The Art of the Remaster: How Nightdive Studios is Future-Proofing the Video Game Past

This week, System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition arrives on Xbox Series X|S, restoring a defining classic of sci-fi horror for a new generation. But for Atari’s Nightdive Studios, it’s more than a release—it’s part of a broader mission. Over the past decade, Nightdive has become the premier name in game restoration, combining technical prowess with curatorial reverence to bring classics like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Quake, and STAR WARS: Dark Forces Remaster into the modern era.

Nightdive’s guiding principle is clear: “Video games are art,” says Larry Kuperman, head of business development. “The people that make those games are artists, and the games—and their stories—deserve to be preserved, just like other art forms.”

That belief drives every decision the studio makes, whether it's updating controls, squashing decade-old bugs, or even resurrecting unfinished levels that never made it into the initial release. “Our goal is that the games should play the way you remember them playing,” Kuperman says. “They should evoke the original experience that you had that was important for you.”

Of course, that’s easier said than done and rarely a straightforward task. As with any form of art—perhaps even more so than others, in fact—no game is ever truly “finished.” Even the most beloved classics come with quirks, bugs, or limitations born from the hardware of their time. For its part, Nightdive makes great efforts to find the sweet spot between historical accuracy and providing what people expect  a game experience in 2025. “You really have to look at all the different facets of a game, from the mechanics to the art to all of the animations—like, where do you draw the line?” says studio head Stephen Kick. "And a lot of the time our team will go top to bottom on a game before we start working on it, and really evaluate how far we can take things.” They’ll need a really good reason to change something—say, a game-breaking bug that never got fixed. But when it comes to quirks in the game, even ones that speedrunners might have exploited, they’ll let history stand: “We'll try to keep that in because it’s part of the community, part of [what] gives the game its charm,” Kick says.

On the visual front, the studio’s approach is definitely more restoration than reinvention. Nightdive’s main goal is in fact not to put its mark on the titles it remasters. They’ll clean up the silhouettes, fix the UVs, and apply just the slightest bit of visual polish, such that an experienced player may not even notice. But upon closer inspection, quite a bit of work has in fact been done—primarily to improve visual fidelity of the experience on the kinds of high-resolution displays people play on these days.

Much of that work is powered by their proprietary KEX Engine, a remastering toolchain over a decade in the making. Originally developed for the Turok remaster, it’s now the backbone of nearly everything Nightdive touches. “It’s been tailor-made so that if we have the code for an old game, we can basically plug it into KEX and let the engine handle everything else behind the scenes,” Kick explains. “It's not plug-and-play, but as long as the framework is there, our talented group of engineers have been able to get everything running so far smoothly and to a degree that has really made Nightdive stand out as the go-to remastering house. It’s an incredibly versatile tool in that way.”

That versatility extends to Xbox platforms. “The best thing about the Xbox Series X|S hardware is that with games from previous generations, we can be sure that they’ll run at basically max performance at all times,” Kick says. “So there’s no difference between a performance or a fidelity mode—they’re gonna run at 4K at 120FPS all the time, and that’s just not something we ever have to be concerned about on the Microsoft hardware.”

Kuperman adds that Nightdive’s emphasis on console parity has also made them rethink what accessibility really means: “It surprised us how many players choose to play their games even on PC with controllers. So that's been a benefit that we didn't anticipate, that those games are now more accessible to that portion of our audience.”

The team has also embraced Xbox-native features like Quick Resume, which shines particularly bright in retro titles. “Some of these games can be tough,” Kick says. “You might need to pause, look up a guide, and then jump back in. With System Shock 2, we’ve even included the original Prima strategy guide in the in-game vault, so you don’t have to leave the experience.”

Indeed, that "vault" is another Nightdive signature—a digital museum built into the games themselves. It might include concept art, promotional materials, and even never-before-seen levels. “We try to preserve as much of the original work of the original history of the game as we can.”

When source code is missing—or legal barriers prevent a full overhaul—Nightdive sometimes opts for what they call a “restoration” instead of a remaster. It’s the original game, made playable on modern platforms.  “It's not a remake, because we didn't have the resources,” says Kuperman. “It's not a remaster. But we want people to continue to be able to play the game.”

Over time, Nightdive’s reputation has grown alongside its ambitions. Acquired by Atari in 2023, the studio has expanded its team and scope while retaining its independence and all-remote structure. “The partnership lets us focus on what we do best,” Kick says. “It’s been almost exponential. We have a lot more people on our teams to handle more projects than we've ever done before.”

As for original games, the team says they’ve fantasized about it—but for now, the past still beckons. “It's always been a dream of mine to do something wholly original in a brand-new IP,” says Kick. “But business is just booming with remasters right now, so there's really not any bandwidth for us to explore those possibilities at the moment.”

And for players who never got to experience those games the first time around? Nightdive is making sure they can.