Evercade Handheld
Blaze Entertainment · Released May 2020 · Original (2020)
The cartridge-based retro handheld that champions legal, officially-licensed game collections on physical media, with HDMI out.
Pros
- +Legal, officially-licensed retro collections on physical cartridges
- +HDMI output to play on a TV
- +Simple, family-friendly, no setup
- +Affordable entry to curated retro libraries
Cons
- −Plays only Evercade cartridges (no ROMs)
- −Modest 480x272 screen
- −No analog stick
What can it play?
Emulation performance by platform, based on real-world testing.
Full specifications
Hardware
- Chipset (SoC)
- Allwinner (ARM Cortex-A7)
- CPU
- Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7
- GPU
- Mali-400 MP2
- RAM
- 256 MB
- Storage
- Cartridge Evercade multi-game cartridge
- Weight
- 226 g
- Dimensions
- 200 x 87 x 22 mm
- Cooling
- Passive
Display
- Size
- 4.3″
- Resolution
- 480x272
- Panel
- IPS LCD
- Refresh rate
- 60 Hz
- Touchscreen
- No
Battery & Connectivity
- Battery
- 2000 mAh
- Real-world life
- ~4.5 hours
- Wi-Fi
- None
- Bluetooth
- None
- Ports
- Evercade cartridge slot, Mini HDMI (TV out), 3.5mm headphone, USB-C
- Expandable storage
- No
Controls
- Analog sticks
- 0
- D-pad
- Yes
- Face buttons
- Yes
- Analog triggers
- No
- Gyroscope
- No
- Hall effect sticks
- No
Software & custom firmware
Ships with: Evercade OS
Also plays natively: Evercade cartridges (officially-licensed retro collections)
No third-party custom firmware tracked for this device.
Our verdict
Evercade's original handheld took a refreshing approach: instead of ROMs, it plays officially-licensed multi-game cartridges spanning publishers like Atari, Namco, and Interplay, making retro collecting legal and tangible. It is simple, family-friendly, and outputs to a TV. The screen is modest and there is no analog stick, but for curated, guilt-free retro libraries it carved out a likeable niche before being succeeded by the EXP.