I'm generally very happy playing older games with lower res graphics and older control methods as God intended, but sometimes I like to see what hobbyists have done to both make games more playable on modern systems and also sometimes with decent graphical upgrades, or additions like full-mouselook etc. There's some fantastic work out there.

Hit me with your favourite games that have well made sourceports and upgrades utilising the original game files - not so interested in remakes, I want stuff you need at least the original .wads, and .paks, if not the entire original file system to be able to play. Really, this is less to do with celebrating 'improving a game' more celebrating the work hobbyists have done with their favourite PC games.

Some primers for discussion:
Picrel (the gold standard in my view)
Freelancer HD Mod
Jedi Knight Remastered
Your usual Eduke32, GZDoom, Darkplaces type stuff
The Force Engine

>>11853576 (OP)
Bumping because I remembered the Unity Sourceport for Daggerfall

>>11853576 (OP)
Yea once I get a new rig I’d love to revisit tie fighter w the graphic overhaul and the VR stuff too. Seems pretty cool.

>>11853576 (OP)
Sonic Robot Blast 2 :3

>>11853867
I keep forgetting they did Tie Fighter too - the XWA upgrade is playable with a mid range laptop and no VR, but that does sound awesome.

RE4's PC port has a legendary HD mod where the guys making it actually traveled around europe looking for all the visual references the original JP devs used for RE4's graphics. Walls, doors, gates, paintings, statues, ceilings, floors, everything. They took photos and used those to create hi-res textures. The end result is a RE4 that looks just like the original, only nearly life-like sharpness.
FF9's PC port has a graphical improvement mod, though some of the improvements are debatable, and some are just AI upscale slop. The improved framerate alone is worth it though.
There used to be an active mod for the Magic:The Gathering PC game Shandalar that added in more cards all the way up to 2015-2016 era sets, until some guy harassed the guy making it into quitting and deleting everything. It didn't have every card, but it did have the majority of all cards ever released and you could build decks and fight against the AI with them. It was also patched to make it function properly on modern Windows versions. All that remains is a copy of the 2015 version on Internet Archive.