List of video game console palettes

This is a list of the full color palettes for notable video game console hardware.

For each unique palette, an image color test chart and sample image (Truecolor original follows) rendered with that palette (without dithering) are given. The test chart shows the full 8-bits, 256 levels of the red, green and blue (RGB) primary colors and cyan, magenta and yellow complementary colors, along with a full 8-bits, 256 levels grayscale. Gradients of RGB intermediate colors (orange, lime green, sea green, sky blue, violet and fuchsia), and a full hue's spectrum are also present. Color charts are not gamma corrected.

Atari

Atari 2600

See also: Television Interface Adaptor

The Atari 2600 used different YIQ color palettes dependent on the television signal format used.

NTSC

With the NTSC format, a 128-color palette was available, built based on eight luminance values and 15 combinations of Pb and Pr chroma signals (plus Pb = Pr = 0 for a pure grayscale):

luminance/hue	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14

The above image assumes there is no limit on the number of colors per scanline. With the system's actual color restrictions, the same image would look very different:

PAL

With the PAL format, a 104-color palette was available. 128-color entries were still selectable, but due to changes in color encoding schemes, 32 color entries results in the same eight shades of gray:

hue / luminance	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14

The above image assumes there is no limit on the number of colors per scanline. With the system's actual color restrictions, the same image would look very different:

SECAM

The SECAM palette was reduced to a simple 3-bit RGB, containing only 8 colors (black, blue, red, magenta, green, cyan, yellow and white) by mapping the luminance to color and ignoring the hue:

0

2

4

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Nintendo

NES

The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) was used in the Nintendo Entertainment System and used the YIQ color space to create a 64-color palette, of which nine are duplicates and one is out of NTSC's gamut, giving a total of 54 useful colors. The palette is built based on four luminance values and twelve combinations of Pb and Pr chroma signals (plus two series of Pb = Pr = 0 for eight pure grays). Two of the shades of gray are identical, one has negative brightness, and one is within 2% of another, so sometimes the palette has been reported to have 53 to 55 colors.

In addition to this, it had 3 color emphasis bits which can be used to tint the entire palette any combination of red, green and blue. This extends the total available colors to 432, but inconveniently divided into 8 variations of the base 54. Because it affects the whole palette at once it may be considered more of a filter effect applied to the image, rather than an increased palette range.

The PPU produces colors out of the color gamut, resulting in some colors being presented differently on different screens.

Hex Value Binary Equivalent

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A

B

C

D

E

F

0x00 0000 0000

0x00 0000 HEX 7C7C7C RGB 124, 124, 124

0x01 0001 HEX 0000FC RGB 0, 0, 252

0x02 0010 HEX 0000BC RGB 0, 0, 188

0x03 0011 HEX 4428BC RGB 68, 40, 188

0x04 0100 HEX 940084 RGB 148, 0, 132

0x05 0101 HEX A80020 RGB 168, 0, 32

0x06 0110 HEX A81000 RGB 168, 16, 0

0x07 0111 HEX 881400 RGB 136, 20, 0

0x08 1000 HEX 503000 RGB 80, 48, 0

0x09 1001 HEX 007800 RGB 0, 120, 0

0x0A 1010 HEX 006800 RGB 0, 104, 0

0x0B 1011 HEX 005800 RGB 0, 88, 0

0x0C 1100 HEX 004058 RGB 0, 64, 88

0x0D 1101 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x0E 1110 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x0F 1111 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x10 0001 0000

0x10 0000 HEX BCBCBC RGB 188, 188, 188

0x11 0001 HEX 0078F8 RGB 0, 120, 248

0x12 0010 HEX 0058F8 RGB 0, 88, 248

0x13 0011 HEX 6844FC RGB 104, 68, 252

0x14 0100 HEX D800CC RGB 216, 0, 204

0x15 0101 HEX E40058 RGB 228, 0, 88

0x16 0110 HEX F83800 RGB 248, 56, 0

0x17 0111 HEX E45C10 RGB 228, 92, 16

0x18 1000 HEX AC7C00 RGB 172, 124, 0

0x19 1001 HEX 00B800 RGB 0, 184, 0

0x1A 1010 HEX 00A800 RGB 0, 168, 0

0x1B 1011 HEX 00A844 RGB 0, 168, 68

0x1C 1100 HEX 008888 RGB 0, 136, 136

0x1D 1101 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x1E 1110 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x1F 1111 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x20 0010 0000

