Preview of the PS1Digital HDMI mod for the original Sony PlayStation 1 (PS1). More info: https://www.black-dog.tech
GAMES SHOWN:
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Tekken 2
Mega Man X4
Striker 1945
Ace Combat 3
Ray Tracers
Europe Racer (PAL)
Chaos Break (PAL)
Metal Slug X
Dead or Alive
Speed Punks
Gunners Heaven (Japan)
Colony Wars Vegeance
In the Hunt
Ridge Racer 4
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
Rollcage II
Moto Racer
Einhander
Spider-Man
Persona 2
Wipeout
Crash Bandicoot
Pepsi Man (Japan)
In this video, we’ll be taking a look at the new mClassic HDMI graphics processor from Marseille! The company behind this mini upscaler claims it will drastically improve the quality of your video signals, but how well does it stack up? Thanks for watching!
Hey guys, Metal Jesus here. Now, if you are a fan of the Nintendo 64 looking for a solution to connect it to an HD television, well, you are in luck, because in this video I’m gonna review and compare side-by-side four different solutions at four different price points, and I think you’re gonna be surprised with the results. Let’s take a look.
Like I mentioned, we’re gonna take a look at four separate solutions for getting upgraded video for your N64. One of those is the Hyperkin 3-in-1 HD cable, which just happens to be the cheapest at $29.99 Now, it’s called the 3-in-1 because Hyperkin makes this cable not only for the N64, but also the GameCube and the Super Nintendo. The Hyperkin cable does require external power, but one of its cool features is this aspect ratio button right here. You can easily switch between four by three and 16 by nine. We’re also gonna take a look at the RetroTINK-2X. This is an excellent upscaler that I have reviewed on my channel before. It’s very versatile and it comes in at $99. This device will give you a ton of flexibility in your game room. So for instance, you can upscale with a composite video, component video, and also S-video. Then we’re gonna take a look at the EON Super 64. This is a brand new solution for the N64 and it’s coming in at $150. This device is brought to you by the same people who brought out the excellent GameCube adapter just a couple years ago. What’s interesting about this is that they’re able to pull it off without requiring an external power cable. It’s literally just plug-and-play. And this company cares about how these devices look when plugged into the console. Their goal is to make ’em look like they actually came out when the console was new. So that’s why it’s injected-molded and designed to look the way it is. And of course we have to take a look at the UltraHDMI mod. Now, pricing that is a little bit trickier because the kit comes in at around $165, but you still need to install it on the inside of your N64. If you have soldering skills, you’re gonna save some money. If you don’t, you’re gonna have to pay somebody to do it and these typically go anywhere for 350, 400, sometimes even $500 online.
For this comparison shootout I have a stack of Nintendo 64 games, nine of ’em in total, and I tried to pick across the gamut of styles. So we have some first-person shooters. We have some racing games. We have some 2D games as well, which will show off how the smoothing works. And we’re gonna basically compare those across each of these different solutions. So let’s get started.
The first game we’re gonna take a look at is, of course, the classic, GoldenEye 007, and we’re taking a look at the Hyperkin solution right here. This Hyperkin cable is outputting video at 720p at 60 frames per second, and as you can see here, it looks fine, although it’s definitely not sharp. But let’s go ahead and switch over to the RetroTINK. Now this is outputting at, well, it has a couple different options here. You can either do 480i or 480p, depending on the button you press, but in this scenario I’ve connected it via the S-video cable that you can get for the N64. And here they are side-by-side. As you can see the Hyperkin cable is definitely darker. I’m not sure why that is, but in this scenario here I think the RetroTINK definitely comes out on top. And keep in mind the RetroTINK is connected via an S-video cable. So I know some of you are cringing at my GoldenEye skills here, and yeah, I apologize for that. I didn’t play this came when it first came out, and so for me to go back and play it today, it’s definitely kinda clunky with its controls. I should also mention that I’m running the RetroTINK with smoothing turned on. Now, that’s an option that you can turn on or turn off, but I have it on here. Let’s go ahead and take a look at the EON Super 64, which I also am running with smoothing turned on with that device. And as you can see, I think both of these, the RetroTINK and also the EON, look very, very similar. And now let’s go ahead and bring in all three cables. So we have the Hyperkin, the RetroTINK, and also the EON. And I do think that the EON or the RetroTINK, those look pretty acceptable. And then the Hyperkin, as you can see here, maybe it’s kinda hard to tell on YouTube, but the colors are just a little bit off. They don’t look quite right. Let’s go ahead and jump over to the second level, and we’re starting with the Hyperkin cable here. And then now let’s bring over the RetroTINK. And again, remember that the RetroTINK in this scenario has smoothing turned on. And then for fun let’s go ahead and bring in footage from the UltraHDMI mod. And as you can see here, it is just glorious how sharp it is. Now, one thing to know about the UltraHDMI is that it has a bunch of options built into it and you can actually specify the exact resolution that you wanna output to. So in this case I did choose the highest, which is 1080p.
