WarGames 4K UHD Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

A litany of brightly lit screens in the command room wall make Dolby Vision's touch apparent. The highest contrast items sing via this modern remaster. This boost to contrast creates sublime dimensionality. Black levels excel too, dense and deep.

Hearty grain is preserved, and the encode struggles in places to keep pace. Overall, the imagery looks more digital, failing to sustain an organic appearance. WarGames isn't a disaster by any means as the detail and sharpness break through regardless. Definition in close finds texture easily. It's obvious this stems from a full 4K scan, even when the cinematography becomes fuzzy.

WOPR's gleaming red and yellow lights show bold color. That goes for WarGames as a whole, quite dynamic at times while preserving the natural palette. There's no sense digital grading is at play, at least not in any notable way.

Audio

WarGames comes packed with a surprisingly hearty DTS-HD 5.1 track. Clear dialog and hefty score don't sound from the early '80s. Spectacular range gives nuke engines rumble galore, bettering some modern releases thanks to the tight low-end. Music adds its own bass, room-filling stuff at its best. Inside an arcade, machines hit each speaker, pinging stereos and rears. Air raid sirens blare through the rears as missiles launch, and the computer generates a heavy thud when simulating strikes. Usually the mono mix (also included) has merit, but other than for purists, the surround mix is the preferred one.