Review: Evercade Alpha

For years now, Evercade has been loudly championing video gaming history. The company's hardware range is a nostalgist's dream, running physical cartridges crammed with emulated but officially licensed collections of retro titles, all drawing on the "golden age" of home computing, early consoles, and classic arcade machines.

Yet while the likes of the original Evercade handheld, its evolved, vertical scroll-supporting Evercade EXP successor, and the TV-based Evercade VS-R have all provided captivating portals to the past, they may all be eclipsed by the new Evercade Alpha—a miniature arcade cabinet, accurately decked out with period cladding and boasting high-grade controls and a sharp screen.

It may be the most authentic way to play arcade classics short of hopping into a DeLorean and hitting 88 mph in a lightning storm.

Labor of Love

The first thing that strikes you about the Evercade Alpha is just how much of a labor of love it is, made by, and for, people who truly love arcade gaming. Its wood-panel casing perfectly recreates the shape, feel, and vibe of ‘80s and ’90s cabinets, just in scaled-down form.

The Alpha is available in two models, each centered on a Capcom classic, Street Fighter II or Mega Man: The Power Battle, with the cabinet designs near-flawlessly recreating the full-size arcade versions from back in the day. Cabinet art is spot on, down to the screens being framed in character-select art from their respective spotlight titles and the face buttons reproduced in the same color palettes as the originals.

One of the coolest touches is the light-up marquee, which highlights the games' eye-catching banners with a bright but gently diffused glow. Even better, those marquees are interchangeable, allowing for some customization if you prefer, say, a Strider banner to the Mega Man one, or have strong feelings over which Street Fighter game should have the spotlight. And, where the Alpha's size and function don't allow or require a period-perfect do-over, there are clever design substitutions, such as the power button mimicking the original coin slot. Everything about the Alpha just hits right.

The downside is that the different units aren't only aesthetically different, but each features a different cluster of in-built games. The Street Fighter model packs in Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter II' Champion Edition, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. The Mega Man model (the version we tested) has a slightly more varied selection, with Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (relative rarities; arcade outings for the Blue Bomber that blended the events of his familiar platform shooters with 2D fighter mechanics), hack-and-slash titan Strider, scrolling brawlers Final Fight and Knights of the Round, and shooter Carrier Air Wing.

Although arcade purists may be more drawn to the Street Fighter collection—pulling off a Spinning Bird Kick or Hadouken on accurate arcade controls is always a delight—the Mega Man unit offers a more diverse selection, with more genres represented. Which one to go for will be down to personal preference.

Arcade Upgrade

Whatever your choice, the Alpha impresses as a way to play these classics. A big part of that is down to the screen, an 8-inch IPS panel, offering 1024 x 768 resolution at 60 Hz. Games look fantastic on it, with incredibly sharp detail highlighting the gorgeous pixel art of the period—classicists may even think too crisp at times, compared to the CRT cabinets of old—and bold, bright colors.

The 4:3 screen ratio adds to the authenticity of playing on the Alpha, although system options allow for a few display tweaks such as filters to replicate CRT scanlines, pixel-perfect scaling, optional screen borders, or a stretch to full screen.

The only downside to the screen isn't in performance but rather the protective plastic film that comes plastered over it. This is meant to be removed but required loosening front-facing screws to get it off entirely—slightly concerning, as those screws didn't seem as though they were meant to be loosened. Proceed with caution.

Matters are similarly impressive on the sound front, with surprisingly powerful stereo speakers built in, pumping out rich, bass-heavy audio from either side of the cabinet's wood paneling. If you're not up for a thundering arcade machine blasting out ’80s chiptune, a discrete volume rocker on the front, tucked under that lovely coin slot power button, allows for quick adjustment. Plus, if you're on a vintage gaming kick into the wee hours and don't want to disturb others, the Alpha packs in the most retro feature of all: a 3.5-mm headphone jack.

The physical controls of the cabinet are great, with a single full-size panel consisting of a joystick and six face buttons—perfect for Street Fighter's legendary control scheme of kicks and punches in light-medium-heavy combinations—plus a trio of system control buttons.

While dual controls would be nice, they would also come at a cost of either shrunken down components, ruining the authentic feel, or a unit so big it stops being a mini cabinet. That doesn't mean native two-player gaming is a no-go though—two USB-A ports on the front allow external controllers to be plugged in, and controls can be mapped as needed. Incidentally, this is where the Mega Man unit may have an edge, as Knights of the Round can support up to three players.

For those who want an even higher-end at-home arcade, Evercade is also producing a "Deluxe" model Alpha, which comes with upgraded Sanwa controls, a full set of six interchangeable marquee headers—one for each of the games on either system—and an Evercade controller in an exclusive Alpha-themed color palette. It's those Sanwa controls, considered one of the best arcade component manufacturers, that may be the biggest lure for arcade obsessives, but the standard model's controls don't disappoint.

The default stick is responsive, with a robust spring back to its neutral position, while the face buttons are perfectly spaced. Everything feels satisfyingly clicky too, with the just right amount of recoil.

