The 8-bit arcade font, deconstructed
In his book Arcade Game Typography, type designer Toshi Omagari breaks down the evolution, design, and history of arcade game fonts.
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In the video above, he guides us through this delightful 8-bit world and breaks it down pixel by pixel.
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Let's talk about sources!
Archive.org has a wonderful collection of vintage arcade games that you can play online. This is where many of the videos of arcade games came from. archive.org/details/interneta...
In addition to that, Barcade allowed us to film their collection of arcades. barcadenewyork.com/
Toshi's book served as a blueprint for all the fonts you see in the video. You can purchase it here: thamesandhudson.com/arcade-ga...
Finally, a few great places on the internet I discovered while researching the video:
This arcade font writer created by @photonstorm arcade.photonstorm.com/
Archive.org's magazine and manuals collection:
archive.org/details/arcademan...
archive.org/details/gamemagaz...
This list of websites compiled by Atarimania: www.atarimania.com/list-atari-...
By Design is a Vox video series about the intersection of design and technology. Watch all episodes in this series right here on KZread: • Design, explained
Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out www.vox.com.
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Пікірлер: 642
Thanks so much for watching the video! I’ve listed quite a few fun things to check out in the description, including a link to archive.org’s internet arcade, which allows you to play hundreds of vintage arcade games for free online, and Toshi’s book, which will keep you occupied for hours if you’re bored at home right now! - Estelle
@DJ-sr9gp
4 жыл бұрын
Your political videos aren't engaging. Please make more of this content, it's what I subscribed for.
@jeremiahblessing3891
4 жыл бұрын
"I" have listed??? HMMMMMMMMMM
@CanuckMonkey13
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for making this video! During my internship with a software company I faced the challenge of creating buttons for about two dozen utilities, and was told to make the icon for each button be a string of text that uniquely identified the utility in question. IIRC, the icons were 16x16 pixels and I was usually trying to fit two lines of 2-4 characters into that space. It was nightmarish! Ever since then I've been fascinated by this subject, but never actually researched it. I learned SO MUCH from this one short video, and will be following up on several of your links. Amazing work!
@vamsi_vardhan
4 жыл бұрын
Hi 👋
@DarkadeTV
4 жыл бұрын
I'll try changing my terminal font to an arcade font see how it goes
finally a recommended video not related to coronavirus
@muhammadyusoffjamaluddin
4 жыл бұрын
Yeap i love it. Thanks to Jose
@batshapedheart
4 жыл бұрын
bruh! for real!
@sparrow56able
4 жыл бұрын
then stop watching videos about coronavirus
@muhammadyusoffjamaluddin
4 жыл бұрын
@@sparrow56able Tell that to KZread my genius L0Rd
@Belioyt
4 жыл бұрын
You are pretentious, this video is not old enough to be recommended plus no one forces you to watch corona virus content.
Something so simple yet so complicated...
Vox could make a video about paint drying at this point and I'd watch it
@cassif19
4 жыл бұрын
And probably enjoy it too
@CatholicWeeb
4 жыл бұрын
RTGame proved that Watching Paint Dry is something people are absolutely willing to watch.
@suwinkhamchaiwong8382
4 жыл бұрын
Just Monika.
@notacaulkhead
4 жыл бұрын
Irish Eggs is that Call Me Kevin’s 2nd channel?
@UltraProbe
4 жыл бұрын
@@suwinkhamchaiwong8382 Monika always lives.
00:35 "you probably recognize it when it says this" ROASTED
As a graphic designer, its always nice to learn about graphic design and typography in the old times before Photoshop and Adobe softwares launched and changed the game.
7:10 “and legends of zelda” you killed da good vibe
@mrecks7782
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah. I think you just spotted a milennial. ;D
@PunchKickBlog
4 жыл бұрын
Zelda is my favourite hero in videogames
@fireaza
4 жыл бұрын
There's multiple "Legend of Zelda" games, so it's not *technically* wrong to refer to them all as "legends".
@mrecks7782
4 жыл бұрын
@@PunchKickBlog Hahaha! :'D
@mrecks7782
4 жыл бұрын
@@fireaza It should be "Ledgend of Zeldas", but hey... I'm splitting hairs for my own amusement. "Ledgends of Zeldsies" Nailed it!
Always fun seeing those classic games in action!
