Do the people developing this even play games? You don't need to "listen to the community"...you just map the buttons the way they are on the real controllers. It's soooo basic.
Joe, thanks for an honest, fair, balanced review. This is what good reviewers look like folks. It’s crazy to me how some youtubers will shill a product and gloss over things just to get some free stuff.
Like always, great review! Your not like some other UA-camrs that just promote the Evercade without mentioning the serious problem the console has. The button layout seem really awful, and the emulation not so great. I'm glad to see a honest review!
This was a great review of the Evercade. I understand that people like physical cartridges but a lot of these packs are just poor especially with games that don't ever seem to work correctly - let alone the massive oversite of the button configuration. I think it's better to mod an existing hand held system personally, or at least buy another device like the Evercade which is up the job.
I've been getting emails on this thing for months, and I've considered it... but yikes. It's cool to support the developers and what not but there's definitely some shenanigans with those controls.
Finally a review of this product. Thank you Joe for being honest. I've watched other channels " review " this and claim it awesome, and worth your money, considering they got the system and all the games for free.
That's why I love Game Sack, Honest reviews, not like the other youtuber that always says, "it's fantastic" if y'all don't know who I am talking about, just know that he's looking for hidden gems.
thank you for giving real reviews of stuff with flaws and all! i saw a review from ETA Prime about this and he said it was great and never said anything about audio or control issues.
i was so heartbroken from ETA's review... i was hoping he wouldn't shill but i was wrong... the comment section was brutal too, full of BOTS (or paid accounts) from evercade and whomever tried to shine some light on this trash of a cash grab got called troll and ridiculized!
You really just told us things that are important, I didn,t know till this moment about problems with buttons mapping, and this is very important. Thanks. Greeting from Poland. :)
FINALLY somebody who dares to be critical. Metal Jesus and John Hancock didn’t have anything profound (read: critical) to say about this piece of hardware.
eh, I could personally care less about what they have to say, I stopped watching Metal Jesus when I realized that he decided to focus less on game recommendations and more on ego stroking collection gloating videos and I never liked John Hancock much to begin with.
joe knows his stuff. the idea of a 16:9 retro system makes no sense and who thought 480x272 would be a good resolution? that and the menu button right under the dpad, the lack of l2 and r2... the game versions and broken button mappings, etc. etc. so many baffling decisions.
It's been a good week for gaming videos. New Game Sack video, new Metal Jesus, new Happy Console Gamer, and even a new Spida1a video! All I have to say about all that is *garbled audio*.
When you offer your system out for review, honesty is best. Good review, hopefully they will take your points under consideration and fix the issues before the final product hits the market.
I just don't see the point of this to be perfectly honest, a better solution is to hack a vita or psp and open it up to thousands upon thousands of options instead of just being limited to a very select (and mostly crap except Kunio-kun,) library of games, that or just buying an Android chinese handheld built for emulation with better gamepad layout and form factor. As for the price point comparison, the price does rack up once you start having to shell out for each game collection. The form factor makes it look like a cheap Chinese knockoff of a handheld with Android, *actually* I've seen Chinese android handhelds that look 100x better. This is one for the collectors, but even then this is all emulated stuff so its in a pretty niche set of collecting in itself, when there are so many options in the handheld emulation scene. Seems to me that these guys must have sent out these devices to almost all the retro youtubers they could think of at the same time in the hopes of flooding the retro scene to get some sales. Hard pass.
This seems to aim more on the cheaper side, but with licensed games. Imho, they shoud have put the emulators on the console, so they could be updated with fixes regardless of the cartridge
I’ve seen a bunch of reviews and Nobody else has mentioned the button layout/mapping. You’re exactly right, Nintendo has always been the worst offender of this when every they port/update something they often ruin the feel by messing up button mapping. I was considering one of these until this review- thanks for being thorough.
Tanzer is an excellent indie Mega Drive/Genesis game that definitely needs more attention. It was made by Mikael Tillander and distributed in cartridge form by Mega Cat Studio. Mikael deserves props for making such a great game.
Unbelievable that there are so many issues with the button mapping! I mean these issues would obviously had come up during testing so I can't understand why this thing would ship out in this state. Wow.
It's pretty likely there aren't many 4:3 screens being manufactured these days. So it's probably much cheaper to go with 16:9. Things lile this are made from existing parts. The only piece of the thing that was manufactured specifically for it is the shell. But there is a good chance that even that was old stock that they bought.
