Line #26 Main/BackThatLightUp


1	[[quoteright:256:[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dkc_gba_snes_comparison.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:256:Top: [[Platform/GameBoyAdvance GBA]] version.\
3	Bottom: Original [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] version.]]
4
5	Different viewing media affect how colors look on them, but also are even further affected by how the medium is lit.
6
7	There are three main types of lighting that apply here:
8	# Ambient, light is just filling up the area.
9	# Front lit, the light source is directly between you and the medium.
10	# Back lit, the medium is between you and the light source (medium can't be opaque, of course).
11
12	There are different ways to make the light, but those just change the exact look of the colors. Those three types change the contrast. Different colors wash other colors out depending on the setup.
13
14	One effect of this is that in a presentation, you would likely use different colors for the same graphs, depending on whether a graph is on printed paper, or on a [=PowerPoint=] slide.
15
16	This is particularly prevalent in gaming, especially if you are playing on a handheld.
17
18	Compare and contrast GreenBoyColor, which is when video game graphics emulate the Platform/GameBoy's iconic monochromatic green palette. Contrast WhoForgotTheLights, games where you can't clearly see what's going on without adjusting your monitor's brightness.
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Gaming Consoles]]
25	* Platform/GameBoy:
26	** The original has no light and a monochrome color setup. Thus almost all games were dark colors on a light background. This was also true with the Platform/NeoGeoPocket. There was, however, a short-lived Game Boy Light which came with an electro-luminescent screen; however, it was a power guzzler, and [[NoExportForYou it never left Japan.]] Various third-party devices, such as the Handy Boy, also attempted to introduce some light sources, with mixed results.
27	** The Platform/GameBoyColor doesn't have a light, but a full-color scheme. Some games were also dark on light, such as ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''/''Crystal'' and the ports of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'', ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestII II]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII III]]''. Other games were light on dark, particularly {{Platform/NES}} ports. Same with the Platform/NeoGeoPocket Color. There were, however, a lot of unofficial lights that could plug in the Link Cable port.
28	** Platform/GameBoyAdvance:
29	*** It has either no light (original model), a frontlight (first SP line AGS-001), or a backlight (second SP line AGS-101 and Micro). This can actually affect the contrast of the colors. No light is actually harder to see than the other systems. Front light is easy to see but washes out all the colors a bit. Back light is most like a regular TV. Games made specifically for the GBA also had different color setups than ports from the SNES and other home systems.
30	*** The early development kits for the GBA did not display colors the way the GBA itself would display colors, resulting in the earlier games appearing too dark and harming the reputation of many early titles like ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon''. Nintendo quickly learned of the problems and sent updated devkits to all developers to mitigate the problem until the SP came around. Unfortunately, this resulted in these games looking oddly bleached when played with a backlit display; this was an especially big issue when porting SNES titles (as pictured above), with audiences arguing that games like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' had their entire atmosphere altered for the worse as a result of the bleached graphics.
31	* Handhelds that always had backlights, such as the Platform/AtariLynx, Platform/GameGear, Platform/NintendoDS, [[Platform/PlayStationPortable PSP]], have generally the same color setups as home console games. Unfortunately, backlit displays wash out completely in bright sunlight. At least you can see okay indoors, eh?
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Video Games]]
35
36	[[AC:Action-Adventure]]
37	* ''VideoGame/{{Boktai}}'': {{Inverted}}. All of the GBA games require sunlight and the DS game can use sunlight. (There was an actual UV sensor in the cart that affected gameplay. After all, you ''are'' killing vampires in this game.) Anyone who has used a TV knows that sunlight + screen = glare. However, if you play it on the original GBA (or [=SP1=] with the backlight turned off) the screen and colors are best in direct sunlight.
38	* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''
39	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'': It's difficult to play on the original GBA because the colors are too dark in the beginning, and using a light accessory doesn't help. Later systems and subsequently ports lack this issue.
40	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'':
41	*** It attempts to correct this by having much more color saturation and giving Juste Belmont a blue glow that is hand-waved by stating in [[AllThereInTheManual the supplementary guides]] that the Belmont and Belnades bloodlines mixed sometime shortly after ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaI'', giving Juste magical powers including the glow.
42	*** For 200% map completion, you may have to switch to a lit system just to see the castle map better, since it is hard to tell which rooms you've missed on the original GBA.
43	*** This over-saturation causes [[BlackBlood blood to look pink]].
44	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
45	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': The GBA port makes the cracks in the walls, which you have to break through occasionally, too hard to see. Fortunately, it can be played with the SNES palette.
46	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap'': Several color settings are included to account for the different ways the game can be played. On television with the [=GameCube's=] Game Boy Player, on Game Boy Advance, on Game Boy Advance SP, etc.
47
48	[[AC:Driving Games]]
49	* ''VideoGame/FZeroMaximumVelocity'': As one of the earliest GBA games, it uses an extremely high contrast between the road and the scenery. No matter how badly you are lighted, you can always see the road.
50
51	[[AC:Platform Games]]
52	* ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'': It has a color palette dimmed down far more than most SNES games for the Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem. s well as the Platform/{{Amiga}} game it was [[DolledUpInstallment dolled up]] from.
53	* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': Even though they all were released after the GBA SP, the ports for GBA were extremely brightened up from the originals. In particular, this makes Glimmer's Galleon in ''2'' and Floodlit Fish in ''3'' much easier due to the brighter lights.
54	* ''VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy'': The third game has different color settings to suit different Game Boy Advance backlight arrangements.
55	* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAdvance'': When it gets featured in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars'', ports of most of those titles account for the original GBA's lack of a backlight. The middle and bottom rows of [[http://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheets/4/4340.gif this image]] depict the specific palette shift involved from SNES to GBA.
56
57	[[AC:Role-Playing Games]]
58	* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
59	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles1'': Playing the original title with the original GBA means it's not always easy to see what is going on in your info screen.
60	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'': It has several color settings supposed to even out the color differences between different forms of display. Not just for light and no light, but also one optimized for TV using the Game Boy Player.
61
62	[[AC:Shooters]]
63	* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
64	** The Game Boy Advance version has more than one color scheme to compensate for the different lighting possibilities of that system.
65	** An early patch adds several "gamma correction" settings to lighten the game, to help compensate for the terrible backlighting of CRT monitors commonplace at the time.
66
67	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BackThatLightUp