Leaderboard

Reference for some more in depth reading: HOW TO "Decompress" Graphics in Sega Genesis The header for most graphics is * First 4 bytes are usually the data length of graphic in Hex, including the header 10 bytes. So in this case "0000 033A" is 826 bytes. * The next 4 bytes usually lead to the end of the palette location, or another 128 bytes more. "0000 03BA" is 954 (128 more). * The last 2 bytes represent the number of tiles in the graphic. In this case, I believe it's 22, which means the number of tiles used in the graphic is 34. Normally each tile uses 32 bytes of data. Tiles are 8x8 pixels and each 2 bytes represents a color. Because the player photos are coded in 3bpp, the size of each tile is only 24 bytes. So the total for this graphic is 34 tiles x 24 bytes = 816, plus 10 for the header and we get to 826 (033A). Then there is 128 bytes for the second section. What I actually THINK is happening is that the first part of the header gives the number of bytes to jump to the next offset where the palette starts. The next set of bytes jumps to the start of the layout (0006 0006) or 6x6. For player cards, the 0000 0000 0000 0000 in the headers would suggest that the game just uses the same palette and/or size. I notice the same with header logos that share a palette, the first and second parts of the header are the same as they share a palette. But the size is still included. My guess is in case there are shared tiles and the actual sizes are different. Having said all of that, to address your original question, if you wanted to increase the number of colors in player portraits you will first have to change the coding from 3bpp to 4bpp. Meaning, the game is coded to know that the player cards are graphics that use 3 bytes per pixel, which saves space. First you'd have to find and understand how that function in the game works, change it to 4bpp if possible, and then recode the player graphics to 4bpp format. I have no idea if it's possible, but this will be a pretty technical exercise.