Hello Folks! We are back with another opportunity from E3 2019! We had recently conducted a tech review for Marseille’s mCable Gaming Edition and were now about to experience its successor, the mClassic. Honey’s Anime also had the chance to sit down and ask a few questions for the Founder and CEO of Marseille, along with, Arabian Prince, Chief Designer for Marseille. If you would like to check out the review for the mCable Gaming Edition, go ahead and read on here so you can know the difference in our explanations: https://honeysanime.com/unboxing-marseilles-anti-aliasing-hdmi-mcable-gaming-edition/.
The first thing we talked about was the new mClassic. This new iteration to the mCable Gaming Edition is the true successor. The mClassic can do all the things the mCable can do and then some. And when we say “then some”, we really mean it. If there were any issues you may have had with the performance of the mCable, the mClassic completely solves all those problems—again, if there were any. When we reviewed the Gaming Edition, there were some noticeable points but really, it was just 2-3 and they were rather minimal. Now, the mClassic is specially designed to do the same thing as before just minus the cables and more power. The mClassic answered the issue with the resolution setting needing to be set at specific settings in order to appreciate the experience of the technology that the mCable Gaming Edition produces. Now, you can experience the mClassic to the fullest as it pushes more enhancements than before. Initially, the mCable Gaming Edition wasn’t able to be on different resolution settings but now, that doesn’t matter.
The mClassic pushes out the highest resolution ever. We saw it produce a resolution boost of over 2,400 pixels on a normal 1080p monitor. There is more of a difference this time around that Marseille worked out everything and went above and beyond, again. So, no matter what resolution your TV is at, you should see significant changes. Marseille also designed their new chip with what seems to be 3D rendering enhancing effects because the images being produced were not only clean, crisp, vivid, enhanced contrast, etc., it was also giving the ability or effect of 3D visuals. Everything looked like it was popping out of the screen more and it also made us very sad after experiencing this because, well, the imagery was so good, that looking at our monitors now kind of sucks… And we are using the mCable Gaming Edition as well!
In addition to the mClassic’s already badassery upgrades, it also has a Scale On/Off and a Retro mode as well. This Scale and Retro mode is a switch function on the device that is a small LED switch. If the light is on, then you are good to go: Scale is “Green” and Retro is on when the switch is all the way to the right. The demo for this was just spectacular but this also answers the question of why retro games with the Gaming Edition wasn’t as good as we hoped it would be when using our new platforms for gaming. The semi-problem was that the resolution settings needed to be specific and even with those specs, not all older games were as enhanced as you would think. Most of them didn’t have any changes at all but now, with its new design and programming, it was better than ever. Newer Mario games were popping out more, colors were enhanced and clearer, smooth, and no lag whatsoever. Again, there is no lag that the human eye can see and if Marseille improved the mClassic this much, then we can only assume that input and output performances have also been enhanced.
When we got to sit down with the Founder/CEO and the Consultant/Chip Designer, Amine Chabane & Arabian Prince Nazel, we were really curious with how all this began and how they met and started this amazing and groundbreaking tech for the world to enjoy. If you all don’t know, Arabian Prince Nazel is one of the original founders of N.W.A, with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E. Coming from this background which we originally thought was his start, was surprising, to say the least.
Hello and thank you for joining me for this interview!
So, the first thing we wanted to know was how all this came to be: the idea, the meetup, and everything in between because Arabian Prince, Sr., you have a solid background in music so when was the transition to tech and gaming?
I remember doing stuff for Saban and asked them ‘how I could do the same stuff you all are doing?’, ‘How can we become partners?’. In the late 80s to early 90s, the concept of the partnership was not so welcoming with a huge corporation like Fox because why would they want to work with a small fry…?! I wanted to go in and work together to make better games by understanding and learning about them in order to make better games for them and they didn’t get it. So at the point, I said ‘screw it. I got a lot of time on my hands’ and went in there as a game tester for Fox Interactive.
