From what is widely known, NTSC-J used 9300K that is applied on the Japanese monitor used, e.g. if you use a Japanese N64 in USA it will produce the exact same image but in 6500K (the US monitor), i think NTSC-U has a lower black level too (would need to bump up the brightness a bit to match NTSC-J black). That 6500K should be ~7000K in reality in most mid to late 90s TVs.
I’m not disputing that- I’m contesting the idea that the existence of the broadcasting standard proves definitively that it was always rigorously adhered to by all or even most pixel artists. Particularly in the early days which weren’t very “standardized.” I mean just look at the way the NES handles color, it’s wild. They just did whatever worked back then.
Many Japanese games were developed with a global market in mind. Developers may have designed the graphics to look correct on both NTSC-J (9300K) and North American NTSC (6500K) systems. Some may have simply disregarded the color temperature differences, assuming the result would still be acceptable.
There was too much diversion, also different TV manufacturers used different primaries, it was a complete mess. I had a Trinitron and colors in an Amiga Monkey Island scene that showed some sea waves were purple-ish on Trinitron and blue-ish on another cheap brand 20".
I’m inclined to think that because of how wildly different TVs were, the pixel artists kind of did whatever with color. One of my main points is that we have AFAIK literally 0 developer quotes regarding color, the way we have quotes for things like scanlines, crts, composite video, etc.
Just a hint, Android uses a larger gamut or at least most of them do, when i run some games, colors looked exactly like those sRGB to NTSC-U matrices i was using in shaders for PCs without actually doing anything on a shader to alter colors. It seems it uses (or at least some do) a gamut that is as wide as those old CRTs and reproduces colors as it should.
Okay, let’s try it another way…
If 9300K is not used as the white point in Japan, then what is used in Japan?
There is a reason they put this there, that’s NTSC-J default on a Japanese monitor. No reason to slot that D93 there if there was no use, as Japan is the only one using it anyway. Those are high profile monitors that costed thousands of dollars from one of the most reputable brands.
9300k was part of the broadcasting standard - this was never in dispute. The existence of the broadcasting standard does not mean that 9300k is part of the “intended look” for these games.
But now I’m just repeating myself:
I’m contesting the idea that the existence of the broadcasting standard proves definitively that it was always rigorously adhered to by all or even most pixel artists. Particularly in the early days which weren’t very “standardized.” I mean just look at the way the NES handles color, it’s wild. They just did whatever worked back then.
Many Japanese games were developed with a global market in mind. Developers may have designed the graphics to look correct on both NTSC-J (9300K) and North American NTSC (6500K) systems. Some may have simply disregarded the color temperature differences, assuming the result would still be acceptable.
I’m inclined to think that because of how wildly different TVs were, the pixel artists kind of did whatever with color. One of my main points is that we have AFAIK literally 0 developer quotes regarding color, the way we have quotes for things like scanlines, crts, composite video, etc.
Now, are you going to respond to any of those points?
If 9300k was essential for the intended look, do you think we’d have maybe at least one quote from a developer about it? If you can find it, I’ll retract everything. I’d actually be happy if we had some better evidence relating to this, either way.
I think my points still stand, though - we simply lack good evidence that color temperature is an essential part of the “intended look” for these games. Even if it was part of the broadcasting standard. Even if it was the default used on some monitors. The apparent lack of any quotes from artists or developers relating to this subject would suggest that it’s not of great importance. They knew that it was going to be displayed halfway around the world on a million different TVs with who knows how many different decoders.
I’m going to respond with a mini tutorial.
Search the internet
Open Google, type in NTSC-J, the first link is from Wikipedia. Start there.
Look for the specifications section or do a quick search on page 9300. The indicative text will appear.
Wikipedia works with references, just like in the old days. Those numbers you see at the end in brackets [12] [13] [14] are references to legitimize the content. The first two are very important, but the third is a little better; it is the “Guideline for Colorimetry for Production System” from Japan’s official “Association of Ratio, Industries in Business.”