Despite the Alpha's relatively diminutive stature—41 cm (16.5 inches) tall, with a 31.6 x 24.4-cm (12.4 x 9.6-inch) footprint, making the cabinet just the right size to take pride of place on a desk or bar top—there's a nice heft to the unit, sitting securely on four rubber feet and not moving no matter how vigorously you slam the joystick around.

Emulation Nation

First-time set-up is a breeze—the Alpha comes with a two-meter USB power cord, with plug adaptors for UK, US, and EU sockets. Plug in, switch on, play.

The only minor hurdle is the Wi-Fi settings—entering your connection details with a joystick isn't the most elegant process. Wi-Fi for an arcade machine might sound odd, but it allows for system updates improving overall performance and for Evercade's free, downloadable Game of the Month, usually a fresh new indie title. It’s a bit disappointing that the Alpha only supports 2.4-GHz connectivity though, but most updates are less than 500 MB in size, so it doesn't exactly demand lightning-fast download speeds.

The Alpha isn't the quickest to boot up—we timed 40 seconds, even after all updates have been done—but once it has, it's nicely responsive and easily navigable with the arcade controls. Anyone who's used another Evercade device will find the Alpha immediately familiar at a system level. Evercade's firmware is now unified across all its devices, meaning the UI is identical in appearance and function. Units have a selection of system themes to choose from to customize the "desktop", with one tailored to either the native Street Fighter or Mega Man appearance.

You'll be able to browse either unit's included Capcom games under the "A" menu, and those running from Evercade carts in a menu below that. The Alpha accommodates two carts at once for potentially dozens of games accessible at a moment's notice, which can be browsed and sorted by release year, title, or which cart slot they're in. There's also a Star menu housing the Game of the Month and the Hidden Games menu—one of Evercade's neatest tricks, a collection of extra games that can be unlocked through system trickery or combining certain cart combos in the dual slots.

Games themselves are typically much quicker to launch than the system itself is, whether pre-installed or running from an Evercade cart. Being emulated, it's also possible to create save states for any game, saved to the cartridge itself, allowing you to launch right into the middle of a lengthy arcade run you couldn't quite finish. While that definitely changes the nature of playing arcade games, it's also possible to play in Competition Mode, selected from a game's settings menu before launching, which prohibits saves. It's as close to playing these games as they were originally intended as possible, with all the challenges that entails.

One neat new system-level feature unique to the Alpha is Demo Mode. Leave the Alpha untouched for two minutes, and it will start running one of the installed games’ “attract modes” from the actual arcade machines back in the day—those captivating bursts of gameplay that would lure players over, tempting them to part with their coins by showcasing the flashiest, most exciting parts of the games. Is it meaningful? Does it “do” anything? No, but it's another loving nod to gaming history.

And that's Evercade's secret weapon—it's not just a way to play older games, it's a celebration of them and your experiences with them. Like other consoles in the hardware ecosystem, Alpha is an equal part virtual museum, each game coming with a little vignette about why it was important, what ground it broke, why it was beloved (or sometimes why it wasn't). A library menu logs which games you have access to, expanding with each Evercade cart you slot in, and your play time and stats are logged per title. It's a treasure trove that expands the more you put into it.

Universal Appeal

That trove is Evercade's other secret weapon, as every game cartridge is compatible with all its hardware (almost—the Namco Museum collections aren't compatible with the TV-based Evercade VS or VS-R consoles).

Given how much of the Evercade library consists of arcade collections, that makes for an abundance of retro riches. From Atari classics dating to the earliest days of the arcade to scrolling shooters made famous by the likes of Irem's R-Type, or niche fighters like Dragon Master, the Alpha is a phenomenal way to revisit them—or encounter them for the first time.

There is one caveat, though, regarding some of Evercade's more recent releases from its console collections, chiefly the Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider releases. Both of these carts—collecting the original PlayStation versions of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and the first three Lara Croft games, respectively—are technically compatible with the Alpha, but only insofar as the cabinet will run them. The six-button layout of the Alpha replicates the A, B, X, Y, L1, and R1 buttons of the standard Evercade controllers, but lacks any L2/R2 inputs. Given these games required those buttons back on PS1, they can't properly be controlled here without plugging in an external controller (or an Evercade handheld console to use as such).

However, in our experience, both of these collections froze up when an external controller—a wired Xbox pad—was connected, requiring a system reboot to clear. That's somewhat frustrating, of course, yet not really a deal-breaker for the Alpha. Those games were never intended for an arcade anyway—it would just be a nice gimmick to be able to try to play them that way. Still, it's something to be aware of for anyone with an expansive Evercade collection.

That almost feels like quibbling, though. For an at-home arcade offering, there's very little to fault the Alpha. Short of full-size original cabinets or arcade boards, it's one of the best ways to experience a significant chunk of gaming's legacy in the most legitimate way possible.

With its fantastic design, brilliant screen, and a strong collection of games included on both models, this is Evercade in its finest form.