Hello,

As you can tell by the title I'm interested in 8-bit games. I was wondering what colours people tend to use in their modern 8-bit games. Do people tend to borrow from the old NES colours or simply design their own palette from scratch? I haven't decided if I want to go with a completely authentic look yet or go with an original palette... If I do decide to go with something like NES can anyone recommend a place where I can download a palette to use?

-retro_ style

I did a 256 color game not too recently, and I chose the colour palette by making a massive composite image containing lots of screenshots and concept art that I wanted to emulate, and then using Photoshop to compress that image down to 256 colours, and extracting the palette that was generated in the process

Does it matter what others tend to do? I'm inclined to suggest settling on a look that you want for your game, and going with the palette that's suggested by that decision. If part of the look that you're going for is emulation of a console, then indeed go with that; if not, select a palette that works for your particular game.

You could always use the default mode 13h pallette, that might be an interesting challenge. It does have nice colour range to make for some nice colourful retro games too...

You can also go mid-way. For example, you can go ahead and start with the NES palette, but the NES palette is also a bit weak in certain color areas, so some games enhance it with some colors that weren't in the original. There's still enough NES that the player can go "Oh, I recognize this!", without straightjacketing you to being completely faithful to the source hardware.

Does it matter what others tend to do? I'm inclined to suggest settling on a look that you want for your game, and going with the palette that's suggested by that decision. If part of the look that you're going for is emulation of a console, then indeed go with that; if not, select a palette that works for your particular game.

You're right it doesn't really matter, I was just curious more than anything else.

What do you mean by the default mode? The default mode of what?

That's an interesting idea. I might do that.

So where can I download a NES palette?

You could always use the default mode 13h pallette, that might be an interesting challenge. It does have nice colour range to make for some nice colourful retro games too...

What do you mean by the default mode? The default mode of what?

He means: default "mode 13h" palette
"Mode 13h" was a graphics mode back in the DOS and VGA era, used by many 80's/90's PC games, with 320x200 resolution and 256 colours.

You could always use the default mode 13h pallette, that might be an interesting challenge. It does have nice colour range to make for some nice colourful retro games too...

What do you mean by the default mode? The default mode of what?

He means: default "mode 13h" palette
"Mode 13h" was a graphics mode back in the DOS and VGA era, used by many 80's/90's PC games, with 320x200 resolution and 256 colours.

Oh... that makes more sense now. That was WAY befor my time lol so it figures.

You're right it doesn't really matter, I was just curious more than anything else.

Ah, fair enough. In that case, I don't have much more to contribute, I feel, and bow out of the thread for now. (You seem to be getting plenty of input anyway. )