The most widely used Game Boy palette is four greens: #0f380f, #306230, #8bac0f and #9bbc0f, from darkest to lightest. Those values are an approximation, not an official Nintendo spec. The original 1989 Game Boy stored just four levels of brightness per pixel, and the green came from its LCD screen, so emulators and artists each settled on their own hex codes. Below are the common set, the popular alternatives, and how to apply them.
What are the Game Boy’s four colors in hex? #
| Shade | Hex | RGB | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darkest | #0f380f | 15, 56, 15 | Outlines, deep shadows |
| Dark | #306230 | 48, 98, 48 | Shadows, mid-dark detail |
| Light | #8bac0f | 139, 172, 15 | Mid-tones, lit surfaces |
| Lightest | #9bbc0f | 155, 188, 15 | Background, highlights |
This is the palette most people mean by “Game Boy green,” and it’s the one Pixelize uses for its Game Boy preset. Note how close the two light shades are. That compressed top end is part of the murky, low-contrast look people remember from the original screen.
Why did the Game Boy only have four shades? #
The original Game Boy (Japan, April 21, 1989; North America, July 31, 1989) used a monochrome super-twisted nematic (STN) LCD with a 160 x 144 pixel resolution. According to Wikipedia’s Game Boy article, it displayed four shades of gray-green.
Four shades means two bits per pixel (00, 01, 10 and 11). That’s cheap to store and fast to draw. A full screen of 160 x 144 pixels at 2 bits each is 5,760 bytes. The hardware only knew brightness levels 0 to 3. What those levels actually looked like depended on the screen, the viewing angle and the light you were sitting in.
Is there an official Game Boy hex palette? #
No. The console never output RGB color, so there’s nothing to measure directly. Every “Game Boy palette” is somebody’s attempt to match the screen, and they differ noticeably:
| Palette | Colors, dark to light | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Classic green (most common) | #0f380f, #306230, #8bac0f, #9bbc0f | Widely circulated approximation |
| bgb emulator default | #081820, #346856, #88c070, #e0f8d0 | The bgb Game Boy emulator, via Lospec |
| Game Boy Pocket grayscale | #000000, #545454, #a9a9a9, #ffffff | Pixelize’s Game Boy Pocket preset |
The bgb palette is cooler and has a much paler top shade, so it reads more like a modern, backlit take on the original. The classic greens are more yellow and murkier.
The Game Boy Pocket switched to a film-compensated (FSTN) LCD that, per Wikipedia, produced a true black-and-white display instead of green. That’s why “Game Boy Pocket” palettes are gray.
What are the best Game Boy-style palettes? #
Pixel artists have made dozens of four-color palettes in the Game Boy spirit. They keep the four-shade constraint but change the mood. A few popular ones from Lospec’s palette list:
| Palette | Hex codes, dark to light | Creator | Mood |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kirokaze Gameboy | #332c50, #46878f, #94e344, #e2f3e4 | Kirokaze | Purple shadows, bright green |
| Ice Cream GB | #7c3f58, #eb6b6f, #f9a875, #fff6d3 | Kerrie Lake | Warm pastel, pink and peach |
| Rustic GB | #2c2137, #764462, #a96868, #edb4a1 | Kerrie Lake | Dusky, muted rose |
| Mist GB | #2d1b00, #1e606e, #5ab9a8, #c4f0c2 | Kerrie Lake | Cool teal, misty |
Ice Cream GB, Rustic GB and Mist GB all ship in Pixelize. Rustic GB’s hex values are stored in a different order on Lospec (#2c2137, #764462, #edb4a1, #a96868). The table above sorts them from dark to light.
How is the Game Boy Color palette different? #
The Game Boy Color (1998) is a different machine. According to Wikipedia’s list of console palettes, it chooses from a 15-bit palette of 32,768 colors, with eight background palettes of four colors and eight sprite palettes of three colors plus transparency. That’s up to 56 colors on screen without special tricks. If you want the classic four-green look, you want the original Game Boy palette, not the Game Boy Color.
How to use the Game Boy palette #
In a pixel editor #
Most editors let you paste or import hex codes. Lospec offers its palettes as downloadable files in formats such as .HEX, .GPL (GIMP) and .ASE (Adobe), which import straight into most tools. Keep the colors ordered dark to light so shading ramps are easy to pick.
Tips when drawing with four shades:
- Use the darkest shade for outlines and the lightest for the background, the way most Game Boy games did.
- Build forms with the two middle shades. With only four values, every step counts.
- Use checkerboard dithering between two adjacent shades when you need a fifth tone.
On a photo #
Photos have thousands of tones, and this palette has four, so dithering does most of the work. In Pixelize, pick Game Boy on the Color tab, then try Atkinson or Floyd on the Pixel tab. To use a palette that isn’t built in, like bgb or Kirokaze, open Palette Studio, tap New Palette, and type in the four hex codes. How to make a custom pixel art color palette walks through building and testing your own. For the full photo walkthrough, including which photos work best, see how to make a Game Boy style photo.
Frequently asked questions #
What are the Game Boy’s colors? #
The original Game Boy displayed four shades of green-gray. The most common hex approximation is #0f380f, #306230, #8bac0f and #9bbc0f, from darkest to lightest.
Was the original Game Boy screen actually green? #
Yes, the original model’s STN LCD had a distinctly green-yellow tint. The Game Boy Pocket’s FSTN screen was closer to true black and white, which is why Pocket-style palettes use grays.
How many colors could the Game Boy Color show? #
The Game Boy Color picks from 32,768 colors (15-bit RGB). Without special programming tricks it shows up to 56 on screen at once, split across eight background palettes and eight sprite palettes.
Why does my Game Boy palette look washed out? #
The two lightest classic greens (#8bac0f and #9bbc0f) are very close, so light areas can merge. Raise contrast before applying the palette, or switch to a palette with a paler top shade such as the bgb version (#e0f8d0).
How many colors does the Game Boy Camera use? #
The Game Boy Camera (1998) takes 128 x 112 pixel photos in the Game Boy’s four-shade palette, using dithering to suggest more tones. It stores up to 30 photos and can print them on thermal paper with the Game Boy Printer.