Retro Pixel Art 16-Bit Game Graphics Tables

If you want to give your pixel art graphics that authentic 16-bit retro look, the colour palette is extremely important. Unfortunately PCs and Macs, that we create artwork on now, have had access to a full 24-bit colour palette for many years now, which can make it tricky to emulate the restrictive palettes of the 16-bit era.

The tables below make choosing an authentic colour scheme much easier. Included are colour conversion tables for the main restrictive colour palettes used in late 80's through to early 90's games systems, including home computers, game consoles and arcade machines. To emulate the appropriate colour palette, just make sure you stick to the values in the right column for your Red, Green and Blue values when choosing your artwork colours in Photoshop, or whichever program you're using.

There are also specs for home gaming systems as well as arcade machines boards from the period, so you can reference the hardware you want your artwork or game to emulate. This includes palette sizes, maximum colours on screen at once and screen resolutions, as well as a handy 16:9 screen resolution if you want to keep the same pixel size but fill a widescreen display.

It's also worth noting that some hardware allows special attributes, such as intensity bits and shadow/highlight processing which increases the theoretical number of colours on screen. These are not taken into consideration below to keep things simple.

Colour Tables

9-Bit Colour / Max Cols: 512
(Atari ST, Sega Megadrive/Genesis, PC Engine)

Retro Value	24-Bit Conversion
0	0
1	36
2	73
3	109
4	146
5	182
6	219
7	255

12-Bit Colour / Max Cols: 4,096
(Amiga, Sega System 16)

Retro Value	24-Bit Conversion
0	0
1	17
2	34
3	51
4	68
5	85
6	102
7	119
8	136
9	153
10	170
11	187
12	204
13	221
14	238
15	255

15-Bit Colour / Max Cols: 32,768
(SNES, Neo Geo)

Retro Value	24-Bit Conversion
0	0
1	8
2	16
3	25
4	33
5	41
6	49
7	58
8	66
9	74
10	82
11	90
12	99
13	107
14	115
15	123
16	132
17	140
18	148
19	156
20	165
21	173
22	181
23	189
24	197
25	206
26	214
27	222
28	230
29	239
30	247
31	255

18-Bit Colour / Max Cols: 262,144
PC VGA

Retro Value	24-Bit Conversion
0	0
1	4
2	8
3	12
4	16
5	20
6	24
7	28
8	32
9	36
10	40
11	45
12	49
13	53
14	57
15	61
16	65
17	69
18	73
19	77
20	81
21	85
22	89
23	93
24	97
25	101
26	105
27	109
28	113
29	117
30	121
31	125
32	130
33	134
34	138
35	142
36	146
37	150
38	154
39	158
40	162
41	166
42	170
43	174
44	178
45	182
46	186
47	190
48	194
49	198
50	202
51	206
52	210
53	215
54	219
55	223
56	227
57	231
58	235
59	239
60	243
61	247
62	251
63	255

Resolution Tables

Home Games Machines

Machine	Palette	Max Cols on Screen	Resolution	16:9 Resolution
Atari ST	9-Bit	16	320 X 200	356 X 200
Commodore Amiga (Non AGA)	12-Bit	32	320 X 200	356 X 200
PC VGA	18-Bit	256	320 X 200	356 X 200
Sega Megadrive	9-Bit	64	320 X 224	399 X 224
PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16	9-Bit	482	256 X 224	399 X 224
SNES	15-Bit	256	256 X 224	399 X 224
Neo Geo	15-Bit	4,096	320 X 224	399 X 224

Arcade Machines

Machine	Palette	Max Cols on Screen	Resolution	16:9 Resolution	Example Games
Sega System 16	15-Bit	4096	320 X 224	399 X 224	Shinobi, Golden Axe, Altered Beast
Capcom CPS	12-Bit	3072	384 X 224	399 X 224	Street Fighter II, Final Fight, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Strider, Forgotten Worlds
Namco System 1	24-Bit	4966	288 X 224	399 X 224	Splatterhouse, Galaga '88, Pac-Mania, Dragon Spirit