Why does Mario 1 have faded colors?

[gamingguy]

. I was comparing Mario 3 vs. Mario 1 this morning, and the most dramatic difference is the color. Mario 3 is vibrant, but the Mario 1 is kinda of "washed out." i.e. Mario looked like he washed his shirt too many times and now it's red-orange instead of bright red. Why would Mario 1 have a washed out appearance?

[Quazick]

Ugh...
It's obvious SMB 1 is a first generation NES game which mean that had barely figured out most of the power of the NES.
SMB3 is a late release which means they new how to make better games by then.
Not to mention that SMB3 has a special graphics chip like Kirby.
But seriously asking this is like asking why Super Mario World's graphics are 2-d while Super Mario RPG is 3-d.....

[gamingguy]

"Not to mention that SMB3 has a special graphics chip like Kirby."

That's the answer I was looking for. Thanks!

[Wavelflack]

That's odd, because I feel the exact opposite. In my opinion, Mario 1 had bright, rich, vibrant colors, and 3 had dull washed out colors. For instance, compare the blue sky in 1 to that of 3. Compare the reds and yellows of the two as well. Mario himself isn't as well defined in part 1, but the colors get progressively bland as the series continues.

Anybody want to post screens to compare?

[Wavelflack]

Also, the chip (MMC 4? 5?) referred to wouldn't do anything for the colors anyway. It's function was to allow the split screen (making the "menu" portion at the bottom possible).

[NvrMore]

*sigh* (I know this isn't going to be worth the effort)

By any chance are you playing th two games on an emulator rather than the actual console, if so this could be, at least in part, the reason for the colour discrepancy.

I agree with Wavelflak, SMB's colours are just as, if not a little more vivid than SMB 3's (notably because of game design differneces rather than hardware difference), certainly when I ran them on my NES (not an emu in which case that would be your problem) SMB's colours certainly didn't appear "washed out" at all.

[gamingguy]

(hooks up NES again)... You guys are right. The backgrounds look about the same [bright] in both games.

But, I still think the Mario sprite looks "washed out" in both Mario 1 and Mario 2...like he needs to buy new clothes.

[YoshiM]

Adjust your color and tint on your TV :P

Actually, if you happen across an SMB arcade machine, you'll notice that it and the home version are about the same. So it does the original game justice.

However, I do agree with Wavelflack & NvrMore: Mario 1's colors were more vibrant while the other games got a bit more washed out. This is probably because the NES can't display as many colors and the developers wanted more detail. So a sacrifice for color had to be made.

At least that's what I think anyway.

[NE146]

(hooks up NES again)... You guys are right. The backgrounds look about the same in both games.

But, I still think the Mario sprite looks "washed out" in both Mario 1 and Mario 2...like he needs to buy new clothes.

One interesting thing you can do is check out the Super Mario Bros. hacks (there are hundreds :roll:) but some of them actually alter the mario sprite to the SMB3 version.

[hamburgler]

It might be that your rf switch is making the faded colors and it is come off easily.

[Wavelflack]

SMB 2 has the most washed out looking Mario sprite of all. Bleh.