Marathon (1994)’s 8-bit Color Palettes

Strictly speaking, as far as I’m aware, none of the Marathon games had predefined 256-color palettes; they simply built the palette ad-hoc from what was in their shapes files, with the small problem that if you tried to use more than 256 colors, they’d crash. This is no longer necessary with Aleph One, but if you care about 8-bit software mode at all, it’s still worth adhering to the predefined palettes.

ShapeFusion (the modern replacement for Bungie’s shapes editor, Anvil) doesn’t actually check whether you’re using colors adhering to the shapes’ standard color palette. As a result, if you use it to generate a color ramp, the colors it creates may or may not actually adhere to your shapes file’s pre-existing colors. If you generate a ramp of the same length from the same exact colors every time, its contents will be consistent with each other every time, but they may not adhere to Bungie’s colors.

I’ve thus compiled Marathon (1994)’s palette, in both web color and RGB formats. A few notes:

As always, please contact me if you notice any errors or omissions; see my introductory and advanced mapmaking pages and annotated Anvil help balloons for more context.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Table of Contents
  3. The Color Palette
    1. ⬤ #FFFFFF
    2. ⬤ #FEF495 (black body ramp)
    3. ⬤ #C1C6EA (seventeen-color light blue ramp)
    4. ⬤ #FFE716
    5. ⬤ #E1DDC3
    6. ⬤ #FBAF8B
    7. ⬤ #00FF00
    8. ⬤ #FFD39B
    9. ⬤ #39E48B
    10. ⬤ #C7AB9B
    11. ⬤ #00B0C9
    12. ⬤ #FF0012
    13. ⬤ #618961
    14. ⬤ #B36E1A
    15. ⬤ #9B4AEE
    16. ⬤ #A10064
    17. ⬤ #0C00FF
    18. ⬤ #3A445C (isolated four-color ramp)
    19. ⬤ #0000FF (dummy transparency colors)

