History Main / PolishedPort

In the case of emulators, the ''entire console itself'' is essentially ported to another platform. While emulation usually introduces problems of its own (such as requiring the host system to be several times more powerful than the original), it can also improve upon the performance of the original console's hardware. For consoles that originally used optical media, the use of virtual drives can reduce load times dramatically. Modern [[MediaNotes/GraphicsProcessingUnit GPUs]] can easily outperform those of the Platform/Nintendo64 and Platform/PlayStation, which means that emulation for their games can be rendered in much higher resolutions than the original consoles were capable of while elimating texture warping and geometry issues prevelant on those consoles. Save states can even be used to bypass SaveGameLimits. The issue of battery life for handheld systems can also be circumvented by playing them on a home system. Of course, emulation itself (barring official examples such as the Platform/VirtualConsole and [=PlayStation=] Classics) is a pretty controversial subject, and while emulators themselves are perfectly legal, the ownership and use of downloaded [=ROMs=], ISO files, [=BIOSes=], etc. are a rather murky gray area.

** To a lesser degree, the Platform/PlayStation5 retroactively did similar improvements for a few late-gen Platform/PlayStation4 titles as well, and stabilizes performance across the board for any titles that taxed its predecessor.

* Backwards compatibility with consoles tends to have a variety of random issues, to the point that playing [=PS1=] or [=PS2=] games on [=PS4=] / [=PS5=] still have various issues abound for what games are supported. Then there's the later Xbox generations of Xbox One and the Xbox Series pair. While they don't support ''everything'', what games from the 360 and original that they do support generally get stabilized performance and sharper visuals, and some games are outright packing enhanced ports altogether with a native 4K resolution and/or increased frame rate, plus Auto HDR functionality. One example is ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII2008'', where it was notoriously riddled with performance issues due to the game being rushed and the Xbox 360 hardware not being able to handle it; on an Xbox One X or a Series console, you can outright push it up to a stable framerate in spite of all the insanity the game throws at you. Meanwhile ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Gears 5]]'' may as well have been a cross-gen Xbox One title reaching into the Xbox Series generation, with Series X's support bolstering the game to its fullest potential short of a maxed out PC. The rest of the ''Ninja Gaiden'' and ''Gears of War'' titles are entirely supported by Xbox One and Series backwards compatibility with the whole wealth of benefits, too. This effectively makes ''every'' supported game a Polished Port, while still supporting their original digital purchases ''and'' their discs if you still have them lying around.
** To a lesser degree, the [=PS5=] retroactively did similar improvements for a few late-gen [=PS4=] titles as well, and stabilizes performance across the board for any titles that taxed its predecessor.

* Backwards compatibility with consoles tends to have a variety of random issues, to the point that playing [=PS1=] or [=PS2=] games on [=PS4=] / [=PS5=] still have various issues abound for what games are supported. Then there's the later Xbox generations of Xbox One and the Xbox Series pair. While they don't support ''everything'', what games from the 360 and original that they do support generally get stabilized performance and sharper visuals, and some games are outright packing enhanced ports altogether with a native 4K resolution and/or increased frame rate, plus Auto HDR functionality. One example is ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII2008'', where it was notoriously riddled with performance issues due to the game being rushed and the Xbox 360 hardware not being able to handle it; on an Xbox One X or a Series console, you can outright push it up to a stable framerate in spite of all the insanity the game throws at you. Meanwhile ''[[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Gears 5]]'' may as well have been a cross-gen Xbox One title reaching into the Xbox Series generation, with Series X's support bolstering the game to its fullest potential short of a maxed out PC. This effectively makes ''every'' supported game a Polished Port, while still supporting their original digital purchases ''and'' their discs if you still have them lying around.

* Backwards compatibility with consoles tends to have a variety of random issues, to the point that playing [=PS1=] or [=PS2=] games on [=PS4=] / [=PS5=] still have various issues abound for what games are supported. Then there's the later Xbox generations of Xbox One and the Xbox Series pair. While they don't support ''everything'', what games from the 360 and original that they do support generally get stabilized performance and sharper visuals, and some games are outright packing enhanced ports altogether with a native 4K resolution and/or increased frame rate, plus Auto HDR functionality. One example is ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII2008'', where it was notoriously riddled with performance issues due to the game being rushed and the Xbox 360 hardware not being able to handle it; on an Xbox One X or a Series console, you can outright push it up to a stable framerate in spite of all the insanity the game throws at you. This effectively makes ''every'' supported game a Polished Port, while still supporting their original digital purchases ''and'' their discs if you still have them lying around.

** To a lesser retroactive degree, the [=PS5=] retroactively did similar improvements for a few late-gen [=PS4=] titles as well, and stabilizes performance across the board for any titles that taxed its predecessor.

* Backwards compatibility with consoles tends to have a variety of random issues, to the point that playing [=PS1=] or [=PS2=] games on [=PS4=] / [=PS5=] still have various issues abound for what games are supported. Then there's the later Xbox generations of Xbox One and the Xbox Series pair. While they don't support ''everything'', what games from the 360 and original that they do support generally get stabilized performance and sharper visuals, and some games are outright packing enhanced ports altogether with a native 4K resolution and/or increased frame rate, plus Auto HDR functionality. One example is ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII2008'', where it was notoriously riddled with performance issues due to the game being rushed and the Xbox 360 hardware not being able to handle it; on an Xbox One X or a Series console, you can outright push it up to a stable framerate in spite of all the insanity the game throws at you. This effectively makes ''every'' supported game a Polished Port, and the [=PS5=] retroactively did similar improvements for a few late-gen [=PS4=] titles as well.

* Backwards compatibility with consoles tends to have a variety of random issues, to the point that playing [=PS1=] or [=PS2=] games on [=PS4=] / [=PS5=] still have various issues abound for what games are supported. Then there's the later Xbox generations of Xbox One and the Xbox Series pair. While they don't support ''everything'', what games from the 360 and original that they do support generally get stabilized performance and sharper visuals, and some games are outright packing enhanced ports altogether with a native 4K resolution and/or increased frame rate, plus Auto HDR functionality. One example is ''VideoGame/NinjaGaidenII'', where it was notoriously riddled with performance issues due to the game being rushed; on an Xbox One X or a Series console, you can outright push it up to a stable framerate in spite of all the insanity the game throws at you. This effectively makes ''every'' supported game a Polished Port, and the [=PS5=] retroactively did similar improvements for a few late-gen [=PS4=] titles as well.