Now let’s go ahead and check out Cruis’n USA, a fun little racing game on the N64. And we’re starting with the UltraHDMI. I just picked it because, randomness, I guess. But again, it looks great here. It is outputting at 1080p. Now let’s go ahead and switch over to the Hyperkin. And immediately you see that the colors are just not quite right. Not terrible, but if you’re looking for accuracy, this is probably not going to be it. But again, keep in mind this cable is only $30, compared to the UltraHDMI, which can be hundreds. Now let’s go ahead and bring in footage of the EON Super 64. And let’s go ahead and put that right next to the UltraHDMI. And so again, this is very different styles of video here, where the UltraHDMI is of course modded inside the N64 itself, where the EON is taking S-video and then outputting that to HDMI. But as you can see, the colors are definitely closer. And then let’s go ahead and bring in the RetroTINK. And again, when you compare all four of these together, well, I definitely think the RetroTINK and the EON are very, very close, almost identical.
Now let’s go ahead and take a look at Quake 2. And Quake 2 is a really good game to test with because it has a demo that runs when you first fire it up. So in theory, all the footage should be exactly the same. We’re starting with the UltraHDMI footage, but let’s go ahead and bring on the EON Super 64 and compare those two side-by-side. Keep in mind that I have the smoothing button turned on for that. Let’s go ahead, add in the RetroTINK footage, also with smoothing turned on. And then finally the Hyperkin cable. And the think I keep coming back with that Hyperkin cable is just that the colors don’t look quite right and I don’t know why it’s so dark. It’s almost too dark.
Now let’s go ahead and take a look at Resident Evil 2. And the reason why we would wanna take a look at this game is because it changes resolutions all the time while you’re playing it, and that changing of resolutions can really mess with upscalers. And so this is a good test for that, although we’re starting off with the UltraHDMI. And what you’ll notice is that, when you go into the menu, there isn’t a delay whatsoever with the UltraHDMI. It literally just goes into the menu. You can go into the map. You can go into the file system and then back again, and it’s just flawless. And then here is the EON Super 64 footage. Now I expect there to be a bigger delay when you go into the menu with this device, but as you can see, it flickers a little bit, but it goes in pretty quick, and then you can go right back out and you’re into the game. Yes, there’s a little bit of a delay, but honestly, it’s not bad at all. And then here is the Hyperkin cable, and we go into the menu here, and yeah, it flickers for maybe a second, kinda wiggles a little bit as it adjusts its resolution, but yeah, it works just fine. There’s no long delay or anything like that. You can definitely play this game with either of these cables. And it’s the same thing with the RetroTINK, actually.
Now let’s go ahead and check out something a little different. This is Pokemon Puzzle League. On the left we have the EON and on the right we have the RetroTINK. And as you can see they are almost identical. I have to admit this is a game that I had not played before this video, and as you can see, it’s a match-three game like so many others that were popular at the time. But this is actually a really fun game. It was fun to capture all of this footage and play through it. I actually started to get pretty good at it, well, at least on Easy mode.
And now let’s go ahead and do a comparison that’s probably not that fair, but here is the Hyperkin compared to the UltraHDMI. Obviously the differences are night and day, as you would expect. And like I said, probably not 100% fair, but it is cool to kinda see the differences side-by-side.
Moving on to Star Wars: Episode I Pod Racer. Oh, my gosh. I love this game. So much fun. And for this one let’s just go ahead and lay them all out side-by-side. So on the left we have the UltraHDMI, next to that the EON, next to that the RetroTINK, and then again, the Hyperkin cable. And I do need to mention that, for this particular game, I had the smoothing turned on for the RetroTINK and turned off for the EON, and I did that to let you guys see the difference between the two, and you can mostly see it in the actual pod itself. Notice that the RetroTINK is definitely a little bit smoother, where on the EON it’s a little bit more jagged. And like many of the other games that we’ve already seen in this video, the UltraHDMI, the EON, and also the RetroTINK, they have very similar colors. They look correct, where the Hyperkin is just a little bit off. It’s not terrible, it’s just not correct, either. [Announcer] New lap record.