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The Color Palette

#WebRGB
0#FFFFFF255255255
1#F0F0F0240240240
2#E1E1E1225225225
3#D2D2D2210210210
4#C3C3C3195195195
5#B4B4B4180180180
6#A5A5A5165165165
7#969696150150150
8#878787135135135
9#787878120120120
10#696969105105105
11#5A5A5A 90 90 90
12#4B4B4B 75 75 75
13#3C3C3C 60 60 60
14#2D2D2D 45 45 45
15#1E1E1E 30 30 30
16#0F0F0F 15 15 15
17#000000 0 0 0
18#FEF495254244149
19#FEF06F254240111
20#FEEA3A254234 58
21#FEDD15254221 21
22#FECA12254202 18
23#FEB80E254184 14
24#FEA60B254166 11
25#FE9408254148 8
26#FE7B03254123 3
27#FE6203254 98 3
28#FE4F01254 79 1
29#FE3D01254 61 1
30#FE2A01254 42 1
31#FE1801254 24 1
32#FE0601254 6 1
33#E40101228 1 1
34#BE0101190 1 1
35#990101153 1 1
36#740101116 1 1
37#4F0101 79 1 1
38#270000 39 0 0
39#C1C6EA193198234
40#B5BADB181186219
41#A9ADCD169173205
42#9DA1BE157161190
43#9195B0145149176
44#8588A1133136161
45#797C92121124146
46#6D6F84109111132
47#616375 97 99117
48#545766 84 87102
49#484A58 72 74 88
50#3C3E49 60 62 73
51#30323B 48 50 59
52#24252C 36 37 44
53#18191D 24 25 29
54#0C0C0F 12 12 15
55#FFE716255231 22
56#EBD514235213 20
57#D8C313216195 19
58#C4B211196178 17
59#B1A00F177160 15
60#9D8E0E157142 14
61#897C0C137124 12
62#766B0A118107 10
63#625908 98 89 8
64#4E4707 78 71 7
65#3B3505 59 53 5
66#272403 39 36 3
67#141202 20 18 2
68#E1DDC3225221195
69#DAD5B4218213180
70#D2CCA5210204165
71#CBC496203196150
72#B7B087183176135
73#A29D78162157120
74#8E8969142137105
75#7A765A122118 90
76#66624B102 98 75
77#514E3C 81 78 60
78#3D3B2D 61 59 45
79#29271E 41 39 30
80#14140F 20 20 15
81#FBAF8B251175139
82#F1A37F241163127
83#E69773230151115
84#DC8B67220139103
85#D27F5B210127 91
86#C8734F200115 79
87#BD6743189103 67
88#B35B37179 91 55
89#954C2E149 76 46
90#773D25119 61 37
91#5A2E1C 90 46 28
92#3C1E12 60 30 18
93#1E0F09 30 15 9
94#00FF00 0255 0
95#00EB00 0235 0
96#00D800 0216 0
97#00C400 0196 0
98#00B100 0177 0
99#009D00 0157 0
100#008900 0137 0
101#007600 0118 0
102#006200 0 98 0
103#004E00 0 78 0
104#003B00 0 59 0
105#002700 0 39 0
106#001400 0 20 0
107#FFD39B255211155
108#EBBF83235191131
109#DBAB6B219171107
110#CB9757203151 87
111#BB8347187131 71
112#A77337167115 55
113#976327151 99 39
114#815521129 85 33
115#6C471C108 71 28
116#563916 86 57 22
117#412A11 65 42 17
118#2B1C0B 43 28 11
119#160E06 22 14 6
120#39E48B 57228139
121#31CF7D 49207125
122#2ABA6F 42186111
123#22A661 34166 97
124#1A9153 26145 83
125#137C45 19124 69
126#0B6737 11103 55
127#0A582F 10 88 47
128#084927 8 73 39
129#063B1F 6 59 31
130#052C18 5 44 24
131#031D10 3 29 16
132#020F08 2 15 8
133#C7AB9B199171155
134#B79B8B183155139
135#AB8B7F171139127
136#9B7B6F155123111
137#8B6F63139111 99
138#7B5F57123 95 87
139#6B4F4B107 79 75
140#5F433F 95 67 63
141#4F3733 79 55 51
142#3F2B27 63 43 39
143#2F1F1F 47 31 31
144#1F1313 31 19 19
145#130B0B 19 11 11
146#00B0C9 0176201
147#00A2BA 0162186
148#0095AA 0149170
149#00879B 0135155
150#007A8B 0122139
151#006C7C 0108124
152#005F6C 0 95108
153#00515D 0 81 93
154#00444D 0 68 77
155#00363E 0 54 62
156#00292E 0 41 46
157#001B1F 0 27 31
158#000E0F 0 14 15
159#FF0012255 0 18
160#EB0011235 0 17
161#D8000F216 0 15
162#C4000E196 0 14
163#B1000C177 0 12
164#9D000B157 0 11
165#89000A137 0 10
166#760008118 0 8
167#620007 98 0 7
168#4E0006 78 0 6
169#3B0004 59 0 4
170#270003 39 0 3
171#140001 20 0 1
172#618961 97137 97
173#587E58 88126 88
174#4E724E 78114 78
175#456745 69103 69
176#3B5B3B 59 91 59
177#345134 52 81 52
178#2E472E 46 71 46
179#273D27 39 61 39
180#213321 33 51 33
181#1A281A 26 40 26
182#141E14 20 30 20
183#0D140D 13 20 13
184#070A07 7 10 7
185#B36E1A179110 26
186#A56618165102 24
187#975D16151 93 22
188#8A5514138 85 20
189#7C4C12124 76 18
190#6E4410110 68 16
191#603B0E 96 59 14
192#53330C 83 51 12
193#452A0A 69 42 10
194#372208 55 34 8
195#291906 41 25 6
196#1C1104 28 17 4
197#0E0802 14 8 2
198#9B4AEE155 74238
199#9040E5144 64229
200#8437DD132 55221
201#7A2ED4122 46212
202#6F24CB111 36203
203#631BC3 99 27195
204#5718AB 87 24171
205#4A1492 74 20146
206#3E107A 62 16122
207#310D61 49 13 97
208#240A49 36 10 73
209#190731 25 7 49
210#0C0319 12 3 25
211#A10064161 0100
212#95005C149 0 92
213#880055136 0 85
214#7C004D124 0 77
215#6F0045111 0 69
216#63003E 99 0 62
217#570036 87 0 54
218#4A002E 74 0 46
219#3E0026 62 0 38
220#32001F 50 0 31
221#250017 37 0 23
222#19000F 25 0 15
223#0C0008 12 0 8
224#0C00FF 12 0255
225#0B00EB 11 0235
226#0A00D8 10 0216
227#0900C4 9 0196
228#0800B1 8 0177
229#07009D 7 0157
230#060089 6 0137
231#060076 6 0118
232#050062 5 0 98
233#04004E 4 0 78
234#03003B 3 0 59
235#020027 2 0 39
236#010014 1 0 20
237#3A445C 58 68 92
238#2E374C 46 55 76
239#222B40 34 43 64
240#1A202F 26 32 47
241#0000FF 0 0255
242#FF00FF255 0255
243#00FFFF 0255255

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