@@leadbones There's a bunch of cheap Chinese handhelds that sell for under $40 that use 4:3 screens, and in the $80 range (which this cost) you can get those Chinese handhelds with pretty good 4:3 IPS screen. But in any case I agree, they probably just got whatever was cheapest. This just doesn't seem like a product they put much time or effort into - and if they can't even figure out the controls it probably never even occurred to them to get a proper screen.
@@EvercadeRetro Is it possible to fix the sound and control issues with a firmware update in the future. These are the things people need to know. Some lynx games would be awesome, especially some of the homebrew stuff. I hear mortal kombat is amazing.
Excellent in depth review! If the Evercade has done anything, it's shown me a list of retro games I never knew about and would like to try outside of it.
I'd like to see if their assertion no one had trouble with audio is true. I'm willing to give them a bit of benefit of doubt here, because they're obviously in damage control mode. It is nice that they have said it is possible they will update the firmware to fix the button mapping issue. Whether there is any way to patch the emulators is another story, though. If they can't, that's kind of a problem with their design.
This is the first review to really highlight the awful control mapping, so thank you for that Joe. I think the system itself is ugly as hell anyways, but I would of been annoyed if I had.
Thank you for making this video. Hopefully the team views this. With you input they might be able to fix these issues before the official commercial launch. 🤞
I don't use Facebook much these days, but that's really good to know, as I'm for sure not wasting my money on this garbage now, and will stick to emulating on my Android phone using a Moga Controller, and side loading the emuators I like that are not in the Google Play Store.
Joe is awesome because he doesn’t hold back. If there’s a problem, he will show and tell it. He does try to hide it like most reviews here. Evercade out here looking really bad trying to cover up their BS. I’m willing to bet that the other UA-camrs used footage sent to them or passed off existing footage to be from this unit.
There are so many better cheaper options than this overpriced thing. I had a gaming tablet back in 2013 called the GPD G7 that could even play Dreamcast games and it was only $110 back then. I'd imagine you could get something like that for $50 or so now. Why would you buy this thing which has $20 cartridges with only a few games on it when you could buy an android handheld and load it with roms and play basically any game for any system with way better emulation. Even if the Evercade was $100 and came with all the cartridges it would still be a waste.
@@HerecomestheCalavera Don't forget that you get higher power, better screen, and better battery life for less money... haha, Evercade is just way out of it's element.
Never had the intention to buy the Evercade. This whole concept is theoretically nice, but the games collections eally suck. It's much better just to get a chine repro and upload the whole game libraries on a microsd card.....
Thanks, Joe, for your honest and thorough review. I’ve watched other reviews of this device and all were mostly-glowing reviews that didn’t point out the flaws that you did. I’ll pass on this one.
Thanks for the honest review Joe... now I want to cancel my preorder. No other review I saw did mention the problems and it seems there are plenty of bugs. Hopefully blaze is gonna fix that! If they don’t address that in the next two weeks, preorder will be dumbed for sure.
@Real News: Hopefully. Other comments suggest that he might be the first honest reviewer and the other reviewers didn’t do their job properly and just appreciated the freebie.
UPDATE: There is a firmware update coming at launch that will fix the more egregious button mapping issues I described in this video, especially the likes of Double Dragon 2 and Renegade. I have tested this update and it's easy to install and works great. The SNES button mapping is also now 1:1 to a real SNES pad... the names of the buttons may be different but they are in the correct locations. I have also not encountered any sound issues over HDMI since installing the update. It's a start and it shows that they are listening!
That's good.
Is it true the sound issue only appears when you use a video capture hardware ? I mean, when you using the evercade as portable or when you use it with the hdmi directly to your TV, do you have the same issue ? Thanks in advance.
That's nice but what about the sound issues? Will they fix them with the firmware update, too? Because in my opinion that is the most annoying thing about the Evercade and after your video I think about to cancel my pre-order.
That’s good to know, seeing as though I just dropped $200 on this thing and all the games.
I would have found this device fascinating... 15 years ago.
Being an editor as well I am humbled by and so grateful for your consistency Joe, it does not go unnoticed. Another great episode.
This is why I love Gamesack, best reviews on UA-cam.
Metal Jesus and Immoral John Hancock will love anything that they get for free.
And the one I can relate with
The official Evercade Facebook page and is followers are sure attacking Joe for giving his honest opinion. If that's the way they handle skepticism, then my intrest in the Evercade is gone. Joe and Game Sack all the way!
