NES style graphics

I`m trying to recreate the graphical style of the NES for a game I am working on. Can anyone suggest a decent site with a tutorial on or some suggestions on how to create that old retro look. I have had a play around with a limited palette and it is actually a lot harder than it looks to create something that resembles those great old games. It seems that there is more to it than simply using a limited NES style palette. Any ideas? Also a site with an archive of NES screens would prove most helpful but a quick look on google hasn`t come up with much. (I already know about the VGMuseum site)

Jason.

http://www.toolkitzone.com/library.php?mode=read&doc=76

Heres a walkthrough on an RPG - like character...

Thanks, keep em coming, think more NES like...

Jason.

Here are some links from the Pixel Joint forums.

Pixel Tutorials
Isometric Tutorials
Zoggles - http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?show=index
Pixelfreak - http://www.pixelfreak.com/tutorial/
RhysD - http://rhysd.syntesis.org/tutorial/
http://www.webclass.ru/tut.php?tut=129
http://www.deviantart.com/view/2866522/
Pixel NascImpact - http://pixel.nascimpact.com/tutoriaux.php
General Pixel Art Tutorials Tsugumo - http://pixeltutorial.cjb.net/ (the original!)
http://www.spriteart.com
Zoggles - http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?show=index
Gas13 - http://gas13.ru/tutorials/
Nemesis (AA) - http://www.rpi.edu/~laporj2/essays/aa/
AbsoluteV3 (AA) - http://neota.castleparadox.com/aa_tutorial.html
Pep and Helm (coloring/shading) - http://www.rpi.edu/~laporj2/essays/tagteam/
Matriax - http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/tutoriales/tuto.htm
Enterbrain - http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/digifami/digiweb/dot_teck/3nen/3 _01.html (Japanese only, but worth digging around for stuff)
PixelZone Tutorials - http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tutorials.shtml
Mozco Metallic Objects - http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~s-iga/tips/2-3metallic_objects.html
Drububu - http://www.drububu.com/tutorial/flashtival.html (combining Flash and pixels)
Vlink.Vwalker.com - http://home.earthlink.net/~marktroup/vlinkdotvwalkerdotcom/v link.html (please note that the original vlink site disappeared, this is what I salvaged from my hd)
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~aholattj/pixeltut/
Natomic - http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/
OurCall - http://www.ourcall.org/
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/photoshop.php?tut=4& subtut=42
Tsugumo has finally added another new tutorial on selout (selective outlining) on his site: http://tsugumo.swoo.net/tutorial/chapter12.htm

Carp's stuff
Elouai's hair tut

--

Samson's List:
Pixel Tools
Programs
MSPaint (nice walkthrough) - http://fay.iniminimo.com/paint.html
Photoshop/Imageready - http://www.adobe.com
Pixen - http://www.opensword.org/
GraphicsGale - http://www.tempest-j.com/gale/e/
GFX Convertor - http://www.etrusoft.com/graphic-converter/
Unfreez - http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/
GraFX 2 (Win32) - http://www.eclipse-game.com/?dat=7
The GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/
Art Rage - http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
EasyToon - http://www.superfundungeonrun.com/eztsetb3.zip
RePix - http://pascalman.altervista.org/RePix_v2.0a.zip
Ulead GIF Anitmator Lite - http://www.neowulf-nexus.com/Pub/NewMedia/uleadgif.zip
Dogwaffle - http://www.squirreldome.com/cyberop.htm
Promotion - http://cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php
Ultimate Paint - http://www.ultimatepaint.com/
JDraw - http://www.j-domain.de/en/jdraw.php
Allegro Sprite Editor - http://ase.sourceforge.net/
Color Cache - http://www.tlhouse.co.uk/ColorCache/ (for creating Photoshop color swatch [.aco] and color table [.act] files)

Tools
Compaq HP TC1000 - http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/features/article.asp?ID=10
Tablet PC - http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/tabletpc/
(recorders)
Capture Pad - http://www.capturepad.com/
Camtasia - http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/bws/bws_48/camtasiaf.exe

Tricks
Transparent PNG's in MSIE - http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/pngbehavior/pngbehavior.html
Mozilla Firefox (transparent PNG's) - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Find AA colors automatically - http://omr.planet-d.net/trash/aac.zip
Silvir's Kickass Tile Script - http://www.silvir.com/tile.php?src=http://....com/source.gif
(Just replace the src url with your image's url and check your tiles easily)

Mobile Game Dev Tools
Deler's Links - http://mgdc.ru/board/showthread.php?t=391

Pixel Tutorials
Isometric Tutorials
Zoggles - http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?show=index
Pixelfreak - http://www.pixelfreak.com/tutorial/
RhysD - http://rhysd.syntesis.org/tutorial/
http://www.webclass.ru/tut.php?tut=129
http://www.deviantart.com/view/2866522/
Pixel NascImpact - http://pixel.nascimpact.com/tutoriaux.php
http://www.decile.net/tutorials/photoshop/techniques/pixel/

