Those experienced with emulating older games are likely aware of community-made texture packs. Emulators can use these to improve the textures of older games, giving them an unofficial remaster of sorts. Older 8-bit and 16-bit sprite games lack that ability to load in improved textures like that, though we have seen modernization attempts in the form of widescreen and 3D enhancements for retro emulators. Mesen NES Emulator, however, has the ability to load "HD packs", which take the original NES ROM, and use custom-made graphics packs that make them look more like SNES games, such as Mega Man 2 using the art from Mega Man 7, or Castlevania 1 using sprites from Super Castlevania IV. ROMhacking.net features many of these, uploaded to their site, featuring some standout releases such as:

Zelda 1: Remastered
Contra: Remastered
TwinBee Remastered
Castlevania HD Trilogy

There's also a group effort to creature an HD pack for Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, which is currently a work in progress. You can check some of them out for yourself at the source below. Would you use any of these, or do you prefer to play the games in their original format?

Source

 

[Scarlet]

Hot damn. Now we just need a mod to make them play like SNES games and we’re good to go!

 

[Azael_inf]

screenshot's kinda gross tho

 

[zoogie]

screenshot's kinda gross tho

Looks like a browser game.

 

[Foxi4]

Looks like a browser game.

Some of them look drop-dead gorgeous compared to the 8-bit source material.

 

[Kazzie]

Looks like a browser game.

They're sprites from Cadence of Hyrule

 

[Reploid]

Want to know more? Look here

 

[EduAAA]

man, just look at the date the zelda 1 HD was news:

Zelda: Remastered (Mesen HD Pack)​

Started by Aclectico, October 10, 2020, 10:07:09 AM

 

[osaka35]

man, just look at the date the zelda 1 HD was news:

Zelda: Remastered (Mesen HD Pack)​

Started by Aclectico, October 10, 2020, 10:07:09 AM

looks like it started in 2020, so maybe they just hit a major milestone (1.0 maybe?)

 

[ZeroT21]

Personally I think using a CRT filter is better, but that's just me

 

[RedColoredStars]

Some of them look drop-dead gorgeous compared to the 8-bit source material.

View attachment 365152

Looks like a browser game.

 

[eduall]

OMG this is beautiful!!! only Zelda, contra and castlevania for me!

 

[Marc_LFD]

Nintendo isn't taking this down? That's surprising.

 

[LuigiXHero]

The Zelda 1 pack looks so wrong mixing multiple art styles and games like that you're better off playing many of the Zelda classic art overhauls or just play bs Zelda.

 

[SonyUSA]

Want to know more? Look here

I -just- watched this! I think the Link sprite in the Zelda 1 remake looks really terrible and gives it a bad flash clone vibe. The Zelda II pack however looks like it -could- be really really good once it's complete!

 

[Marc_LFD]

Want to know more? Look here

His English accent was a mixed-bag (sometimes sounded really good, other times not so much), but after verifying he's from Portugal it explains (I had recognized it beforehand). To be fair, he's trying so good on him.

 

[skribbzz]

This is cool and all, but doesn't it kinda defeat the purpose of the NES? It's supposed to have its original, iconic graphics, that's a key part of it. It also kind of ruins the retro vibe.

 

[Ligeia]

Not really a fan. It makes the games totally lose their charm and look like cheap browser games, as some people mentioned.

 

[Reploid]

His English accent was a mixed-bag (sometimes sounded really good, other times not so much), but after verifying he's from Portugal it explains (I had recognized it beforehand). To be fair, he's trying so good on him.

Mark Hammil once recommended Schwarzenegger to drop his Austrian accent. Later he admitted it to be the worst advice in the history of advices.

 

[James_]

My opinion: a lot of these packs do pretty much look like your average Flash game like some have said above me, but the others with a lot of effort put into them do look very nice. It does still beg the question of if it's more worthwhile to stick with the originals though, since that 'retro charm' of the original graphics could be lost.

(I do wanna see that Zelda 2 pack on the PC port/remaster/whatever though, ngl)

looks like it started in 2020, so maybe they just hit a major milestone (1.0 maybe?)

Version 1.3 of the pack was released at the end of 2020. lmao
I guess this article could be considered 'old news' in a sense, but a lot of people still haven't really heard about this, so...