Finally, a non-coronavirus content!
@DMH-bt2zo
4 жыл бұрын
@Christian A. Yeah.
@mysticmarble94
4 жыл бұрын
Somebody upload a video of the word Coronavirus written in Atari font lol 😅
@ginglyst
4 жыл бұрын
but then in the comments some one mentions that c-word... 😤
@futuristica1710
4 жыл бұрын
Tons of content without Covid-19. Weird algorithm that hits you guys.
@liz-gj1vz
4 жыл бұрын
yes a content
Even memes are carefully crafted...
@RoyalSlashOasis
4 жыл бұрын
Kevin Shirley I see what you did “their”
@Phoenix-ip5kg
4 жыл бұрын
Fellow meme creator!
@muddi900
4 жыл бұрын
One does not simply create a meme. *lotr_m.gif*
I've worked a little bit in PICO-8, a retro game emulator, and expressing any object in a 8x8 grid really stretches your creativity, but it's also easier to create something that feels satisfying due to its restrictions. It's like being asked to write a story about anything vs a specific prompt, sometimes restrictions help you not get overwhelmed.
1:55 Each cell actually has 8*8 possible cells which can be turned on or off, which obviously can’t be stored in 8 bits: It would need 64 bits to do that. Instead, the computer screen’s grid has one byte of data per cell which is used to index into a font table in ROM, where each glyph is 4 bytes of data (if 1-bit color is used). The indices are followed at scanout time to produce the correct glyphs in the cells.
This video is a piece of art. Looking at just some of the details, it's hard to fathom, just HOW much work must have gone into it. And it's beautiful. Good on ya!
7:10 "Legends of Zelda"
@willcollins5121
4 жыл бұрын
Pretty sure it was intentional because the font shows up in multiple games
@mrecks7782
4 жыл бұрын
@@willcollins5121 So its ok to say Calls of Duty?
@mrecks7782
4 жыл бұрын
@@3k9k Then she should have said "Ledgend of Zeldas". But yeah, I made a typo. :) But then again, Vox is a biiiiit bigger than my channel.
@Toschez
4 жыл бұрын
@@willcollins5121 Correct, the first two games (that make two legends, not two Zeldas). edit: turns out the first two Zelda games do indeed feature two separate Zeldas, even though Link is the same guy.
@adampickard9880
4 жыл бұрын
@@Toschez i like that better too. Like attoneys general or surgeons general where the noun is pluralised not to following modifier
I have this book, it's great! I used to make a lot of pixel fonts way back in the early 2000s when you'd use them in Flash websites. Also, the Demoscene had a lot of cool bitmap typography.
Watching this made me realize how much of a pain Latin characters are with both it's ascending and descending lower case letters. Edit: See below.
@daisyrushton1574
4 жыл бұрын
ironically "upper" has only downers and "downer" has only uppers
@TheGreatAtario
4 жыл бұрын
Ascender and descender…
@Wasserkaktus
4 жыл бұрын
@@TheGreatAtario They are synonyms and not everything relates to drugs..
@kykale
4 жыл бұрын
It's not unique to the Latin Script. Greek, Cyrillic and Armenian script use bicameral writing system as well. The upper case letters come from the Roman era when words were carved into stone, thus leading to the serif style of fonts, while lower case letters came when the same letters were written down on paper in the early Medieval era.
@TheGreatAtario
4 жыл бұрын
@@Wasserkaktus They're not synonyms in the slightest and no one said anything about drugs
Thank you so much for putting out more typography content. I watch every time!!
I love when Vox goes into typefaces, especially when you guys talk videogames!!! Keep it up Vox!
The design videos are always interesting, its really amazing to see how humans develop the world we live right now.
Im liking this videos just bec. Of how beautiful the production and editing of this video...well done vox this is a really good video
0:10 When a graphic designer is commissioned to create a meme image: uses widescreen source image, properly kerned Impact with slender drop shadows. :)
These are in my opinion some of the best content where videos focus on something new each time that I might just not have known. I would love more of these types of content especially ones that distract from the current situation
Every day is a school day watching and learning so much from Vox videos. Thank you for educating me on those little things we probably would never had known if it wasn't for your videos. As always excellent narration and videography.
