Viewing Issue Advanced Details
ID Category [?] Severity [?] Reproducibility Date Submitted Last Update
04467 Color/Palette Minor Always Aug 22, 2011, 21:31 Mar 9, 2020, 20:04
Tester MacBoxPPC View Status Public Platform SDLMAME
Assigned To Resolution Open OS MacOS X
Status [?] Acknowledged Driver
Version 0.143u3 Fixed in Version Build PowerPC
Fixed in Git Commit Github Pull Request #
Summary 04467: blaster, blastero, blasterkit: [possible] Maybe wrong colors in palette?
Description Strange color palette, does it match the real hardware?
Steps To Reproduce Always, simply launch the game and look at the spinnig astronaut in the warp stage.
Additional Information Since the beginning of MAME, when the support for Blaster was introduced for the first time, I always wonder why the global colour palette of that game was so "psychedelic".
Back in the 80's there was an italian magazine named "Videogiochi" and I recall very well to have reading am interview somewhere in the magazine with the developer team and seeing a preliminary photo of a new (at the time) game from Vid Kidz, where there was a picture of an astronaut (a work-in-progress character sprite) taken as snapshot from the screen of their development tool and the colors were correct! After a quick research in my memory and over the net I found the page of the magazine where you can see the color of the sprite as it should mean to be.
It is attached here for proof and reference: it comes from Videogiochi issue 9 page 71 (Net source: www.retrogaming.it)
Github Commit
Flags Possible
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems blaster, blastero, blasterkit
Attached Files
jpg file icon videogiochi_9_71.jpg (277,030 bytes) Aug 22, 2011, 21:31 Uploaded by MacBoxPPC
Snapshot of "Videogiochi" magazine issue 9 page 71
MacBoxPPC
png file icon 0002.png (2,054 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:54 Uploaded by Tafoid
Tafoid
png file icon 0004.png (2,048 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:54 Uploaded by Tafoid
Tafoid
png file icon 0007.png (1,959 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:55 Uploaded by Tafoid
Tafoid
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Notes
5
User avatar
No.07722
Tafoid
Administrator
Aug 23, 2011, 01:51
A few things going against this information, in my option:

1) This is a work-in-progress sprite display. It may have and likely changed before release.

2) In the Time Tunnel stage (6), the astronauts that await saving come in many different colors (I've attached a few snaps I just took). I don't believe they are intended to be just one color, one palette. The game is well known for it's bright colors and flashing lights

3) The only way we can truly compare such problems is an original PCB recording compared to current MAME video output.
User avatar
No.07725
MacBoxPPC
Tester
Aug 23, 2011, 05:47
4) Another way would be to get in touch (if this is still possible) with the original developers Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar to clarify it this strange palette was an issue occoured switching from the development tools to the real hardware or if it was intended to be in this (actual) way since the beginning.
User avatar
No.07774
Fujix
Administrator
Sep 12, 2011, 12:54
Set name updated from blaster30 to blastero.
User avatar
No.17472
MetalGod
Senior Tester
Mar 9, 2020, 06:33
edited on: Mar 9, 2020, 07:46
This is the best video I've found by now. Unluckily there's not a close-up of the game but the astronauts can be seen:

User avatar
No.17475
MetalGod
Senior Tester
Mar 9, 2020, 20:04
edited on: Mar 9, 2020, 21:30
I've found another video. Astronauts here can be seen much closer, for example in 3:18. Colors are still a bit difficult to distinguish, but it is clear that they also come in different colors here.
Time tunnel astronauts can be seen in 0:20


In the original game the astranauts just look WHITE tone, not that strong colors seen in MAME
Opinions?