EarthBound/Map Data/Palettes

	Map Palettes
Game	EarthBound
Start Address	0x1A7EA7
End Address	0x1AFCA6
# of Entries	168
Entry Length	192 bytes (0xC0)
Total Length	32256 bytes (0x7E00)
	Back to the ROM map

This is a sub-page of EarthBound/Map Data.

Data block of the palette data used for game maps.

Format

Each entry represents palette data for use by EarthBound map graphics for any sector. Each entry is itself comprised of 6 subpalettes (to create 6 different options for palettes to be used by any given map minitile), each comprised of 16 colors.

Because the first color in each palette is generally ignored by the SNES and treated as transparent, EarthBound uses the bytes for that first color to instead stash some control data about the palette.

Terminology Note: What the EarthBound modding community (and this page) generally refers to as a "subpalette" is itself referred to in the SNES development guide as a "palette", and therefore the grouping of 6 of those, which is generally referred to in EarthBound modding (and in this page) as a "palette" (at least in the context of map changes), would in general SNES development be a group of palettes.

Alternate Palette Flag

Length: 2 bytes (0x2)
Offset within entry: 0x00
Range of values: 0x0000-0xffff

If non-zero, directs that the palette will be replaced by an alternate (designated by Alternate Palette Pointer), depending on flag values. The alternate palette will then itself have its Alternate Palette Flag checked to determine if it should be replaced by another alternate palette.

Bits 0x7ffff: A flag number to check. Note that this allows up to 32767 flag numbers, but most of these bits will always be zero in unmodified EarthBound where the highest possible flag is 1024. There are however popular mods that greatly increase the number of possible flags
Bit 0x8000: Alternate palette will be used if this bit matches the checked flag's status

For example, given a value 0x01a6, the alternate palette will be used if flag 422 (FLG_ONET_DAYBREAK) is not set (vs it would be looking for the flag to be set if 0x8000 were 1). This is the value used in the main Onett palette to instead use the "nighttime" palette until the flag is set to make the game "daytime".

Subpalette 0

Length: 30 bytes (0x1e)
Offset within entry: 0x02
Range of values: color values

15-color subpalette. Combined with Alternate Palette Flag as the first ignored transparent "color" to create a 16-color subpalette.

Colors are each stored as little endian (2 bytes):

gggrrrrr 0bbbbbgg

The subpalette is formatted as 15 colors in a row.

Alternate Palette Pointer

Length: 2 bytes (0x2)
Offset within entry: 0x20
Range of values: 0x0000-0xffff

2-byte pointer to an alternative palette. Combined with the bank used in the first entry of the Palette Pointer Table, which is $DA in unmodified EarthBound where all map palettes are always stored in a single block within that bank.

See Alternate Palette Flag for behavior of when the alternate palette pointer is used.