Quite likely, it's an 8-bit index into the standard MacOS system color table--the one used if you create a GIF image and use the Macintosh color palette.
So it's essentially like a GIF, except that it is not LZW compressed and it does not have the color lookup table built in.
ok that's kinda what I figured. (speculating the $01 at the start specifies to use a 'default palate'?) Now where might I find that color palate?
