04467: blaster, blastero, blasterkit: [possible] Maybe wrong colors in palette?

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
04467	Color/Palette	Minor	Always	Aug 22, 2011, 21:31	Mar 9, 2020, 20:04

Tester	MacBoxPPC	View Status	Public	Platform	SDLMAME
Assigned To		Resolution	Open	OS	MacOS X
Status [?]	Acknowledged			Driver	midway/williams.cpp
Version	0.143u3	Fixed in Version		Build	PowerPC
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	04467: blaster, blastero, blasterkit: [possible] Maybe wrong colors in palette?
Description	Strange color palette, does it match the real hardware?
Steps To Reproduce	Always, simply launch the game and look at the spinnig astronaut in the warp stage.
Additional Information	Since the beginning of MAME, when the support for Blaster was introduced for the first time, I always wonder why the global colour palette of that game was so "psychedelic". Back in the 80's there was an italian magazine named "Videogiochi" and I recall very well to have reading am interview somewhere in the magazine with the developer team and seeing a preliminary photo of a new (at the time) game from Vid Kidz, where there was a picture of an astronaut (a work-in-progress character sprite) taken as snapshot from the screen of their development tool and the colors were correct! After a quick research in my memory and over the net I found the page of the magazine where you can see the color of the sprite as it should mean to be. It is attached here for proof and reference: it comes from Videogiochi issue 9 page 71 (Net source: www.retrogaming.it)
Github Commit

Flags	Possible
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	blaster, blastero, blasterkit

Attached Files	videogiochi_9_71.jpg (277,030 bytes) Aug 22, 2011, 21:31 Uploaded by MacBoxPPC Snapshot of "Videogiochi" magazine issue 9 page 71
	0002.png (2,054 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:54 Uploaded by Tafoid
	0004.png (2,048 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:54 Uploaded by Tafoid
	0007.png (1,959 bytes) Aug 23, 2011, 01:55 Uploaded by Tafoid

No.07722 Tafoid Administrator Aug 23, 2011, 01:51	A few things going against this information, in my option: 1) This is a work-in-progress sprite display. It may have and likely changed before release. 2) In the Time Tunnel stage (6), the astronauts that await saving come in many different colors (I've attached a few snaps I just took). I don't believe they are intended to be just one color, one palette. The game is well known for it's bright colors and flashing lights 3) The only way we can truly compare such problems is an original PCB recording compared to current MAME video output.
No.07725 MacBoxPPC Tester Aug 23, 2011, 05:47	4) Another way would be to get in touch (if this is still possible) with the original developers Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar to clarify it this strange palette was an issue occoured switching from the development tools to the real hardware or if it was intended to be in this (actual) way since the beginning.
No.07774 Fujix Administrator Sep 12, 2011, 12:54	Set name updated from blaster30 to blastero.
No.17472 MetalGod Senior Tester Mar 9, 2020, 06:33 edited on: Mar 9, 2020, 07:46	This is the best video I've found by now. Unluckily there's not a close-up of the game but the astronauts can be seen:
No.17475 MetalGod Senior Tester Mar 9, 2020, 20:04 edited on: Mar 9, 2020, 21:30	I've found another video. Astronauts here can be seen much closer, for example in 3:18. Colors are still a bit difficult to distinguish, but it is clear that they also come in different colors here. Time tunnel astronauts can be seen in 0:20 In the original game the astranauts just look WHITE tone, not that strong colors seen in MAME Opinions?