General Pixel Art Tutorials
Tsugumo - http://pixeltutorial.cjb.net/ (the original!)
StOven (old)- http://www.spritedomain.net/tutorials.htm
StOven (new) - http://www.spriteart.com (it's not live yet, but we're all trembling in anticipation)
Zoggles - http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?show=index
Gas13 - http://gas13.ru/tutorials/
Nemesis (AA) - http://www.rpi.edu/~laporj2/essays/aa/
Pepand Helm (coloring/shading) - http://www.rpi.edu/~laporj2/essays/tagteam/
Blackeye Software - http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~derekyu/ (it's under Miscellaneous)
Matriax - http://www.speccy.org/remakesgraph/tutoriales/tuto.htm
Biomors - http://home.houston.rr.com/monkeygraphics/texturetutorial/
Biomore - http://home.houston.rr.com/monkeygraphics/treetutorial/
Enterbrain - http://www.enterbrain.co.jp/digifami/digiw.../3nen/3_01.html (Japanese only, but worth digging around for stuff)
PixelZone Tutorials - http://pixel-zone.rpgdx.net/shtml/tutorials.shtml
Mozco Metallic Objects - http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~s-iga/tips/2-3metallic_objects.html
Drububu - http://www.drububu.com/tutorial/flashtival.html (combining Flash and pixels)
Vlink.Vwalker.com - http://home.earthlink.net/~marktroup/vlink...tcom/vlink.html
(please note that the original vlink site disappeared, this is what I salvaged from my hd)
http://koti.mbnet.fi/~aholattj/pixeltut/
Natomic - http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/
OurCall - http://www.ourcall.org/
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/photos...tut=4&subtut=42

Backgrounds
http://www.barnettcollege.com/tutorial1.htm
http://allitis.com/agast/backgroundex1.html
http://www.gfxartist.com/features/tutorials/27609

Colouring
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/farp/colorps/pcolorps.html
http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/mainscreen.html

Details
http://www.elverquisst.se/grasstut.html
http://www.optidigit.com/stevens/cloudtut.htm

Light
http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm

Anatomy
http://www.figuredrawings.com/linksanatomy.html

Animation Tutorials and Reference
Eadweard Muybridge - http://web.inter.nl.net/users/anima/chrono...st-15/index.htm
http://www.brianlemay.com/animationexample...ationindex.html
Preston Blair - http://www.freetoon.com/index.html
http://www.idleworm.com/how/index.shtml
Don Bluth - http://www.donbluth.com/academy.html
http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonplan/lesson.htm#top

Pixel Art Forums
Pixelation - http://web1.t43.greatnet.de
PixelDev - http://www.pixeldev.net
Potasio Men - http://www.potasiomen.com.ar (Spanish language site)
Spanish Pixel Art - http://spanishpixel.webcindario.com (Spanish)


Pixel Fonts
Bitmap Font Utility - http://www.stefan-pettersson.nu/site/bmpfont/
Creating a Pixel Font from Scratch - http://www.iamcal.com/misc/fonts/pixfonttut/part1.php
04 - http://www.04.jp.org/ (free pixel fonts... what are you waiting for? Click!)
dafont - http://www.dafont.com/en/bitmap.php (wow! 29 pages of bitmappiness!)
Atomic Media - http://atomicmedia.net/
Fontographic - http://www.fontgraphic.com/

