Swizzling

Very interesting. The reason 8-bit textures are the way they are isn't due to some quasi encryption on KONAMI's part, but rather the way the GS on the PS2 works (by swizzling the textures). More info can be found here. Notice the images on swizzled 8-bit->32-bit textures look IDENTICAL to what happens when you rip the texture from the game and scale it up.

Looks like they really did just rip the assets and make a PC version. Funnily enough the document says that is possible to swizzle in software using C, which we are doing.