255 colors?

[Pac Munchkin]

While toying around changing background colors for Alien I discovered Atari has 255 colors! In an on line manual it said 16 colors, not only this the list of colors was all wrong.

 

Is there a hacking tool to pick colors, in other words you use it in your emulator, press the select button this jumps through all the colors and shows the number of each color in binary and decimal maybe hex too.

 

With this many colors there is no way to make a list, like I saw dozens of Blues and I had to say they were all blue I am limited in describing colors. So how do you know which you want you need to check each color out by putting it in the code but that takes a long time, if there were a program that did this for us and told us the number that would be so much easier.

 

Thanks,

Wade

[SeaGtGruff]

While toying around changing background colors for Alien I discovered Atari has 255 colors! In an on line manual it said 16 colors, not only this the list of colors was all wrong.

 

Is there a hacking tool to pick colors, in other words you use it in your emulator, press the select button this jumps through all the colors and shows the number of each color in binary and decimal maybe hex too.

 

With this many colors there is no way to make a list, like I saw dozens of Blues and I had to say they were all blue I am limited in describing colors. So how do you know which you want you need to check each color out by putting it in the code but that takes a long time, if there were a program that did this for us and told us the number that would be so much easier.

 

Thanks,

Wade

 

The Atari 8-bit computers have 256 colors if you use a couple of the GTIA graphics modes, but for most graphics modes there are only 128 colors-- and this includes the 2600, which dosn't have the GTIA graphics chip. It may look like you can set the color registers to any of 256 different values, but bit 0 is ignored-- which means the odd-numbered color values produce the same colors as the even-numbered values that are 1 less than them (i.e., 1 is the same color as 0, 5 is the same color as 4, 19 is the same color as 18, 123 is the same color as 122, etc.).

 

Here's a simple little program I wrote for the 2600 that displays all 128 colors in the palette-- 8 different luminances of 16 different hues. The screenshot is from the Stella emulator, and might not look exactly like the colors on a real 2600 on a real NTSC TV set-- especially since the colors you get on the TV set can be affected by the TV settings (brightness, contrast, color saturation, and tint). Also, when I saved the screenshot as a GIF image, it made the picture get kind of "spotty."

 

Michael Rideout

 

palette.bas

palette.bas.bin

[SeaGtGruff]

So how do you know which you want you need to check each color out by putting it in the code but that takes a long time, if there were a program that did this for us and told us the number that would be so much easier.

 

Thanks,

Wade

 

I forgot to say, if you are using hexadecimal numbers then it's easier to pick the colors you want. The values will be something like #$HL, where "H" stands for both "hue" and "high nybble," and "L" stands for both "luminance" and "low nybble." The "H" values for the basic colors go something like this:

 

H = 0 ... gray (black-and-white)

H = 1 ... yellow

H = 4 ... red

H = 6 ... purple

H = 9 ... blue

H = C ... green

H = F ... brown

 

If you memorize those numbers, then the numbers in between are the colors in between:

 

H = 1 is yellow, and H = 4 is red, so

 

H = 2 ... yellowiswh orange

H = 3 ... reddish orange

 

H = 4 is red, and H = 6 is purple, so

 

H = 5 ... violet

 

H = 6 is purple, and H = 9 is blue, so

 

H = 7 ... bluish purple

H = 8 ... purplish blue

 

H = 9 is blue, and H = C is green, so

 

H = A ... greenish blue

H = B ... bluish green

 

H = C is green, and H = F is brown, so

 

H = D ... brownish green

H = E ... greenish brown

 

Then, for the luminances, we have

 

L = 0 ... darkest

L = 2 ... very dark

L = 4 ... dark

L = 6 ... medium dark

L = 8 ... medium

L = A ... medium light

L = C ... light

L = E ... very light

 

Thus, $7A would be "medium light bluish purple," whereas $42 would be "very dark red," etc.

