11

Oct

Evercade VS User Interface and Features

Written by Sean Cleaver

Tags display, evercade vs, features, pixel perfect, save games, ui tour, user interface

We’ve spent the last 18 months listening to fan feedback of the Evercade, features you’d like, things you want to see more of and things you feel would improve your experience of our great cartridge collection.

While all of this is also going into future handheld improvements and an update for the Evercade handheld coming soon, it enabled us to develop the user interface for the Evercade VS from scratch and will bring much-requested features to the new device.

 

We’ve created a video that tours around all the new features, which you can view above, but in this post, we’re going to go a little bit more in-depth about what is coming with the Evercade VS.

Improved Save Game Management

One of the biggest requests was the ability to delete your save games and for an easier way to see where your save game was at. Not only have we implement a “Delete Save” feature, and also added a screenshot to the save/load game screens, we’ve also created a “Quick Save” function, that will easily let you save your game in super-fast time. This quick save is permanently set to Save slot 1 and will let you easily dip in and out of a particular point – great for boss fights. 

You can also resume your games really quickly as well, booting the game immediately into your previous save game with the “last save” function. Of course, all of these functions work on both console and arcade collections, and all saves will work across the VS and the Handheld, with more improvements to the handheld, save features coming soon.

Display modes

There are a whole host of new display modes coming with the Evercade VS and its 1080p output.

Firstly, we’ve added a new screen ratio. Pixel Perfect uses integer scaling to get the game as close as possible to its original intended resolution – without any stretching added to make up the screen. This then will appear as big as it can on the screen whilst being as sharp and clear as possible. The full-screen mode also returns, as does the “original ratio” which will stretch the image to fill the screen vertically, taking up the available space it needs to show the game.

We’ve also added multiple bezels, which are nice Evercade and VS-themed backgrounds for you to fill the rest of the screen. You can choose whatever you like from the selection (including not having them) and we’re going to bring more to the console in future updates.

Scanlines are a great way to give you that old-school CRT feel. We’ve given you three ways to enjoy implementing Scanlines on the Evercade VS. For the games, you can select either a subtle or strong scanline filter, which will fill the game screen, whatever size you choose. And you can also choose to give the whole UI a scanline filter from the main menu.

With all of these features (except the UI Scanlines) you can add and change them on the fly using the in-game menu. So whatever you’re playing, you can hit “menu” and change the bezel, or the screen size or add a filter at any time.

In addition to this, we’ve also added new themes to the Evercade VS, with the VS Classic, Dark, and Light themes. These can be changed in the main menu along with the option for an accessible “High Contrast” theme for anyone that has colourblindness.

Cartridges

All of our cartridges are now shown with their full box art, or for arcade games, their game posters. When you put in a cartridge, the collection of games will appear on-screen and you can organise them by name, release year, or the number of players. If more than one cartridge is in, you can organise both of them in the same way. You can also select the cartridges individually as well.

 

When you select your game, you can load your last save directly from the menu as we have already said. But you can also see the full controls as well as a description of the game for you to read.

There will be additional features coming with the cartridges and the main menu in future updates. And as has been reported elsewhere… There may be a couple of secrets to unlock with your cartridges. We’re saying nothing, but we’re going to enjoy seeing what you find.

Settings and Updates

One of the biggest features we’ve added is the ability to download updates to the VS console directly using the built-in WiFi. When a new update is available, the console will let you know with a notification. You can also check for updates in the “Settings” menu under “System”.

Inside that menu, you can also map a non-Evercade USB controller. If you plug it into a free USB port and then select the “Map Controller” function with your Evercade VS controller, you can then map your new controller. Simply hold down the button of the controller you wish to map, and then hit the buttons you wish to map as shown on the screen. This will also be the same for any wireless dongle controllers. At launch, the Evercade VS will support multiple USB-A controllers. So plug yours in and give it a go!

There is also a “Secret” option. We’ll let you discover that for yourselves.

 

We hope you enjoy the UI Tour and we can’t wait for you to get your hand on the Evercade VS and enjoy all these new features. While we sadly have to wait a little longer, you can still pre-order an Evercade VS from your local retailer. Visit evercade.co.uk/retailers to find where to buy in your country.

Cartridges

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