Your preferred NES Palette

[Fryguy64]

Home from my holiday, and I've launched straight into a whole new thing...

The NES did not output RGB natively, and this has led to quite a significant variation in how the NES palette is interpreted. What the NES looked like to you is not what it looked like to me, etc.

Even Nintendo's own outputs are weirdly inconsistent. They've recently settled on this muddy palette for the NES Mini, NSO and NWC NES Edition. The Wii was really dark, the 3DS vibrant.

I remember the NES as a colourful console (and as somebody who still plays the NES on a CRT, this is not rose-tinted). Mario's overalls were red and the sky was blue. But play it on a modern console and Mario's overalls are a dull scabby colour and the skies are purple in hue.

Yet I've seen threads of people saying NSO nails the look. That's so bizarre to me!

So what does your memory tell you? Is NSO a good representation of your memory? Wildly off the mark?

[Nester the Lark]

I have not played on actual NES hardware in years, so I can't make a direct comparison.

When I was young, we had our NES hooked up to different TV sets over the years using either an RF switch or the red/yellow AV cables, and the AV cables were clearer and had less interference. But both also varied based on the TV and its settings. (Games always looked different on friends' TVs.)

Comparing the version of Super Mario Bros on NSO with the Arcade Archives version of Vs. Super Mario Bros, the arcade version is noticeably more colorful. That difference is something that's accurate to my memories, as home TV sets always looked a bit darker and muddier to various degrees. (Did Vs. System games use RGB monitors?)

I think the Wii U made things a bit too dark, however, compared to both NSO and the Wii. The Switch release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light is very dark and muted compared to what's on NSO, and it's apparently running on the Wii U emulator.

So, yeah, based on hazy memories alone, I'd say NSO seems like a decent generalized representation.

(If they really wanted it to be accurate, it would've also included static, overscan, ghosting, and the vague outline of a Gilligan's Island rerun. )

[Fryguy64]

You're spot on that the Vs. arcades use RGB. They also have completely custom, fixed palettes distinct from the NES. They were even used as an anti-piracy measure on occasion.

The other thing is that I play (and have always played) on a PAL TV. I suspect that made a difference too.

My NES Twitch streams were recorded from a real PAL NES, and the footage captured through my setup certainly doesn't match NSO.

Through FCEUX I've started using a palette known as HYBRID, which retains the blues and reds, while making browns and greens darker than the default. I think it most closely matches my own experience. I'll share some screenshots later.