The retro mode switch is really where the mClassic finds its niche. Right off the bat it forces a 4:3 aspect ratio on all content, which is helpful in a majority of cases - though you can revert to the regular processing mode if games have 16:9 support. The key here is that the upgrade is far more pronounced. As you'll see in the video, I used Power Stone on Dreamcast as a test case, sending a 480p signal via HDMI using a Toro VGA box connected to an OSSC - which simply passes that 640x480 resolution through to the mClassic over HDMI. From there, colour saturation is boosted vividly compared to a playthrough with processing disabled. It's a huge difference. Jagged edges are especially noticeable in the slider below, where Samus is seen examining her suit after the Raven Beak encounter. Pay attention to the round areas of Samus' armor, like her shoulder pads and helmet. The silver lightning bolt-like image on her shoulder pads look noticeably sharper with the mClassic on. mClassic’s patented technology redraws every single pixel on the screen on the fly at 120 FPS with near-zero latency, eliminating jagged edges that are smoothed over by the company’s advanced anti-aliasing algorithm. It does the same thing for DVDs. If you still have a large DVD collection. The MClassic can breathe new life into them on your HD or even 4K display. What you won’t like It’s bulky

But one of the key reasons for testing games on the Wii U was the HDMI port - this retro mode only outputs a 4:3 picture, but this device obviously only works with consoles with an HDMI port. Therefore, if you're looking to add this to your retro gaming set up, then you will likely already own an HDMI converter, such as a Framemeister, or a VGA to HDMI converter for the Dreamcast. If you don't have an HDMI converter for your retro systems already, then that will be the first thing you should look get before the mClassic.For instance, one of the games I tested on my Game Cube was Star Fox Adventures. In this closeup of a triceratops there's hardly any difference in pixelation between the three versions. However, the colors did shift a little from one mode to the next. This was even more noticeable while playing my N64 games. Whenever I switched to Processing On or Retro Mode, the darkest colors turned to greys and it appeared that a muted layer had been placed over the original coloring. Otherwise, the pixelation on my N64 games didn't seem to change. It's expensive Costly since it doesn't always do that much

But then I tested some 720p games like Halo: Anniversary which to me looks exactly the same, Dead Rising maybe looks ever so slightly darker through the mClassic, but as far as I can tell it looks exactly the same quality-wise and then I did one last test with Halo 3: ODST and again, surprise surprise, it looked almost identical. The upscaling and anti-aliasing of the MClassic is able to reduce the ugly jaggies of the game for a much improved image. The edges of Bride Mario’s veil look softer, and you can see a lot more details in Mario’s face. It’s just an overall better experience. Fire Emblem: Three Fates Basically, unless you have a display which is capable of accepting a 1440p resolution, the mClassic can only really show what it’s capable of with a resolution that’s lower than 1080p. This is perfect for the Switch because a lot of games don’t run at that full HD resolution. So let’s have a look at one more game with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Testing The mClassic With The Legend Of Zelda: The Tears Of The Kingdom This leaves a bit of a gap in the market considering that systems like the PS3, Xbox 360 and even the Nintendo Switch are starting to show their age and could benefit from the same type of upscaling we’re seeing with those retro systems. And, simply put, the Marseille mClassic fixed this issue for me, upscaling the images from the Switch, adding various beneficial graphical effects to them, and then pumping them to my 4K TV.Let’s look at some side by side footage of Super Mario Odyssey because I think that showcases the difference a lot better. So on the left we have the Nintendo Switch video in it’s raw form and on the right is the mClassic footage. Obviously there is a chance that you’re looking at this and you’re thinking, “sure I can see a slight difference, but it’s so minimal that it doesn’t really matter” and yeah I definitely get where you’re coming from. Let’s face it; the mClassic isn’t a miracle worker. It’s not going to make Switch games look like they’ve been ported to the PS5. Switch between three modes for all preferred methods of play: Scaling Off, Scaling On and Retro Game Mode. The first option is simply deactivating the upscaler completely and using it as a passthrough, effectively using your console’s video output as it was intended with none of the features of the mClassic. That’s pretty much all there is to it; it’s an extremely simple setup process and, once it’s plugged in, turned on and in its default processing mode, you theoretically wouldn’t need to touch it ever again.

Power Stone also stands out for just how well its aliasing is treated. Dreamcast titles generally had no anti-aliasing at all - a raw 480p image is all we got - and as such it makes it an easy console to design an algorithm like this around. The parameters are easier to predict, more so than modern games with varying resolutions, AA methods and complex shaderwork. In this case most stair-stepping is treated and the game looks much easier on the eye with mClassic enabled. There's a softer appearance but texture clarity isn't affected aggressively - and what's there is amplified overall by the sharpening pass. These screenshots from the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles: Definite Edition were taken when the console was outputting at 720p, and when the upscaler was activated you are left with a far cleaner, though admittedly much softer, image on a large display. The 4k Gamer Pro is a newer device that's just getting into the wider market. It works the same as the mClassic, but upscales to 4k while sacrificing the antialiasing. Before anything else, I noticed how much the MClassic improved the look of text. I was outputting a 1080p laptop signal to a 4K display. And while I was ensuring everything was working, I noticed that the text in Steam looked significantly worse when I turned the processing off.For me, the mClassic is a good fit, but it won’t be for everyone. If you aren’t a 4K TV-owning Animal Crossing fanatic, maybe it’s less of a slam dunk, but an mClassic with just a few more features would be an easy buy for any gamer.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already a gorgeous looking game. Probably to this day it still has the best graphics I’ve seen in a Switch game, so what can the mClassic do here?As you can see though, there’s practically no difference and yes, the reason for this is that once again it runs at 1080p. I honestly thought that Wind Waker HD ran at 720p for some reason but apparently I’ve been misinformed. Maybe that’s why it still looks so damn good. Marseille makes some bold claims about all of its upscaling products, mClassic included. First, the company claims that using the mClassic with your PC or modern-day console is like a graphics card upgrade, thanks to its combination of upscaling, antialiasing, and sharpening effects. Second, it claims that the mClassic can make your retro consoles look “HD.” Third, the mClassic purportedly adds no lag while it does its thing. The mClassic scales sub-1080p resolutions up to full HD, and 1080p video scales to either 2560×1440 at 60 Hz or 4K at 30 Hz depending on what the display supports. The device only supports HDMI 1.4, so 60 Hz UHD is off the table. Also, the marketing does state that the mClassic can upscale 1080p content to 4K, and while this is true, this is only the case for 30hz content and below. For gaming then this is awkward, as not all consoles offer a 30hz output mode, and this will of course prevent you from playing games at 60FPS. But even without a 4K output, the mClassic does a good job of smoothing over the rough edges, even with a 1080p picture. This review focuses on the gaming experience with the mClassic, but rest assured that 480p DVD and 1080p Blu-ray movies will look much cleaner when fed through the mClassic. We can see similar results from Fire Emblem: Three Fates. Here Mercedes’s hair looks smoother and as do the lines of her clothing. Indeed, in many games I often prefer to play on the actual Switch's screen itself, as while that is not anywhere near as big, as it condenses everything down it does make images on the Switch look sharper.