Now let’s go ahead and take a look at another Nintendo 64 classic, and that is Wave Race 64, another game that I absolutely love playing. It’s funny when we do these videos because it gives me an excuse to bust out these cartridges and play through these levels over and over again, which I am never complaining about. And so for this one we’re starting with the Hyperkin cable, and as you guys might expect, again, it’s gonna be a little bit darker. Colors aren’t great, and if we switch over to the RetroTINK and also bring in the EON, you’ll notice that it looks much better. Now, in this scenario I actually have smoothing turned off for both of those, but let’s go ahead and turn on smoothing and then compare the two side-by-side. This is something that I wasn’t 100% sure what people would want to see, because you can make the argument that people wanna see the pixels, but then also the smoothing does look pretty good on both of these. Yes, it softens the image, but I kinda like it. It’s hard to say. I might go back and forth, honestly. And then here is the UltraHDMI, which yeah, that does look pretty glorious.
Now let’s go ahead and take a look at Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, and this is another game that I get really excited to be able to play when I’m doing these comparison videos because it’s just an example to replay one of my favorite games of all time. And as you can see here, I’m having fun doing the tricks and trying not to wipe out. Like before, we have the UltraHDMI on the left, next to that the EON Super 64, also the RetroTINK next to that, and I do wanna mention that I have smoothing turned on for both of those, and then over on the right-hand side, of course, is the Hyperkin cable.
Yoshi’s Story is a good game to test with because it has a lot of flat 2D sprites. And so for this I wanna demonstrate some of the smoothing techniques of the EON, and also the RetroTINK. And some of the best places to show that are on the menus, so let’s go ahead and jump into the EON Super 64. And this is the menus, where you’re choosing your character and what type of game you wanna play. And this is with smoothing turned off. And then let’s go ahead and turn on smoothing. And that’s pretty obvious. Let’s go ahead and show the RetroTINK doing the same thing. So that’s smoothing turned off. And then smoothing turned on. In the game itself, I think it’s a little bit more difficult to tell. And so you’re gonna see me swapping back and forth here as I play through the game with smoothing turned off, and then turned back on. It’s a nice option and you don’t notice any lag with it turned on or off, either way. So it’s just a preference thing. And then here’s what the game looks like running through the UltraHDMI-modded N64. All right, guys.
Well, that is four different ways of getting HDMI video out of your N64 so that you can connect it to a modern HD television. But the question remains, which one do I recommend you get? Well, I have to say I have no regrets getting that UltraHDMI mod done to my N64. Now, it is tough to get ahold of the kits because they only come out in batches, and when you do get them, well, you have to solder them on, and in my case I actually had to ask a friend to do that. And so it’s definitely a challenge, but I think it is clearly the best way to get the best video out of your N64 that is currently possible. But for most people, I recommend they choose either the EON 64 or the RetroTINK. Now, I do really like how elegant and simple the EON solution is because it doesn’t require any external power, it’s got the built-in smoothing, it is upscaling S-video, and it looks really good. You guys saw all the footage there. However, the RetroTINK is $50 cheaper than that and is more versatile. Now, it does require its own power, but if you have a game room like I do and a bunch of different consoles, it’s incredibly useful because it’ll upscale component, composite, and also S-video. So it’s very useful if you’ve got a bunch of different consoles like I do. So you really have to choose. Do you pay the higher price for the EON or do you want the flexibility of the RetroTINK? It’s a tough call. And then I do think that there is a place for the Hyperkin cables because they are the cheapest, by far. It really just depends on if you are okay with the so-so video quality and the colors being off a little bit. But if you are on a budget, if you don’t have a lot of money to spend and you just want a very simple, cheap solution, well, that could work for you. So it’ll be interesting to know what you guys think down in the comments below, and as always, guys, I wanna thank you for watching my channel. Thank you for subscribing and take care.
At the end here I’d like to do a shout-out to Ryan from castlemaniagames.com. He’s the one who send me the EON Super 64 for review and he’s also a big part of the Seattle retro gaming scene. He runs a really cool website, so definitely check that out if you have a chance. All right, guys, well, I hope you like this video and have a great, great day.
