Posted: 4/25/2007 11:41 PM
Post subject: question about sprites and NES games
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Ersatz
Joined: 8/9/2004
Posts: 139
Location: Washington State
I know a lot of people have hacked Roms and moved level arrangements around. But what if you just want to replace the existing sprites from those in the game to ones of higher quality? What exactly is the bit depth and color count you can use when converting your own higher rez images to NES and ROM compatible sprites? I thought it would be a cool side project for me to play around with considering I'll be graduating from college next week. The method I would take is simply use the existing sprites as reference and model every element in XSI and then make a render that will take the existing sprites place. As long as I make sure it will be compatible. Is this possible?
Posted: 4/25/2007 11:56 PM
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Deep_Loner
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
Sprites are palette-based. Expanding the palettes would mean reprogramming the entire game. Plus, the maximum number of colors on-screen is limited by hardware. So it's not possible. Edit: Not possible on the 8-bit NES. On the SNES it might be possible, depending on the game. Rare used a similar method for the Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct games.
Posted: 4/26/2007 12:36 AM
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Ersatz
Joined: 8/9/2004
Posts: 139
Location: Washington State
could the higher res images be conked down enough to fit NES specifications? EDIT: I would plan on keeping the same palette sheets just with replaced images.
Posted: 4/26/2007 12:54 AM
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Deep_Loner
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
According to the more knowledgable people on this site, NES sprites are limited to three colors at a time. Maybe you can combine different sprites together, but then the whole image is still limited to 12 colors. Try dithering your hi-res images to a 12-color palette and see if you like the results. I'm afraid that what you're suggesting is just not possible.
Posted: 4/26/2007 2:58 AM
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Ersatz
Joined: 8/9/2004
Posts: 139
Location: Washington State
I can probably make it workout. We'll see how it goes.
Posted: 4/26/2007 2:58 AM
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Deep_Loner
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
Well, private-message me here with the results!
Posted: 4/26/2007 3:31 AM
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Ersatz
Joined: 8/9/2004
Posts: 139
Location: Washington State
For sure. I'll be monkeying around with this for awhile and hopefully in the next month or so depending on results i'll get a website up and running. I'm thinking Tightenupdagrafix.net or something. ::EDIT:: I have gone ahead and sealed the deal for tightenupthagrafix.com I will be using the site to post progress on my venture.