0x20 0000 HEX F8F8F8 RGB 248, 248, 248

0x21 0001 HEX 3CBCFC RGB 60, 188, 252

0x22 0010 HEX 6888FC RGB 104, 136, 252

0x23 0011 HEX 9878F8 RGB 152, 120, 248

0x24 0100 HEX F878F8 RGB 248, 120, 248

0x25 0101 HEX F85898 RGB 248, 88, 152

0x26 0110 HEX F87858 RGB 248, 120, 88

0x27 0111 HEX FCA044 RGB 252, 160, 68

0x28 1000 HEX F8B800 RGB 248, 184, 0

0x29 1001 HEX B8F818 RGB 184, 248, 24

0x2A 1010 HEX 58D854 RGB 88, 216, 84

0x2B 1011 HEX 58F898 RGB 88, 248, 152

0x2C 1100 HEX 00E8D8 RGB 0, 232, 216

0x2D 1101 HEX 787878 RGB 120, 120, 120

0x2E 1110 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x2F 1111 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x30 0011 0000

0x30 0000 HEX FCFCFC RGB 252, 252, 252

0x31 0001 HEX A4E4FC RGB 164, 228, 252

0x32 0010 HEX B8B8F8 RGB 184, 184, 248

0x33 0011 HEX D8B8F8 RGB 216, 184, 248

0x34 0100 HEX F8B8F8 RGB 248, 184, 248

0x35 0101 HEX F8A4C0 RGB 248, 164, 192

0x36 0110 HEX F0D0B0 RGB 240, 208, 176

0x37 0111 HEX FCE0A8 RGB 252, 224, 168

0x38 1000 HEX F8D878 RGB 248, 216, 120

0x39 1001 HEX D8F878 RGB 216, 248, 120

0x3A 1010 HEX B8F8B8 RGB 184, 248, 184

0x3B 1011 HEX B8F8D8 RGB 184, 248, 216

0x3C 1100 HEX 00FCFC RGB 0, 252, 252

0x3D 1101 HEX D8D8D8 RGB 216, 216, 216

0x3E 1110 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

0x3F 1111 HEX 000000 RGB 0, 0, 0

The NES could select 4 palettes each containing four of these colors (however, color 0 of each palette has to be the same, so technically, 13 different colors are available at a time) to be applied to the background. A background palette is applied to a 16x16 pixel area, however through a special video mode of the MMC5 mapper it is possible for every 8x8 pixel tile to have its individual palette. As for sprites, 4 different palettes can be used at a time (with color 0 being transparent in each) and every 8x8 or 8x16 pixels can have their own palette, allowing for a total of 12 different colors to use for sprites at any given time.

Because of the constraints mentioned above, converting a photograph often results in attribute clash. Conversions with and without dithering follow, using the hex palette 0F160608 0F162720 0F090010 0F0A1910:

Without dithering	With dithering

Game Boy

The original Game Boy uses a monochrome 4-shades palette. Due to the fact that the non-backlit LCD display background is greenish, this results in a greenscale graphic display, as it is shown in the simulated image (at Game Boy display resolution), below. The Game Boy Pocket uses a monochrome 4-shades palette using actual gray.

Original Game Boy	Game Boy Pocket

Original Game Boy Hex / Binary	0x0 00	0x1 01	0x2 10	0x3 11
Game Boy Pocket Hex / Binary	0x0 00	0x1 01	0x2 10	0x3 11

Super NES (SNES)

The Picture Processing Unit (PPU) used in the Super NES has a 15-bit RGB (32,768 color) palette, with up to 256 simultaneous colors at once.

However, while the hardware palette can only contain 256 entries, in most display modes the graphics are arranged into between 2 and 4 layers, and these layers can be combined using additive or subtractive color blending. Because these blended colors are calculated by the hardware itself, and do not have to be represented by any of the existing palette entries, the actual number of visible colors onscreen at any one time can be much higher.