Pixelized Eye-Candy Goodness
1x1 - http://www.vasava.es/1x1/
Adam Tierney - http://www.adamtierney.com/ (Sals)
Adeptvormgeving - http://www.adept-vormgeving.com/
Ala Webstatt & Chmork.net - http://www.ala.ch/portfolio/
Army of Trolls - http://www.armyoftrolls.co.uk/
Artoholic - http://artoholic.eg-games.com/ (Emlan)
@Pixel - http://www.gawzu.idv.tw/
Bongo - http://park12.wakwak.com/~bongo/
Dot16 - http://www.dot16.pixeltemple.com/
Drububu - http://www.drububu.com/
Eboy - http://www.eboy.com/
Electriciconland - http://electriconland.com/
Etherbrian - http://www.etherbrian.com/
Etherknot - http://members.tripod.com/~etherknot/
Final Redemption - http://finalredemption.com/index.htm (Kon)
FlipFlopFlyin' - http://www.flipflopflyin.com/
FlyGuy - http://www.trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/
Fuz.dk - http://www.fuz.dk/
Habbo - http://www.habbohotel.com/
Henk Nieborg - http://www.henknieborg.nl/home.html (don't miss this one!)
Head Over Heels - http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/screenshots.html (cuz it makes me smile)
IconWax - http://hiroex.pure.cc/iwm/
I'm With Zombie - http://www.imwithzombie.com/ (Foogirl)
Kenneth Fejer - http://www.kennethfejer.dk/
Keops Online - http://www.llama-land.net/keops/online/
Ku_Bo - http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/KU__BO/dot.html
KYMG - http://wf.31rsm.ne.jp/~kymg/top.htm
Lexaloffle - http://www.lexaloffle.com/ (so... damn... cute)
Littlefactory - http://www.littlefactory.com/
Lovepixel - http://www.lovepixel.idv.tw/
Meertoh - http://meertoh.tk/
Meomi - http://www.meomi.com
Move Your Feet - http://www.veer.com/ideas/move/
Mr. Wong's - http://www.mrwong.de/
Nvision - http://www.nvisionillustration.com
Ocee - http://ocee.de/
Pepepue - http://www.pepepue.com/
PixelBlocks - http://www.pixelblocks.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/pbonline
Pixelfreak - http://www.pixelfreak.com/
PixelHugger - http://www.pixelhugger.com/
PixelJam - http://www.pixeljam.com/core/index.html
PixelMuseum - http://www.pixelmuseum.com/
Pixel NascImpact - http://pixel.nascimpact.com/
Pixture Studio - http://www.pixture.com/
Ptoing - http://www.ptoing.net/
Quickhoney - http://www.quickhoney.com/
Rhino crew- http://rhinoz.net
RO Monster Database - http://www.roempire.com/database/?page=monsters&act=view
Supertotto - http://www.supertotto.com/
Tanuki X - http://www.christessmer.com/
These Words Escape - http://www.wolfz.com/~rhino/delgneith/ (delgneith)
Weapon X - http://www.2600comic.co.uk/logan/ (Wolverine)
YipYop - http://www.yipyop.com/ (biscuit theater )

Community-Driven Pixel Art Sites
PixelDam - http://www.pixeldam.net/
IsoCity - http://www.kennethfejer.dk/isocity/
Wee! - http://home.earthlink.net/~marktroup/wee/
PixelGala - http://www.pixelgala.org/
PixelJoint - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixels/

Video Game and Sprite References
The Video Game Museum - http://www.vgmuseum.com/
Game Sprite Archive - http://www.gsarchives.net/index2.php
EmuGifs - http://www.emugifs.emuita.it/
ShyGuy Kingdom - http://tsgk.captainn.net/

Demo Scene
GFX Zone - http://www.gfxzone.org/frames.html

Making Games
Gamemaker Tutorials - http://www.gamemaker.nl/tutorial.html
Tile Studio - http://tilestudio.sourceforge.net/
World Creator - http://www.inet2inet.com/

Free Sites for Hosting Your Images
http://1asphost.com
https://www.250free.com
http://www.cliparthost.com
http://www.domaindlx.com
http://www.free-host.com
http://www.gazler.com
http://www.imagemagician.com
http://www.imagestation.com
http://www.photobucket.com
http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu
http://www.ripway.com
http://www.uploadit.org
http://www.villagephotos.com
http://www.imageshack.us
htttp://advanced-microtechnologies.com

...and of course http://www.google.com is always your friend.

Well, you got my "Transformer" style airship of sorts. Should keep you occupied... Nice Capcom-style NES graphic.



Hey, it's a nice way to work with 3D prismatic triangles, wouldn't you say? Quite creative in the long haul.

its certainly creative :)

Well, NES, Capcom, Transformer-style graphics, it all comes together... Japanese-influenced game design, you get the idea.

Very nice pixelart behind some of these links but that's exactly the point i love about 3d - the freedom of the camera angle...

Some great pixel art tutorials there, thanks, they will certainly come in useful but there still doesn`t seem to be much NES style art around which is surprising as it was a popular console. Google doesn`t bring up much with regards to NES graphics or creating them unfortunetly.

Jason.

there is plenty... google image
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=NES+graphics&btnG=Search

Yeah, plus there's better graphics with the SNES and Genesis anyway... If I were looking at a 2D game, I'd go with 16-bit graphics on top of 8-bit this day in age... Even 32x like the Saturn or Sega CD. You will probably find superior graphics in those systems, I have a hunch...

That may be so RAM Digital Media but I`m trying to go back to basics. It`s easy (ish) drawing with 16 million colours and what not but it`s actually a great learning experience and a lot of fun to try to recreate what whas achieved on some of those old systems of yesterday. Besides I still regard some of the NES classics as my favourite games of all time. My view not only extends to the graphics either, some of the music from the NES is excellent despite it being composed of very basic sounds.

Jason.

Hmm, I'm sort of wondering if this would've been used in a certain Capcom game for the NES... If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Capcom the company behind Transformers (remember those robots turned into rocket ships)? Well, see if this would be anything you could use:

Actually...didn't they originally transformed into cars and jets...?