Not all remasters have to be released on more powerful platforms. Sure, that helps with the one thing most gamers focus on, graphics, being more detailed. Some remasters, such as this Toki release, go backwards, to a lesser powerful platform, yet still achieve amazing results. Just the comparison is now the remastered fan edition versus the officially licensed release on that same platform. With that in mind, this is quite mind blowing.
Some Original Parts Were Reused
Unlike ports using engines such as the Scorpion Engine, or Beats of Rage (BOR and OpenBOR), the Toki remaster reuses the original game engine while redesigning sprites and other assets. This is what I will talk about in the port releases I cover, this is pushing the Commodore 64 to new levels. It looks amazing, especially in comparison to the official release by Ocean Software in 1991 (still a monumental achievement in its own right).
According to the itch.io page the arcade music has been restored. Some bugs and errors were corrected (over sensitive controls/hit detection noted). Graphically this remaster is gorgeous. Sprites were redone, backgrounds received more detail (often they were single color in the original C64 release), and overall optimization for the graphics.
A Work in Progress
This Toki Remastered release is over two years in development and is a fan project. What you get when you grab the demo over on itch.io is the first level. It is currently marked as Beta V0.9, as of this writing.
While there is still a lack of detail in the graphics, they are far better than what Ocean was able to accomplish in the early 90s. Not knocking Oceans work, they released a version that was impressive for the time. It is time for fans to work their magic.
Pulled from the itch.io Toke Remastered page
What arcade game would you like to see get the remaster treatment? Most any arcade game port on the C64 was hindered quite badly upon release so I know a lot of those could probably be fixed up by dedicated fans to make a better port. Let me know yours in the comments below.
This is such a cool project.
I agree. I was a huge fan of the arcade game and have played most home ports, even the Atari Lynx portable, over the years. By the time this came to the C64 I was living in the backwoods of Arkansas and had no clue about it (gaming publications were not covering C64 in 1991 either, at least ones I could find).
Definitely going to give this one a go later this week.