Arcade Game Typography

It&#x27;s a shame these are all presented with giant blocky pixels. It makes some of the fonts look <i>really</i> ugly (ex. Lady Bug). Better IMO to present them as they would appear on the medium for which the designers intended them, a CRT. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hottechzone.com&#x2F;is-an-old-crt-television-perfect-for-retro-gaming&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hottechzone.com&#x2F;is-an-old-crt-television-perfect...</a> has some good examples of the difference.<p>Another post from the same site, with a high-quality image of a Space Invaders CRT for direct comparison with the first example in the article: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hottechzone.com&#x2F;taito-space-invaders-arcade-machine&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hottechzone.com&#x2F;taito-space-invaders-arcade-mach...</a>

In case you’re looking for a cheaper copy (or that sells out) I think that’s just a hardback version of <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;smile.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;gp&#x2F;aw&#x2F;d&#x2F;0500021740" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;smile.amazon.co.uk&#x2F;gp&#x2F;aw&#x2F;d&#x2F;0500021740</a>

On ZX Spectrum, games often had fonts based on MICR[1] or OCR-A[2]. Example: [3]. I still don&#x27;t understand why. I see these fonts in the wild very, very rarely. Was they popular in UK in 80s maybe? Was they used even outside bank cheques?<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Magnetic_ink_character_recognition" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Magnetic_ink_character_recogni...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;OCR-A" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;OCR-A</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;serve&#x2F;zx_Alien_8_1985_Ultimate_Play_The_Game_a&#x2F;Alien_8_1985_Ultimate_Play_The_Game_a_screenshot.gif" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.org&#x2F;serve&#x2F;zx_Alien_8_1985_Ultimate_Play_The_...</a>

I&#x27;m a sucker for these old bitmap fonts. Here&#x27;s a collection of links I&#x27;ve bookmarked over the years:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;damieng.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2011&#x2F;02&#x2F;20&#x2F;typography-in-8-bits-system-fonts" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;damieng.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2011&#x2F;02&#x2F;20&#x2F;typography-in-8-bits-sys...</a> and <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;damieng.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2011&#x2F;03&#x2F;27&#x2F;typography-in-16-bits-system-fonts" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;damieng.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2011&#x2F;03&#x2F;27&#x2F;typography-in-16-bits-sy...</a><p>* <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.type-invaders.com&#x2F;sinclair&#x2F;8bitfonts&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.type-invaders.com&#x2F;sinclair&#x2F;8bitfonts&#x2F;</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;opengameart.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;the-collection-of-8-bit-fonts-for-grafx2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;opengameart.org&#x2F;content&#x2F;the-collection-of-8-bit-font...</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.nesdev.com&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=8440" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.nesdev.com&#x2F;viewtopic.php?t=8440</a> (scroll down a bit)

I&#x27;m an even bigger fan of the slightly larger and more detailed bitmap fonts used in the early 90s, popularized on Amiga, arcade machines, and in particular the demoscene. These fonts were the inspiration for the Voxel Quest logo [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ksr-ugc.imgix.net&#x2F;assets&#x2F;011&#x2F;631&#x2F;892&#x2F;83281ea18b64eab16462df01b2f10908_original.png?ixlib=rb-2.1.0&amp;crop=faces&amp;w=1552&amp;h=873&amp;fit=crop&amp;v=1463685891&amp;auto=format&amp;frame=1&amp;q=92&amp;s=2b5a3fdab8c787c280dc6a8b25277744" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ksr-ugc.imgix.net&#x2F;assets&#x2F;011&#x2F;631&#x2F;892&#x2F;83281ea18b64eab...</a>

Don&#x27;t sunset bitmap fonts just yet (or many old school gamedev dark arts). They can be more portable and faster to render than vectors ;)

So what&#x27;s your favorite, HN?<p>Personally I&#x27;m a big fan of<p>- the Apple ][ font,<p>- what I call the &quot;Nintendo Font&quot; that was in many 8-bit NES games and arcade games. It&#x27;s the font in Pac-man. I believe some Atari games from the 70&#x27;s used it,<p>- The VT220 font - I use the GlassTTY font in PuTTY, I really like it.

Used to love making bitmap fonts in DPaint on the Amiga, something quite meditative about it almost.

These are beautiful and very on-trend rn. Anyone have links to good webfont versions?

It would be interesting to pass all those fonts trough a neural network so a GAN try to generate some new ones

Does it have the vector fonts?

So no fonts included?

this looks so good! thanks.