Developer Woozle teamed up with Game-Tech.us to make a console version of the GBA with 720p HDMI output, zero lag and tons of customization options. MORE INFO: https://www.game-tech.us/product/gba-consolizer/
GAMES SHOWN:
The Ninja Warriors
Lamborghini American Challenge
Super Mario World
QBert 3
Super MegaForce
Musya
Pac-Attack
Run Saber
Super Punchout
Shadowrun
Pocky & Rocky 2
GAMES TESTED:
Shenmue
Soul Calibur
Sega GT
Mars Matrix
Gunbird 2
Hydro Thunder
Power Stone
Guilty Gear X
Jet Grind Radio
Speed Devils
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:
– Hey guys, Metal Jesus here, now one of the goals of my game room is to try to connect as many of my old, retro gaming systems using HDMI as possible. Well recently, the company Pound Technology released an HDMI cable for the Dreamcast. Now that if that company sounds familiar, it’s because they are the same company that released the HDMI cable for the Xbox, and that was very well received. So in this video, I’m going to review the HDMI cable for the Dreamcast, as well as talk about some of the gotchas that you need to know about. Let’s take a look. Alright guys, we’re going to start with a quick unboxing. And you’re gonna notice that this was purchased from Amazon. So they sell exclusively from Amazon, which is really nice, if you have any problems and you need to return it. And you’ll notice that it’s a fairly simple cable. One side connects to the Dreamcast through the AV port, and the other goes into your HD television. So let’s go ahead and try out some games. We’re gonna start with the big one – we’re gonna start with Shenmue. And like the other videos that I’ve done, where I review these types of cables, we’re gonna start with what is arguably the most common way of connecting, which is composite. That’s where you have one yellow video cable and it typically looks something like this. Now this is captured through the Elgato, so it looks a little bit worse that it would if you were connecting to an old school CRT, but let’s go ahead and switch over to the HDMI cable. And you’ll notice that it is noticeably sharper. Yeah, it looks definitely better. And then let’s go ahead and go back and forth between composite and the HDMI cable, and as you see here composite is definitely softer, more blurry, where the HDMI cable is pretty much the same colors, maybe a little more contrast, but definitely sharper. It’s at this point I want to mention that I also have one of these dedicated VGA boxes, from a company called Retro-Bit and so what we’re going to do is compare all three of them and I think you’re going to be very surprised in the results. So getting back to composite again, this is the single, yellow cable. Now, here is the Pound HDMI cable – definitely sharper. But check this out, this is the dedicated VGA Box from Retro-Bit, and I gotta say, this looks fantastic. This is definitely the best video quality that I can get from my Dreamcast. And again, keep in mind, this is the same Dreamcast, the same game, I’m just swapping out the cables. Alright, let’s go ahead and check out some other games, including Soul Calibur, this is a fighting game, that’s fantastic on the Dreamcast. Let’s go and see how it looks with composite. Okay, yeah, soft, not impressive. Here is the Pound HDMI cable, definitely better. And then we’re going to switch over to the Retro-Bit VGA. And again, it just looks that much sharper. Now, if you’re not seeing the difference on your screen make sure that you’re not looking at this on a small phone. You’re gonna want to look at this on your television, because the differences can be subtle between the Pound HDMI and also the VGA Box. Now I know what some of you are thinking, “Well why don’t I just go out and buy this dedicated VGA Box?” And you definitely can do that, although, there are some caveats with this. I just want to mention, the biggest one being, is that, well, if you bought an HDMI television like I have, in the past year or so, it may not have a VGA input. Mine definitely doesn’t and so, that provides it’s own challenges. So what I end up having to do, like with this video, is that I actually had to convert the VGA over to HDMI to be able to capture that footage, using it’s own dedicated box, so again, the solution here, while very impressive, definitely has it’s own challenges as well. But it was important for me to mention it because, you are trading a little bit of quality for convenience. But let’s go ahead and move on, and test some more games here. Here is Sega GT and like before we’re gonna show the crappy composite video here, just for, kinda, dramatic effect I guess. And then here is the Pound HDMI cable, definitely better. And then we’re gonna switch over to the Retro-Bit VGA. Now again, look how sharp that is. Notice how when we go back and forth between the HDMI cable and the VGA Box, you can definitely see a difference in contrast and also in colors. Again, not a huge difference, I guess but, just be aware it’s doing that. It’s definitely there and I think it’s kinda noticeable. Now let’s play something a little bit different. This is Mars Matrix which is a really awesome shoot ’em up and this is only using 2D sprites. We’re starting with composite, which of course, is the crappiest way to play it. And then let’s go ahead and move on to the HDMI cable. Definitely an improvement, but then, here is the VGA and again, notice that the number and the text at the top is just really sharp. So this is definitely the best way to play it, but the Pound isn’t bad. Moving on, let’s go ahead a check out one of my favorite shoot ’em ups on the Dreamcast, Gunbird 2. But check