[?]countries and their colo(u)rs

[Tatsujin]

why is it so, that during the 8/16bit era (and even some after) almost every game made outside japan looked so awful in terms of its used colors?

f.E. while japanese arcade palettes always looked very vibrant, colorful, varying and refreshing, most of the US games looked like they didn't know how to use other colors than those which you can draw turds or mud with.

also several console games (NES, PCE, MD, SFC up to SS, PSone..) suffered from that fact.

[chop5]

one word. cheapness. its the american way 

[Tatsujin]

one word. cheapness. its the american way 

i like to call it more like insufficient skills 

[termis]

Any games that come to your mind Tats?  Distinct difference of color vibrancy between arcade games of that era (no matter where it was developed) isn't something that really pops up in my mind.

[Tatsujin]

in terms of arcade games, just look at every game from konami or capcom developed during '85 ~ '95 and compare it to games from the same era made by (mainly) atari and/or midway. the difference is so huge. it's like it comes from an other planet.

[Tatsujin]

here one example:

vs.

or

vs.

[SignOfZeta]

Because brown is manly, and color is for gays. That's not written down anywhere, but its pretty obviously what people thought, and what a lot of people still think. The Windows gaming market is only just now losing its brownness, and extremely brown games still come out sometimes. The original Xbox must have had 100 games with no more color than 16.8 millions shades of brown between them.

[SignOfZeta]

here one example:

Those aren't very good examples! NARC is one of the most colorful American games of the 80s (in more ways that one) and that shot of Outrun is quite a bit dingier than...Roadblasters, or whatever that is on the right.

[Tatsujin]

it's not about how much colors on screen, it's about how the colors are used.

and NARC uses 'em in a real horrible way. if that is one of the most colorful games the US can bring on the table, then good night dear sir.

for me also the outrun coloring is looking so much more delightful as those from road blaster, still road blaster is not the worst example for sure. it was just a racer, as well from about the same time.

[Zeon]

it's not about how much colors on screen, it's about how the colors are used.

and NARC uses 'em in a real horrible way. if that is one of the most colorful games the US can bring on the table, then good night dear sir.

for me also the outrun coloring is looking so much more delightful as those from road blaster, still road blaster is not the worst example for sure. it was just a racer, as well from about the same time.

You gotta compare apples to apples nuts. Even though road blasters came out about a year after outrun, it's running on far inferior hardware, at least colorwise. We are talking a palette of 12288 (outrun) vs a measly 1024 (roadblasters). Less colors available means more clever usage of available colors is needed, the fact that side by side the two games look like they are from the same era when outrun has 12 times the number of color choices says a lot for roadblasters. In fact outrun should be ashamed it only looks about 2-3 times as good instead of 12 times. That being said, you can hardly blame it on poor programming skills or talent. Like chop said, we are cheapskates, we cut corners whenever we can to maximize profit.

In fact I think Narc uses it's colors far better than final fight. Yeah final fight used some brighter colors and it seems to "pop" out at you more, Narc makes good use of it's palette of 8192 (which in this case is more than final fight's 3072) with smooth gradients and blending. Imo the extra colors available shows. It looks a lot more natural than the blending of colors on final fight; just look at that thugs green and black pants, ick. Final fight is more a different style than anything (bright and cartoony) whereas Narc is more about subtle details, smooth blending, and more natural looking graphics. The detail in Narc's graphics is amazing, while it might not be the super colorful bright in your face type, I actually prefer it in this case.

If I had to say what took more work and talent to draw out, I'd say Narc hands down, just take a look at this screen:



Look at the fine pixel details on the trains texture, the reflective look on that pillar and ground, and all the different shades on the bad guys coats. I mean just look at that ceiling. It almost looks like real life objects that were down sampled to fit the games limited palette, but still doing a great job. The only real complaint I can see about Narc is those big expanses of solid color in the background, and honestly with the level of detail on everything else, I hardly notice. It's really a matter of preference.

[Tatsujin]

lol..no way. it looks very stiff, flat and lifeless. it's no big issue to scan some photos and use them as background as the atari dudes did au contraire of drawing everything by hand as the capcom artists did.

and again, if a picture has more colors on screen is not the topic here. you can reach a 10 times better result with an even smaller palette, if you just know how to use it the right way. everything has its limits sure.
the americans, in my opinion, never really knew of how to use a given palette the right way. therfore the result looks so clumsy and frowsy, as NARC above proves it just too well.

[SignOfZeta]

I totally agree that NARC is a tatty classless POS, but for the time it REALLY jumped out at me in the arcades. The explosions and the sound and stuff were amazing. Now it just seems like the most f*cked up thing ever...that the best way to deal with junkies is to hit them with a flame thrower? Evokes thoughts of Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" adverts weighed against contras and cocaine smuggling...shit like that. The war on drugs is sofa king re tar ded.

Similarly, anyone who knows me knows I love Outrun. I was just saying that you could have used a better screenshot.

[Zeon]

and again, if a picture has more colors on screen is not the topic here. you can reach a 10 times better result with an even smaller palette, if you just know how to use it the right way. everything has its limits sure.

Still not a fair comparison. I get what you are saying, but still, it's like giving one artist a single charcoal pencil and cheap paper, and another one a whole array of colored pencils, markers, paints, etc. and tell them to make you a work of art. You can make some AMAZING stuff with just paper and charcoal, but good lord the amount of work and effort that it would take to create something comparable or better than the artist who has an entire varied array of mediums and tools at his disposal would be INSANE. Simply not a fair comparison.

You can dismiss hardware limitations all you want but they do still play a very large role in how good the end product turns out. If you ask a builder to build you a house from sticks and mud, don't expect anywhere near the quality of a builder you give bricks, cement, and wood to. That's not to say there isn't someone out there that couldn't show up the brick laying builder with his sticks and mud, it's just not very likely to happen

BTW NARC's graphics remind me of a LOT of genesis game's graphics, mainly basic, simple, and bland jrpgs. Any anyways I think games like Smash TV did a better job with colors than other efforts. I will admit many US made arcade games reek of lazy graphic design, but there are many more that don't

[guyjin]

Stolen from hardcore gaming 101: commando
NES version
7800 version

[Zeon]

Right I just though of a colorful us made arcade game that did a really good job with colors (Even if the game was ehhhhh):



One of Strata/Incredible Technologies other games, Ninja Clowns, did a pretty good job as well for that matter Although the overall colors are kinda dark, I think that was to make a stark contrast with the goofy much more brightly colored sprites. (Besides I think the premise of the game is it all takes place at night time anyways.):



Oh and how could I forget Bloodstorm:



I realize the same company made all three of these games, but I know there are many more that did a good job with colors that I am forgetting right now. Of course the vast majority of arcade games are not US developed. I'd wager a good 85% of all arcade games are Japanese made