Extract text from Nintendo DS color palettes (NCLR)
To convert NCLR color palettes to another format, you need NitroPaint or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Game Palette File" file type, you need software like NitroPaint or a similar tool.
The .nclr file is a proprietary Nintendo DS Color Palette file. It contains the raw color data used for 2D sprites, UI elements, and background layers in Nintendo DS games. ROM hackers and translators encounter these files when extracting assets from NDS game files.
These files are typically opened and modified using reverse-engineered community tools like NitroPaint or Tinke. The main disadvantage of the .nclr format is that it is completely closed and proprietary. It stores data in a hardware-specific 15-bit BGR555 color format. You cannot open it in standard design software like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP. It is useless outside of the specific context of Nintendo DS game modification.
To edit these colors in modern software, users must convert .nclr files to standard palette formats like PAL or ACT (Adobe Color Table). If you want to view the actual graphics, you must combine the .nclr palette with a graphic file like NCGR and export them together as a PNG or BMP image.
Because this is a closed, undocumented format, standard online converters fail to process it. They do not know how to parse the "RLCN" file header or decode the 15-bit color space. Often, only the original game engine or dedicated fan-made utilities can correctly map the data. Our analysis tools can inspect the binary header to verify it is a valid Nintendo resource and display the raw hex content to help you identify internal file structures.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NCLR file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert NCLR file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use NitroPaint or similar software from the "Nintendo DS Color Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to NCLR, try NitroPaint or another comparable tool in the "Nintendo DS Color Data" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NCLR converter.