The Alpha is a product I was not expecting from Evercade, but it’s very much welcomed and has now become their most expensive product that they create, pairing nicely with their array of cartridges for gamers to explore.
We were invited down to the Evercade HQ here in the UK to explore their upcoming products, including the Evercade EXP-R handheld, the VS-R home console and the two upcoming Super Pockets.
Immediately I underestimated how big the Evercade Alpha is, coming in at 410mm tall. Unlike replica mini cabinets like Quarter Arcades the alpha is technically a “bartop arcade cabinet”, so it loses the bottom section of typical arcade machines.
Disclaimer: The Evercade Alpha’s we had the opportunity to test were not finished products, and are close to final prototypes. The official Evercade Alpha will release on November 28th and is available in a Capcom variant and a Mega Man variant starting at £199, both preloaded with 6 games.
This offers more real estate, larger controls, and a bigger screen making gameplay far more comfortable for longer periods of time. Not only that, they have also used full sized competition grade arcade buttons and joystick to make it feel like you’re playing on only the highest quality components.
As soon as you start playing you will quickly notice that the controls are incredibly well built, nothing feels cheap in this area and I know for a fact arcade enthusiasts will be happy with how this feels. There’s enough space for your palms to rest and USB slots below for you to add extra controllers should you want to play multiplayer.
The Alpha is launching in two different versions, featuring 6 Capcom games on one, and 6 Mega Man games on the other, and each cabinet has been designed with that in mind, with an array of classic graphics and a interchangeable light up marquee that comes with a few replacement designs for you to customise the way you please.
These can be removed, albeit not easily, as you need to somewhat bend the plastic cover to remove the design, and then place your new choice inside, and then bend the plastic back into its slots. I do believe there could have been a more unique and less strenuous way to change these, but it is possible with a little brute force.
The screen itself is very bright and comes in at 8″ which is a great size for a bartop arcade cabinet. There are no visible bezels around the screen, instead it features graphics and illustrations around the screen to hide this which gives it a much more modern look in my opinion.
The user interface is still being finished, but I did mange to have a little play around and I can say it’s very easy to navigate and sticks closely to the Evercade UI which many users will be happy about. The experience is colourful, minimal and filled with artwork, alongside the ability to connect it to WiFi for over the air updates.
Playing the 6 pre-loaded games is as easy as finding them on your main menu and scrolling down to games, and as usual emulation is flawless because it’s an officially licensed ROM, the same goes for their whole library of cartridges, all working incredibly well with the Evercade Alpha, giving you a unique way to play your favourite Evercade games.
The cartridges can be slotted underneath the buttons, right next to the on/off switch which has been replicated to look like the coin slot on arcade machines. It has two cartridge slots allowing you keep a multitude of games loaded into your Evercade Alpha at all times, much like the Evercade VS console.
Here you will also find a 3.5mm headphone jack, to USB ports to add controllers, and your volume buttons which click nicely. On the back you will find your USB-C port which gives the Alpha power. I was thankful this was USB-C as their new upcoming Evercade VS-R console is still using MicroUSB, which has been outdated for sometime now.
The controls can actually be removed with a screwdriver should you arcade geeks want to get in there to clean your buttons or even modify them the way you please, but it was made clear that it would void the warranty on here, so modify at your own risk!
The wood used alongside the strong bolted joints and high quality wrap make the cabinet feel strudy and high quality, alongside the visually attracting display and light up marquee, it’s certainly a piece of tech that won’t go unnoticed in your games room.
It’s too early to tell how long the quality will last as I only had a few hours to play around with it, but my first imporessions are that the Evercade team have certainly put a lot of time and effort into this and opens up new ways to explore your Evercade library.
However, as mentioned before this is Evercade’s most expensive product yet, starting at £199 here in the UK and is available to pre-order on Amazon. This moves it into the premium category in my opinion and puts it in competition with other mini arcade machine brands such as Quarter Arcades and Arcade1Up, both make incredibly high quality products.
Evercade’s advantage here is that you can explore their range of cartridges and collect physical media like the good old days, so only time will tell which mini arcade cabinet will prevail, but as of now I’m impressed with the Evercade Alpha, it’s a great premium way of playing your favourite arcade games.
