The Evercade library is packed with licensed retro classics, but some of the most exciting cartridges in the collection are the indie and homebrew titles â games made by small studios and passionate developers, designed in the spirit of the retro era but built for modern audiences. These carts aren’t just nostalgia trips; they’re brand new experiences wrapped in that unmistakable retro feel.
Here’s a look at the best indie and homebrew cartridges the Evercade has to offer, and why they deserve a place in your collection.
What Makes Indie and Homebrew Carts Different?
Most Evercade cartridges are licensed collections â beloved games from publishers like Namco, Atari, Capcom, and Taito, ported and packaged for the format. They’re brilliant for revisiting the classics.
Indie and homebrew carts are something different. These are original games, often created by small teams or solo developers, built specifically for older hardware or in homage to it. Many never had a physical release before Evercade came along. Owning one feels like discovering a hidden gem that deserved a proper cartridge all along.
Every Evercade cartridge — indie and homebrew included — ships with a full physical manual, part of what makes the whole format work. You can browse the full cartridge library on the Evercade Carts & Manuals page â it’s a great way to appreciate the care that goes into these releases.
Mega Cat Studios Collections
Mega Cat Studios are one of the most prolific homebrew developers working today, and Evercade has given their work the physical release it deserves across three cartridges: Mega Cat Studios Collection 1, Mega Cat Studios Collection 2, and Mega Cat Studios Collection 3.
Mega Cat specialise in creating games for genuine retro hardware â think Mega Drive, NES, and Game Boy style titles made with pixel-perfect authenticity. Their games aren’t emulating a retro aesthetic; they’re actually built for the constraints and quirks of original hardware. The result is something that feels genuinely of the era, not just styled to look like it.
Spread across three carts, there’s a huge amount of variety here â action games, RPGs, sports titles, beat-em-ups. If you want to understand what modern homebrew development looks like at its best, these collections are essential.
Morphcat Games Collection 1
Morphcat Games Collection 1 is a standout cart for anyone who appreciates genuine technical craft. Morphcat are famous in homebrew circles for pushing hardware way beyond what anyone thought possible â their NES work in particular has attracted attention from the wider retro gaming community.
This collection brings their best work to Evercade in physical form â including Micro Mages, whose original manual is available to browse â making it far more accessible than hunting down ROM files or limited homebrew runs. It’s the kind of cart that reminds you why the homebrew scene exists: pure love of the craft.
The Llamasoft Collection
Jeff Minter is a legend of British gaming, and Llamasoft Collection is his Evercade showcase. Available as a Home Computer (blue case) cartridge, it brings together some of the most wonderfully strange and psychedelic games ever made â titles that defined a certain flavour of 80s British gaming culture.
Minter’s games are unlike anything else in the Evercade library. Frenetic, abstract, deeply personal â they’re an experience more than just a game. If you’ve never played Llamasoft titles before, this is a brilliant (and slightly mind-bending) introduction.
Indie Heroes Collections
The Indie Heroes series â spanning Indie Heroes Collection 1, Indie Heroes Collection 2, Indie Heroes Collection 3, and Indie Heroes Collection 4 â is exactly what the name suggests: a celebration of indie game development across four packed cartridges.
These carts pull together original titles from a variety of small developers, giving physical life to games that previously existed only in digital spaces. Each collection has its own personality, and across all four there’s a genuinely impressive range of genres and styles.
They’re also a great entry point for anyone new to the indie side of Evercade â good value, broad variety, and some real hidden gems tucked away inside.
Other Indie Highlights
Beyond the big collections, there are several standalone indie titles worth highlighting:
Alwa’s Awakening / Cathedral pairs two excellent modern retro platformers on a single cart. Both games are genuine love letters to the NES era, with Cathedral in particular drawing comparisons to Metroid and Castlevania. Beautifully crafted stuff.
Goodboy Galaxy/Witch n’ Wiz is another strong double-bill. Goodboy Galaxy is a Game Boy Advance-style adventure that wowed audiences when it first appeared, while Witch n’ Wiz is actually the NES game on this cart â a puzzle game about rescuing a childhood friend from a magical curse. Together they make for a brilliant cart.
Demons of Asteborg/Astebros leans hard into the Mega Drive aesthetic, with Demons of Asteborg being a gorgeous action platformer that could genuinely pass for a lost 16-bit classic. Astebros adds a co-op dungeon crawler into the mix. Great stuff for fans of the era.
Full Void is a solo release â a cinematic platformer in the vein of Another World and Flashback, built for the Evercade. If you’re a fan of that style of game, it’s well worth seeking out.
Xeno Crisis/Tanglewood is arguably one of the most celebrated indie carts in the entire Evercade library. Xeno Crisis is a superb, widely-acclaimed run-and-gun that put modern Mega Drive homebrew on the map, and Tanglewood â a Mega Drive game built on authentic hardware â is every bit as stunning, with a full physical release giving both games the treatment they always deserved.
Sydney Hunter Collection rounds out the highlights with a series of platform games inspired by the classic Meso-American adventure style. Charming, well-made, and a great fit for the format.
Roguecraft DX also belongs on this list â a modern Amiga roguelike dungeon-crawler, expanded and enhanced for its Evercade release, with three playable classes and procedurally generated levels. It won the Retro World award at the 2025 Debug Indie Game Awards, and it’s a great example of Evercade bringing a genuinely new indie release to physical cartridge.
The Physical Experience Matters
One thing that sets Evercade’s indie releases apart from buying the same games digitally is the physical package. A cartridge. A full-colour manual. A case on your shelf. For games that often started as passion projects with no physical release at all, that matters.
The full cartridge library â including every console, arcade, and home computer release â is listed on the Evercade Carts & Manuals page, where you can browse everything available, check what games are on each cart, and explore the library in full.
Where to Find the Full Cartridge List
The indie and homebrew carts covered here are just the highlights. The full Evercade cartridge library â including every console, arcade, and home computer release â is listed on the Evercade Carts & Manuals page. It’s the best place to browse everything available, check what games are on each cart, and find links to available manual scans.
If you’re trying to decide which indie carts to pick up first, the Best Evercade Cartridges guide is also well worth a read â it covers the strongest picks across the entire library, not just the indie side.