Game Boy DMG (1989) Palette

Four shades of LCD green and a cult following four decades long.

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Era and hardware

Era: 1989 · Hardware: Sharp LR35902 + LCD

Key facts

  • Exactly four shades; no other colors are possible
  • All four shades are tints of the same green LCD substrate
  • Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Light shifted the green slightly toward neutral grey

How to use this palette for cursor design

Commit to the four colors. Adding a fifth (even white) breaks the spell instantly.

Open your pixel editor of choice (Aseprite, Piskel, or LibreSprite), import the palette, and follow the five-pass cursor design tutorial: silhouette, outline, fill, highlight, accent. The palette will impose its own discipline — that is the entire point. For deeper background on retro palettes in general, see the retro palette guide.

Cursor packs already in this palette

If you would rather download than design, browse the collections page — collections are organized by palette family and several map directly to the historic palettes documented here.