Even though gaming has come a very long way over the past few decades, a lot of people still enjoy retro video games more than they do modern ones. There are many reasons why that might be, the primary ones being that modern games tend to be awfully long, overly complex, and filled with dubious monetization practices. Retro games, on the other hand, relied primarily on simplicity and fun, at least for the most part.
Having said that, old-school retro games (as opposed to modern games that feature a retro art style) do fall short in the graphics department. More specifically, the aspect ratio. It’s pretty hard to pick up a game from the 90s and play it on a modern widescreen display without getting annoyed at how stretched out everything looks. The same goes for when you’re trying to use still images of retro games for things like articles and videos.
Luckily, there’s a very convenient solution to this problem and it goes by the name of VanceAI Image Upscaler. In this article, we’re going to teach you how to enlarge retro game wallpapers using this simple yet very powerful tool.
What is VanceAI Image Upscaler?
VanceAI has a tool for pretty much any purpose you can think of, including image upscaling. But while other similar tools can only enlarge retro games wallpapers by a factor of 2 before compromising their quality, Image upscaler can turn retro video game wallpaper HD by up to 8 times their original size while preserving the quality. Here is a short guide on how to use it.
VanceAI now also launches its software version. VanceAI PC is full-featured desktop software developed by VanceAI that lets you instantly process local photos in bulk with more customization options, which will significantly simplify your workflow and boost your productivity. Free Download
Using VanceAI Enlarge Images of Retro Video Games
Pac-Man
Since we’re talking about retro gaming, we figured we should do a bit of a history lesson by taking a look at influential video games in chronological order. We’re not going as far back as Pong or Spacewar because there’s not much to see there, but instead the first game we’ll take a look at is good old Pac-Man. The original Pac-Man came out back in 1980 for Japanese arcade machines before making its way to North America later that year. The game was an instant hit, attracting huge crowds of people to arcades all over the world for many years to come. The titular character of Pac-Man remains incredibly iconic to this day, more than four decades since his first appearance.
Also read: Best 10 Retro Font Generators for Designers Review
Donkey Kong
The original Donkey Kong was one of the main reasons we wanted to see if we can enlarge images of retro video games in the first place. Primarily because the famous Mario made his first appearance in 1981’s Donkey Kong before moving on to star in his own series of video games a few years later. Just like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong was originally an arcade game that was later ported to consoles. Interestingly enough, Donkey Kong was based on King Kong, which made its first screen appearance way back in 1933. But while King Kong is still as popular as ever in 2021, Donkey Kong has become a rare sight in modern media.
Super Mario Bros.
Originally launched in 1985, Super Mario Bros. was the first game to star the lovable Italian plumber as its protagonist. As mentioned previously, the character made its first appearance in Donkey Kong, but he was initially called Jumpman before being renamed to Mario after American businessman Mario Arnold Segale. Enlarging images of retro video games like Super Mario Bros. is interesting because you can spot a lot of details that you are likely to miss otherwise. For instance, in the image above you can take a good look at one of the many princesses you come across while playing the game. When viewed from afar it sort of looks like the princess is a baby but upon closer inspection it seems like she just has weird legs and feet.
Contra
Another blast from the past, the Contra series began in 1987 and revolutionized the run-and-gun genre at the time. The game was initially inspired by western style action movies, especially those featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger who served as inspiration for the box art. The series eventually took on a life of its own and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs, including one as recently as 2019. There’s also a board game adaptation currently in development and expected to launch sometime later in 2021. A live-action movie was supposedly in the works as well at one point but the project was never finalized. Unfortunately, the franchise hasn’t seen a lot of success in recent times so we recommend sticking to the Contra retro video games for now.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
I know what you’re thinking why is Microsoft Flight Simulator in an article about how to enlarge retro games wallpapers?” While a lot of younger people might associate Microsoft Flight Simulator with the recent 2020 version, these games have actually been around since the early 80s. The initial commercial release came in 1982 and ended up being one of the first successful PC games despite its crude graphics. Flight Simulator became increasingly more advanced with each new iteration and by 1993 it already started to resemble the versions we know today. In a way, the history of Microsoft Flight Simulator is the history of commercial PC games.
How to Use VanceAI Image Upscaler?
Step 1: Open VanceAI Image Upscaler and upload your photos
Step 2: Click"Start to Process" or change the settings by yourself
Step 3: Check the result and download it.
Check out the images below to get an idea of the results you can expect to get if you plan on using the tool yourself.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you had just as much fun reading this article on how to enlarge retro game wallpapers as we had written it. We only had time to test a small handful of games for this article but you can grab Image upscaler from the official website of VanceAI and experiment with many more yourself. Remember that the tool is free to use for a limited number of times, so there’s no real reason not to check it out. And, of course, expect this AI Image Enlarger to work with all types of photos, no just video game screenshots. In fact, it’s primarily designed to enlarge other images from real life, but we wanted to use video game screenshots to demonstrate that it works perfectly with just about anything.
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