Do Atari 2600 colors have official names?

[+Random Terrain]

Do the 128 colors of the Atari 2600 have official names? If they have names such as red, aqua, brown, chartreuse, royal blue, and so on, it would be nice to have that list. Does a list like that exist?

 

Thanks.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I don't think so. The only names I know about are those from the Stella Programmer's Guide (page 43).

[+Random Terrain]

I don't think so. The only names I know about are those from the Stella Programmer's Guide (page 43).

905767[/snapback]

Thanks, that's getting closer.

 

COLOR              D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1  LUM 
grey - gold        0  0  0  0  0  0  0   black 
                   0  0  0  1  0  0  1   dark grey 
orange, brt-org    0  0  1  0  0  1  0 
                   0  0  1  1  0  1  1   grey 
pink - purple      0  1  0  0  1  0  0 
                   0  1  0  1  1  0  1 
purp-blue, blue    0  1  1  0  1  1  0   light grey 
                   0  1  1  1  1  1  1   white 
blue - lt. blue    1  0  0  0 
                   1  0  0  1 
torq. - grn. blue  1  0  1  0 
                   1  0  1  1 
grn. - yel. grn.   1  1  0  0 
                   1  1  0  1 
org. grn - lt org. 1  1  1  0 
                   1  1  1  1 

Does anyone know what colors those would apply to in this chart:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...html#colorchart

Edited July 1, 2006 by Random Terrain

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Does anyone know what colors those would apply to in this chart:

Well, they should apply 1:1.

[+Random Terrain]

Does anyone know what colors those would apply to in this chart:

Well, they should apply 1:1.

906032[/snapback]

Me no understandy Stella chart to do that.

[+xucaen]

Does anyone know what colors those would apply to in this chart:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/a2m/bbcommands.html#colorchart

 

Check this out.

 

http://www.urchlay.com/stelladoc/v2/tia_colorchart.html

 

This chart gives hex values for each color while it looks like batari's chart gives decimal values. I believe the bits are in color-lum order, and by that I mean the color value (A thru F across the top of the chart) is the left most 4 bits, and the luminosity (down the left side of the chart) is the rightmost 4 bits. So according to this chart, Black (NTSC) would be 00 and 01. Green would be C0 and C1. On batari's chart Black is 0 while Green 192 (C0 = 192)

 

Read more about colors here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...338&mode=linear

 

Hope this helps!

 

Jim

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Me no understandy Stella chart to do that.

Ok, I give you some help:

 

The colors from the guide (left column) are identical with those in the chart starting with left column).

 

The first four bits (D7..D4) represent the color, the last 3 bits the luminance of that color (D0 is unused).

 

E.g. 64 in the chart = $40 = %0100 000 0 = pink-purple, dark.

 

The problem with the guide is, that there a two names printed for one color, with the name for the next color missing. I suppose this is a formatting error (though left and right names seem to be mixed too and some names don't match at all), so:

$00 = grey

$10 = gold (or yellow?)

$20 = brt-org (brown!)

$30 = orange

$40 = pink (more like red IMO)

$50 = purp

$60 = purp-blue

$70 = blue

$80 = blue (sic?)

$90 = lt. blue (makes no sense, just another blue)

$a0 = torq.

$b0 = grn. blue

$c0 = grn.

$d0 = yel. grn.

$e0 = org. grn (more like ochre-green)

$f0 = lt org. (orange? ochre!)

[+Random Terrain]

Me no understandy Stella chart to do that.

Ok, I give you some help:

 

The colors from the guide (left column) are identical with those in the chart starting with left column).

 

The first four bits (D7..D4) represent the color, the last 3 bits the luminance of that color (D0 is unused).

 

E.g. 64 in the chart = $40 = %0100 000 0 = pink-purple, dark.

 

The problem with the guide is, that there a two names printed for one color, with the name for the next color missing. I suppose this is a formatting error (though left and right names seem to be mixed too and some names don't match at all), so:

$00 = grey

$10 = gold (or yellow?)

$20 = brt-org (brown!)

$30 = orange

$40 = pink (more like red IMO)

$50 = purp

$60 = purp-blue

$70 = blue

$80 = blue (sic?)

$90 = lt. blue (makes no sense, just another blue)

$a0 = torq.

$b0 = grn. blue

$c0 = grn.

$d0 = yel. grn.

$e0 = org. grn (more like ochre-green)

$f0 = lt org. (orange? ochre!)

906041[/snapback]

Thanks. Now that makes more sense. And you're right, some of those color names seem to be incorrect.