it out, when you pop the disk in, it throws up an error message saying it will not work with a VGA cable and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now this is very important because there are a small number of Dreamcast games that just won’t work with this type of cable, no matter what brand it is. Now I was curious if I could get around it, because you can go on the Internet and burn these Dreamcast Boot Discs that will try to trick the system into booting it anyways. And, yeah, sure enough it actually launched the game. So again, here is the original composite video for Gunbird. And then here is the HDMI cable version, again using that third party funky boot disc thing. So I was actually pretty pleased, I was like, “Oh okay well this is awesome!” However, when I got to level two it was struggling. It was actually getting massive amounts of slow down. It was very disappointing because I thought I was gonna be able to trick the system. I even tried my copy of Hydro Thunder. Now, Hydro Thunder there are a couple different release versions on the Dreamcast and this one won’t display anything. It boots up, it acts like it’s gonna play but nothing showed up on the screen. So again, you just need to be aware that this is something that collectors of the Dreamcast have to kinda deal with. Next I was kind of curious if it was going to work with a Japanese Dreamcast. And here, of course, is my Hello Kitty Dreamcast. And let’s go ahead and pop in the Japanese version of Power Stone. We’re gonna start with composite which of course is our base and then move on to the Pound HDMI cable. And yes, it looks great, definitely an improvement. Also I didn’t notice any lag, it played just fine. Actually I was finally starting to kick some butt in this round, and I was feeling pretty good about it, love this game. Let’s go ahead and move on to a 2D fighter. And again, I’m trying to mix up the genres here and the style of games to give people a good idea of what it looks like when you buy this thing. Here is the composite and then we’re gonna move over to of course the HDMI cable. Yeah, looks and feels fantastic. So again, I’m not feeling any lag and I wouldn’t really expect to because this is not upscaling, it’s simply just converting the VGA signal over to the HDMI, so it works as expected. Let’s go ahead and check out a couple more Dreamcast games. This is Jet Grind Radio and it’s really funny because doing these videos I just have a stack of games and I just get sucked into playing all these again. I absolutely love this game, so much fun. And so, this of course is the Pound HDMI cable. Again running and looking as you would expect. And because the Dreamcast has so many awesome racing games and you guys know that I do love my racing games, so I had to check out Speed Devils. So I’m playing that here, again using the Pound HDMI cable. Looking for any noticeable lag or slow down, or anything like that and I definitely didn’t feel it, very fun game. As I mentioned in the video overall I’m pretty happy with this cable. I mean it’s very convenient and it only costs 30 bucks. But there are a couple caveats, and the first one being not every game supports VGA. And that’s a real bummer but if you know that going into it, you won’t be surprised and it’s certainly not the fault of this cable. The second one being, of course, as I mentioned that, it’s just not quite as sharp as the Retro-Bit adaptor which is a little bit of a bummer. But again, because it’s so convenient I’ll let that slide. And the third caveat being that something I actually ran into myself with an older HD television. See a couple years ago when I first took my Dreamcast and tried to connect it via VGA, using this Retro-Bit right here to an older HD television the TV itself didn’t know what to do with that signal and actually skewed the display way over to the right. And there was nothing that I could do about it. So, it’s something that you need to be familiar with or at least aware of, if you have an HD television that is older because again, you are sending a VGA signal to a TV that may not know what to do with that. And it may just skew it way over to the right. So if you read reviews of either the Retro-Bit, or this Pound technology, HDMI cable, and they’re claiming that, it’s not the fault of the cable itself, it’s actually the HD television. And as you can see my newer HD television right here, and also the one I have upstairs, had no problems whatsoever. Again you just need to be aware of it. Now if your interested in checking out this cable, I’ll put a link down in the video description below to Amazon. The nice thing about Amazon is, is that if you buy it and you happen to have that problem, or really any other, well you can always return it. That’s very, very nice. Love to know what you guys think about this, please let me know down in the comments below. As always I want to thank you for watching my channel. Thank you for subscribing, take care. Thanks for joining me on my endless quest to get all of my consols upgraded to HDMI. Although I have to be honest, I would like to see these cables also include upscaling, if posisble. Now I know that adds a level of complexity, also lag and expense but I do feel like the Dreamcast kind of needs it and it would be cool to see. So maybe in the future, I don’t know. I don’t know how complicated that is.
There is a way to get a better home-brew Game Boy Player software, but the solution is a bit involved. You either need to use the Action Replay w/ a SD card or burn a special bootable DVDr. Instructions are here: http://www.retrorgb.com/gameboyinterface.html