The button layout is extremely fair critisism but Joe should put out a correction in regards to audio issues though or he is miss informing people.
@@OwtDaftUK So you was there when he tested his unit? Otherwise you're misinforming people. His review didn't change my opinion on buying the evercade. The fanboys attacking him on personal level made that decision for me. Plus I don't need another emulator based system. The market is overflowing with enough of them already.
im glad they didnt do like digital foundry and ignored every issues.
@@OwtDaftUK I review what they send me. There is no correction to be made as the problem 100% exists. Evercade even sent me a response e-mail saying that their engineer had experienced the issue in the past but the PR guy was unaware of this. Then they asked me to try playing it directly to the TV without a capture device in the middle (they asked me today, after the video was released). It is not my job to troubleshoot their hardware. It is their issue if they can't implement HDMI correctly, which seems to be the case. The only other time I've had an issue with HDMI was with the Neo Geo X which (surprise surprise) was designed by Blaze. I have had no issue with any other HDMI connections other than that. Again, I review what they send me and if they send me stuff that doesn't work in one area or another, I'll mention it. The problem is theirs, not mine. EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION.
@@GameSack I come from the gun world, where the expectation and common practice regarding review units is to hand pick them to ensure that they are PERFECT. Every single mm is gone over with a fine tooth comb before that unit is sent to a reviewer. As far as I'm concerned, the Evercade that they sent you was hand picked, this was their best, and it was lackluster. The button assignment issue is also unforgivable and demonstrates a clear lack of playtesting.
There's 0 reason to buy this over a RG350. None. That's the bar that all these handheld makers have to beat. If it isn't better than a RG350 then they shouldn't even bother bringing it to market.
The "Cade" part of the name makes me think ARCADE. No such luck in practice.
Arcade games are coming for the system.
@@FloridaEbikes arcade games are coming - we already have the rights to many arcade games ❤️
Evercade if you can fix sound and control issues that would be amazing. It needs a Capcom and a Konami license too.
@@DrGamelove there are no sound issues. Please see any of the other reviews on UA-cam - this is an isolated incident, potentially down to game capture.
We are considering a fix for the button mapping 👍
Evercade oh that’s good to know! Wonder if Joe is aware it might have been on his end. If those aren’t issues the price is definitely right and I hope the library grows.
Finnally a youtube channel that tells the TRUTH
GAMESACK can always be trusted
no
@@pajakus1243 yes
Not being able to customize your controls is a HUGE oversight.
That was my biggest gripe, too.
Yeah wtf. I was actually leaning hard towards getting one but having the a/b/x/y like that is really putting me off. I've been interested in this for months and just noticed how annoying that would probably be...I hope they revise it cuz that basically fucks this thing for most games! What were they thinking!
Investing in a PSP is the obvious logical thing to do here. It has way more quality emulators, it can play PSP and Ps one games and with a 5 dollar memory stick duo adapter from Amazon you can use a 20 dollar 128 gb micro sd to load the thing with thousands of games if you wanted to.
It really shows just how knowledgeable Blaze is when it comes to retro games. Blaze is in this just for money.
Ok, firmware update allowing button configuration has been posted.
Ahhhh you wake up in Norway and Mr. Redifer has a feshly prepared review for breakfast... and it's not even my birthday!
Cheers Joe!
Happy Not Your Birthday!
Not being able to customize the button layout and the shimmering makes this unapealing to me.
Thank you for the honest review, Joe.
I'm glad someone actually did one.
I like so many things of this episode:
1) You wired home setup and "In the wild" footage captures your games de-casing and jumping into there appropriate systems. Probably thinking "stay a while, it'll be fun"
2) The candid prompt at the beginning about missing emails and such was perfect. Very cavalier.
3) Always keeping it fair. Considering prices, etc.
Another solid episode.
And to answer your question: I am putting Tanzer on my Gensis Mini
We need the exaspirated gamer to sum things up: "It's Aaaaaasssssss!"
We need fewer youtubers blatantly ripping off the Angry Video Game Nerd (James Rolfe, who was originally the Angry Nintendo Nerd), who is better than all the clones. There are plenty of retro reviewers who are more original in their delivery (like Joe)- come up with your own schtick! Sad to hear that there is yet another unoriginal copy out there. :( And as an aside .. "It's ass!" is something the avgn was saying YEARS before this "exasperated gamer" was even on youtube.
