The VG Resource

Hi All,

I'm Abe and it's my first post. I'm trying to find out if there is a way to remove the background of these sprites or unify the backgrounds into one color. I looked at the hard ripping and GBA tutorials but this issue, much like the Gameboy itself, is not covered. The problem is I can't simply erase the background because changing it compromises the look of the sprite.  Included are examples of the games in question in both Gameboy (JPN) and Gameboy Color variants (Please click on each one to get a good view). 

[attachment=14248][attachment=14249][attachment=14250][attachment=14251][attachment=14252][attachment=14253]

These are static sprites and are from screenshots during encounters. Images were scaled up for this post; originals are at proper scale and in .png. In this example, if I were to make the full background black you lose the left leg of the monster. changing it to white just looks like a mess. This issue is present in all of these encounter sprites some more severe than others. 

All of these images are trimmed down as shown and I was ready to make sprite sheets (GB & GBC) for submission in hopes of preserving the images. Aside from the main character there isn't much imagery available for this game on the site. I would hope that anyone that wanted to use these sprites can modify the backgrounds as they see fit. Anyway, I just wanted to know if this was allowed before putting any more effort into this.

Thanks.

You need a tile viewer to rip these. Screenshots for GB / GBC are only useful for backgrounds, not sprites which usually mingle with the bg colours.

(11-27-2022, 05:19 PM)Barack Obama Wrote: [ -> ]You need a tile viewer to rip these. Screenshots for GB / GBC are only useful for backgrounds, not sprites which usually mingle with the bg colours.

I was afraid of that. I did try that with yychr, tile molester and tile layer pro and a few others. Spent days trying to figure out why it looks like a mess; adjusted offset, hunted down the game's pallet used viewers from emulators but no gravy. Some emulators did see the sprites correctly but only as I'm playing and that is too much of a commitment at present, I need a monitor with a much lower resolution. I wish I could increase the size of those OAM viewers, tile arrangers, etc. It's so tiny on my 4k display I can't really see it well.

Anyway, I think I'll table this for now until I get an appropriate display. Thanks for the info.

Can you upload one or two of the tilesets? I would like to see what it looks like.

From my intuition, playing the game, making screenshots of each enemy and then using the tiles from the viewer to cut the sprite out of the screenshot would be my approach of choice. In this case, sprite offsets don't even matter since you only need the parts which melt with the background.

I'm pretty sure the sprites are the background tiles.

(11-28-2022, 06:46 AM)Deathbringer Wrote: [ -> ]I'm pretty sure the sprites are the background tiles.

I think that is accurate. Revisiting the tile viewer, every one of these sprites have a background while the character sprites do not.

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(11-27-2022, 11:57 PM)Barack Obama Wrote: [ -> ]Can you upload one or two of the tilesets? I would like to see what it looks like.

From my intuition, playing the game, making screenshots of each enemy and then using the tiles from the viewer to cut the sprite out of the screenshot would be my approach of choice. In this case, sprite offsets don't even matter since you only need the parts which melt with the background.

I'll work on that today and get back to you.

(11-27-2022, 11:57 PM)Barack Obama Wrote: [ -> ]Can you upload one or two of the tilesets? I would like to see what it looks like.

From my intuition, playing the game, making screenshots of each enemy and then using the tiles from the viewer to cut the sprite out of the screenshot would be my approach of choice. In this case, sprite offsets don't even matter since you only need the parts which melt with the background.

Here you go, I included the largest of the sprites and some others.

Looks like Deathbringer is right about this, it also explains why the battle background is very simple and also never changes.
The enemies flickering while being hit makes them look like sprites, but since their tiles and the bg line up perfectly and also look the same on the edges, it's merely just an illusion.

(11-28-2022, 11:45 AM)Barack Obama Wrote: [ -> ]Looks like Deathbringer is right about this, it also explains why the battle background is very simple and also never changes.
The enemies flickering while being hit makes them look like sprites, but since their tiles and the bg line up perfectly and also look the same on the edges, it's merely just an illusion.

So that said, can I go ahead and submit these as is?

I would say so, yes.