Porting games

Question

So if say I wanted to port say Commander Keen to PS4 and make the port just a little bit more optimised to fully utilise what the console has to offer, What would be the procedure?(applies to any old game made from 1999 and back)

Answer 1

remaking the game from the ground up would be easier, less time consuming and much more optimal (in your case at least). basically, to give you a short explanation, you would first need the source code of the game, either by decompiling the game yourself or getting it from the dev. then, you would need to translate the code from whichever language it was made in (likely C), and that's just making the game work, because back then graphics were coded in pixel by pixel so you would need to adjust and redo the entire graphics display method for the respective console, and allocate memory differently to make it run faster (memory was limited back then), as well as probably some other tweaks.

Answer 2

hinanawi True but I suck at recreating sprites, let alone creating them, and my audio creating skills are very tiny when compared to even an 8-bit tone.

Answer 3

hinanawi again that maybe true but that talent come bundled with something called cost, and I do not have any freinds in the graphics or audio industry willing to do those for free, and as a guy whom 99% of the time is broke, I cannot afford to hire anyone, so it’s a case of “gotta do it all yourself”

Answer 4

IDGam3r well if you are serious about the project you can get other people to help with that