Alex Kidd in Miracle World HD by MCBRemakes (Marcelo Barbosa)
The Sega Master System emulator HiSMS (by Botrops), and the NES emulator HDNES (by mkwong98), are designed to make it possible to create HD remakes of your favorite 8-bit games.
As you play, the emulators rip the displayed graphics to image files that can be edited in Photoshop, at 2x or 4x the original resolution. The games still play exactly the same, but their graphics can be remade for HD.
Marcelo Barbosa kicked things off with a gorgeous remake of Alex Kidd in Miracle World for SMS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNcGK_V960Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScyB69dwRA0
Mkwong has completed a remake of Super Mario Bros., although his art style leaves something to be desired. He also seems to have remade Kung Fu and Bombsweeper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N57ApspY...e=youtu.be
It would be possible to create a graphics pack for Super Mario Bros resembling New Super Mario Bros, Paper Mario or an animated style. Games like Kung Fu and SMB don't have a ton of graphics, so there's a lot that can be done.
Info and downloads:
http://hisms.orgfree.com/
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9935
Mkwong continues to update HDNes.
I can't get either program to work on my Mac using Wine -- probably because HiSMS uses Direct3D 7 -- but they should work on Windows.
I'd love to see artists tackle the 8-bit classics.
Since there are so many 3D models available here from later-gen games, it would be very possible to rig and pose them to match the sprite sheets for the original games, and then use that art in 4x emulation in the games themselves.
For example, here are the sprite sheets for a few Sega Master System Disney games. These could be recreated with Kingdom Hearts models.
http://www.spriters-resource.com/game_ge...dimecaper/