Genesis lighting and shadow effects and higher color counts - Emulation shots
Early European Genesis print ads listed the Genesis' color capabilities as much
higher than the system's 64 color limit. This ad has since been used as an example
of Sega false advertising, in the style of Nintendo or Sony, about their console's
capabilities. The ROM Demo below demonstrates the Genesis displaying 1536 colors
at once in a non-game environment, using the Genesis' hardware lighting/shadow
effect. This same effect was used in actual software to increase the apparent
color count on screen, or in Sonic 2's case, actually break the 64 color limit.
In actuality, the Genesis' color limitation was 16 colors per sprite or background
tile, with 4 palettes available at once for on screen colors. Since a palette
could be changed in between the NTSC format's interlaced displays, the Genesis
could cheat this limitation technically. By and large most Genesis games stayed
below 54 colors on screen, while some used dithering and other artistic approaches
along with the blurring produced by the video output to create an image that
does effectively have more than 64 colors in it.
Gens shots
ROM Demo: 1536 colors
Sonic 2 "night mode": 61 Colors
Sonic 2: Aquatic Ruins -
swapped
palettes: 75 Colors
Castlevania Bloodlines: 54 Colors