When community mainstay and poster restoration maven Laserschwert isn't scouring the globe for ever-better sources to feed his scanner, he's trying to sell you on the potential of AI upscaling technology.
You might have caught his case for training such tools on the barely-in-need-of-remastering CMI, a taste of the future which was enough to challenge an orthodoxy or two. Further beliefs may be shaken in the wake of his latest proof of concept, which tackles Sam & Max Hit the Road:
More examples can be found in the forum thread (at the above link) he made elaborating on this experiment.
While I personally am frightened, triggered and dehumanized by the very concept of imitation brush strokes and machine-learned artwork (not to mention the horseless carriages that the kids are into these days), I have to admit I'd have preferred these results over what the Day of the Tentacle remaster achieved (and which in turn I found way more desirable than the no doubt well-meaning efforts of the Monkey Island special editions), and it's not a bad punt on an approach to such a project if the reason Disney is holding back is on the basis that it shouldn't exceed the cost of a 12oz. soda.
So betray your values, knuckle under in the presence of The Algorithm and behold what dispassionate 1s and 0s can accomplish when put to work on the true issues of the day.
Source: The Forums
Scott S
I recently replaced Curse, with some upscaling shenanigans applied through SCUMM. It looked really, really good on my 46" TV.
Some of Laser's work looks phenomenal, if someone could figure out how to shoehorn those backgrounds into the old games....
Oooh what were these upscaling shenanigans? Do you have some screenshots? Always keen to see some hi-def Curse
Some of Laser's work looks phenomenal, if someone could figure out how to shoehorn those backgrounds into the old games....