HD Upscaler Significantly Improves Sega WC Port (February 15, 2022)

[ChrisReid]

Adam posted some impressive pics of the Sega CD edition of Wing Commander running with a neat upscaler gadget. He's highlighted some comparison shots below, and the difference is enormous! It is helpful to understand a little context though: the original game didn't look nearly as bad in 1994 as the first image implies, but there is some awful distortion that gets introduced when trying to upscale certain old SD content directly into modern HDTVs. It's nice to see that there are some good options to clean things up though. The device was made by Hyperkin, which does some good stuff.

The Hyperkin HDTV cable for Sega Genesis I ordered from Limited Run Games arrived today.

Here's some comparison shots with my composite cables (left pics). Sorry if those don't look all that great, they were taken with my phone. Believe me, the difference is noticeable in person.

Especially the text in Wing Commander.

Also, 1994 was not a typo! The Mega/Sega CD port of Wing Commander was one the last WC1 ports made (not counting things like Super Wing Commander, Kilrathi Saga, EA Replay and the various rereleases).

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Original update published on February 15, 2022

 

[Wedge009]

...the original game didn't look nearly as bad in 1994 as the first image implies...

Sorry if those don't look all that great, they were taken with my phone.

The exposure and saturation differences make comparisons difficult in both examples. But the upscaled Hornet cockpit does look nicer than what I remember from the DOS version (although there's still pixelation on the shallow angle of the top edge of the cockpit window).

 

[Pedro]

Has anyone found a good upscaler for the 3DO? They have them for every system but

 

[ChrisReid]

The exposure and saturation differences make comparisons difficult in both examples. But the upscaled Hornet cockpit does look nicer than what I remember from the DOS version (although there's still pixelation on the shallow angle of the top edge of the cockpit window).

I think some pixelation is to be expected. You're still working with SD content. With that being said, things like the text look great. They go from a muddled mess to being fairly crisp.

 

[Wedge009]

Oh, I wasn't expecting miracles, just noting that at shallow angles it doesn't come out as nicely. But it is definitely and improvement overall, at least from what I could see from the photos.