@@rifter0x0000 I cant tell if you're being sarcastic or not. The exasperated gamer is GS parodying all the reviewers
@@rifter0x0000 Looks like somebody's been self-quarantining their entire life.
Stop taking UA-cam seriously as a viewer.
@@andrewc6224 Stop telling people what to do. You're not his dad
@@SECONDQUEST or... is he?😕....😂
Oh no! I was actually interested in the Evercade but that button mapping thing is an absolute dealbreaker.
Same. I dont even mind if there is a shimmer or that its emulation and I really really like the look of it but the button mapping literally RUINS it and all they need is a setting menu to change it around and fixed but sheesh...unless the revise the design I will not be buying this thing.
Gotta love the crunchy surprise noise. Thanks for the great review. Sack better than ever.
Oooo boy I bet they're regretting sending him this after the review! Gotta appreciate the honesty though.
It's good to hear different views on our console. We are only disappointed with the audio issue, it is unique to this review. We think we know why.
@@EvercadeRetro will there be firmware updates to fix audio problems and button swapping? Can't find anything on these two things that are putting me off picking one up on the 22nd May...
@@EvercadeRetro i admire the fact that you address the problems, i respect that.
Evercade because all the other UA-camrs lied about where they got their footage?
@@EvercadeRetro no, you don't know why, you idiots. All you're doing is blaming him because you won't admit he has a shitty unit
You're the only channel on UA-cam that brought all these issues to my attention. Thank you for that!
There's something special about the way the cartridges go in, combined with the switch. It's so much more satisfying than the spring-action business we've had for the last few generations.
Honest reviews from a honest human , very rare these days , thanks joe keep up the great work
Regardless of all the issues I still think it's really cool that we are getting devices like this now.
Honest and no holding back fair review. This is why I'm subscribed to this channel 👍
This was a more thorough review than I've seen elsewhere. No one else I've seen had mentioned the screen shimmer or audio problems at all, and the button mapping issue was consistently glossed over to the point where I had never guessed it was that extensive. I've been excited for this system, though, and I don't know if these issues are complete deal breakers for me- but suddenly it seems a lot more overpriced then it did before. I guess I believe in the potential for this system- as a way of accessing physical, collectible versions of homebrews, indie games and hidden gems in a legal, relatively affordable way. But that potential may never be realized if the system has too many downsides. Future firmware updates, if they happen at all, may be what saves this whole idea.
Please take a look at the Digital Foundry review which is the most thorough so far. It covers these points and more.
A thourough review would of tried to debug the audio issues first to make sure it was the device in the first place and if so checked with evercade if the device was faulty or not rather than just reviewing the system like this is how it will be for everyone. This so far is the least thorough review for that reason.
@@OwtDaftUK Joe, basically, responded to this in another comment.
Joe - I review what they send me. There is no correction to be made as the problem 100% exists. Evercade even sent me a response e-mail saying that their engineer had experienced the issue in the past but the PR guy was unaware of this. Then they asked me to try playing it directly to the TV without a capture device in the middle. It is noy my job to troubleshoot their hardware. It is their issue if they can't implement HDMI correctly, which seems to be the case. The only other time I've had an issue with HDMI was with the Neo Geo X which (surprise surprise) was designed by Blaze. I have had no issue with any other HDMI connections other than that. Again, I review what they send me and if they send me stuff that doesn't work in one area or another, I'll mention it. The problem is theirs, not mine.
@@EvercadeRetro Reading around, it does seem like the audio problems may be unique to Game Sack's situation. I'm also encouraged by how much your company is communicating with the customers. The button mapping does still seem like an issue to me. In many cases it's not simply a matter of getting over old muscle memory, because a poor configuration limits the way your thumb rolls over the buttons (trying to jump and shoot simultaneously for example- this was a problem in Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Gamecube that I remember), making the entire game a chore to control in every moment. It seems like your company is aware of this gripe though, so I'm still overall optimistic.
@@EvercadeRetro you couldn't even map the buttons correctly lol what a bunch money hungry dbags
Review fail! Joe forgot to cross his arms, turn the console upside down and turn his head upside down before critiquing the controls. What a noob.
Game Sack helping me save money one more time. Thanks for the honest review.
