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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of colors used by video game systems
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24-bit palette sample image<br>24 bit Palette Color Test Chart<br>This is a full list of color palettes for notable video game console hardware.
For each unique palette, an image color test chart and sample image (original True color version follows) rendered with that palette (without dithering unless otherwise noted) are given. The test chart shows the full 8 bit, 256 levels of the red, green and blue (RGB) primary colors and cyan, magenta and yellow complementary colors, along with a full 8 bit, 256 levels grayscale. Gradients of full saturation of intermediate colors (orange, yellow-green, green-cyan, blue-cyan, violet, and red-magenta), and a full hue spectrum are also present. Color charts are not gamma corrected.
Atari<br>[edit]
Atari 2600<br>[edit]
See also: Television Interface Adaptor
The Television Interface Adaptor [1] (TIA ) is the custom computer chip that generated graphics for the Atari Video Computer System game console.<br>It generated different YIQ color palettes dependent on the television signal format used.[2]
NTSC<br>[edit]
With the NTSC format, a 128-color palette was available, built based on eight luma values and 15 combinations of I and Q chroma signals (plus I = Q = 0 for a pure grayscale):
Hue
Luma
Decimal
10
11
12
13
14
15
Hex
0, 1
0, 1
2, 3
2, 3
4, 5
4, 5
6, 7
6, 7
8, 9
8, 9
10, 11
A, B
12, 13
C, D
14, 15
E, F
The above image assumes there is no limit on the number of colors per scan line. With the system's actual color restrictions (and proper change in aspect ratio), the same image would look very different:
PAL<br>[edit]
With the PAL format, a 104-color palette was available. 128-color entries could still be selected, but due to the different color encoding scheme, 32 color entries results in the same eight shades of gray:
Hue
Luma
Deci.
10
11
12
13
14
15
Hex.
0, 1
0, 1
2, 3
2, 3
4, 5
4, 5
6, 7
6, 7
8, 9
8, 9
10, 11
A, B
12, 13
C, D
14, 15
E, F
The above image assumes there is no limit on the number of colors per scanline. With the system's actual color restrictions (and proper change in aspect ratio), the same image would look very different:
SECAM<br>[edit]
The SECAM palette was reduced to a simple 3-bit RGB, containing only 8 colors (black, blue, red, magenta, green, cyan, yellow and white) by mapping the luma values:
Decimal
10
11
12
13
14
15
Hexadecimal
Color
Modern Hardware-Assisted Implementation<br>[edit]
The MovieCart (by Rob Bairos) is a modern (2022) cartridge that implements sophisticated display techniques that allow more realistic images to be displayed on the Atari 2600. The MovieCart format offers 80 pixels horizontally, and 192 (NTSC) or 242 (PAL, SECAM) scanlines of resolution. Each line effectively has 10 multiplexed sprites displayed in groups of 5 on alternating frames. Each of the sprites can have its own colour. A sophisticated encoding algorithm allows arbitrary images to be displayed using all the colours available on the console, with some limitations related to colour changes. The encoder dithers and optimises colour usage to minimise errors in image reproduction.
Note that the original Atari 2600 hardware is still being used to display these images; the 6507 microprocessor is retrieving colours from memory, and the TIA chip is still producing the video data.
The following images are screen grabs using the Gopher2600 emulator, but increased in brightness to match what the human eye actually sees when viewing on hardware.
PAL<br>[edit]
Resolution: 80 x 242 (128 colours)
PAL, dithered
PAL, no dithering
NTSC<br>[edit]
Resolution: 80 x 192 (128 colours)
NTSC, dithered
NTSC, no dithering
SECAM<br>[edit]
Resolution: 80 x 242 (8 colours)
SECAM, dithered
SECAM, no dithering
Lynx<br>[edit]
This section needs expansion with: a simulation of the sample image. You can help by adding missing information. (September 2021)
The Atari Lynx used a 4096-color palette. The video hardware was...