The VG Resource

Don't know wtf you're doing when it comes to ripping/capturing sprites? Then good news! In this topic I will be laying down the basics of sprites and emulators.

The main things to look for in an emulator (as far as capturing sprites goes) is good layer and frame control. Layers are the separate planes that hold different sets of graphics, Background, Tiles, Sprites etc etc. Frames are the individual ...well frames of a game when you are emulating them, and frame control is being able to control the frames either by FPS (frames per second) or pausing and then going a single frame backwards or forwards. There are other features that can help in capturing sprites, such as the OAM viewer in Visualboy Advance, but we'll get to that later. Now for the consoles and emulators themselves.

Nintendo - NES
The NES is notoriously hard to capture from, as even though the graphics are basic; you cannot separate the layers of graphics within the programs. If you are capturing graphics you need to cut out sprites and tiles manually.

Nestopia (<-Download)
Mac OSX

Features:
Frame Control (FPS only)
Palette Control
Save States
Cheat Codes
Joystick Support
(Windows only)

Minimum system requirements:
# Processor: Pentium MMX or comparable AMD
# Ram: 64MB
# Video: Direct3D 9.0 compatible graphic card.
# Software Installed: DirectX 9.0c or superior.

And if you are wanting to make some custom sprites or mock-ups to fit in NES style, here are the system specs/limitations:

# Resolution: 256x224 (ntsc) or 256x239 (pal)
# Colors available: 52
# 4 colours per sprite/tile (Including transparency)
# Max Colors on screen: 16, 24 or 25.
# Max sprites: 64
# Max sprites per line: 8
# Sprite size: 8x8 or 8x16
# Picture Scroll: 2 h.v
# RAM: 16 Kbit (2kbyte)
# Video RAM: 16 Kbit (2kbyte)


Super Nintendo - SNES
The SNES is usually a very easy choice for capturing games, as both leading emulators have excellent layer and frame control.

ZSNES (<-Download)

SNES9X (<-Download)
Mac OSX

Features:
Layers
Palette Control
Frame Control
Save States
Cheat Codes
Joystick Support

Personally I prefer SNES9X, but both get the job done.

And if you are wanting to make some custom sprites or mock-ups to fit in SNES style, here are the system specs/limitations:

# Resolutions (Progressive) 256x224, 512x224, 256x239, 512x239 (Interlaced) 512x448, 512x478
# Pixel Depth 2, 4, 7, or 8 bpp indexed; 8 or 11 bpp direct
# Total Colors 32768 (15-bit)
# Sprites 128, 32 max per line; up to 64x64 pixels. 16 colours (including transparency) per sprite/tile.
# Backgrounds Up to 4 planes; each up to 1024x1024 pixels
# Effects:
-# Pixelization (mosaic) per background
-# Color addition and subtraction
-# Clipping windows (per background, affecting color, math, or both)
-# Scrolling per 8x8 tile
-# Mode 7 matrix operations


Nintendo Gameboy/Colour/Advance - GB/C/A

Visualboy Advance (<-Download)
Mac OSX

Features:
Layers
OAM Viewer
Palette Control
Frame Control
Save States
Cheat Codes
Joystick Support

The OAM Viewer is a feature that lets you scroll through every sprite that is currently on screen and view it fully on its own, so if sprites are overlapping in frames you can just grab them from the OAM viewer.

And if you are wanting to make some custom sprites or mock-ups to fit in GB, GBC, or GBA style, here are the system specs/limitations:
(Gameboy)
# 4 Colours on screen (White, 1/3 Grey, 2/3 Grey, Black). 4 Colours per sprite/tile including transparency.
# Screen Resolution of 160×144.
# Sprites: 20 - 8x16, 8x8 (max 4 colours including transparency)
# Tiles: 256 on screen (max 4 colours including transparency)

(Gameboy Colour)
# Colour: 10, 32, or 56 on screen colors from a palette of 32000 (56 = 32 tile colours and 24 sprite colours)
# Resolution: 160x144
# Sprites: 40 - 8x16, 8x8 (max 4 colours including transparency)
# Tiles: 512 on screen (max 4 colours including transparency)

(Gameboy Advance)
# Resolution: 240 x 160 pixels.
# Color support: 15-bit RGB (16-bit color space using 5 bits depth per channel), capable of displaying 512 simultaneous colors in "character mode" and 32,768
(2^15) simultaneous colors in "bitmap mode".
(The rest of the limitations are very similar to SNES, if not exact)


Nintendo DS - NDS
Nintendo DS is fairly new to the emulation work, so ROM support is ... well ... shit. The best emulator by far is NO$GBA, and ironically you have to pay for the latest version. Version 2.5 is free.

