EverDrive-N8 and Retro-bit Retro8 Dogbone Clone
43I bought an EverDrive-N8 for NES a little less than 2 weeks ago and it finally arrived! I wasn't in a hurry for it shipping from the USA to Canada I only paid the cheapest shipping so the wait was as expected. This is the base model, not the Pro so no in-game menu, real-time clock and only 1x Save Slot per game for save states. That said I was somewhat surprised the base model has save states at all (saving any time in any game like an emulator, it also supports save games in games that had battery backup of course) and otherwise there's not much to say. It's a modern EverDrive product. It's fairly simple to use, works fairly fast and should be reliable! I ordered mine with a 2GB SD card but ended up getting a 4GB card. I know 2GB cards are almost impossible to find these days so I'm guessing they just don't have any more stock and realistically the price difference these days between 2, 4, 8 and even 16GB cards is almost non-existent! So no big deal there but the fact it ended up being a 4GB card actually worked out in my favor. I didn't expect to need more than 2GB for NES ROM's but actually the image I used was over 3GB! My only complaint was the SD cards lack of branding. This may sound like a small thing to complain about and it is. But my Super Everdrive came with an SD card with matching Super Everdrive branding on the SD cards sticker and it looked like maybe the N8 would too. Not really a big deal. The card is flush fitting in the N8 cartridge meaning you don't even see the SD card unlike my OG Genesis Everdrive and Super Everdrive where the SD card sticks out the top a bit and so the "Super Everdrive" logo on the SD card is actually visible when in the cart. Overall I'm super pleased with the Everdrive N8!
The controller on the other hand? Well, it's okay I guess. I mean it was only $15 CAD so what did I expect? The buttons are a little stiffer than a real Nintendo controller and the cable is a little on the thin side. But the real issue is the D-pad. It doesn't pivot on a ball like most Nintendo D-pads. Meaning you can press the entire thing down at once and it will not pivot once pressed in. That said it still played okay. I didn't even notice this one flaw immediately. It would probably effect fighting games with Street Fighter style moves more than typical 8-bit action games. But it would be nice to have. I guess if you need an NES controller, you're on a budget and you really like the dog bone style it's not bad considering the low price.