DrLitch wrote:I am also more certain now the Master System puts more colors on screen than the NES.
Usually. But not when using backgrounds for sprites. The Master System ends up with just 16, to the Famicom's 13 for backgrounds (4 for 4 palettes. One color in each must mirror a color in the first palette) + 12 for sprites. (One color in each palette is transparent, for stacking.)
Usually, the Master System can make each sprite up to 16 colors, which really hides the limitations.
Still, with clever palette usage, like the Tyrus Flare hack, you can get away with atmosphere by investing heavily in similar colors with stand-out highlights. Unfortunately, this sort of puzzle work was probably beyond most of Sega's artists at the time.
Just look at this mess.
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"The important thing, is that the zombies wear purple. I am willing to walk through a mile of grape jelly to get that purple. What do you mean we don't have any background tile data left for the actual backgrounds? Shrink the zombies! No, not that far! Maybe we can make our backround details with smaller tiles? Lots smaller. Excellent. There are pixels everywhere. This is so realistic."
