/sixpack

Sixpack is a tool for converting images to graphics data suitable for video game consoles. Some of its features are:

• Resizing with nearest neighbor or smooth sampling.
• Color quantization. Adjustable down to 2 colors, with or without dithering.
• Removal of redundant tiles.
• Removal of redundant bitplanes for systems with planar graphics.
• Compression of graphics data (LZSS/aPLib/PackFire/RLE).
• Automatic generation of palette data and name table data.

The currently supported systems are:

• NEC TurboGrafx
• SEGA Game Gear
• SEGA Master System
• SEGA Megadrive
• SEGA 32X
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System

2010-07-29:

• Optimized the apLib decoders for the SNES and TurboGrafx.
• Added a apLib decoder version for the TurboGrafx that decrunches straight to VRAM.
• Implemented support for the -chain compression mode for SNES and TurboGrafx (tile data is converted from planar to linear before compression). See demo\snes\test_aplib.asm and demo\tgx\test_aplib.asm.

2010-07-27:

• Added an aPLib decoder for the TurboGrafx.

2010-06-23:

• Added an aPLib decoder for the SNES.
• Added a PackFire decoder for the 32X.

2010-05-21:

• Sixpack can now be used on Linux (without Wine).

2010-04-18:

• Added aPLib decoders for SEGA Megadrive/Game Gear/Master System. Thanks to SyX and Metalbrain for the code.

2010-04-05:

• Added support for compressing the generated graphics data with aPLib. An aPLib decruncher is only included for the 32X at the moment.
• Made some small optimizations in the SNES LZSS decoder.

2009-12-09:

• Added support for generating data suitable for the 32X RLE framebuffer mode.

2009-11-30:

• Added the SEGA 32X as a supported target.

2009-11-25:

• Added an LZSS decoder for the SNES.

2009-08-29:

• Added an LZSS decoder for the SEGA Megadrive.

2009-04-22:

• Added the SEGA Megadrive and the SNES as supported targets (no compression at the moment).
• The LZSS dictionary size can now be changed (either manually, or by letting the packer select the best size).
• Released the source code of the tool (C++, hopefully portable).

2009-04-03:

• Added the SEGA Game Gear as a supported target.
• Added support for dithering.
• The background color is now used when padding images, instead of color 0.

Current version (931 kB)

Older versions:

Release 12
Release 11
Release 10
Release 9
Release 8
Release 7
Release 6
Release 5
Release 4
Release 3
Release 2
Release 1