It’s good to know that updates they made to the Evercane consul and with the verses came out they fixed a lot of control, mapping issues and the sound problems
what on earth possessed them to include any of the swordquest games?!?! without the comic book manual, you cant find the clues too.....actually you cant do anything with it since the contest the clues go tword are completely useless, so why include it at all!?!?!
Loved the unbiased review. Seems like some other well-respected reviewers were a lot more generous than they should've been (cough, cough, DF, cough, cough).
I find it amazing that they put so much time into emulating these games and mess up the control schemes so badly.
Evercade just answered me about this on their Facebook group: " We can show people how to do a FW update and we can add button mapping " ... so let's wait and see.
This will be on the bargain shelves at Walmart just in time for Christmas. Pretty cool stocking stuffer.
This seems like premium eBay/Amazon stock actually. Won't be in stores. But I may be corrected.
meh.
R4inSpid3r it’s in stores in the UK, you can ore order now. I was quite surprised
Finally, a good review on this thing. Most reviews I’ve seen are of the “it’s got carts, and carts are cool!” varieties.
Great review. I randomly found your channel in my recommended feed and I'm glad I did. Subscribed immediately and looking forward to more!
OOF this thing is 100% DoA, based on the games available alone. Let alone the actual quality issues.
@@stayskeptic3923 Dead on Arrival
much like the Stadia then
They have said they are releasing loads of cartridges. There's a couple more of the way like Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood soon.
The available selection of games is pretty good. It's the sound bugs and control issues that have taken this off my "to buy" list.
@@madcrowmaxwell The sound issues hasn't happened with any other reviewer and looking through the comments it appears to be a capture or HDMI cable problem. Would make sense if the lead is coming loose.
Thank you once again for an honest and thorough review. You've got the community's support man
Wow I dont think they realized Joe is not a sellout when they sent this to him.
The little bit at the end of the video almost made me spill my coffee everywhere!
I've seen two other UA-camrs cover this and they didn't mention all of the problems you did. That's annoying.
I know right? Im surprised digital foundry didnt talk about these problems.
A lot of other channels don't seem to notice things like shimmering or integer scaling issues, however, I would have expected Digital Foundry to mention stuff like that. Also, the button issues definitely should've been brought up for sure. I wasn't planning on buying one of these anyway and after seeing Joe's review, it seems like a pretty mediocre product.
Those people are “yes” people.
Almost makes me wonder if Joe's unit has a hardware defect that's somehow causing the audio issues. Or maybe the other streamers didn't test the HDMI output for a longer time.
Makes me not trust their ability to be thorough. I'm not saying other Tubers are being dishonest but the problems presented here will determine if someone buys a product. And ya I'm really shocked John from DF didn't mention these problems.
Piss poor ports and no wireless controller so you're tethered to the tv like a caveman with a PSP? Huge miss in every possible way.
This is kind of true. I mean playing from the system when hooked at the Tv is silly. A wireless controller is a must. And i don't think they should make their own but just do something to make established controllers work.
This is also very important to those who care about system life. Since control buttons break and if they break on this system then the whole system is dead.
But if you could still play with a controller while connected to a TV then it would have more life.
This is why im subbed to Game Sack, the truth
We suspect the audio issue is either a cable or capture issue. Nobody else has had this issue. We have tested for thousands of hours. There are many, many other reviews on UA-cam and there's already been many live streams using the console. Not a single other reported issue.
Evercade and I suspect that your unit is an emulated piece of crap.....
I only found this channel the other week and I'm honestly shocked. Your videos are informative, fun and passionate - thank you for all you do!
Evercade without arcade games , should change its name to everhomeports
Yes, this was a big miss for me, too.
This doesn't look like a handheld i would invest my money in.
I think it's supposed to get new games and it just launched with a classic library
I'm considering it if they make more RPG collections or add a 2 player option.
Can agree on that and really can't hold it's own against Nintendo either or any actual video game handhelds from history like Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear that were crushed by Nintendo Game Boy. Which for all 3 can crush this thing in fact there's a story that Nintendo Game Boy survived a bomb blast in a war don't think this Evercade can do that. Anyway Google and UA-cam the history of those systems. These guys behind this just are too much looking for a quick buck and seem shady.
Whoa! Holy Smokes! You are THE ONLY GUY they mentioned the button issues. I was actually interested in buying one until this review. Jesus thats absolutely inexcusable! Your comments on it at the very end sum up my thoughts exactly. I liked the concept honestly, but the executions is tragic.
