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A few weeks ago I tried to improve the colors of Lemmings to make it look more like the original Amiga game. But i was running into limitations of the original SMS game. The game has one palette for ALL levels. And the same palette is used for background and sprites.

Fortunately Maxim created a hack that allows to use a unique palette for each level theme.

From there i created optimized palettes for each theme.

Here are some notes:
- After changing a palette, usually i had to recolor many tiles all over the place to make it work (it's not just a palette hack)
- Orange was a duplicate color in the original palette. It has been used for another color. Many tiles had to be fixed for this too.
- 1 or 2 other colors might not be used in a theme, so i could use them to add new colors to that theme.
- The gui uses A LOT of colors, restricting possibilities. I cheated a bit and changed the color of the gui. Most clearly visible in the marble level.
- other screens have been changed. Intro, intro 2, title.

For now i restricted this hack to changed colors only, so the game still looks exactly the same, except in new colors. A lot more is possible though.

I did everything in hex tool and mastertileconverter, but Maxim is working to make editing much more easy.
https://github.com/maxim-zhao/lemmings-sms-art-hack/tree/main

Level editing is also possible. It could be used to add missing details to levels or create new level. But honestly i haven't tried it yet :).
https://www.smspower.org/GameEditors/LemmingsMappyConvertor

Screenshot of the original game if you want to compare my screenshots:
https://www.smspower.org/Screenshots/Lemmings-SMS

Link to the patch:
https://www.smspower.org/forums/files/lemmings_color_hack_724.zip

intro1.png (2.42 KB)

intro2.png (7.14 KB)

title.png (10.03 KB)

dirt.png (6.69 KB)

pillar.png (5.56 KB)

marble.png (4.39 KB)

crystal.png (6.59 KB)

fire.png (5.94 KB)

lemmings color hack.zip (17.72 KB)

Great job!! I loved this game back in the day. I wonder why they decided to just use one palette?

Wow, it looks really nice! Congrats and thanks!

Looking good, that improves things quite a bit :D

This looks like it was a lot of work, the results are great though! Much better compared to the original, imo.

Pretty awesome hack!

Author	Message
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 385	Lemmings color hack Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:42 am
slogra Joined: 09 Jun 2014 Posts: 385	A few weeks ago I tried to improve the colors of Lemmings to make it look more like the original Amiga game. But i was running into limitations of the original SMS game. The game has one palette for ALL levels. And the same palette is used for background and sprites. Fortunately Maxim created a hack that allows to use a unique palette for each level theme. From there i created optimized palettes for each theme. Here are some notes: - After changing a palette, usually i had to recolor many tiles all over the place to make it work (it's not just a palette hack) - Orange was a duplicate color in the original palette. It has been used for another color. Many tiles had to be fixed for this too. - 1 or 2 other colors might not be used in a theme, so i could use them to add new colors to that theme. - The gui uses A LOT of colors, restricting possibilities. I cheated a bit and changed the color of the gui. Most clearly visible in the marble level. - other screens have been changed. Intro, intro 2, title. For now i restricted this hack to changed colors only, so the game still looks exactly the same, except in new colors. A lot more is possible though. I did everything in hex tool and mastertileconverter, but Maxim is working to make editing much more easy. https://github.com/maxim-zhao/lemmings-sms-art-hack/tree/main Level editing is also possible. It could be used to add missing details to levels or create new level. But honestly i haven't tried it yet :). https://www.smspower.org/GameEditors/LemmingsMappyConvertor Screenshot of the original game if you want to compare my screenshots: https://www.smspower.org/Screenshots/Lemmings-SMS Link to the patch: https://www.smspower.org/forums/files/lemmings_color_hack_724.zip intro1.png (2.42 KB) intro2.png (7.14 KB) title.png (10.03 KB) dirt.png (6.69 KB) pillar.png (5.56 KB) marble.png (4.39 KB) crystal.png (6.59 KB) fire.png (5.94 KB) lemmings color hack.zip (17.72 KB) lemmings color hack.zip (17.72 KB)

Mondo Joined: 16 Oct 2022 Posts: 41	Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:51 am
Mondo Joined: 16 Oct 2022 Posts: 41	Great job!! I loved this game back in the day. I wonder why they decided to just use one palette?

baude Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Posts: 17	Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 12:39 pm
baude Joined: 15 Dec 2015 Posts: 17	Wow, it looks really nice! Congrats and thanks!

JoppyFurr Joined: 11 Mar 2018 Posts: 71 Location: New Zealand	Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 2:17 am
	Looking good, that improves things quite a bit :D

xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 387	Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 12:41 pm
xfixium Joined: 18 Jul 2020 Posts: 387	This looks like it was a lot of work, the results are great though! Much better compared to the original, imo.

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 875 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2023 2:02 pm
	Pretty awesome hack!

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