[SeaGtGruff]

Do the 128 colors of the Atari 2600 have official names? If they have names such as red, aqua, brown, chartreuse, royal blue, and so on, it would be nice to have that list. Does a list like that exist?

 

Thanks.

905700[/snapback]

 

In addition to the other replies-- which were spot-on, by the way-- I'd like to point out that the Atari 2600's colors are the same as the colors on the Atari 800 and all of its incarnations-- the only difference being that the GTIA-chipped 800 has 256 colors, whereas the 2600 and the CTIA-chipped 800 have only 128 colors, since they have only 8 even-numbered luminances versus the GTIA's 16 odd-and-even luminances. (Actually, there is also a difference between the GTIA and CTIA which results in different artifacted colors, but the 2600 can't output pixels small enough for artifacting, so that has no bearing here.)

 

Anyway, you might want to check out any books or documentation for the 800, the 5200, and of course the 2600, to see how the 16 hues are described, because if I remember correctly, some authors gave slightly different names for the hues. So by compiling a list of hue names from a variety of sources, you might be able to pick and choose among them to create a list that seems most accurate to you. And you can also come up with your own names, if none of the lists suit you.

 

Personally, I would suggest starting with a few of the hues-- the ones that seem to be the "purest" basic colors-- because the other hues are just graduated between them. For example, hue 1 is the closest to pure "yellow," and hue 4 is the closest to pure "red," so hues 2 and 3 are somehere between yellow and red-- hue 2 is basically "yellow with a hint of red," and hue 3 is "red with a hint of yellow," more or less. And since "orange" is the color that's between yellow and red, you could say that hue 2 is "yellow-orange," whereas hue 3 is "red-orange" or "orange-red."

 

That will help you come up with your own names for the hues (and after all, why should you stick with the names that other people used, when some of them used their own names?), and then you can factor in names for the different luminances, such as "darkest yellow" or "yellow-black" for color 16 (hue 1, luminance 0), and so on. Or, you might want to give more "colorful" names to the individual colors, such as "flesh" for the color which is closest to a pinkish flesh tone (although that raises issues of "political correctness," since not everyone is caucasian, and not all caucasians have the same skin color anyway!), or "peach," or "lemon yellow," or "lime green," and so on.

 

Another idea is to find an NTSC color chart or color wheel, and try to map the Atari's colors to that color wheel. I'm an ignoramous when it comes to engineering, but some of the Atari's specs appear to describe how the colors are created by phase shifting or rotating around the color wheel at various increments (but I don't know how to read and interpret those specs), so that might help you to precisely map the Atari's hues with the colors of the NTSC color wheel.

 

And more creatively, you might buy a box of crayons (the ones with dozens if not hundreds of colors), and try to match up the Atari's colors with the crayons. For example, which Atari color is closest to "brick red," and which is closest to "burnt umber," or "carnation pink," etc.?

 

Michael Rideout

[+Random Terrain]

In addition to the other replies . . .

912151[/snapback]

Thanks. I was hoping to get the names when I still had only one color each in the color chart using a table (and cells), but then I displayed colors from Stella and z26. Some of the colors are very different, plus, adding a mouseover label to each cell would make the code for the already huge page even larger, so I gave up and turned the table into an image:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-me...html#colorchart

 

That cut down the size of the actual page and the chart image isn't too large in file size either. That's more important than having an official color name pop up that no one but me would care about.

Edited July 1, 2006 by Random Terrain

[SeaGtGruff]

In addition to the other replies . . .

912151[/snapback]

Thanks. I was hoping to get the names when I still had only one color each in the color chart using a table (and cells), but then I displayed colors from Stella and z26. Some of the colors are very different, plus, adding a mouseover label to each cell would make the code for the already huge page even larger, so I gave up and turned the table into an image:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/a2m/bbcommands.html#colorchart

 

That cut down the size of the actual page and the chart image isn't too large in file size either. That's more important than having an official color name pop up that no one but me would care about.

912163[/snapback]

 

I like your chart! It's nice to be able to see the Stella and z26 colors side-by-side like that. Thank you for the work you put into it!

 

Michael Rideout

[+SpiceWare]

Was wondering this myself.

 

I'm using this so I can build NTSC and PAL from the same source, though I'm not keen on "BLUE2". Any suggestions for improvement on it, or any of the other names?