It's ridiculous in this day and age to have any games without remappable buttons. And if they weren't going to let people remap the buttons, they could have at least had the same layout as the originals. It's not that hard.
Digital Foundry mentioned the button layout issue.
The Evercade had potential, and l was definitely interested... until I saw this video. Thanks for saving me the time and money, Joe.
Please take a look at other reviews. The sound issue is unique here and could be related to cables or capture devices.
@@EvercadeRetro What about the control issues? That's definitely a deal-breaker for a lot of people, myself included.
@@AverageMetalDrummer it's something we are looking at and listening to the community.
@@AverageMetalDrummer we are considering a FW fix for button mapping.
Regarding the audio. We have spoken with our engineers and the only isolated incident this has ever happened, was also during game capture. Never when only connected directly to a TV 👍
@@EvercadeRetro Listening to the community???? How was this not fixed right away? Do the people developing this even play games? You don't need to "listen to the community"...you just map the buttons the way they are on the real controllers. It's soooo basic.
The fact that it's called the Evercade but doesn't have any arcade ports of the games is such an epic fail.
hehe the Nevercade would have been more fitting
We have confirmed arcade games are coming. We already have the rights to many arcade games ❤️
@@FloridaEbikes Pro tip? Are you a professional console developer? Cool!
Evercade salty? your product is subpar and unfit for its intended purpose.
oh and before you come back at me with a snarky comment i am a professional console developer - look me up on linkedin :D
Joe, thanks for an honest, fair, balanced review. This is what good reviewers look like folks. It’s crazy to me how some youtubers will shill a product and gloss over things just to get some free stuff.
Finally an honest review of the evercade
good for you Joe for not selling out, this is why gamesack should not die anytime soon!
I don't think I'll get an evercade. However a couple of those indie Genesis games look good. Maybe I'll buy those on cartridge to play on my Genesis.
Cool episode! Thanks for informing us about this new handheld console. Little Medusa looks like a Kickle Cubicle reskin or clone.
First honest Evercade review! Thx
Well done being honest and not hiding the product's faults, Joe. You deserve respect.
Like always, great review! Your not like some other UA-camrs that just promote the Evercade without mentioning the serious problem the console has. The button layout seem really awful, and the emulation not so great. I'm glad to see a honest review!
Great and honest review! I was thinking of buying this one, but now I've changed my mind.
This was a great review of the Evercade. I understand that people like physical cartridges but a lot of these packs are just poor especially with games that don't ever seem to work correctly - let alone the massive oversite of the button configuration.
I think it's better to mod an existing hand held system personally, or at least buy another device like the Evercade which is up the job.
The best channel around. Thanks Joe.
I've been getting emails on this thing for months, and I've considered it... but yikes. It's cool to support the developers and what not but there's definitely some shenanigans with those controls.
Finally a review of this product. Thank you Joe for being honest. I've watched other channels " review " this and claim it awesome, and worth your money, considering they got the system and all the games for free.
That's why I love Game Sack, Honest reviews, not like the other youtuber that always says, "it's fantastic" if y'all don't know who I am talking about, just know that he's looking for hidden gems.
MJR?
thank you for giving real reviews of stuff with flaws and all! i saw a review from ETA Prime about this and he said it was great and never said anything about audio or control issues.
i was so heartbroken from ETA's review... i was hoping he wouldn't shill but i was wrong... the comment section was brutal too, full of BOTS (or paid accounts) from evercade and whomever tried to shine some light on this trash of a cash grab got called troll and ridiculized!
blaze at it again with physical shovelware
You really just told us things that are important, I didn,t know till this moment about problems with buttons mapping, and this is very important. Thanks. Greeting from Poland. :)
FINALLY somebody who dares to be critical. Metal Jesus and John Hancock didn’t have anything profound (read: critical) to say about this piece of hardware.
calypso I generally like his videos, but he got into lots of trouble about his game-museum plans (and lack of progression on it)
eh, I could personally care less about what they have to say, I stopped watching Metal Jesus when I realized that he decided to focus less on game recommendations and more on ego stroking collection gloating videos and I never liked John Hancock much to begin with.
Looks like a good idea that was executed very poorly.
joe knows his stuff. the idea of a 16:9 retro system makes no sense and who thought 480x272 would be a good resolution? that and the menu button right under the dpad, the lack of l2 and r2... the game versions and broken button mappings, etc. etc. so many baffling decisions.