The arcade font used in Atari arcade games was also used on their computer systems. The engineers back then were EXTREMELY clever with all of their memory saving and bit-twiddling tricks. I started out with systems with 16K of memory and I have enormous respect for the skill required to pull this off. There are a couple of GDC (Game Developer Conference) talks on KZread with Warren Robbinett (Atari Adventure) and Howard Warshaw (ET) where they discussed some of the tricks, and they're still amazing to this day.
I love this :D I would never have thought that such a book exists, it's awesome to hear about it. My husband and I are currently in the process of building our own DYI arcade, and I will definitely use an 8-bit font for the marquee after watching this :D
One thing I know about fonts is that people who are into them are REALLY into them. I knew someone who could write/draw in any font without looking at a reference, making each letter perfectly
@sophiablank325
4 жыл бұрын
So cool
@charlotteastarry_knight8696
4 жыл бұрын
I dare them to write in Wing Dings
This video is well made. Kudos to the team and Vox! Never knew how fonts could be so interesting.
So great to have the subtitles for all the videos! Gonna watch all of them!
That was an amazing video. Love the way it was animated and the narrative was super fun
This video is so good. Hope you can keep doing stuff about design in video games. Thanks for the amazing content.
Wow, fantastic. I love learning about something I didn’t know I wanted to know!
This video alone was brilliant, excellent job on all ends. Presentation was spot on!
Loved this guy's atention to detail. Thanks for sharing such awesome stuff.
What an unexpectedly lovely video - thanks, that was really interesting! :)
I was addicted to Pac-Man! I remember going into the arcade with bags of quarters. Hahaha man I miss those days! Great video! 😀👍
Another visually stunning video, well done guys
One of the coolest videos out there! For us 1980s classic arcade gaming nerds anyway! Thank you!
Imagine being Japanese and have to made those Japanese font such Hiragana in 8 bit 😅
@kaitlyn__L
4 жыл бұрын
there's some pretty impressive hiragana fonts! but sometimes it was just katakana. and they almost always never had the diacritics and a few other limitations like that.
@antoine22
4 жыл бұрын
@@kaitlyn__L did they make kanji fonts too? It must have been restricting
@redpup6931
4 жыл бұрын
Well, Japan knows enough English for the font being all that was needed.
@redpup6931
4 жыл бұрын
At least later on. Sorry, forgot this was like 1980.
such an amazing video! props to the Motion Graphics Artists at Vox! also , so much MegaMan sound effects lol!
It’s amazing the leaps and bounds tech has gone through just in my lifetime!
Dang, that clip from Marble Madness just gave me the strongest nostalgia I've had in a long time.
*Please keep making design videos* I watched all design series videos it's really helpful.
Thank you Estelle, for reminding us that life still goes on. :)
I bought the book. It's brilliant. I'm amazed that this font still doesn't officially have a name, and also amazed that it isn't called "Game Over".
I really enjoyed the graphics work in this one. Good job folks!
Vox is the epitome of information i didn't know i needed.
Awesome video! I love it! Games overall are making a huge comeback to the masses. Technology has evolved. Pokémon Go has made so many dive into mobile gaming.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is a great video because it explains and opens my mind simultaneously! As a kid in the 80's I couldn't afford to play ALL the games, but I played as many as I could.
Vox makes videos on topics I didn't know I was interested in.
Video production is top notch, as usual. Please, continue with the earworm series.
How are your videos soooo good? You make anything seem interesting!
The intro for this video is so so so rad Thanks, From a jealous motion graphics editor
Your my favorite Vox creator !!!!!!!!!! i love what you put down c:
"Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and *Legends of Zelda"*
@lupester
4 жыл бұрын
My ears are still bleeding.
@sammyarzola1208
4 жыл бұрын
@Vegan Minimalist Essentialist Seventh Day Adventist I could never let that mistake go
I expected this to be a fun and much needed distraction, but I never expected it to be such a beautiful story. Bravo, Vox. Bravo.
Mann do i love how y'all edit your videos.
Nice! I've been waiting for this!
I like it when vox uploads regular videos.
I was just thinking about making a font and this was amazing.
Always the best from VOX!
Loved this. What beautiful fonts.
Another amazing Vox vid.
Glad this series is back again!!
Video games and typography - two of my favourite things combined
Beautifully made video, very informative!
This is a great video about pixel art'ed fonts and ting.