If you don’t like it, I’ll try to find a quote from someone else, although to save time I can quote myself. LOL
This is where you are greatly mistaken.
The NTSC-J was established in 1960, 23 years before the NES, but programmers don’t care about the white dot.
The console handles images in RAW format, exactly as you see them in the emulator. What changes the temperature is the TV output module, which standardizes the video to NTSC, PAL, NTSC-J, etc.
Very cute.
I’ve responded, numerous times, that we ALL already know about 9300k being part of the broadcasting standard - why do you keep harping on this?
This simply does NOT prove what you think it proves, and you’re unwilling to acknowledge the massive amount of speculation connection “a broadcasting standard exists” to “this was part of the intended look for the games”
Which actually just supports my point.
Why do you have to be a dick?
You inspire me…
Ah!
One more thing. If you don’t understand this, no problem.
A tip
Look for a Nintendo documentary from those years, where you can see the Nintendo offices and they have Mario 3 on the screen, so you can see what color it is.
Also, in that documentary, you can see Hiroshi Yamauchi explaining why they chose that color palette for the NES.
If you have any problems with Google, let me know, and I’ll make you another mini tutorial.
PD: It doesn’t matter if you edit the post.
So you supposedly have the smoking gun evidence that proves you are correct! But for some reason you can’t find it or post it here, cool.
You also have the option of just not responding to me or any of my topics any further.
I left it there
mmmm…
mini-tuto?
yep?
you’re adorable
Open YouTube and type in “Nintendo documentary.”
looooooool
I don’t think you’re doing yourself any favors, here. By all means, please continue.
You’re saying something so absurd that it seems like you’re mocking people or perhaps you’re showing off your ignorance.
The temperature is adjusted by the white point, and is WHITE.
The Japanese don’t see the screen as blue 9300K, the Americans don’t see it as orange 6500K, and the Europeans don’t see it as red 3100K.
The only screen that appears blue is the Trinitron; this is a characteristic of its technology.
It’s that it answers you and you don’t pay attention. If you connect a Japanese Famicom in America, you’ll see a blue screen, if you connect the NES in Japan, you’ll see a reddish screen.
Developers don’t care, because that’s a pre-established standard. The temperature is managed by the TV output module.
All this came up because the image you are showing is over-edited and cannot be taken as a reference. Is it very difficult to understand?
I can’t do it, I literally have like 200 on the scoreboards. I have these images, but it’s Mario 3 from SNES.
And as I was saying, it’s not a documentary, but it’s up to you to find it.
All evidence i’ve seen suggests that:
a) Japanese Color TVs used D93 as their default white point until 1996-1997ish, when D65 seems to have started to take over as the standard for game modes.
Ranmori shared their relevant contemporary experience with the 1997 NTSC-J Sony KV-14GP3’s game mode lowering the color temperature here. The earliest mention i have found of this “game” mode button on a Trinitron is the 1996 KV-24FW2/KV-24SW2 manual, which presumably behaved in the same way.
It can also be observed that the screenshots on the back of Japanese game cases started to shift from D93 to D65 around the same general 1996-1998 time period.
b) Sony included an option called Trinitone starting no later than 1985 (probably starting with the XBR line in 1984 if i had to make an informed guess), which adjusted the color temperature.
Here is a 1989 newspaper article which touches on that setting, and specifically mentions that “Apparently different countries have different tastes.”, in reference to people from Japan and other Asian countries tending to prefer higher/bluer color temperatures.
The 1990 “W0006311M.pdf” manual specifies that the bluer (presumably D93) setting was the factory default at that time, even in the US.
c) Nintendo literally made official NTSC-J TVs with built in consoles in collaboration with Sharp (the Sharp C1 for the Famicom, and the Sharp SF1 for the SFC), and as far as i have seen, both were D93, at least by default.