They plan a Atari Lynx cart for the system. That system had a wide screen and thus the Evercade would need a wide screen.
They don't make 4:3 screens any more in bulk. If you wanted one you would have to pay more. a 16x9 screen is cheaper, that's why they used one.
SicCoyote Anbernic and Gamekiddy would likely disagree with that assessment
OwtDaftUK right, so horizontally letterbox all systems except lynx vs just vertically letterboxing the lynx? makes no sense whatsoever.
Lassi Kinnunen you’re probably right
It's been a good week for gaming videos. New Game Sack video, new Metal Jesus, new Happy Console Gamer, and even a new Spida1a video! All I have to say about all that is *garbled audio*.
I am glad I didn't pay money for this, I almost got it but the emulation and control issues are just awful. Thanks for helping me save my money
damn, Joey. I see you everywhere.
@@montefisto I am everywhere
When you offer your system out for review, honesty is best. Good review, hopefully they will take your points under consideration and fix the issues before the final product hits the market.
I just don't see the point of this to be perfectly honest, a better solution is to hack a vita or psp and open it up to thousands upon thousands of options instead of just being limited to a very select (and mostly crap except Kunio-kun,) library of games, that or just buying an Android chinese handheld built for emulation with better gamepad layout and form factor.
As for the price point comparison, the price does rack up once you start having to shell out for each game collection.
The form factor makes it look like a cheap Chinese knockoff of a handheld with Android, *actually* I've seen Chinese android handhelds that look 100x better.
This is one for the collectors, but even then this is all emulated stuff so its in a pretty niche set of collecting in itself, when there are so many options in the handheld emulation scene.
Seems to me that these guys must have sent out these devices to almost all the retro youtubers they could think of at the same time in the hopes of flooding the retro scene to get some sales.
Hard pass.
I see 0 reason to buy this over a RG350. I get more console for less money.
Hey guys, here's the "oh just hack a RASPBERRY PSP RG CADE 1UP MINI" guy!
That said, not a fan of the form factor or build on this.
This seems to aim more on the cheaper side, but with licensed games. Imho, they shoud have put the emulators on the console, so they could be updated with fixes regardless of the cartridge
Theoretically, the point is licensed games. Except it sounds that there are enough quality issues to counter that justification.
You're correct overall - but the core difference is that one is legal and one isn't.
I love your reviews. They are so in depth. Appreciate it!
13:40 Top Racer is actually the title for Top Gear in Japan
Very glad you showed the problems with this thing, I have seen a few other reviews, and they brought none of this up
I’ve seen a bunch of reviews and Nobody else has mentioned the button layout/mapping. You’re exactly right, Nintendo has always been the worst offender of this when every they port/update something they often ruin the feel by messing up button mapping. I was considering one of these until this review- thanks for being thorough.
And i was planning to buy one of those. Thanks for the info, Joe. You saved me a lot of coins.
Tanzer is an excellent indie Mega Drive/Genesis game that definitely needs more attention. It was made by Mikael Tillander and distributed in cartridge form by Mega Cat Studio. Mikael deserves props for making such a great game.
Really appreciate this review I wasn’t expecting it to be so deep. Definitely helped me, I’ve been thinking about buying this thing.
Unbelievable that there are so many issues with the button mapping! I mean these issues would obviously had come up during testing so I can't understand why this thing would ship out in this state. Wow.
If they can't even be bothered to use a 4:3 screen in a retro handheld, then why would they bother to get the button layout correct?
It's pretty likely there aren't many 4:3 screens being manufactured these days. So it's probably much cheaper to go with 16:9. Things lile this are made from existing parts. The only piece of the thing that was manufactured specifically for it is the shell. But there is a good chance that even that was old stock that they bought.
@@leadbones There's a bunch of cheap Chinese handhelds that sell for under $40 that use 4:3 screens, and in the $80 range (which this cost) you can get those Chinese handhelds with pretty good 4:3 IPS screen. But in any case I agree, they probably just got whatever was cheapest. This just doesn't seem like a product they put much time or effort into - and if they can't even figure out the controls it probably never even occurred to them to get a proper screen.
We could have a 4:3" screen but we wanted to make Lynx collections. They are wider than that ratio. 🤷♂️
@@EvercadeRetro Is it possible to fix the sound and control issues with a firmware update in the future. These are the things people need to know. Some lynx games would be awesome, especially some of the homebrew stuff. I hear mortal kombat is amazing.