The exact number depends on the number of layers, and the combination of colors used by these layers, as well as what blending mode and graphical effects are in use. In theory it can show the entire 32,768 colors, but in practice this is rarely the case for reasons such as memory use. Most games use 256-color mode, with 15-color palettes assigned to 8x8 pixel areas of the background.

Theoretical 32768-color	Practical 256-color

Game Boy Color

The Game Boy Color systems use a 15-bit RGB (32,768 colors) palette.

The specific Game Boy Color (Type 3) game cartridges presents up to 56 colors without the use of special programming techniques from the full 32,768. From these, 32 are for a background palette, plus 8 hardware sprite palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each. Typically sprite palettes share some colors (black, white or others), so the total colors displayed may be less than 56.

Though there is a 56 color limit, this in of itself is a palette storage limit and not an actual hardware limitation. As such, the programmer can swap out the palettes on a per-scanline basis. Because of this ability to swap out the palettes each scanline, over eight thousand colors can actually appear on screen per frame when programmed on a per-scanline basis.

Simulated

When an older monochrome original Game Boy game cartridge (Type 1) is plugged-in, if certain combinations of the controls are held during startup (or if the game is recognized from a hard-coded list in the device's ROM), the games are colorized with one of the factory 12 false color palettes. In this mode, games can have from 4 to 10 colors, due 4 are for the background plane palette and there are two more hardware sprite planes palettes, with 3 colors plus transparent each.

The following shows these startup palettes (background plus both sprite planes) and the combination of controls used (the names are taken from the Game Boy user's manual; the colors are simulated):

Combo	Up	Down	Left	Right
	Brown	Pastel mix	Blue	Green
A	Red	Orange	Dark blue	Dark green
B	Dark brown	Yellow	Grayscale	Inverted

Color palette

Nintendo GameBoy color palette by keypad reference

Combination	OBJ0				OBJ1				BG0				Palette reference	Welcome-splash
Up													$12
Up–A													$B0
Up–B													$79

Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance/SP/Micro systems also uses a 15-bit RGB palette, and along with the original and Color modes, they have also a specific Highcolor 32,768 colors mode. The LCD displays of the Micro and some models of the SP are backlit, giving brighter images.

Compatible mode	32,768-color

DS

The DS has an 18-bit RGB color palette, making a total of 262,144 possible colors.

Sega

Master System

The Master System had a 6-bit RGB palette (64 colors), with 31 colors on-screen at once. It is possible to display all 64 colors at once using raster effects (line interrupts).

There are only 512 different 8x8 tile patterns to cover the screen though, when 768 would be required for a complete 256x192 screen. This means that at least 1/3 of the tiles will have to be repeated. To help maximize tile reuse, they can be flipped either vertically or horizontally. The 64 sprites of 8x16 pixels can also be used to help to cover the screen (max 8 per scanline).

Because of the constraints mentioned above, there are no current correct simulated screen images available for the Sega Master System.

0x00

0x01

0x02

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0x04

0x05

0x06

0x07

0x08

0x09

0x0A

0x0B

0x0C

0x0D

0x0E

0x0F

0x10

0x11

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0x3B

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0x3D

0x3E

0x3F

Mega Drive/Genesis

The Mega Drive/Genesis used a 9-bit RGB palette (512 colors, 1536 including shadow and highlight mode) with up to 61 colors on-screen at once without raster effects (4 palette lines of 16 colors each, palette indices $x0 are definable but considered as transparent, and can only be used as the background color).

Game Gear

The Game Gear had a 12-bit RGB palette (4096 colors), with 32 colors on-screen at once.

32X

The Sega 32X had a 15-bit RGB palette (32768 colors), with all colors available for display.

NEC

TurboGrafx-16

The TurboGrafx-16 used a 9-bit RGB palette, like the Mega Drive/Genesis, consisting of 512 colors with 482 colors on-screen at once (16 background palettes of 16 colors each, with at least 1 common color among all background palettes, and 16 sprite palettes of 15 colors each, plus transparent which was visible as the overscan area).

See also

• List of color palettes
• List of monochrome and RGB palettes
• List of software palettes
• List of 8-bit computer hardware palettes
• List of 16-bit computer hardware palettes
• Palette (computing)
• Indexed color
• Colour look-up table
• Color depth
• Computer monitor
• List of home computers by video hardware