Arcade Game Typography
Information
A definitive resource on pixel typography in arcade videogames throughout the late ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, featuring 250 examples selected, extracted chosen and categorised by style by author and Monotype type designer Toshi Omagari. I commissioned the title for publisher Thames & Hudson after seeing Omagari speak on the subject of videogame type design, keen to develop his research into a completist publication. During his research for the title, Omagari played and assessed over 7000 games to make his final selection for the book.
Roles
Interior/Page Design
Leo Field
Client
Thames & Hudson/Read-Only Memory
Omagari extracted the typefaces from each game’s graphic tileset and converted the data into OpenType-SVG font files, a format which supports the display of multiple colours and gradients. This typeface format was only recently supported by Adobe InDesign, without which the book would have been impossible to create.