Famicom World

Whenever I test out a Famicom on a TV, I pop in Super Mario Bros and adjust the TV's color settings until the sky is blue. But is the sky actually supposed to be purple? I prefer the look of the blue sky, and the color differs from the 3 TVs I have.

-on my larger Sony Bravia flat screen, the sky is blue after resetting to default settings
-on my small Samsung flat screen, the sky is purple after resetting to default settings
-on my small Panasonic CRT, I forget(haven't used it in a while, in storage. I remember adjusting the color though)

This is on a AV-modded Famicom of course, and I use this schematic except I have 400ohm to +5V, and 100ohm to the 220uf cap and then to OUT

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Matisfaction/kyuusaku_zps6a57f5ab.gif)

What are your thoughts? How do you get the perfect color for your Famicom?

I guess it depends on the transistor used in the AV booster. I have two AV modded consoles - one with a generic PNP and other with a specially for video signal designed transistor from an old high-end VCR. The generic transistor picture is certanly purple, the other is almost blue.

(http://files.mteegfx.com/nesPaletteComparisonB.png)
(http://files.mteegfx.com/nesPaletteComparisonA.png)
(http://files.mteegfx.com/nesPaletteComparisonC.png)

Here are 9 of the most common emulated palettes. There are highly debatable issues with all of them. For the record, I find NEStopia's default (YUV) to be the most accurate in my experience, and the NES Hacker Wiki (the source of what most people post online as "the NES palette") to be the worst.

Which one is used for SMB?

I've never seen any other colour than sky blue, and most emulators (including virtual console) and the GBC port all uses sky blue. PAL is definitely sky blue. I think Miyamoto said in an interview that one point of the game is the sky blue backdrop as opposed to the usual black one that most games used.

When I modded my famicom I just compared the color to my NES on the AV and it looked identical.

I remember when I had an NES, the sky was also purple on my Samsung TV. I really think it depends on which TV you're using.

My bad. I thought I mentioned it in my last post. There's like a whole sentence I thought I had typed, but didn't.

Anyway, the SMB sky is #22.

I've never seen a purple sky on any TV, but I believe the Virtual Console versions have a purple-ish tint on the sky.

Looked sky blue on my NTSC Wii though.

$22 huh? It certainly looks purple on many of those palettes. I never seen that in-game though.

Quote from: zmaster18 on May 21, 2015, 05:38:46 am
I remember when I had an NES, the sky was also purple on my Samsung TV. I really think it depends on which TV you're using.

"NTSC - Never The Same Colour" they say.

I've always seen colour $22 as a very-slightly-purple sky blue, if that makes any sense at all!  That's on an NTSC toaster and AV Famicom, on a number of (CRT) TVs, although a lot of emulators seem to err more on the blue side.  Like others have said, it will depend on your TV settings.

Looking at a tile in a  palette image is going to be different than looking at the sky onscreen. Neighboring colors have a huge influence on how we perceive color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion

Oh good point!

Quote from: FrankWDoom on June 02, 2015, 01:15:50 pm
Looking at a tile in a  palette image is going to be different than looking at the sky onscreen. Neighboring colors have a huge influence on how we perceive color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion

True, but that's not really the case with SMB, the sky is a big block of the same colour.

Quote from: chowder on June 03, 2015, 11:15:56 am

Quote from: FrankWDoom on June 02, 2015, 01:15:50 pm
Looking at a tile in a  palette image is going to be different than looking at the sky onscreen. Neighboring colors have a huge influence on how we perceive color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_shadow_illusion

True, but that's not really the case with SMB, the sky is a big block of the same colour.

I agree with this. That optical illusion doesn't apply to SMB because the sky isn't checkered. I really just think the color always varies from TV to TV. It can only be helped by adjusting the settings.

Yeah but the palette picture isn't a huge block. You would need to use the colour and draw a huge block in paint and then compare.

Sometimes it is purple with AV modded famicoms....

I read that NTSC can have these color differences.

I just solved the problem with my Samsung TV. There's an option in the Picture settings for 'Color Space'. I changed it from native to auto and now the sky is blue like it should be.