It's no secret that nostalgia is a great way to market to today's audience, and gaming is taking advantage. There are the endless remasters, of course, that get us to buy the same game but with better graphics and maybe an updated combat system if we're lucky. The more pricey tactic is classic mini consoles. Nintendo began the crazy with a smaller version of the NES that had several classic games built in. Then it did it again. Now Sony and Sega have caught wind of the potential profits, and various third parties are close behind. Enter the Evercade.

Evercade is going way back to the arcade days for its lineup of classic games. It has Namco and Atari under its umbrella, which means classics like Pac-Man and Asteroids. But Evercade hopes to be more than another NES classic knock-off. The team behind it wants to change the game and offer a truly singular product. How are they doing this? By making it a collectors item, and by making it a handheld.

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via: Evercade

The Evercade will still hook up to your TV and output HD visuals like the other mini consoles. It will just also offer on-the-go play via its built-in screen. It already boasts 100 confirmed games, with new indie games available alongside the arcade classics. It even has Interplay's old console games, such as Earthworm Jim and Clay Fighter.

That's a lot of games to fit into one small console, and a lot more than any of the current mini consoles have. That's where the unique aspect of Evercade comes in. Its library will be formed from separate cartridges. Each cartridge contains anywhere between 6 and 20 games for $19.99. They come in numbered cases for those who like collecting. The Evercade unit itself will be $79.99.

via: evercade

All in all, it looks pretty neat for retro enthusiasts. Classic mini consoles often suffer from being an impulse buy. People often get them because they're rare and nostalgic, play them a lot for a few weeks, then let them collect dust. The Evercade team wants their machine to stay relevant, so they plan to release more cartridges as time goes on and support the system with exclusive indies. The collectible numbered cartridges are also a nice touch.

The flip side is that the Evercade might not have appeal outside of its target audience. It goes for $80 at base and $20 a cartridge, making it more on an investment than the other one-time purchase classic consoles. The games, iconic as they are, are also everywhere. It seems like only real collectors will want to purchase Pac-Man for the umpteenth time. That said, the Evercade could prove to be a valuable item given time. Pre-orders are up now, if it's your kind of thing.

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