The cartridge-based Evercade handheld's library just expanded thanks to RetroArch support. This is possible by means of the third-party EverSD homebrew and development kit. However, the homebrew development cart couldn't be read with the recent 1.3.1 Evercade firmware update but a new patch has been released to address this issue as well as bring RetroArch support.

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How this new patch works is by first dumping the kernel and rootfs from the device and then it patches those. Subsequently the kernel and rootfs are flashed back.

@KiiWii made a handy guide to help you patch your Evercade on FW 1.3.1 and get RetroArch working on it. You can also join the ongoing discussion over there should you have any queries.

EverSD for Evercade Firmware 1.3.1 and Retroarch Support Guide

 

[raxadian]

Isn't Retroarch too demanding for something so weak hardware wise?

 

[ScarletDreamz]

Isn't Retroarch too demanding for something so weak hardware wise?

Depending on the cores aiming to run on this.

 

[nl255]

How does this compare to the rg351p or rk2020?

 

[MikaDubbz]

Isn't Retroarch too demanding for something so weak hardware wise?

Retroarch itself shouldn't be a problem, it depends on each core though. Essentially Retroarch is just a UI that can directly load games via emulator cores, so NES, SNES, GBA, Genesis cores likely shouldn't be a problem for the likes of Evercade, it's once you start touching the likes of the N64 and PS1 cores that you would likely start to run into compatability issues.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

now I do want one evercade!

Edit: I dont think it is powerful like those millions of GBA-like devices that come out every week, what I mean is that I like the some cartridges that they release, and the added benefit of emulation adds lots of value.

 

[Jayro]

Well NOW it might be worth getting one, but I already have so many modded devices to play Retroarch on...

 

[smallissue]

what's an evercade
does it have it's own game library
are there homebrew games
is it just some handheld emulator thing

 

[HtheB]

what's an evercade
does it have it's own game library
are there homebrew games
is it just some handheld emulator thing

It used to be a system that lets you play classic games that are licensed by Evercade.
But now, it will have it's own library of games coming soon.

 

[vincentx77]

How does this compare to the rg351p or rk2020?

These both use a quad core Cortex-A35. The Evercade uses a single core Cortex-A7. The RK2020 is around half the price and is a considerably more powerful system. The only real draw of the Evercade was the fact that you were buying legal game carts. If you're going to use retroarch, just get one of those clone consoles. They're more powerful, can play more systems, and are generally cheaper.

 

[nl255]

These both use a quad core Cortex-A35. The Evercade uses a single core Cortex-A7. The RK2020 is around half the price and is a considerably more powerful system. The only real draw of the Evercade was the fact that you were buying legal game carts. If you're going to use retroarch, just get one of those clone consoles. They're more powerful, can play more systems, and are generally cheaper.

So which one would you say it is comparable to? Is it more like the AllWinner F1C100S based PGv1 or Powkiddy v90 just with better GBA emulation? I have a v90, pocketgov2 (basically a rg350 that can't use the beta cfw yet), and a rg351p.

 

[vincentx77]

So which one would you say it is comparable to? Is it more like the AllWinner F1C100S based PGv1 or Powkiddy v90 just with better GBA emulation? I have a v90, pocketgov2 (basically a rg350 that can't use the beta cfw yet), and a rg351p.

It's difficult to gage exactly how powerful the Evercade is because I can't find any specs on the GPU used in it's SoC. CPU wise, it's a lot faster than the F1C100S consoles. In theory, yes, it should play GBA games reasonably well (possibly not perfect), but I'm not sure what the overhead is for retroarch gba emulation. Retroarch is able to offload at least some tasks to a second core, and multithreaded rendering is a feature that helps push a lot of console over the edge to play at a locked 60fps. The Evercade won't be able to support that.
If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say the CPU is also faster than the PocketGo V2. It likely won't perform as well, though, because those JZ47x0 devices have emulators that are specifically optimized for them. The Go V2 shouldn't be able to run 32X games at full speed, yet so long as you're running the optimized build of picodrive, it does.

 

[LeyendaV]

Isn't Retroarch too demanding for something so weak hardware wise?

RetroArch itself isn't demanding at all. Cores, on the other hand, do has different requirements.

 

[BitMasterPlus]

Never heard of Evercade, gonna look into it.

 

[Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee]

It took this long to become useful.

 

[esmith13]

...multithreaded rendering is a feature that helps push a lot of console over the edge to play at a locked 60fps. The Evercade won't be able to support that.
If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say the CPU is also faster than the PocketGo V2.

The Evercade has a 1.2GHz 4-Core Cortex A7 which fully supports the NEON features of libretro armv7-neon-hf cores.
Enabling multi-thread video in retroarch on the evercade makes a very visible difference in emulation speed.

Sega 32x games play at a solid 60fps on my evercade. If there is a particular system/game I can test to give a better idea of the performance ceiling on this device with retroarch just let me know.

Also in the guide thread linked in the 1st post I have added info about getting the stock UI to load games in to the EverSD version of retroarch to give more of an "OEM" experience to EverSD users, including retroarch multi-disc playlists (.m3u) and rom formats not recognized by the stock UI normally.

 

[vincentx77]

The Evercade has a 1.2GHz 4-Core Cortex A7 which fully supports the NEON features of libretro armv7-neon-hf cores.
Enabling multi-thread video in retroarch on the evercade makes a very visible difference in emulation speed.

Sega 32x games play at a solid 60fps on my evercade. If there is a particular system/game I can test to give a better idea of the performance ceiling on this device with retroarch just let me know.

Also in the guide thread linked in the 1st post I have added info about getting the stock UI to load games in to the EverSD version of retroarch to give more of an "OEM" experience to EverSD users, including retroarch multi-disc playlists (.m3u) and rom formats not recognized by the stock UI normally.

You are correct. When I looked it up for my responses, all I could ever find was 1.2 Cortex A7. It's an RK3128, so it's quad core with a Mali400 MP2. With those specs, I would expect it to play PS1 games, at least the less demanding ones. Multithreading goes a long way with certain machines.

 

[MiCv2]

I am enthusiastic about Evercade and EverSD, only when I start RetroArch does my HDMI not work. Why? But someone on Youtube also has HDMI output with RetroArch. How did he set up this RetroArch GUI that makes it easier to use? Regards

 

[MikaDubbz]

I wish that more modern low-demanding indie games would natively come to the Evercade. I'm sure it could probably handle the likes of Sonic Mania or Shovel Knight, you know?