Total reviews!
Handheld: 57
16/32bit Computers: 830
8bit Computers: 413
8bit Consoles: 58
16bit Consoles: 78
32/64bit Consoles: 107
128bit Consoles: 28
OnLine members
Currently: 16
Best on 8bit micro!
International Karate + - Commodore64
Xyphoes Fantasy - AmstradCPC
Arkanoid II - AmstradCPC
Pang - AmstradCPCPlus
Wrath of the Demon - Commodore64
Night Hunter - AmstradCPC
Barbarian - AmstradCPC
Prince of Persia - SamCoupe
Lemmings - SamCoupe
Best on 16bit micro!
Turrican II - Amiga
Shadow of the Beast - Amiga
Jim Power - Amiga
Agony - Amiga
Turrican 2 - AtariST
Project X - Amiga
Super Frog - Amiga
Flashback - Amiga
Dark Seed - Amiga
Flashback - Archimedes
Warlocks - Archimedes
Cannon Fodder - Amiga
Turrican II - PC
Universe - Amiga
Hurrican - PC
Tyrian - PC
Super Stardust - AmigaAGA
Pac-Mania - X68000
Best on 8bit consoles!
Best on 16bit consoles!
Jim Power - snes
Donkey Kong Country - snes
Aladdin - snes
Comix Zone - Megadrive
Alien Soldier - Megadrive
Blazing Lazers - pcengine
Raiden - pcengine
Super Star Soldier - pcengine
Best on 32bit consoles!
Total hits!
Free counters!
Puzzle!
Random Old Ads!
 
Is this my palette?
Back to the 80's and 90's each home computer and video-game console system had different graphical color modes. Each could handle different number of colors on screen using, sometimes, own unique techniques supported by its hardware. Most of the times, their display video-subsystems are unique but all of them are based on RGB palettes (even those that only supported composite-video signals...).
So, here in Retroshowcase, we had this curiosity... We needed to know which system has a real-enough color palette!

Below is a sample test of each system, displaying the same original true-color sample (a colorful parrot, that is) which is in 24bit True-color mode and has 22500 colors (out of 16,7 millions available).
Each sample image only try to show how a certain system is able to handle to an image in terms of color without improvements or additional clever tricks of design like color-dithering (or i.e. copper-effect as it happened on Amiga systems).

You will soon realize that each system's palette CANNOT reproduce the real true color of an RGB image. For example, our original (sample) image uses 22500 colors BUT the Nintendo Super NES (SNES) video-game console can reproduce the same image using only 5502 colors from its 32,768-color palette......

(*parrot images taken from relevant wikipedia article)
 

Amiga 500/500+

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amiga 500/500+
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Amiga 1000

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amiga 1000
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Amiga 2000

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amiga 2000
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Amiga 600

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amiga 600
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Amiga 4000

14715 out of it's 16,7M-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(14715 colors resolved)
Amiga 4000
24-bit RGB 16.7 million-color palette

Amiga 1200

14715 out of it's 16,7M-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(14715 colors resolved)
Amiga 1200
24-bit RGB 16.8 million-color palette

Atari ST

228 out of it's 512-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(228 colors resolved)
Atari ST
9-bit RGB 512-color palette

Atari STF / STFM

228 out of it's 512-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(228 colors resolved)
Atari STF / STFM
9-bit RGB 512-colors palette

Atari STE

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Atari STE
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Atari Falcon 030

14715 out of it's 262k-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample!

(14715 colors resolved)
Atari Falcon 030
18bit RGB 262,144-colors palette

Atari Mega ST

228 out of it's 512-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample!

(228 colors resolved)
Atari Mega ST
9-bit RGB 512-colors palette

Amiga 3000

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amiga 3000
12bit RGB 4096-colours palette

Atari TT 030

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample!

(1232 colors resolved)
Atari TT 030
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128

21 out of it's 27-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(21 colors resolved)
Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128
RGB 27-colors palette

Commodore 64/128/Plus4

96 out of it's 121-colors palette (Plus/4) matches the 22500-color sample!
Commodore 64/128/Plus4
(16 colors resolved)
Commodore 64/128/Plus4
VIC20: 16-colors YPbPr palette

(96 colors resolved)
Commodore 64/128/Plus4
C-16,Plus/4: 121-colors YPbPr palette

(16 colors resolved)
Commodore 64/128/Plus4
C64/128: 16-colors YPbPr palette

ZX Spectrum

11 out of it's 15-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(11 colors resolved)
ZX Spectrum
3bit RGBi 15-colors palette

MSX

15 out of it's 15-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(15 colors resolved)
MSX
15-color YPbPr-encoded palette

Amstrad CPC+

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Amstrad CPC+
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Nintendo NES

41 out of it's 57-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(41 colors resolved)
Nintendo NES
6bit YPbPr 57-color palette

Super Nintendo (SNES)

5502 out of it's 32,768-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(5502 colors resolved)
Super Nintendo (SNES)
15bit RGB 32,768-color palette

Megadrive (EU) / Genesis (Jap)

61 out of it's 512-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(61 colors resolved)
Megadrive (EU) / Genesis (Jap)
9-bit RGB 512-color palette

Sam Coupe

ONLY 11 out of 128-color palette matches the 22500-color sample

(11 colors resolved)
Sam Coupe
RGB 128-colours palette

PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16 / TurboDuo

214 out of it's 512-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(214 colors resolved)
PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16 / TurboDuo
9-bit RGB 512-color palette

Sega Master System

32 out of it's 64-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample!

(32 colors resolved)
Sega Master System
6bit RGB 64-color palette

Atari Mega STE

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Atari Mega STE
12bit RGB 4096-colours palette

Game Gear

32 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(32 colors resolved)
Game Gear
12bit RGB 4096-colours palette

Archimedes A3000/4000/5000

1232 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Archimedes A3000/4000/5000
12bit RGB 4096-colors palette

Apple IIGS

32 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
Apple IIGS
12bit RGB 4096-colours palette

PC (ms-dos based)


(11 colors resolved)
PC (ms-dos based)
CGA: 16-color palette

(16 colors resolved)
PC (ms-dos based)
EGA: 64-color palette

(255 colors resolved)
PC (ms-dos based)
VGA: 256-color palette

GX4000

32 out of it's 4096-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(1232 colors resolved)
GX4000
12bit RGB 4096-colours palette

Atari XL/XE

114 out of it's 128/256-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(114 colors resolved)
Atari XL/XE
256-color palette with 16 on-screen

GameBoy Advance

3662 out of it's 32,768-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(3669 colors resolved)
GameBoy Advance
15bit RGB 32,768-color palette

Amiga CD32

14715 out of it's 16,7M-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(14715 colors resolved)
Amiga CD32
24-bit RGB 16.7 million-color palette

BBC Micro / Acorn Electron

8 out of it's 8-colors palette matches the 22500-color sample

(8 colors resolved)
BBC Micro / Acorn Electron
RGB 8-colors palette
 
Our featured games
Lethal Species
Play old-school now!
Music Player!
Play ZX on-line!!
Play CPC on-line!!
Boot Screens!
Retro-games Trivia!
Old-school Crossword!
Is this my palette?
The logo evolution!
Manuals!
Beat them All!
Design & Developed by ndial
Google+
 
Free counters!