Imagine a man with a $150,000 car driving up and going in as a game tester just to learn how you make games?! Fox would come up to me and be like ‘why are you here?’. I told them I was there because they didn’t want to partner with me so now I figured it out on how to get paid to sit and learn about games. In about 2 - 3 months in, they approach me and straight said ‘come on man, just come with us. This is ridiculous.’. They said you lead a game or lead a project and from there I did that for a few years and then I moved over to Vivendi Universal which turned into a partnership and once I figured out video games, I left and started doing my own thing with technology and doing my own thing with animation and special effects as well.
Fast-forward to today, with all the things I’ve done with my tech partners like the Microsofts and the Intels, etc., I teamed up with Marseille and I help make their products better as a consultant because last year at E3 2018, I met Amine through a mutual friend and when I saw his product, it blew me away and I felt that this product was going to go places. Also, once I saw the reviews from content creators and the reception the mCable Gaming Edition was receiving which was good, nice, etc., I wanted to help out by making it better thus, making more profit.
You know, I got ideas in my head, and he is made of technology, along with me being a core gamer playing games like Quake Champions, I respect the gaming community and this needs to be in their hands. Let’s get this out there because the gaming and cinema products Marseille had before, it was nothing dedicated for the gamer so I wanted to help bring something for them. That’s when we got together, I showed Amine some designs and he said let’s do this and here we are!
That is an amazing story. So, Mr. Chabane, what was in your mind when you first came up with the concept for the mCable?
To be perfectly honest with you, when we met, Arabian and I, I always had in the back of my mind about Dr. Dre and what he did with Beats by Dre and it was cool and amazing but to me, the technology was lacking so I hoped to find an amazing individual who has or is the culture, has the ability to understand the gamer, and can do better than others. That’s when I met Arabian Prince and he isn’t just a star, he is a brains-on kind of guy and when we talk about designs, he renders designs in his own studio fast. So when you talk about how we can take amazing technology and an amazing product, how to make it more appealing to gamers, and how to simplify, you need to move fast.
Honestly, it has been one year of collaboration and it is amazing and fun. Especially, and to reiterate what Arabian Prince said earlier, the partnership was like a top-down culture where no one wanted to work with you and they then realize that this how you open up ideas and unleash the creativity when you partner with others and with that, I think we hit it on the nail with the mClassic because we took the leap and trusted each other by becoming partners. The mClassic is going to launch on Kickstarter really soon and Arabian Prince helped out so much because he delivered what he promised. The mClassic does what the gamers want and that is exactly what we wanted to achieve.
I’ve worked with many companies and asked them for this and that and they never want to cooperate or they make things difficult. I never get that with Arabian Prince and because of that, we are able to excel further in our efforts and thus, we can move forward to discovering the latest new technology.
With that, this whole experience has been amazing.
That is lovely to hear and amazing that you guys have accomplished so much. We wanted to know next, and since the beginning of the design for the new mClassic, was there anything trivial along the way? Like something you realized that could’ve been approached differently or hurdles you had to get over.
One last question if we may, do you all have anything new in the pipeline that you can talk about?
Well, that is good to hear because honestly, we only see Marseille going places. Going above and beyond the expectations of technology in ways that benefit the community. Thank you very much for the interview and we wish you the best of luck on Kickstarter
Honey’s Final Thoughts
And that is it, Folks. Another great article, done. Knowing more about a company really gets you closer to them, which is something we strive to do. The mClassic is probably one of the best product in the video industry that we have seen in a while. The enhancements this device produces are beyond the limits of any technological find to date—well, maybe if the bendable or see-through TVs come to the mass market, then they will be the next best thing. The mClassic is a product all gamers should have. We can’t stress enough how awesome this product is as you will surely get your money's worth.
The mClassic will be on Kickstarter soon so make sure to keep an eye out for it and if we hear something about on our end, we’ll make sure to let you all know. If you want to know more about the mClassic, make sure to check out their website: https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/. If there is something you’d like to ask regarding the contents of this article, make sure to sound off in the comments below.
Ja ne!
Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz
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