⬛🟦🟥🟨⬜ More than 3 colors per sprite, but less than 15?

How is it that for the NES, each sprite could only have up to three colors (plus transparency)? Is it because the color for each pixel of a sprite is stored like this?:

00 = Color 0 (Transparency)
01 = Color 1
10 = Color 2
11 = Color 3

I know that some games achieved more than 3 colors for the player character by simply overlaying two sprites on top of each other (Megaman, Super Mario Bros. 2, etc.), but I'm wondering how it might look if the available colors per sprite (or I guess per palette?) were increased while still remaining below 15 colors per sprite.

Like, could you do something like this?

000 = Color 0 (Transparency)
001 = Color 1
010 = Color 2
011 = Color 3
100 = Color 4
101 = Color 5
110 = Color 6
111 = Color 7

Or would that be strange and nonsensical? I know computers like things to be in powers of 2, so would it be wasteful to use 3 bits instead of 4 bits? Are there any systems that could have more than 3 colors per sprite, but less than 15? It kinda seems like when systems jumped from 8-bit to 16-bit, the colors per sprite jumped from 3 to 15. The reason I ask, is that I've noticed that a lot of NES-inspired games often have slightly more than three colors per sprite. Shovel Knight for instance. The retro area in Blasphemous. More recently, I've been playing UFO 50, which does this as well (great game by the way).



I know they're just breaking self-imposed limitations for aesthetic reasons, but still, I can't help but wonder how realistic or practical it would be to have a real-life system that allowed for more than 3 colors per sprite, but less than 15?

Statistics: Posted by aryn.advit — Sun Dec 08, 2024 4:08 pm — Replies 4 — Views 158

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