NO$GBA (<-Download)

Features:
Layers
Save States


I'd also reccomend using Animget, which will capture every singe frame for you.

DO NOT ASK FOR ROMS. ROMS ARE ILLEGAL.

More to come later on.

I came here expecting some cool Spriting tutorial by you, but I guess that's cause I didn't read the description ):


Anyway, I found this extremely helpful, and it'll certainly help me in ripping EB0


So thanks BaB~





You should probably put up a link to the mac version of Nestopia, by the way
http://www.bannister.org/software/nestopia.htm

Noice. This will DEFINITELY be useful for the new sprite-ripper!

Still, there are a few sections missing. How about for the SEGA emulators? N64?

Miles07 Wrote:Noice. This will DEFINITELY be useful for the new sprite-ripper!

Still, there are a few sections missing. How about for the SEGA emulators? N64?

"More to come later on."

the links mess up when i use them

I think it'd be a good idea to add a MAME/Kawaks section, for those wanting to rip fighting games that might not have been ported to those consoles, among other things.

Or did you not do this cause SDB already had one up?

I'm new to ripping, so do you know where I could find/get a tutorial. Also, how are you able to "insert the cartridge" as it says *DS*?
Help would be appreciated.

Ragon 00 Wrote:I'm new to ripping, so do you know where I could find/get a tutorial. Also, how are you able to "insert the cartridge" as it says *DS*?
Help would be appreciated.

The emulator will be asking for .NDS ROM files. Google is your friend.

Badassbill Wrote:

Ragon 00 Wrote:I'm new to ripping, so do you know where I could find/get a tutorial. Also, how are you able to "insert the cartridge" as it says *DS*?
Help would be appreciated.

The emulator will be asking for .NDS ROM files. Google is your friend.

So do what should I type on google? just .NDS ROM files, or a game's name.NDS ROM files? Sorry if I'm getting to be annoying. Dx

EDIT: I searched .NDS ROM files and tried it out on Diamond and the site couldn't display the page, then pearl is taking forever to load. This is so confusing. =[

I would add iDeaS to the NDS emulator part. I personally like it way better than No$GBA, for ripping.

Ragon 00 Wrote:

Badassbill Wrote:

Ragon 00 Wrote:I'm new to ripping, so do you know where I could find/get a tutorial. Also, how are you able to "insert the cartridge" as it says *DS*?
Help would be appreciated.

The emulator will be asking for .NDS ROM files. Google is your friend.

So do what should I type on google? just .NDS ROM files, or a game's name.NDS ROM files? Sorry if I'm getting to be annoying. Dx

EDIT: I searched .NDS ROM files and tried it out on Diamond and the site couldn't display the page, then pearl is taking forever to load. This is so confusing. =[

Just type "Nintendo DS rom files" into google and look for the ones you want by click on promising website. If you can't find any that way the torrents are helpful too.

Yeah idk if this is the right place to ask, but I guess it can't hurt xD.

Yeah well, I press F12 (the snapshot key) on Snes9x but either it's not saving the screenshot (probably this, because it's not popping up any text at the bottom of the screen), or it's putting it in an unknown directory. Halpz?

I'm planning on doing some Zelda 3 tile ripping, but to no success yet. (and no ZSNES won't work on my comp)

BaB, if you don't mind, I'm gonna rename the thread to something more appropriate. There's been 4 or 5 cases where people who want to rip sprites but don't know how; haven't bothered checking this thread.

Making it more obvious saves me from extra cleanup. =D

is there also a way to rip sprites from wiiware games?
like toki tori (or any game with 2D sprites)