sony trinitron + color emphasis bits = scrambled image?
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No, a lot of licenced games uses them, including some who has the bits constantly set so I don't think one should avoid to use them just because the RGB PPUs, which are about 0.002% of the NES-compatible machines arround the world, doesn't support them (come one who has arcade machines in his living room ?).
When it comes to clones it's more ambiguous. Clones probably represent at least 50% if not more than NES-compatible machines around the world, but they are clones and will remain that way. If you want to design your games for clones, then yeah don't use the emphasis bits, but most people there target the "real thing" instead.
When it comes to clones it's more ambiguous. Clones probably represent at least 50% if not more than NES-compatible machines around the world, but they are clones and will remain that way. If you want to design your games for clones, then yeah don't use the emphasis bits, but most people there target the "real thing" instead.
Useless, lumbering half-wits don't scare us.
Lots of people who buy repros though have modded systems, so there may be a lot more NES's, but I'd be a lot higher ammount of PPU use RGB NES's then you'd think. And clones too are out there too. I myself don't see a whole lot you can gain except for being incompatible with some real hardware because you wanted to hack something in rather then use the palette.
Considering how limited as the NES palette is in hues/luminances, I very see valid reasons for using the emphasis bits to adjust it slightly for your game's color design, if you really want to make your game look as good as possible.
Than again, for the sorry people who only have clones, it could be good to include a clone detection routine (trying out lots of the weird side-effects of the NES hardware that very few clones should support) and disabling their use in this case. And/or provide a menu to toggle their use on/off.
Than again, for the sorry people who only have clones, it could be good to include a clone detection routine (trying out lots of the weird side-effects of the NES hardware that very few clones should support) and disabling their use in this case. And/or provide a menu to toggle their use on/off.
Point is, they can make your game look better. Or at least look more like you would imagine it.
For example, the color palette of the NES has an extreme amount of greenish hues, less of blueish ones, and virtually no good reds/browns. So if you want for example to make your brown look less greenish, you could set the red and blue emphasis to compensate.
Of course, it'll also look different on NTSC or PAL, and might even look slighltly different on different TV sets. So ultimately, adjusting for "the best experience" will only be 100% successful in your home TV room. But since you're probably playing around with this ancient hardware for personal reasons anyway, I guess that's the best measure you can have... :P
But even ignoring composite/RGB differences, don't forget this when becoming too obsessed with finding the "right" color.
For example, the color palette of the NES has an extreme amount of greenish hues, less of blueish ones, and virtually no good reds/browns. So if you want for example to make your brown look less greenish, you could set the red and blue emphasis to compensate.
Of course, it'll also look different on NTSC or PAL, and might even look slighltly different on different TV sets. So ultimately, adjusting for "the best experience" will only be 100% successful in your home TV room. But since you're probably playing around with this ancient hardware for personal reasons anyway, I guess that's the best measure you can have... :P
But even ignoring composite/RGB differences, don't forget this when becoming too obsessed with finding the "right" color.
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GradualGames
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Thanks for your responses. I replaced all usage of $0d with $0e and the artifacts went away. Using the emphasis bits for pause sure looks slick, but I decided to go with the monochrome bit instead. I'd like to be able to run on clones with few issues. Maybe in a future game I can have an option screen that can turn emphasis bit usage on or off so people with original hardware can get richer colors.
I don't think we should worry about this too much.Jeroen wrote:Wouldn't it stil be a good idea to not use it wherever possible though? Just in case a particular tv doesn't like it. (good example is battlekid...who only uses it for pausing...same could be acomplished with palette darkening)
A similar argument to this would be to avoid the 25% and 50% squares for compatibility with clones. It's just a huge tradeoff for not enough of a gain.
It's not a lazy way of darkening it any more than using the sprite DMA is a lazy way of updating your sprites.
If it becomes an astoundingly terrible problem for RGB NESes, then we can release a special RGB version of our homebrew games, much like we would likely already be needing to do with PAL/NTSC.
If it becomes an astoundingly terrible problem for RGB NESes, then we can release a special RGB version of our homebrew games, much like we would likely already be needing to do with PAL/NTSC.
If it's not a ThinkPad, it's a clone
Lenovo PCs have an unbroken legacy back to IBM's original PC; everybody else's PCs are clones. But by now, PC clones far outnumber Lenovo PCs. Right now I'm typing this comment into a clone made by Dell. The same will gradually become true of the NES as Nintendo consoles get thrown out (by mistake, by people who no longer game and aren't aware of eBay, and people who don't know how to replace a 72 pin connector).3gengames wrote:And besides, clones aren't official hardware while RGB chips are.