Technologies

Evercade EXP Review: A Retro Mini Console With a Twist

This might be an answer for lovers of vertical arcade games.

There were a ton of retro gaming mini consoles a few years ago, a trend which faded away shortly after the global pandemic started. Remember the NES Classic, the Sega Genesis Mini, and even the Turbografx 16 Mini? There are still ways to play retro games: tons of them, in fact. The Nintendo Switch has a bunch. There are compilations like the stellar Atari 50. There are gaming handhelds that play older game cartridges. And then there’s the Evercade EXP.

The second-gen version of the Evercade is a handheld specifically made to play ready-made cartridge compilations of retro games. The Evercade EXP can also plug directly into TVs using an HDMI mini cable, effectively becoming a mini console.

But my favorite thing about the EXP is how it flips into a vertical mode to play vertical-orientation, or «TATE,» arcade games. It handles that in a way that’s so easy, it’s weird that more handhelds don’t do this. (The Nintendo Switch allows for TATE game modes, but it depends on each individual game’s support.)

The Evercade EXP is chunky. It’s close to the size of a PlayStation Vita (remember that one?), but it’s smaller than a Nintendo Switch Lite. It could be jacket-pocketed, maybe. The handheld comes studded with most of the buttons that 8- and 16-bit games need: four buttons on one side, two on the other next to a d-pad that all work together in vertical mode. There are dual shoulder button-triggers on each side.

The back of the Evercade EXP handheld and its cartridge slot, with two cartridges near it — The Evercade EXP uses cartridges that have game compilations. Some games are also preinstalled.

Scott Stein/CNET

Unlike a ton of small handhelds that can also be modded to run emulations, the Evercade EXP is strictly designed to play the system’s own cartridges. There are a few dozen that the Evercade EXP has to choose from, costing about $25 per multigame cartridge. There are collections of classics from Namco, Atari, Data East, Interplay and even more obscure sources. There are plenty of missing companies, though: Konami is a no-show, and don’t expect Sega (or, obviously, Nintendo). But there are surprising compilations of Atari Lynx (I finally got to play Blue Lightning!), Commodore 64, Intellivision and Amiga games, and Evercade splits its cartridge collections up between console-based and arcade-based classics.

The $150 Evercade EXP does throw in some tempting extras. The system has 18 Capcom arcade and console games built in, and it’s a great mix. You get Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Strider, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting and Mega Man games. There’s also an included compilation arcade cartridge of games from classic game publisher Irem with six other games including R-Type, In The Hunt and Moon Patrol. The arcade games feel great, and the vertical TATE modes when available open up a lot more screen space on the 4.3-inch screen. There are also five more indie games on the system, which can be unlocked with hidden codes.

Capcom game titles shown off on the screen of the Evercade EXP handheld — There are 18 preinstalled Capcom games, and five more hidden indie games to unlock.

Scott Stein/CNET

Theoretically, the Evercade EXP could download new games via Wi-Fi, but that feature doesn’t seem enabled yet. The handheld’s software has been updated since the original Evercade, and the display, while still being a somewhat low-res IPS LCD screen (800×480 pixels), is totally fine for all the games it plays. The system charges via USB-C, and lasts enough hours for me to play until I get bored and do something else (about 4 hours). There’s also a headphone jack.

I don’t think there’s enough gaming time in my life for the Evercade EXP to steal attention away from the Nintendo Switch (or the Panic Playdate), but I appreciate how this handheld offers up so many lost treasures on the go. It’s sort of a philosophical alternative to the Analogue Pocket, a great handheld that’s more purely focused on playing original Game Boy games and replicating older hardware platforms. The Evercade EXP is a good enough arcade package for anyone who really loves vertical shoot em ups, though. And hey, will more gaming handhelds please support vertical TATE mode at the press of a button like the Evercade EXP does? Thank you!

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #707

Hints and answers for Connections for May 18, #707.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle is a mix of difficult and easy. The purple category does what most purple categories do, and makes you really break down how you think about the words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: School days.

Green group hint: About there!

Blue group hint: Sure, let’s go.

Purple group hint: The Scarlett Letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Tasks for a student.

Green group: Encouraging responses in a guessing game.

Blue group: Up for anything.

Purple group: What «A» might mean.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tasks for a student. The four answers are assignment, drill, exercise and lesson.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is encouraging responses in a guessing game. The four answers are almost, close, not quite and warm.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is up for anything. The four answers are easy, flexible, game and open.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what «A» might mean. The four answers are area, athletic, excellent and one.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #441

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 441 for May 18.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands will probably be easier if you have some basic knowledge about a certain type of vessel. You don’t really need to have ever been on one, since the answers show up in books and movies all the time. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Riding the wind.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: famed song by Christopher Cross.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DULL, TILE, TILER, SEER, GALE, GALES, HAIL, SAIL, LEEK, GLUE, HALL, TALL, HEAT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

HELM, HULL, KEEL, MAST, STERN, RIGGING, RUDDER, TILLER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SAILBOAT. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the farthest row to the left, then wind across, up and down.

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.