I am proud to announce the completion and release of the Everdrive N8 Pro review, for GBAtemp.

The Everdrive N8 Pro is the official “next, best-thing” over the ever popular N8 Flash Kit, a solution designed by Krikzz for retro gaming on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Family Computer! It supports both NES and FDS ROMs, offering a library of over 900 games, not including homebrew, translations, and hacks.

Please give the review a read and let us know your experiences with Krikzz Flash Kit solutions in the comments below!

Everdrive N8 Pro Review

Homepage

N8 Support Forum

Official Everdrive Product Store (https://everdrive.me)

 

[wiewiec]

I have few Everdrive products, but I think if they release some new version they became more more money greedy it is insane.

 

[diggeloid]

offering a library of over 900 games, not including homebrew, translations, and hacks

So..it doesn't support homebrew?

 

[enarky]

I have few Everdrive products, but I think if they release some new version they became more more money greedy it is insane.

I don't think they're greedy necessarily, depending on which Cyclone IV FPGA they use they cost 30 EUR per piece. Add the time for programming and putting everything together and you look at a few bucks.

If I'm not mistaken the OSSC uses a similar FPGA, since it's open source there are plenty of clones on Aliexpress, but none of them are available for under 100 EUR.

I don't think it's far fetched to assume their margin isn't very high.

 

[James_]

So..it doesn't support homebrew?

'Not including' doesn't mean 'doesn't support'.

 

[TangentingTangerines]

Does it work with Rockman 4 Minus Infinity? I love that game, best romhack out there imo, but it doesn't work on the normal Everdrive N8. If it works on this, that might make it worth buying.

 

[x65943]

I have few Everdrive products, but I think if they release some new version they became more more money greedy it is insane.

There are so many of them, and they are so expensive, that they are part of my "if I win the lottery" schemes at this point

Now I am wondering how much money you would need to legitimately own every game you can play on the collective everdrives - barring the super rare games it's probably still in the high thousands

 

[Lodad]

There are so many of them, and they are so expensive, that they are part of my "if I win the lottery" schemes at this point

Now I am wondering how much money you would need to legitimately own every game you can play on the collective everdrives - barring the super rare games it's probably still in the high thousands

To me it's more about just having a library of the few games I care about, which definitely wouldn't break $170.

 

[Hanafuda]

Wait, it's the "next best thing" to the original N8? I haven't been paying real close attention to the flashcart market recently - I have what I need, wrt: flashcarts anyway. But when I saw N8 Pro I assumed it must be an upgrade over the original. Is it not?

Here's my original N8. I think I'll keep it ... whatever extra the Pro has, if anything, I doubt I really would use it. I like the way this one looks, a LOT better.

 

[Another World]

So..it doesn't support homebrew?

"It supports both NES and FDS ROMs, offering a library of over 900 games, not including homebrew, translations, and hacks."

If they were included, it would be over 900. But, they can not be included because homebrew, translations and hacks are not part of the original NES/FDS library.

@Hanafuda, you took something away from my sentence that I had not intended. I have since added a comma, to break up the meaning more appropriately. I hope it is more clear now. If you have the N8, the Pro offers a few things the N8 can not, but if you are happy with your gaming experience then stick with what you have!

In regards to cost, I think everyone was very spoiled by the DS era of $2-20 Flash Kits. $150-200 is not expensive for the N8 Pro. It's literally 20 hrs of your life at a minimum wage job. The end result is you are playing over 1,000 games, without having paid the price of collecting them all or having custom carts built for homebrew, translations, and hacks.

-Another World

 

[Issac]

Dang, I really want one of these some day it's such a neat product, and sure they are expensive - but not if you are considering what you get.

The translucent red makes me think of my very first flashcart for the GBA. So one day I hope I'll get my hands on one of those

 

[64bitmodels]

No point in getting this when thousands of emulators for NES exist. I still don't see the appeal of owning stuff like this when emulators exist that are 100% hardware accurate. Doesn't help that the system is overrated as all hell

 

[Another World]

"Thousands" ... "100% hardware accurate" and "the system [NES] is overrated as all hell".

Like... do you even know what your words mean before you type them?

