How remasters keep classic games alive

By Colin Campbell, Contributor

This year is going to be a busy one for revisiting old favorites, with a bevy of classic games returning to PC boasting newly refreshed graphics and improved performance.

Notable 2024 releases include remasters and remakes of Star Wars: Dark Forces, Tomb Raider I-III, Suikoden I & II, Persona 3 Reload, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Alone in the Dark, and Braid.

This follows 2023’s cavalcade of remakes and remasters, including Dead Space, The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, The Last of Us Part I, Quake II: Enhanced Edition, System Shock, three Samorost games, and Front Mission 1st: Remake, among others.

It’s not just PC games that receive the remaster treatment, of course. In January, The Last of Us Part II Remastered came out for PS5, and was received with as much hype and enthusiasm as a new release. Last year, Metroid Prime Remastered released on the Nintendo Switch, selling more than a million copies in its first few weeks. And Final Fantasy VII Remake was actually the start of an entire trilogy, with the second installment (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth) releasing on the PlayStation 5 in February.

Clearly there’s a huge demand for older games returning to new platforms with a fresh lick of paint. But why are remakes and remasters so popular in gaming, and what makes one successful?

Among the various art forms, gaming is certainly not alone in re-examining its past, but no other medium devotes the same energy to remaking older works. Gamers love to explore or revisit older games—but they often want to do so with modern-feeling graphics. Many original games are also difficult to find and play, due to various technological or legal issues. Remasters are often the most accessible way to play a classic game.

The technical processes of re-releasing, say, an older movie into formats like 4K—while impressive—are not as onerous or expensive as remaking a classic video game. The artistic goal of a cinematic digital restoration is to recreate something that looks as close to the original as possible. Restoration movie buffs demand absolute fidelity to the original work, which they may have seen many times before. When films are updated or modernized, it’s often polarizing—as with the 1997 re-release of the original Star Wars, which included visual touch-ups and updated special effects, some of which were received negatively by fans.

By contrast, gamers expect remakes to include significant graphical upgrades and visual changes, as well as user interface upgrades and accessibility options that weren’t considered important in the past. Sometimes, developers even include completely new content.

This is partly a result of the rapid and ongoing technological arms race. PC games today look better and perform significantly faster than those released even a decade ago. Game design also improves and evolves constantly, changing the look of games and how players interact with them. This means that games can start to look and feel out-of-date relatively quickly, certainly in comparison to other art forms.

Such is the rapidity of technological change in PC gaming that Bethesda waited just five years from the triumphant launch of the original The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011 to release The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition in 2016. The remaster brought improved visual fidelity and eliminated some stability issues, as well as a full suite of add-ons.

It was the first time Bethesda had released a remaster. At the time, the game’s designer Todd Howard told Time, “We were able to draw so much further and put so much more on the screen in terms of foliage and everything. It really looks great.” It’s no coincidence that the remaster’s launch trailer begins with a direct comparison between the original and updated graphics.

Developers working on remasters say that they’re are an essential part of gaming’s mix, and key to connecting with the past.

“Classic games are classic because they did something special that drew people in,” says Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development at Nightdive Studios. Nightdive is known for specializing in remasters and remakes, including 2023’s Quake II and System Shock. “We’re not remaking everything—only the ones that resonated in the first place. Whatever quality they had that caused them to be a classic in the first place, that’s what we’re trying to preserve.”

“System Shock is a great example,” Kuperman continues. “For a number of reasons, the original game was not a huge commercial success. But it resonated down the years. The people who loved it, really loved it and they told other people about it. So the remake [released last year] found a huge new audience.”

Kuperman says he prefers comparing remastered games to vacation destinations, rather than with other media. “Games are experiences. They are places that you inhabit. When you go somewhere you really like, you probably plan to go back there someday. You tell other people what a great time you had. When they go there too and have a great time, you find joy in sharing that. That’s the feeling we’re trying to recapture.”

Steffen Halbig was Project Lead for Crytek’s 2021 Crysis Remastered Trilogy. In terms of basic gameplay, first-person shooters haven’t changed much in decades. But in terms of speed and graphical fidelity, they evolve extremely quickly.

“Firstly, it’s essential to understand the scope of the project,” says Halbig. “Do you want to create a remaster or a remake? A remaster may result in improved resolution, textures and the incorporation of new technologies, and to enhance the game visually. On the other hand, a remake can involve substantial changes to the game world, meaning that you need a lot more resources and much higher costs.”

“For Crysis Trilogy [a remaster] we started by focusing on enhanced visuals for modern standards; on tactical optimization, improved performance and compatibility; and third, the preservation of the core game while offering players a richer experience by introducing quality-of-life enhancements.”

Chris Bashaar is Director of Product at Aspyr, which is developing remasters of the first three Tomb Raider games, out February 14. “We define three areas of focus as engineering, gameplay, and art,” he says.

“Each game is unique, but there are a few guiding principles that we pursue,” Bashaar continues. “With engineering, get the best performance possible without sacrificing the original feel. With gameplay, preserve the magic and resolve pain points. With art, preserve the user’s memory and push the limits.”

