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Greetings and the Color Purple

pocketmegopocketmego
edited September 2006 in Games
I didn't see an INTRO forum so i thought I'd drop by and say hello. My name is Ray, a member of the AtariAge forums and a fan of the Spectrum.

I was living in New Orleans last year when Katrina hit and scattered us all over the country. For a few weeks we had little to do but sit around and worry. fortunately i picked up a few issues of Retro Gamer and book on the history of Video and Computer Games.

I had many hours of enjoyment learning about the history in general and most notably the history of the early Micros in the UK. So much so that I became quite fascinated in the idea of emulating the machine when I got up and running. Well that never came to much, until i met SARD from these forums over at Atariage and he helped me get the Spectacualtor.

Having grown up in the states with the Commodore 64, I learned that many of the games I really liked on that system were programmed in Brittain and many originally for the Speccy.

I am delighted to be here and I am looking forward to furthering my education on this wonderful machine and of course its many cool games.

One quick question...


Why is that garish shade of Purple so prevalent in so many Speccy games?

I mean I know about the Spectrum and color clash issues. But, why is that color so often used even when other colors aren't?

Thanks

-Ray
Post edited by pocketmego on

Comments

  • chop983chop983
    edited September 2006
    Hi and welcome

    Purple? I think you mean Magenta

    The Spectrums colours are I believe based on the ones used in magazine printing or something, Sir Clive always had lofty ambitions for his home computers, Playing games was secondary.

    but why so much Magenta errr can't help
  • GrazGraz
    edited September 2006
    Hiya!

    Yes, Purple is a garish colour, and when mixed with Yellow or Green, or practically any other colour can cause nausia...However, call it Magenta, and it seems that it magically becomes acceptible. Strange isn't it? :)
  • GrazGraz
    edited September 2006
    chop983 wrote:
    Hi and welcome

    Purple? I think you mean Magenta

    The Spectrums colours are I believe based on the ones used in magazine printing or something, Sir Clive always had lofty ambitions for his home computers, Playing games was secondary.

    but why so much Magenta errr can't help


    Hehe.. You beat me to it! :)
  • The StargliderThe Starglider
    edited September 2006
    It's kind of a reverese thought from a C64 user. They look at a Spectrum and say "Why so much purple?", where we look at the C64 and say "Why so much brown?".
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited September 2006
    The Starglider wrote:
    It's kind of a reverese thought from a C64 user. They look at a Spectrum and say "Why so much purple?", where we look at the C64 and say "Why so much brown?".

    Yep, that's pretty much it. Both machines only have a very limited palette of 16 colours to play with so they all tend to get used, even the odd ones.
  • pocketmegopocketmego
    edited September 2006
    Thanks to all of you for the fine welcome. I guess you all make a very good point about limited color palettes. It always amazes me that the Atari 2600 had a better color palette than most 8 bit computers.

    -Ray
  • SardSard
    edited September 2006
    Hi Ray (again) Lol yeah the magenta thing is a bit overdone in lots of speccy games. I suspect with black coloured background games (ie Jetpac) it was the darkest colour you could have. The speccy Blue is REAL bright (or should I say Cyan?) so not much use for darker areas if they were wanted.

    Like Starglider said... at least the colours are clear though. Even the C64 purple looks a bit brown , and the green , an the yellow , an the red , an the.... i'll shadup :D
  • ArjunArjun
    edited September 2006
    Welcome to the forums mego. There is an Intro thread here:
    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11453

    Magenta is a strange colour all right, but like Sard mentioned it's one of the darker colours that stands out against a black background (commonly employed in speccy games). It does help in breaking up repetitive colour usage in games esp. since the Speccy has a limited pallette. In fact, it gets a bit garish only when used on a light background like Cyan or Yellow, which is a bit odd for a dark colour.
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • MartinUKMartinUK
    edited September 2006
    The Spectrum blue is more than dark enough - cyan is another colour entirely in the Spectrum system. I completely agree that magenta was overused - it always really put me off a game, and was especially annoying to get through 2 or 3 levels of a game and then find that my 'reward' was a level rendered in a putrid, eye-hurting colour.
  • zx1zx1
    edited September 2006
    Playing games with too much purple always gave me a headache, best to play on a black and white tv!
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited September 2006
    pocketmego wrote:
    I didn't see an INTRO forum so i thought I'd drop by and say hello. My name is Ray, a member of the AtariAge forums and a fan of the Spectrum.

    I was living in New Orleans last year when Katrina hit and scattered us all over the country. For a few weeks we had little to do but sit around and worry. fortunately i picked up a few issues of Retro Gamer and book on the history of Video and Computer Games.

    Greetings Ray...

    I'm an English ex-pat living a hop and a skip (in US terms) away from where you used to live... We had a house in Gulfport that got washed away by the Hurricane... Luckily we weren't living there at the time though...

    We're now in Auburn, Alabama and - well, actually it's not a bad place to live, despite the reputation of the Southern US :D

    Welcome to the forums :D

    Andrew
  • de Vandemar Croupde Vandemar Croup
    edited September 2006
    MartinUK wrote:
    The Spectrum blue is more than dark enough - cyan is another colour entirely in the Spectrum system. I completely agree that magenta was overused - it always really put me off a game, and was especially annoying to get through 2 or 3 levels of a game and then find that my 'reward' was a level rendered in a putrid, eye-hurting colour.


    zx1 wrote:
    Playing games with too much purple always gave me a headache, best to play on a black and white tv!


    well... there?s one bright and shiny exception: THE ONLY GREAT MAGENTA GAME => Deflektor!!!

    I?m still for all those years surprised it?s the only game where the magenta colour is perfectly (?chosen and?) USED, ...and... pleasure for my eyes.
    yummy
    G! - That makes sense in BASIC 0:1
  • VertigoVertigo
    edited September 2006
    pocketmego wrote:
    Thanks to all of you for the fine welcome. I guess you all make a very good point about limited color palettes. It always amazes me that the Atari 2600 had a better color palette than most 8 bit computers.
    Shame they never bothered to use them, usually choosing two or four garish colours that clashed badly with each other ;)
    Anyway, hi and stuff!
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