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[mumu]

It's already amazing what artists could do with 256 colors back then! But check out the screens below. Only 64 colors! Imagine what they could've done with 256!!

Used to be my favourite title screen. Doesn't really look spectacular but it's just brilliant.

 

[Amir0x]

Those Red X's are brilliant! Near-Picasso!

 

[Scrow]

hey awesome, a blank space.... i'm not even getting red x's

edit: ah cool, there they are. yeah, that's impressive.

 

[mumu]

imageshack to the rescue.

 

[duderon]

Those Red X's are brilliant! Near-Picasso!

They're showing up for me. Damn fine lookin too.

edit: ah, nm.

 

[The Shadow]

Pretty impressive if it is only 64 colors but then again, I remember the enormous jump in quality going to EGA from CGA and IIRC, it was still fewer colors than that. 16 I think.

Edit: My bad, EGA was 256 colors at low resolution.

Those Red X's are brilliant! Near-Picasso!

I can see them just fine.

 

[Teknopathetic]

You don't need a ginormous palette of colors to make good art, you just need talent.

 

[Amir0x]

I can see them just fine.

Didn't you read the thread?

"Imageshack to the rescue."

Originally they wouldn't load, so he imageshacked them.

Now I can see them just fine too.

 

[The Shadow]

Didn't you read the thread?

"Imageshack to the rescue."

Originally they wouldn't load, so he imageshacked them.

Now I can see them just fine too.

Your reply was the only one when I clicked "quote".

 

[Amir0x]

Your reply was the only one when I clicked "quote".

I WILL EAT THE FLESH OFF YOUR FACE.

AS A WAY OF EXPRESSING MY LOVE.

 

[Jonnyram]

Imagine what Charlie Chaplin could have done with colour and voice...

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

I think the same of 256 colors and 12K colors. Not realism, but sub-realism.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Edit: My bad, EGA was 256 colors at low resolution.

No, EGA was 16 colors at 320x200. VGA was 256 colors at 320x200.

Edit: Actually EGA wasn't just limited to 320x200. More info here

 

[The Shadow]

No, EGA was 16 colors at 320x200. VGA was 256 colors at 320x200.

Edit: Actually EGA wasn't just limited to 320x200. More info here

Take it up with these guys.

http://ahds.ac.uk/creating/guides/performing-resources/glossary1.htm

 

[Warm Machine]

Syndicate was done in 16 colors at 640x480. It was incredibly impressive for its day.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Take it up with these guys.

http://ahds.ac.uk/creating/guides/performing-resources/glossary1.htm

They are incorrect. I had an ega adaptor in my 286 back in the day, and when vga adaptors started coming out, I wanted one badly to play my games in 256 colors.

 

[Shompola]

My 286 Toshiba 3200T or something was EGA 16 colors.

 

[PC Gaijin]

Don't know what those guys on the page you linked were smoking Shadow, but EGA was 16 colors at once out of 64. EGA was when the PC first started getting some decent looking games (god, CGA was utter shit). There was also some kind of enhanced CGA mode (forgot what it was called) used on the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000 that allowed 16 colors in low-res (320x200).

 

[callous]

What game is the second shot taken from? I <3 it.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

First two are from Agony on Amiga 500 by Psygnosis.

 

[dark10x]

Don't know what those guys on the page you linked were smoking Shadow, but EGA was 16 colors at once out of 64. EGA was when the PC first started getting some decent looking games (god, CGA was utter shit). There was also some kind of enhanced CGA mode (forgot what it was called) used on the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000 that allowed 16 colors in low-res (320x200).

Well, the old IBM machine that I used featured MCGA graphics, which were 320x200 with 256 colros at once (not 16). It was low-resolution, but very colorful (for the time).

 

[gblues]

Well, the old IBM machine that I used featured MCGA graphics, which were 320x200 with 256 colros at once (not 16). It was low-resolution, but very colorful (for the time).

MCGA != CGA

MCGA = MicroChannel Graphics Adaptor, pretty much used exclusively in IBM PS/2 (we used to call 'em Piece-o'Shit 2 in high school) machines. Microchannel was a proprietary bus that never caught on.

Nathan

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1) and Gunstar Heroes are the best examples of 64-color artwork in a game, IMO. The usage of color in those titles was sublime...making you think you actually have more colors on screen than there were.

 

[dark10x]

MCGA != CGA

MCGA = MicroChannel Graphics Adaptor, pretty much used exclusively in IBM PS/2 (we used to call 'em Piece-o'Shit 2 in high school) machines. Microchannel was a proprietary bus that never caught on.

Nathan

I know, but someone above mentioned an enhanced CGA mode, which is what I always assumed MCGA was...

 

[borghe]

the Amiga kicked ass.. man, I played so many games on that thing.... I couldn't even care less about PC games until.. hmm... probably about 1992-93 was when developers really stopped supporting the system and fewer and fewer games were being released... but until that point, the Amiga was a MORE viable gaming PC than the PC was...

 

[Funky Papa]

Psygnosis+Team17+The Bitmap Brothers=Graphics trifecta

There was a time where nobody, NOBODY could touch what they pulled on the Amiga. Now Psygnosis is no more, Team17 has become a worms factory and the Bros. are on extasis

 

[Izzy]

Since these are Amiga screens you have to be careful - even the basic Amigas support the HAM mode which enables the display of 4096 colours at once.