Jakub Dvorský is founder of Amanita Design, which recently remastered its much-loved trilogy of Samorost puzzle games. “With the first two Samorost games, it made sense to remaster them because they were old Flash games and Flash was effectively dying,” he says. “So the biggest reason was to keep the games playable, and bring them to mobile platforms as well. Another goal was to fix the most obvious design errors, and improve controls and playability to get rid of the most frustrating bits. And we also upgraded the audio-visual side of things to better fit today’s standards.”

Refreshing an older game for new audiences is not nearly as expensive as making a new game from scratch, but development still comes with significant difficulties.

Tim Willits, COO at Saber Interactive, worked on Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (2019). “The original source code and assets for the game can either be lost or incompatible with current systems,” he says. “So depending on the game, it can really make a huge difference in how much development work will be required.”

Sometimes, the biggest problems can be very specific.. “With Samorost 1, one of the obstacles was music,” explains Dvorský. “We had some music in the original 2003 version, but it was derived from already existing tracks. None of it was original. So in order to officially release the game on desktop and mobile app stores, we needed new music that would maintain the feeling of the original—and I believe that Floex, who’s been with us since Samorost 2, did a great job.”

“There’s always a delicate balance between preservation and modernization,” says Aspyr’s Bashaar. “We tend to lean towards preservation, but there are instances where this just isn’t a feasible solution. Those are the most challenging obstacles to solve.”
 
“For example: you would think adjusting control schemes would be a simple update,” Bashaar continues, “but we iterate on control schemes until launch. The way controllers are shaped, pressure sensitivities, input lag compensation, and other little elements massively change the feel, especially when you’re updating a game from decades ago.”

“Balancing the preservation of the original game’s artistic vision with the integration of new technology can be challenging,” says Halbig. “There are always technical constraints and compatibility issues when you’re adapting a game to run on modern hardware.”

“Players often have a strong, nostalgic attachment to the original game,” he adds. “Expectations for the remaster can be high. So striking a balance between improving the game and preserving the nostalgic value is crucial.”

Anyone who has been a fan of video games for a few years knows how important nostalgia is to the general culture. Players love to return to the experiences of their youth, just as people generally enjoy the popular music of their teen years.

“At Aspyr, we think of these classics as so much more than just a game,” says Bashaar. “These are time machines. They transport you back to a completely different time of your life and remind you of so much more than who and where you were the last time you played. It’s a treat to be able to bring these memories back, and for people to be able to share some of these favorite moments with their friends and family. We don’t think other media offer the same shareable elements the way a remastered game does.”

The original Crysis released in 2007. Halbig believes the first decade of the century was especially formative for today’s games. He mentions the introduction of series like Far Cry and Red Dead Redemption. “There were a lot of changes in 3D quality over these 10 years,” he says. “The gaming landscape underwent substantial changes. But most of the players were still young, typically under 30.”

“However, many of them remain active in gaming today,” Halbig continues. “They recall the good times they spent playing those games, and they want to relive their memories through freshly remastered games. Of course, they share their positive feelings and impressions, and this sparks excitement among new and younger audiences who may have not had the chance to experience these games in their original form.”

Remasters can help keep great games in the public consciousness, allowing players to sample originals while they wait for new introductions. Gearbox is planning to release the long-awaited Homeworld 3 in March of this year—but the 2015 release of Homeworld Remastered Collection was praised by critics for introducing the original real-time strategy classics to a generation of players who’d never previously played them.

Gearbox hired “key members of the original development team” who took “critical influence and assistance from the passionate fan community.” In its glowing review, IGN praised the developers’ attention to detail in its “newly refreshed models, textures, and effects,” noting that the games were “formerly hard to experience,” with the original game dating back to 1999.

The original Tomb Raider games were released between 1996 and 1998, years before many of today’s gamers were even born. But the franchise is still with us, through movies and modern reinterpretations of the Lara Croft story.

“We hold a deep respect for the legacies of these franchises,” says Bashaar. “Preserving what they were and helping bring them to more—and new—fans is a massive responsibility. However, this can revive genres, mechanics, and worlds that would otherwise be left to emulation, retro hardware, or lost.”
 
“These re-releases and remasters are the best way to get people demanding sequels, reimaginings, and new evolutions of beloved franchises,” Bashaar continues. “We believe re-releases, remasters, and new entries need each other to keep pushing franchises to their full potential.”

“Remastered games are a great way for new players to try out games they may have never played before,” says Willits. “The games are modernized, often look and play better, and are on platforms that you likely already have setup. So this is a great way to be able to play classics and have them optimized for the current systems.”

Likewise, Dvorský believes that remasters serve to connect today’s gamers with the classics of the past. “It’s a good thing that such games are preserved,” he says. “For example, many books that have been around for centuries are still relevant—but games age incomparably more quickly because they’re based on technology that advances incredibly fast. Many old games can’t even be launched on modern machines. Thanks to remasters it’s easier to access these games, and perhaps learn something from them.”

Remasters will never replace new, fresh games, which are essential for innovation and for a sense of novelty. But their enduring popularity connects players with the past—whether they were there for the original release or are experiencing these games for the first time.