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'''Owen Davis''' (commonly known by his online handle ODVS) is a veteran PC gamer, professional web developer and prominent digital restorian. Widely recognized in the retro-gaming community as the "Master of Remaster," he specializes in resurrecting classic Full Motion Video (FMV) games from the 1990s. Using a combination of advanced AI upscaling techniques and web-based emulation, he bypasses archaic game engines to bring golden-age interactive movies directly to modern hardware. | |||
== Content & Restoration Projects == | |||
* Star Trek: Borg & Klingon Remastered: Owen is celebrated for single-handedly rescuing and modernizing classic Star Trek interactive movies. He first released Star Trek: Borg Remastered (playable entirely in-browser at borgreed.com), using AI to upscale the rare Japanese DVD release of the game into HD. Following its success, he developed a fully functional, in-browser version of Star Trek: Klingon. For both projects, he bypassed the original 90s game engines completely, rebuilding the logic trees from scratch in JavaScript and wrapping them in an authentic LCARS user interface. | |||
* Wing Commander IV Remastered: He serves as the lead video restorian, UI designer and 2D artist for the Wing Commander IV Remastered project (wcrespace.com). He utilizes advanced AI tools to upscale the game's massive 4-hour FMV library from standard definition to crisp 1080p. | |||
== Development & Technical Process == | |||
* The Emulation Approach: As a professional front-end web developer, Owen prefers bringing games to the browser via HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than relying on clunky retro virtual machines (like DOSBox or Windows 95 wrappers). For his Star Trek projects, he manually mapped out the narrative branching logic by playing through the original games, adding quality-of-life features that cut down on the repetitive "fail state" video loops that plagued the original CD-ROM releases. | |||
* AI Upscaling Methodology: His workflow for restoring FMV is intensely meticulous. Because 90s FMV is notoriously plagued by heavy interlacing and artifacting, he writes custom Avisynth scripts to extract individual frames, clean the interlacing and pass them through neural networks like Topaz Video Enhance AI. The raw AI output is then color-corrected, topped with generated film grain to restore a natural cinematic look and re-muxed with the original 5.1 surround audio via FFmpeg. | |||
== Legacy & Gaming Philosophy == | |||
Owen’s dedication to restoration is driven by a deep love for narrative-heavy gaming—a passion sparked in 1990 when he first played ID Software's Commander Keen on an Amstrad PC1640. A massive fan of Sam Lake and the Remedy Entertainment connected universe (Alan Wake, Control, Max Payne), he firmly believes that interactive storytelling is one of the most powerful mediums available. His preservation efforts ensure that the pioneering FMV narratives of the 90s are not lost to engine rot, allowing a new generation to experience the interactive acting of Mark Hamill and John de Lancie in high definition. | |||
== Appearances == | |||
* [https://youtube.com/live/HvJGZ1vZEgE?feature=share Breakfast with the Captain - News, Star Trek: Borg and Eaglemoss] | |||
* [https://youtu.be/qTzCmqLXCrU Owen Davies - From Commander Keen to Cryptmaster & Star Trek: Borg] | |||
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx6RdBQLQlE Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered - Developer Interview] | |||
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9un90RgqTo Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered - Developer Interview - Update] | |||
Latest revision as of 15:53, 8 November 2026
Player Info
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Owen Davis (commonly known by his online handle ODVS) is a veteran PC gamer, professional web developer and prominent digital restorian. Widely recognized in the retro-gaming community as the "Master of Remaster," he specializes in resurrecting classic Full Motion Video (FMV) games from the 1990s. Using a combination of advanced AI upscaling techniques and web-based emulation, he bypasses archaic game engines to bring golden-age interactive movies directly to modern hardware.
Content & Restoration Projects
- Star Trek: Borg & Klingon Remastered: Owen is celebrated for single-handedly rescuing and modernizing classic Star Trek interactive movies. He first released Star Trek: Borg Remastered (playable entirely in-browser at borgreed.com), using AI to upscale the rare Japanese DVD release of the game into HD. Following its success, he developed a fully functional, in-browser version of Star Trek: Klingon. For both projects, he bypassed the original 90s game engines completely, rebuilding the logic trees from scratch in JavaScript and wrapping them in an authentic LCARS user interface.
- Wing Commander IV Remastered: He serves as the lead video restorian, UI designer and 2D artist for the Wing Commander IV Remastered project (wcrespace.com). He utilizes advanced AI tools to upscale the game's massive 4-hour FMV library from standard definition to crisp 1080p.
Development & Technical Process
- The Emulation Approach: As a professional front-end web developer, Owen prefers bringing games to the browser via HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than relying on clunky retro virtual machines (like DOSBox or Windows 95 wrappers). For his Star Trek projects, he manually mapped out the narrative branching logic by playing through the original games, adding quality-of-life features that cut down on the repetitive "fail state" video loops that plagued the original CD-ROM releases.
- AI Upscaling Methodology: His workflow for restoring FMV is intensely meticulous. Because 90s FMV is notoriously plagued by heavy interlacing and artifacting, he writes custom Avisynth scripts to extract individual frames, clean the interlacing and pass them through neural networks like Topaz Video Enhance AI. The raw AI output is then color-corrected, topped with generated film grain to restore a natural cinematic look and re-muxed with the original 5.1 surround audio via FFmpeg.
Legacy & Gaming Philosophy
Owen’s dedication to restoration is driven by a deep love for narrative-heavy gaming—a passion sparked in 1990 when he first played ID Software's Commander Keen on an Amstrad PC1640. A massive fan of Sam Lake and the Remedy Entertainment connected universe (Alan Wake, Control, Max Payne), he firmly believes that interactive storytelling is one of the most powerful mediums available. His preservation efforts ensure that the pioneering FMV narratives of the 90s are not lost to engine rot, allowing a new generation to experience the interactive acting of Mark Hamill and John de Lancie in high definition.