 

[jett]

Since these are Amiga screens you have to be careful - even the basic Amigas support the HAM mode which enables the display of 4096 colours at once.

They are all displaying less than 64 colors. Impressive.

 

[Izzy]

They are all displaying less than 64 colors. Impressive.

Most of the basic Amiga games use 32 colours in-game. But, these are static title screens, and they could very well use HAM mode and display 4096 colours on screen at once.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Most of the basic Amiga games use 32 colours in-game. But, these are static title screens, and they could very well use HAM mode and display 4096 colours on screen at once.

My amazing Photoshop skillz tell me that the first pic uses 44 colours and the second one 42.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Except that those pictures are 6 bit GIFs (max 64 colors in any case) and use 44 and 42 colors each.

 

[borghe]

yeah, there is no way to really tell the number of colors without looking at the original IFF files.. not saying it isn't done in 64 colors, but 64 is an odd number as most amiga stuff was done in 32 color (forgot what that was called0 or 4096... except later with AGA when it was done with 256 colors.

 

[Fafalada]

Pretty impressive if it is only 64 colors

Slightly off topic - but, actually you'd be surprised what can be done with limited palettes nowadays - using just automatic color reduction.

For instance:
64colors
http://img119.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img119&image=temple264color7mp.png

256 colors
http://img119.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img119&image=temple2256color9ex.png

Source (~200000 colors)
http://img119.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img119&image=temple21xz.jpg

 

[Izzy]

My amazing Photoshop skillz tell me that the first pic uses 44 colours and the second one 42.

Do those amazing PS skills give you an access to original IFF files?

 

[borghe]

bzzz... WRONG!

 

[mumu]

Now Psygnosis is no more, Team17 has become a worms factory and the Bros. are on extasis

A few of the Bitmap Brothers still exist, but they have teamed up with one guy from the former Sensible Software and make games for mobiles nowadays. What a waste of talent.

 

[Fafalada]

unfortunately that isn't exactly true... that "64 color" image for example, while using only 64 actual colors, is then supplemented with a 192 shade grayscale.

No - the image is only using the first 64 palette entries, the other entries are just "padding" that my conversion tool supplements because PNG doesn't support 64color palettes natively.

You can open the palette in Photoshop and replace the upper 192 entries with any color you want, and the image will not change.

 

[borghe]

I stand entirely corrected.

sorry.

 

[GameCat]

One cool "feature"the amigas 64-bit mode was that since the last 32 colors always were half bright copies of the first 32, you could fake semi transparent shadows by blitting them to a single bit plane. This looked really cool and was dirt cheap. Sadly, very few games ran in 64 colors.

 

[FortNinety]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1) and Gunstar Heroes are the best examples of 64-color artwork in a game, IMO. The usage of color in those titles was sublime...making you think you actually have more colors on screen than there were.

Didn't later games, like around the time of Sonic 3 have colors rest on top of each other to create different colors on screen? If true, that's pretty smart.

 

[Izzy]

One cool "feature"the amigas 64-bit mode was that since the last 32 colors always were half bright copies of the first 32, you could fake semi transparent shadows by blitting them to a single bit plane. This looked really cool and was dirt cheap. Sadly, very few games ran in 64 colors.

Yeah, and the mode was called - HALFBRIGHT. The best in-game use of this mode was, of course, in Nebulus.

 

[Fularu]

Most of the basic Amiga games use 32 colours in-game. But, these are static title screens, and they could very well use HAM mode and display 4096 colours on screen at once.

I have those images from agony, as a matter of fact they were done in 32 colors

And AB2's title screen is gorgeous

 

[The Shadow]

Don't know what those guys on the page you linked were smoking Shadow, but EGA was 16 colors at once out of 64.

That just means I was right the first time. I looked up that site to make sure if my memory was correct.

Slightly off topic - but, actually you'd be surprised what can be done with limited palettes nowadays - using just automatic color reduction.

You're right, I am surprised. I would have assumed that dithering artifacts would be much more noticable in those examples you posted.

 

[mumu]

And AB2's title screen is gorgeous

Yeah AB2 title screen is actually better artistically, but somehow that classy black from the AB screen still makes me like it even a tad more

Another nice title screen is the Flashback one.

 

[bishoptl]

Yeah, Flashback is a personal Amiga favourite of mine.

 

[mattiewheels]

Yeah, Flashback is a personal Amiga favourite of mine.

Sweet, sweet Flashback...

Speaking of, I just went through Out Of This World again, and even though the trial-and-error gameplay blows, it's gotta be one of the most perfect game experiences I've ever had.

 

[sandman]

Genesis can only display 64 colors at once too, and it got a lot good looking games.

 

[Crag Dweller]

Yeah, and the mode was called - HALFBRIGHT. The best in-game use of this mode was, of course, in Nebulus.

A Dungeon Master clone called Black Crypt used that mode too.

 

[Izzy]

A Dungeon Master clone called Black Crypt used that mode too.

Black Crypt was originally designed to run on a Commodore Amiga with 1 MB of RAM. The graphic mode used was called Extra Half-Bright, which allowed for a user-defined palette of 32 colors (out of 4096 color choices). The mode then provided an additional 32 colors, which were half the brightness of the chosen colors. 'Copper' effects were used to do special effects, such as the teleport or water ripples. Black Crypt supported 4 channels of sound and was "hard drive installable."