 

BLACK           = $00
WHITE           = $0E
 IF COMPILE_VERSION = NTSC
GREY            = $00
YELLOW          = $10
ORANGE          = $20
RED_ORANGE      = $30
RED             = $40
PURPLE          = $50
VIOLET          = $60
INDIGO          = $70
BLUE            = $80
BLUE2           = $90
TURQUOISE       = $A0
CYAN            = $B0
GREEN           = $C0
YELLOW_GREEN    = $D0
OCHRE_GREEN     = $E0
OCHRE           = $F0
 ELSE
GREY            = $00
YELLOW          = $20   ; no real equivalent
ORANGE          = $20
RED_ORANGE      = $40
RED             = $60
PURPLE          = $80
VIOLET          = $A0
INDIGO          = $C0
BLUE            = $D0
BLUE2           = $B0
TURQUOISE       = $90
CYAN            = $70
GREEN           = $50
YELLOW_GREEN    = $30
OCHRE_GREEN     = $30   ; no real equivalent
OCHRE           = $20   ; no real equivalent
 ENDIF

---

Then in code I add in the luma value:

  lda #GREEN+4
  sta COLUP0
  lda #VIOLET+8
  sta COLUP1

In case your wondering, yes the OCHRE, OCHRE_GREEN, TURQUOISE, and YELLOW_GREEN come from Thomas' reply.

[Mr SQL]

In addition to the other replies-- which were spot-on, by the way-- I'd like to point out that the Atari 2600's colors are the same as the colors on the Atari 800 and all of its incarnations-- the only difference being that the GTIA-chipped 800 has 256 colors, whereas the 2600 and the CTIA-chipped 800 have only 128 colors, since they have only 8 even-numbered luminances versus the GTIA's 16 odd-and-even luminances. (Actually, there is also a difference between the GTIA and CTIA which results in different artifacted colors, but the 2600 can't output pixels small enough for artifacting, so that has no bearing here.)

 

Anyway, you might want to check out any books or documentation for the 800, the 5200, and of course the 2600, to see how the 16 hues are described, because if I remember correctly, some authors gave slightly different names for the hues. So by compiling a list of hue names from a variety of sources, you might be able to pick and choose among them to create a list that seems most accurate to you. And you can also come up with your own names, if none of the lists suit you.

 

Personally, I would suggest starting with a few of the hues-- the ones that seem to be the "purest" basic colors-- because the other hues are just graduated between them. For example, hue 1 is the closest to pure "yellow," and hue 4 is the closest to pure "red," so hues 2 and 3 are somehere between yellow and red-- hue 2 is basically "yellow with a hint of red," and hue 3 is "red with a hint of yellow," more or less. And since "orange" is the color that's between yellow and red, you could say that hue 2 is "yellow-orange," whereas hue 3 is "red-orange" or "orange-red."

 

That will help you come up with your own names for the hues (and after all, why should you stick with the names that other people used, when some of them used their own names?), and then you can factor in names for the different luminances, such as "darkest yellow" or "yellow-black" for color 16 (hue 1, luminance 0), and so on. Or, you might want to give more "colorful" names to the individual colors, such as "flesh" for the color which is closest to a pinkish flesh tone (although that raises issues of "political correctness," since not everyone is caucasian, and not all caucasians have the same skin color anyway!), or "peach," or "lemon yellow," or "lime green," and so on.

 

Another idea is to find an NTSC color chart or color wheel, and try to map the Atari's colors to that color wheel. I'm an ignoramous when it comes to engineering, but some of the Atari's specs appear to describe how the colors are created by phase shifting or rotating around the color wheel at various increments (but I don't know how to read and interpret those specs), so that might help you to precisely map the Atari's hues with the colors of the NTSC color wheel.

 

And more creatively, you might buy a box of crayons (the ones with dozens if not hundreds of colors), and try to match up the Atari's colors with the crayons. For example, which Atari color is closest to "brick red," and which is closest to "burnt umber," or "carnation pink," etc.?

 

Michael Rideout

Interesting stuff SeaGtGruff, I wonder if any early CTIA 800's were rendered incompatible with GTIA software because of that.

 

I have to disagree about artifacting not being possible on the 2600:

 

 

The walls of the Maze in KCMM are only pink on this screen, both the blue shadow 3D effect and the red hilight are NTSC artifacts. Same for the blue outline on some of the sprites (a bit harder to see due to the motion).

 

The technique I'm using here is very thin parallel lines (192 vertical is small enough to artifact). It requires high luminosity to get the most effect so the shades are all from the far left of the color chart (I used RT's).

 

The four switch does a better job with richer, thicker artifacting due to the bad video.

[+Random Terrain]

I went Googling today and found this:

 

color-blindness.com/color-name-hue/

 

Paste in the hexadecimal code for an Atari 2600 color and get the closest official name.

[Syzygy1]

And off I go to make sprites for a home-brew...