Book notes
Arcade Game Typography

Arcade Game Typography by Toshi Omigari

Read in August 2020

"A typeface is an abstract idea, a design that does not take any physical form, while a font is the physical manifestation of a typeface."

Many of the arcade fonts were designed for 8x8, 16x16 or 24x24 due to limitations of resources. This book is restricted to 8x8 variations since they were the pioneers.

Difference between Typeface and Font

A typeface is an abstract idea, a design that does not take any physical form, while a font is the physical manifestation of a typeface. Traditionally, different sizes were separate fonts; metal type could not be scaled, and you had to have each size in your printing inventory. If you have Times New Roman in 6pt metal, 12pt metal, and digital OpenType.

Screenplay writing and typography

In screenplay writing, a general typography rule is to use 12pt Courier on Letter or A4 format. The idea is that a page should equal a minute of screen time if written in this format. This varies wildly in practice. For example, Tarantino's screenplays easily span several pages in a minute of screen time.

01. Sans Regular

Quiz Show

Pac-man uses Gee Bee, which is a modified version of Quiz Show.

Cheeky Mouse

Stylish A and weird full width W.

Son of Phoenix

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

Putio 🤠

02. Sans Bold

Raiders5

Rude middle-finger Q.

Assault

Klarna 💅

03. Sans Light

Space Invaders

Simple and balanced 👍

Marble Madness

and story of Mark Cerny.

Diamond Run

Symmetrical 6 and 9.

04. Serif

Quizmaster

German discipline.

05. MICR

Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) is a printing technology invented in the United States in 50s. It uses ink containing magnetic iron oxide and a very mechanical numeric typeface that allows the characters to be read by both the human eye and magnetic scanners.

Zed Blade

06. Slanted

Super Monaco GP

07. Calligraphy & Lettering

Quake Tournament Arcade

There were not many greyscale specimens, this looks nice with all the antialiasing and shadows.