+Random Terrain Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 (edited) Below is a link to a new page I put together. The color charts are interactive. Click on a color and the hexadecimal color value will be displayed. The Atari 2600 color compatibility tools can help you quickly find colors that go great together (possibly saving you a lot of time and energy). Just click on the colors to see the results displayed in the test area. Notice the hexadecimal color values that appear above the palettes. Once you find the right colors, simply copy and paste the hexadecimal color values into your Atari 2600 program. The NTSC / PAL color conversion tool works in a similar way to the others. Click on a color in either palette and the equivalent hexadecimal color values will be displayed. When there is no equivalent PAL color value, the next best thing is substituted. www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html Edited April 20, 2011 by Random Terrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 And I though I had gone crazy... Last night I started coding my first 2600 demo. I expected the same color pattern as on Atari XL but it was different. Then, when I reduced the number of scanlines in the kernel it look different again! Is the following correct: - NTSC is detected by having 262 effective scanlines and has the same color pattern as Atari XL ($00 = grey, $30 = red, ...). Seems so from the color chart. - PAL has, well, how many scan lines on VCS? What is more common/would you suggest: Code for NTSC or for PAL? And will NTSC code run and display correctly on an European (PAL) real 2600? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cd-w Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 And I though I had gone crazy... Last night I started coding my first 2600 demo. I expected the same color pattern as on Atari XL but it was different. Then, when I reduced the number of scanlines in the kernel it look different again! Is the following correct: - NTSC is detected by having 262 effective scanlines and has the same color pattern as Atari XL ($00 = grey, $30 = red, ...). Seems so from the color chart. - PAL has, well, how many scan lines on VCS? What is more common/would you suggest: Code for NTSC or for PAL? And will NTSC code run and display correctly on an European (PAL) real 2600? 50Hz PAL has 312 scanlines on the Atari 2600, and the colours have different values. I'd recommend coding for NTSC as the timings are tighter, and then converting to PAL later. Many TVs will display PAL60, which is a 60Hz (262 lines) image using PAL colours. If you use PAL60, all you need to do is provide different colour mappings. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 17, 2011 Author Share Posted April 17, 2011 (edited) I put the color charts and tools on a separate page last night: www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html Edited April 17, 2011 by Random Terrain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sdw Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 What is more common/would you suggest: Code for NTSC or for PAL? And will NTSC code run and display correctly on an European (PAL) real 2600? The Atari 2600 demo scene (the few of us there are...) tends to work for PAL, so I'd recommend going with that. At least on my 2600jr NTSC carts just produce rolling image, so if you want me to be able to see your demo, go with PAL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 >So if you want me to be able to see your demo, go with PAL! For sure I want that For a start I'll go for NTSC because there my main effect relies on the order in the palette (no raster time/memory for a color table) and simply looks better. But I'll create a PAL version afterwards as suggested by cd-w. If the code is fast enough for 60 Hz, it'll also be fast enough for 50 Hz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 19, 2011 Author Share Posted April 19, 2011 I added an NTSC/PAL Color Conversion Tool to the page today: www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html#ntsc_pal_color_conversion I also updated the first post in this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 (edited) I added an NTSC/PAL Color Conversion Tool to the page today: www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html#ntsc_pal_color_conversion I also updated the first post in this thread. You forgot this post: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2116167 NTSC $10-$18 (greenish yellows) should be converted to PAL $30-$38 (greens) instead of $20-$28 (browns). NTSC $1A could remain PAL $2A. NTSC $1C and $1E could be converted to PAL $2E (the lighter brown) to have a bright color but in this case it is impossible to have the matching yellow. Edited April 21, 2011 by Philsan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 I added an NTSC/PAL Color Conversion Tool to the page today: www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html#ntsc_pal_color_conversion I also updated the first post in this thread. You forgot this post: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2116167 NTSC $10-$18 (greenish yellows) should be converted to PAL $30-$38 (greens) instead of $20-$28 (browns). NTSC $1A could remain PAL $2A. NTSC $1C and $1E could be converted to PAL $2E (the lighter brown) to have a bright color but in this case it is impossible to have the matching yellow. Thanks. I added a note to the bottom of the conversion tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 It's not that I disagree, it's not a matter of taste, now the conversion tool is wrong! Greenish yellows (NTSC $10-$18) shoud be converted to greens (PAL $30-$38) and not to browns (PAL $20-$28)! I've done the NTSC to PAL conversion of Cave In and I assure you that title screen looks different using browns instead of greens. NTSC $1C and $1E could be converted to PAL $2E (the lighter brown) to have a bright color like NTSC. In this case, it is impossible to have the matching yellow so it's only my opinion, my taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Here's the colours in question from Stella. While it isn't authoritative - there can be no authority on colours where NTSC is concerned - I find the colours match very well what I see on my CRT... I honestly can see the darker $1# colours going either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 In my opinion, it is clear that darker 4/5 NTSC colors are more similar to PAL $3# than PAL $2#. There is a green component in NTSC $10-18 colors (not in the last 3 colors). If you're not convinced, I will make and post two versions of Cave In title screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 If you're not convinced, I will make and post two versions of Cave In title screen. If you have time, that would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 Try this and see if it's any better: http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-tia-color-charts.html#ntsc_pal_color_conversion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Thank you, Duane, you always do a lot of work for us. The conversion tool is better now but as promised, I will post the three screenshots (I have to make the "wrong" one). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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