Precisely! Because in that instance the actual art work was HD, so a load of detail got thrown away in the downscaling. By comparison, there wasn't really anything there in the CC HD art to lose, because 320x200 was its original resolution.

What software you've used because I check the <Resize> function in Paint and here is what I get:

I used GIMP, it's a free "photoshop like" program so it's a lot more precise than paint. I used nearest neighbour scaling because visually I can tell that's what the dev has used to upscale the graphics for CC HD. It looks like Paint is defaulting to some very nasty bilinear filtering which is why the picture has turned to porridge.

The thing is, in all of this I've not actually been knocking the graphics in CC HD. I think it's tastefully done and retains the mojo of the original. Really my only problem is the inaccuracy of the name. I would have called it Crystal Caves Deluxe or something.

I'm installing GIMP, at the moment check the original full sized screen of CC HD here:
https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1330890/ss_7f25238fc8f317df2d1f65f4ec3f51e86f0ea3f6.jpg?t=1599854601

If we count original BIG pixels it's indeed 16 tile model, but I wonder if the small colored boxes are pixels as well or are they just fake pixels, the product of filtering or something? Could you please check and tell me.

Here are my results from GIMP, it seems that downscaling and upscaling have not changed the picture into a blurry mess.
To be on a safe side I'll double check the final release, I don't trust .JPG screens that much.

They look like jpeg compression artefacts to me. jpeg is a lossy algorithm so the compressed image can't be perfectly reconstructed and you get weird colour fluctuations like that. It's a bit like the "watery" sounds you get on low bitrate .mp3 files.
The actual game shouldn't have those, it's just compression on the screenshots.

So mods from steam side are tied to steam workshop, effectively meaning they are not available to the rest of us.

Yeah, that's actually a way better name. Why does it seem that many gamedevs have trouble with something as basic as a name, Redmond mistakes excluded?

Never expected to see this game remastered and yes, count me in ;) Crystal Caves was one of my first PC games and I have fond memories of it. I recently played it and enjoyed it again except for Episode 3 where level design became very punishing. I like how the remastered version is made by preserving the look and feel of the original.

I really hope the remaster gets a linux build, since the original runs flawlessly in dosbox.

It's not the worst remaster I've seen. It says fairly faithful to the original graphics. I think however more could have been done with the art, like Wonderboy III.

probs not as good as crystal meth HD

LGR: Checking out Crystal Caves HD! Apogee's 1991 DOS Classic Remade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQTGCBZ1FM

It's out now even earlier than on Steam and with a small discount (probably for owners of the original game), have fun everyone!
https://www.gog.com/game/crystal_caves_hd

UPDATE: It's finally available both from website and Galaxy.