8 bit Fonts

When I was a kid (I'm old now) this typeface became very familiar to me. It was so popular with people in my age group, because we all played video games and this font was used in practically every game ever published between a certain time range, somewhere from about the late 80s into the early 90s. The console systems back then were 8-bit, meaning they all ran on 8-bit microprocessors, and their limited memory, combined with low computing ability, produced the above typeface we all became so familiar with. I remember some of the early computers used type like this as well, back when the monitor colors used to be black and green only. I told you I'm old. I'm very fond of this type and every time I see it, I become nostalgic. I can recall a time when I used to break down the letters on a piece of paper and figured out how little squares and rectangles could make up any given letter or number. As time went on and the systems became more advanced, these letters became obsolete, as more rounded letters were generated by our computers.

Take a look at some of the video game industry's most popular franchises' titles. I think it's really rad how the industry has maintained creating cutting edge typefaces for titles. Do you have a favorite font among these video game titles? If you do, how come you like a certain title over another? If you can answer that question, you may have gained some insight into your own personal aesthetics.













Some of the titles on the right are the same as in the 
image above, but I chose to use the image on the right, 
because the images were similar and that creates a 
sort of unity into the design of this particular blog post.
See, you just gained some insight into some of my
own personal aesthetics.





I'm going to leave you with one more typeface that I thought was interesting and reminded me of video game type as well. There is one thing about the font that bothers me, and that is that it's sort of hard to read, and the number one rule in typography is readability. You have to be able to easily read something for it to become an effective type that will be used by other people. You can get away with barely legible type if using a font as display type, or a headline sometimes, but you wouldn't be able to print a book with some new, hip font that every is drooling over at the time, but can barely be read. That's why I use Helvetica nowadays when typing out this blog. I think it's really easy to read, and I'm tired of serifs.

FIN