Suppose I have a great game idea for GBA and want to create mock-up screenshots using Photoshop. I know the resolution is 240x160 but the colors are giving me a headache... I heard there are two 256-color palettes (each entry has 15 bits), one for the background and one for the sprites. I also heard that one palette entry is reserved for transparency - I assume this is in the sprite palette? If there''s only one transparent color I shouldn''t create any semi-transparent (say, opacity 50%) sprites, right? Also, how do I make sure the colors in the mock-up are "possible" on the GBA? That is, if each palette entry contains a 15-bit color, does this mean I have 5 bits for RED, 5 bits for GREEN and 5 bits for BLUE? If I''ve understood correctly, I should first do a color reduction to 15 bits, then do a further adaptive reduction to 256 colors. The first step makes sure the image contains only tones the GBA can display, and the second reduces the simultaneous number of colors to what the GBA can handle. The trouble is, I don''t know how to do a color reduction to 15 bits in Photoshop. Any ideas? ... or am I just taking this too far? Got any clever shortcuts?

I don''t know anything about photoshop but don''t forget that the GBA is more powerfull than it looks

Ok, first off, if all you are doing is screenshots, dont worry about the pallete. the gb is capable oh showing 511 simitanious colors in sprite mode which means that your sprites are gonna be really spiffy.
to top that off, gba is able to run 32000 in bmp mode which it cane use similtaniously with sprite mode. The gb doesnt have a lotta memory but it excels where it counts so dont worry. make your backgrounds for 16 bit and see. there are programs that will convert. then, add your sprites.
I to am working with this but we are working on an actual game for windows. of coarse, it doesnt demonstrate the project on gba, but its only a tech demo of many of our tech shite.
dont go crazy with worrying about the colors, your stuff can be converted later.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

For more info on the GBA, take a look at http://www.devrs.com/gba/. That site even contains links to tools that converts BMPs to images suitable for the GBA.

Steve ''Sly'' Williams  Code Monkey  Krome Studios

Thanks for the replies. I wanted to ask this because I am not sure what is doable (performance, memory, etc. considered). I don''t want to end up in a situation where I send a potential publisher fancy screenshots and they notice they are beyond the graphics processing of GBA - they might simply mutter "amateurs" and ditch the proposal?

But judging from the replies, I guess the performance limits aren''t as serious as I feared.

yea.. screenshots are nice. personally, i think video or interactivity works better though. My approach is to construct a nice graphics demo in move form. this gives them an idea of what it is to look like and play like.
but im a bigger fan of a short short demo. all you need is some support and a contract., lol.
heh, people are finally starting to come around about gba.. but im not sure if i wanna chuck a huge idea at it for kids to play.. that seems like a waste to me.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.