Now I know how to make those 8-bit words, thanks Vox!
This channel have a God tier level video editor
Finally a by Design Video .. NEED MORE OF THOSE PLEASE
This is a random topic, but a very interesting video. Thank you, Vox.
When Atari made their 8-bit line of computers (which started with the 400 & 800 in 1979), they included a special text mode that displayed 8x10 pixel cells for characters, and allowed you to supply a font (character set) that would display true descenders on lowercase letters. I don't think it got used much, beyond some word processors, but it's another example of the thought & effort put into that platform (which is, IMO, vastly superior to other 8-bits of the era). Also, the built-in font used 2px thick (horizontally) shapes, for the best rendering over RF (cable/antenna input on your TV), the most commonly-used hook-up. And except for W, M and #, were never more than 6px wide, so that the character was fully "encased", when shown in inverse-video (think "highlighted" in a modern word processor). Other systems (*cough* Commodore 64) were 7px tall, and hence less legible when in inverse. Oh and to continue gloating, it included lowercase out of the box (*cough* Apple II) and all the time (*cough* C=64).
@reillywalker195
2 жыл бұрын
The Atari 8-bit stayed in production for longer than many of its competitors, too, being discontinued in 1992.
Nice video, keep doing the great work!
OH man your editing team deserves a raise
Nice video! The New York Jets use this font in one of their screens showing announcements and play by play stats.
Vox, Estelle, thank you for doing this!
Just bought the book. Thanks for the recommendation. I ❤️ 8bit Art.
I have been waiting my whole life for this
This font endured through the 16-bit era as well, because resolution doesn’t change between NES and SNES
@Toschez
4 жыл бұрын
Even in some of the PlayStation era games. What does change is the number of colours used.
@lordlouie3550
4 жыл бұрын
Omagari Toshi 256 on the NES, and over 20,000 on the SNES.
@Toschez
4 жыл бұрын
@@lordlouie3550 Yes, and it's really noticeable even in text. Only 1 to 2 colours were used for fonts the 8 bit era, but for PlayStation games you would see 20+ colours used, just to make 8*8 pixels fonts.
@lordlouie3550
4 жыл бұрын
@Omagari Toshi I don’t think I’ve ever seen an NES font that uses all three palette colors at once.
@lordlouie3550
4 жыл бұрын
@The Tomato Watcher 256 colors, if you include every Hex value, even the repeats. The actual total is about 39.
love her detail :) miss it so much
Creativity never dies~
The slow mo guys showed the electron beam going down the screen line by line! Soooo cool
I first saw this kind of font not in video games, but in association with futuristic movie titles from the early 1970s.
"Legends of Zelda" 7:09
@HelmuthGerka
4 жыл бұрын
It also rustled my jimmies.
@zaukeds21
4 жыл бұрын
Same
@ThomasChanSellsOut
4 жыл бұрын
can't wait to collect all seven legends of zelda
This is very interesting. Thanks for the knowledge.
Awesome video! Thanks!
You did beautiful typeface right with this beautiful presentation.
This is 100% my favourite video on yt
All the different fonts people could achieve.. makes me think of making music with early drum machines. Everybody had the same 16 steps to work with but you'd be amazed at all the different things they could do with them..
More content like this please!
How much work you put into that simple video wow
That ting ad at the end made me realise how expensive data is in the US when $23 a month is low when I spend £9 for 4GB
@kaitlyn__L
4 жыл бұрын
ofcom actually enforce competition! while the FCC is bought up by the big ISPs and mobile companies there.
@keyholes
4 жыл бұрын
Which network on you on? That's pretty good! Slightly better than Giffgaff.
@tubthungusbychumbungus
4 жыл бұрын
@@keyholes it's a 3 sim-only plan, so much cheaper than phone contracts
@ujjwalprashar2738
4 жыл бұрын
2 bucks for 1.5 gb data everyday here
Hi Vox. Greetings from Brooklyn, NY. Hope y’all are doing well!
Thanks for a spectacular video.
Great lesson in how amazing creativity can come when limitations are set upon us. Stay home. Work if you’re able, and be creative.
Vox's editors are on fire
Thanks vox! Great video!
absolutely love this thank you
Arcade games brings so much nostalgia
This is amazing i did not know this🤯!
Great video! 8/8 bits, would recommend.