 

In the screen shot I posted, the L values go across the screen, left to right, from 0 to E, whereas the H values go down the screen, top to bottom, from 0 to F. So for example, the color in the fourth column of the sixth row would be $56. I've added the values to the picture, to make it easier for you. In the picture labels, "x" means the part of the number that changes-- for example, row 3 says "2x," which means the high nybble is "2," and the low nybble is variable. So to get a particular color value, find the color you want in the grid, then combine the row and column labels together-- such as, "4x" combined with "x8" would be "48" (or #$48 in hexadecimal assembly notation).

 

Michael Rideout

 

[Pac Munchkin]

So how do you know which you want you need to check each color out by putting it in the code but that takes a long time, if there were a program that did this for us and told us the number that would be so much easier.

 

Thanks,

Wade

 

I forgot to say, if you are using hexadecimal numbers then it's easier to pick the colors you want. The values will be something like #$HL, where "H" stands for both "hue" and "high nybble," and "L" stands for both "luminance" and "low nybble." The "H" values for the basic colors go something like this:

 

H = 0 ... gray (black-and-white)

H = 1 ... yellow

H = 4 ... red

H = 6 ... purple

H = 9 ... blue

H = C ... green

H = F ... brown

 

If you memorize those numbers, then the numbers in between are the colors in between:

 

H = 1 is yellow, and H = 4 is red, so

 

H = 2 ... yellowiswh orange

H = 3 ... reddish orange

 

H = 4 is red, and H = 6 is purple, so

 

H = 5 ... violet

 

H = 6 is purple, and H = 9 is blue, so

 

H = 7 ... bluish purple

H = 8 ... purplish blue

 

H = 9 is blue, and H = C is green, so

 

H = A ... greenish blue

H = B ... bluish green

 

H = C is green, and H = F is brown, so

 

H = D ... brownish green

H = E ... greenish brown

 

Then, for the luminances, we have

 

L = 0 ... darkest

L = 2 ... very dark

L = 4 ... dark

L = 6 ... medium dark

L = 8 ... medium

L = A ... medium light

L = C ... light

L = E ... very light

 

Thus, $7A would be "medium light bluish purple," whereas $42 would be "very dark red," etc.

 

In the screen shot I posted, the L values go across the screen, left to right, from 0 to E, whereas the H values go down the screen, top to bottom, from 0 to F. So for example, the color in the fourth column of the sixth row would be $56. I've added the values to the picture, to make it easier for you. In the picture labels, "x" means the part of the number that changes-- for example, row 3 says "2x," which means the high nybble is "2," and the low nybble is variable. So to get a particular color value, find the color you want in the grid, then combine the row and column labels together-- such as, "4x" combined with "x8" would be "48" (or #$48 in hexadecimal assembly notation).

 

Michael Rideout

 

 

Thanks Michel this is much better, I was just punching in bits one by one with bite hacker and testing for screen background memory.afdter I got past 16 by accident I lost track, I realized I was past and kept going for a long time finly I gave up and thought what is I fill every bit straight accross so that was when I made that discorevy.

This is so much easier but it is in hex it takes me a long time to figure out the numbers although I can but it is slow for each number.

 

Thanks very much though i can use this.

Wade

[Happy_Dude]

Here is my first Atari program. A colour selector.

I'v updated it alot and will post the latest version when I get home;)

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=585636

[SalemFrost7800]

Here is the TIA color chart website:

 

http://www.qotile.net/minidig/docs/tia_color.html

 

just hover your mouse over the color to get the hex value

[Shawn]

NTSC, PAL & SECAM TIA COLOR CHARTS:

 

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

 

That should help you out.

[Pac Munchkin]

Here is my first Atari program. A colour selector.

I've updated it a lot and will post the latest version when I get home;)

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=585636

 

Happy Dude your Colour Test.bin was exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I needed it is in decimal so I understood it clearly and could easily convert it to binary for my bit hacking.

 

This has been a major help for me and to show you how much check out my Fat Albert Skin Color thread.

 

I completely hacked Fast Food and Fat Albert and changed their colors much better, also some minor but noticeable graphics improvements.

 

Thank you so very much!

Wade