The dev of Mesen posted that after testing he felt his emulator was 96% accurate. That's the best you might get while taking his word for it. Here are his results from 2017: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2X2UoTGDV5HNFVNSnJkV3h5ZzQ/view. I think Bizhawk was also getting close but don't recall reading any official testing that put either at 100%. The few reports I read which claimed 100% only tested 158/273 tests, from what I recall. With that said, you're maybe talking 3 or 4 (puNES maybe?) emus that rate higher than 90% when testing. I can link you to a collection of NES test ROMs if you would like to put some actual data behind your words.

-Another World

 

[TheZander]

Pretty cool. I always thought the flash carts for older consoles were expensive due to rarity or discontinuation of manufacturing. For a brand new device the price doesn't make any sense for the countless things that could replace the experience for less. I'm sure it's not junk but why not just make it cost less and sell a lot more? It's an NES flashcart as far as production goes I'm sure it's on the affordable size. You could fit a breadboard from radioshack inside one. Does he make each one by hand?

 

[x65943]

Pretty cool. I always thought the flash carts for older consoles were expensive due to rarity or discontinuation of manufacturing. For a brand new device the price doesn't make any sense for the countless things that could replace the experience for less. I'm sure it's not junk but why not just make it cost less and sell a lot more? It's an NES flashcart as far as production goes I'm sure it's on the affordable size. You could fit a breadboard from radioshack inside one. Does he make each one by hand?

Niche market for old console

Flash solution being made by one guy - he has to recoup cost somehow

Realistically the price is not very high for what you are getting

If there was actually high demand for such solutions, and making them cheap was so easy, the market would produce an alternative manufacturer who could undercut and make a killing

But none of that is the case

 

[TheZander]

Niche market for old console

Flash solution being made by one guy - he has to recoup cost somehow

Realistically the price is not very high for what you are getting

If there was actually high demand for such solutions, and making them cheap was so easy, the market would produce an alternative manufacturer who could undercut and make a killing

But none of that is the case

I guess that makes sense with aforementioned gameboy and ds carts. I certainly cannot find a cheaper flashcart for retro consoles.

As for the price and value of product I think most of the pitch along the lines of "900 in 1 game" is obsolete. But that all goes along with the niche market because it's worth it to some people to play the game on original hardware. I know I would like that option because I still have all my old consoles but definitely not in the mindset that it's worth the asking price because I wouldn't actually use them so much as just like having it if I needed it.

 

[wiewiec]

There are so many of them, and they are so expensive, that they are part of my "if I win the lottery" schemes at this point

Now I am wondering how much money you would need to legitimately own every game you can play on the collective everdrives - barring the super rare games it's probably still in the high thousands

I know that games are expensive, but differences N8 vs Pro isn't that significant to cash it almost doble. Also X series Everdrives was for me just jump to the cash... since prices was insane for example to get option to have saves without reseting the console.

 

[x65943]

I know that games are expensive, but differences N8 vs Pro isn't that significant to cash it almost doble. Also X series Everdrives was for me just jump to the cash... since prices was insane for example to get option to have saves without reseting the console.

Isn't a large part of that price difference a huge discount now that the latest version has come out?

I thought that was pretty standard for the everdrives. Do either of us know the N8 price when it launched? Curious if it was more comparable.

 

[wiewiec]

Isn't a large part of that price difference a huge discount now that the latest version has come out?

I thought that was pretty standard for the everdrives. Do either of us know the N8 price when it launched? Curious if it was more comparable.

For example one guy form my country released FC Everdrive kind flash cart that loads bigger roms - similar to Pro, but shame that he not plan to develop more mappers. But price of this cart is around 44 euro, but for now he is waiting for PCB's because of Coronvirus.

 

[Another World]

Do either of us know the N8 price when it launched? Curious if it was more comparable.

I want to say it was around $129? I'm not 100% sure, though.

I'm at the point in life that I want to sell my carts. I want to game on old hardware, using the controllers I loved with a CRT. Everdrive solutions allow me to do this. For me, the cost of $150-300 is affordable. I would just consider buying maybe 1 year. That way you aren't sitting on a bunch of experiences you won't have the time to actually enjoy.