How to grab sprites
Sprites are small moving graphics that are used in 2D games. Some sprites have reached cult status and are often used as avatars on Internet forums. A sprite can also be used in a design of a webpage, and in many other places.
There are tools that can go through a game file and look for the segment in the file where the sprite data is stored and then save a graphics file containing a dump of the sprites.
Specific sprite software is fine but I am going to learn the cheap, fast and easy way of grabbing a sprite (or in this case a logo).
This image shows my XP workbench and I have a Game Boy emulator running the game Bomb Jack. I own this game on a real cartridge as you can see on this page that show you how to play black and white Game Boy games on a GBA micro.
1. Preparing the grab: Set up the emulator
Sprites are pixel graphics so it is very important that the emulator is not set up to filter the graphics. Filters make an old game look softer by using a mathematical algorithm to smooth out the corners of each pixel making a game look more modern, but filters will not make a nice looking sprite so start by turning filters off.
2. Preparing the grab: Turn off the filters
Another important thing to remember is to always grab the image in the original resolution of the game. If you compare this image with the previous you will notice that the window is dramatically smaller, that is because the window is now four times smaller than before, and set to the original size.
3. Lets grab the screen
It is now time to grab the screen. It is recommended that you pause the emulation before grabbing the screen. Press the button on your keyboard with the name “Print Screen” one time and then open up Photoshop, select “file/new” and then select “edit/paste” from the drop down menu. Your grabbed screen can now be edited in Photoshop. You can also, with the window of the emulator selected”, hold the “Alt” button and then press “Print Screen” this will grab only the selected window.
4. Time to get our hands dirty
Right, we now have material to work with in Photoshop. I want to cut out the logo of the game, while not a sprite I the same technique can be used for grabbing sprites, like the bomb in front of the menu on the page. In Photoshop crop the image around the sprite or image you want to grab. As you can see here is the Bomb Jack logo, if you look close enough the background color is not transparent but a very discrete shade of white and gray.
5. Deleting the background of the sprite
In order to make the background transparent use the “Magic Wand Tool” in Photoshop to select the background area, then press “Delete” on your keyboard and then deselect the background. You can now save your sprite as a GIF or Ping with transparent background.
6. The final result: A clean and nice sprite (logo)
This is the result. This logo was a very simple image to grab because the background was a single color. The “Magic Wand Tool” could probably not be used if the background was more complex. If there is a more complex background you have to select each pixel by hand and then delete them one by one in tight places around the sprite.
So I hope you learned something from this short tutorial and keep the sprites alive.