Back in the early days of the Evercade, the handheld console was packaged with Namco Museum Collection 1, and Namco Museum Collection 2 wasn’t far behind the first, with them being numbered 02 and 06 in the Evercade’s library overall.

However, the deal that Blaze Entertainment, the makers of the Evercade, signed with Namco was one which only licensed their titles for a handheld, not for use on TV-based devices. So when the Evercade VS was released in 2021, the Namco cartridges were both blocked from use on it.

It’s not clear whether or not Namco’s licensing deal with Blaze was particularly restrictive compared to others, or if they were simply able to renegotiate their initial agreements with other companies, but this was an anomaly, as every other cartridge in the Evercade’s library, regardless of when it was released, could be used with the VS.

Until now. The most recent software update to the VS has unlocked the two Namco cartridges, and though many fans had kept quiet about this, fearing that it was a mistake and not wanting to draw attention to it lest Blaze restrict it again, it’s now been confirmed as an official, intentional update.

Which means that every single cartridge is now compatible with every single Evercade-ready device, from the original Evercade handheld, to the VS, the EXP and the Alpha, along with the revisions of each and all of the Super Pocket consoles. You might need to do some updating with the older consoles, and of course with the VS, but everything will be playable on all Evercade-ready devices.

How to Update the Evercade VS

On your Evercade VS console, go to the Settings menu, then select the System option.

Then choose Check for Updates; this should trigger the system update.

Do note that your system may shut down and restart automatically, sometimes multiple times, during this process.

Have patience, and just wait for it to go through these steps without interrupting the process as it does this.

Once done, you’ll have access to those two Namco Museum cartridges, and you’ll be able to check out the multiplayer modes on certain games (which, in fairness, you could and can also do using an Evercade Alpha!) that weren’t accessible on Evercade handhelds.

There’s one sticking point in all this: the Namco Museum Evercade cartridges are classed as Legacy cartridges, meaning that they’re no longer in print. If you do want to get hold of them, unfortunately you’re likely to have to pay an awful lot above RRP for them on the secondary market, but does this change herald their return? We can but hope.

If you’re willing to pay over the odds, you can buy Namco Museum Collection 1 from Amazon. Namco Collection 2 is currently unavailable, but it may well return from a third party seller at some point. Several arcade and home classics are available for the Nintendo Switch in the Namco Museum Arcade Pac, which of course isn’t Evercade compatible, but is a great choice for Switch owners!

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