Evercade so you chose a 480x272 screen? every time you address this issue it’s a different excuse.
I was going to get this after the other reviews by metal Jesus , digital foundry, etc but now I am unsure thank you for a honest review.
Jason uk
Excellent in depth review! If the Evercade has done anything, it's shown me a list of retro games I never knew about and would like to try outside of it.
Evercade are in the comments, Get them!! They are saying it Joe's fault, That it's his setup.
I'd like to see if their assertion no one had trouble with audio is true. I'm willing to give them a bit of benefit of doubt here, because they're obviously in damage control mode. It is nice that they have said it is possible they will update the firmware to fix the button mapping issue. Whether there is any way to patch the emulators is another story, though. If they can't, that's kind of a problem with their design.
Expect that from the company if you buy one it is you not us.
Great video Joe, you always put a lot of effort into your work!
This is the first review to really highlight the awful control mapping, so thank you for that Joe. I think the system itself is ugly as hell anyways, but I would of been annoyed if I had.
Thanks for the great videos Joe! You always use such sick music
almost bought this by MJR and JRiggs review... now Joe point out these problem and I think he is right
Thank you for making this video. Hopefully the team views this. With you input they might be able to fix these issues before the official commercial launch. 🤞
This comes across as an epic fail. Thanks for the honest review.
Love me some Sunday morning tea and SACKS! COVID can't take everything!!
The Evercade Facebook page is apparently denying Joe's story about him not being aware about the review unit's arrival. Whatever that means.
They're also on his comments starting fights with people and blaming Joe for their problems. Not the best look, IMHO.
Definitely not a good look
I don't use Facebook much these days, but that's really good to know, as I'm for sure not wasting my money on this garbage now, and will stick to emulating on my Android phone using a Moga Controller, and side loading the emuators I like that are not in the Google Play Store.
Joe is awesome because he doesn’t hold back. If there’s a problem, he will show and tell it. He does try to hide it like most reviews here. Evercade out here looking really bad trying to cover up their BS. I’m willing to bet that the other UA-camrs used footage sent to them or passed off existing footage to be from this unit.
Just cancelled my order based on this review. Thanks for the honesty, much appreciated.
As long as those wolves still go for the manly milk buttons is all I care about
Thank you for a honest review joe. We appreciate you.
With the Odroid GO Advance going for ~$60... the Evercade literally has no place in this world.
There are so many better cheaper options than this overpriced thing. I had a gaming tablet back in 2013 called the GPD G7 that could even play Dreamcast games and it was only $110 back then. I'd imagine you could get something like that for $50 or so now. Why would you buy this thing which has $20 cartridges with only a few games on it when you could buy an android handheld and load it with roms and play basically any game for any system with way better emulation. Even if the Evercade was $100 and came with all the cartridges it would still be a waste.
@@HerecomestheCalavera Don't forget that you get higher power, better screen, and better battery life for less money... haha, Evercade is just way out of it's element.
Those sound issues are a complete turn off for me, I was going to buy one but now, no way. Thanks for a great and honest review!
Never had the intention to buy the Evercade. This whole concept is theoretically nice, but the games collections eally suck. It's much better just to get a chine repro and upload the whole game libraries on a microsd card.....
Yep, and with repro's you can assign the buttons. As far as I'm concerned, RG350 is the bar, if it ain't better than a RG350, don't bother making it.
20:58 That Little Medusa TOTALLY is Kickle Cubicle!
Anyway...hi, Joe! Great video, as usual!
Thanks, Joe, for your honest and thorough review. I’ve watched other reviews of this device and all were mostly-glowing reviews that didn’t point out the flaws that you did. I’ll pass on this one.
This was a very fair review and hilarious in how optimistic you remained despite constant dissapointment
Thanks for the honest review Joe... now I want to cancel my preorder. No other review I saw did mention the problems and it seems there are plenty of bugs. Hopefully blaze is gonna fix that! If they don’t address that in the next two weeks, preorder will be dumbed for sure.
Maybe he has a faulty unit?
@Real News: Hopefully. Other comments suggest that he might be the first honest reviewer and the other reviewers didn’t do their job properly and just appreciated the freebie.
I love Tinhead for Genesis, always thought it was underrated
It's Saturday night and I'm hammered with the boys about to go to bed... but wait, is that an upload notification I see? Yeah it's Game Sack time.
Preordered it. Hopefully the firmware update they released resolves the button thing.