How do they make HD versions of old School games?

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s8ntmark

s8ntmark

Well-known Member
Jan 31, 2013
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Like DMC, Metal Gear Solid, and even the HD Version of American McGee's Alice that came out as a DLC for Madness Returns a few years ago? I've tried to find articles about this online but have, so far, been unsuccessful.

How are they able to make a game that was originally 4x3 into widescreen? Do they re-skin the characters? I've played original Xbox games on my 360 and they actually look really good...pretty much HD themselves, what makes these other games "HD"?

Thanks! :D
 
s8ntmark said:
Like DMC, Metal Gear Solid, and even the HD Version of American McGee's Alice that came out as a DLC for Madness Returns a few years ago? I've tried to find articles about this online but have, so far, been unsuccessful.

How are they able to make a game that was originally 4x3 into widescreen? Do they re-skin the characters? I've played original Xbox games on my 360 and they actually look really good...pretty much HD themselves, what makes these other games "HD"?

Thanks! :D
Click to expand...

With most of the best ones I believe they rip the finished code off a final version of the game and upscale it file by file.

With the worst ones they get the incomplete code based on beta versions of the finished product from the publisher, then go about changing it drastic ways that completely ruin what made the original so good.

Twin Perfect go over the difference briefly in their thorough demolition of Silent Hill HD Collection.


I'm not fond of the TP guys myself, but I see them as the lesser of two evils when set against Hijinx Studios.
 
Cool thanks, Going file by file sounds like a lot of work....but when the results are nice its totally worth it. The DMC transfers are gorgeous.
 
They could have been better, but they're decent enough for the price. My favourite HD collections have to be Jak & Daxter and Metal Gear Solid. There's a lot of love in those games, and they really sing in high def. Trophy support is a marvellous complement to MGS as well, seeing as it adds incentive to find all the esoteric secrets in each game.

Actually I and the missus were talking about HD collections recently, and she lamented how we haven't had one for Legacy of Kain yet. Then we realised the only games they could upscale to HD would be Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, and Defiance. That put us off a bit...

I wish I could give you more insight on the process chief, but my expertise lies in the product, not the production.
 
Agreed! That's my #1 HD release want right now. If the rumors about a reboot/sequel wind up being true, now would be the perfect time to release a Legacy of Kain HD collection to get everyone up to speed. I wonder if they could fit all 5 games onto 2 discs :)

How come they couldn't upscale Soul Reaver 1? Haven't they already released HD PC versions of everything except Blood omen?

Macabre said:
I wish I could give you more insight on the process chief, but my expertise lies in the product, not the production.
Click to expand...

No worries, i understand how they do it now (on a basic level, at least ;))
 
Macabre said:
It's pretty much the same reason they didn't upscale MGS1 or Silent Hill 1: Laziness. My missus was properly upset when they didn't throw in MGS1.
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Yeah its weird that it wasn't there.

As for Soul Reaver, it seems like the work has already been done. Couldn't they just port the PC version to consoles? I can't speak for Blood omen, though.
 
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