SHP Forums

Had AI upscale it now that AI's gotten much better - and my main focus was the picture - and I am pretty impressed.

It took this...



And upscaled to this... which looks (again, my focus was the main picture not the writing on the box art) and ... it's pretty solid.

This is what AI should be used for, a tool to be used in a process not for replacing the creative process like the talentless and unimaginative hacks to pretend they are artists. Good lord, these fools have flooded the Sierra groups with their AI garbage in the faces of the original Sierra artists.

This is more like a Photoshop plugin, to recover an image.

I noticed that the AI bungled the text and turned the striped bar at the top into a pebbly texture, so I lifted the painting part and pasted onto the retail box. Also I removed the Christian cross at the top of the castle's tower. The AI must have assumed that the castle was a church.

Collector wrote: ↑Mon Jan 26, 2026 12:15 pm I noticed that the AI bungled the text and turned the striped bar at the top into a pebbly texture, so I lifted the painting part and pasted onto the retail box. Also I removed the Christian cross at the top of the castle's tower. The AI must have assumed that the castle was a church.

Yeah, I knew it messed up the text. Was going to extract just the image and put it on the KQ4 box scan I have but you beat me to the punch.

Trying to think - were there ever other Sierra type covers (or something like that) where all we ever saw of it was a small image?

Thinking to rinse and repeat those efforts of using AI to see if we could get a close to normal sized image of what it may have been like.

Probably, but offhand, I cannot think of any that did go into production with another cover. There are a number of titles that were canceled, but did have a concept version of the cover, like Goofy's Word Factory. There were a few titles under development towards the end, like "Babylon 5: Into the Fire" and "CLOAK: The Naked Mind"

I remember seeing this image I think in a catalog that came with a game. I always had the impression that Lolotte (I think that is who the green woman is supposed to be) was green but "pretty". Basically the Wicked Witch in "Wicked". That the dark line on her face are just shadow. It looks like the AI made her face disfigured which I don't think is right.

I am not sure what gave you that impression. Remember that her son Edgar was essentially a troll, short, hunched over and with a big nose. I don't think that the AI took too many liberties. Here is a blowup of the original image without anti-alasing or any enhancements.

That's seriously impressive. Thank you, Tawmis and Collector!

I noticed another thing, though: the AI tool changed the diagonal bar at the bottom to read "Over 100-000 sold", which makes no sense.

I tried using AI to draw a mockup of a book cover for me, as I'm not an artist. (Only a mockup, not the real thing). I spent several hours on it and dealt with all sorts of goofs, from a third hand to a sword shaped like a banana. The only good thing about it is that it clarified for me what I'd like the cover to look like, so now I can talk to a real cover artist.

Collector wrote: ↑Tue Jan 27, 2026 10:04 am I am not sure what gave you that impression. Remember that her son Edgar was essentially a troll, short, hunched over and with a big nose. I don't think that the AI took too many liberties. Here is a blowup of the original image without anti-alasing or any enhancements.


Lolotte LowFi.jpg

You might be right. I think that maybe I was projecting 1939s "Wizard of Oz" onto the image, with Glinda as Genesta and The Wicked Witch of the West as Lolotte. The Wicked Witch didn't look like a monster.

notbobsmith wrote: ↑Wed Jan 28, 2026 12:06 am You might be right. I think that maybe I was projecting 1939s "Wizard of Oz" onto the image, with Glinda as Genesta and The Wicked Witch of the West as Lolotte. The Wicked Witch didn't look like a monster.

Well,

Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Tue Jan 27, 2026 4:07 pm That's seriously impressive. Thank you, Tawmis and Collector!

I noticed another thing, though: the AI tool changed the diagonal bar at the bottom to read "Over 100-000 sold", which makes no sense.

Yeah I focused on the image itself, not the text.