{"id":3270,"date":"2009-08-03T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/?p=3270"},"modified":"2018-04-17T05:07:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T12:07:06","slug":"focus-on-fontstructors-goatmeal-recreates-classic-arcade-game-fonts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fontstruct.com\/news\/2009\/08\/03\/focus-on-fontstructors-goatmeal-recreates-classic-arcade-game-fonts\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on FontStructors \u2013 Goatmeal Recreates Classic Arcade Game Fonts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(This article was originally published on FontShop<\/a>\u2019s \u201cFontFeed\u201d blog. Many thanks to MonoType<\/a> for permission to reproduce this article here.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This is the fourth in our series of mini-\u200binterviews with FontStruc\u00adtors<\/a>. In this instalment we talk to Goatmeal<\/a>, a FontStruct<\/a> user with a singular hobby \u2013 FontStructing classic arcade game<\/a> fonts. Well, it\u2019s more than a hobby; judging from his comment on the Bentley Bear 2<\/a> page it\u2019s a calling:<\/p>\n

After watching me push pixels around the FontStruct field last night to make another arcade game font, my wife asked, \u201cWhy are you doing this?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I could only reply, \u201cBecause it has to be done!\u201d<\/em> :^)<\/p>\n

I really appre\u00adciate the oppor\u00adtunity that FontStruct provides to preserve these classic typefaces from my youth spent in the video arcades!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In reply to my invitation for the interview Goatmeal describes himself as \u201cmore of a typeface enthu\u00adsiast \/ fonta\u00adholic; while I like to think I\u2019m graphically-\u200binclined, I have no formal training \u2013 I\u2019m just nuts about typefaces.\u201d<\/em> Well, as it turns out this is exactly<\/em> what we are looking for for the mini-\u200binterviews. While we certainly don\u2019t mind having the odd profes\u00adsional graphic artist or hotshot type designer, the common thread in this series is the dedication and the passion these FontStructors display in their\u00a0work.<\/p>\n

Goatmeal<\/h3>\n

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Goatmeal is the Director of R&D for a small vinyl manufac\u00adturing company in the South\u00adeastern United States. He graduated from the University of Michigan-\u200bFlint<\/a>, majoring in chemistry with a mathe\u00admatics minor. While he can draw quite well (wanting to be a cartoonist during childhood), he has no formal training in any of the graphic arts; so, he comes at this from a fan\u2019s perspective: a typeface enthu\u00adsiast, a fonta\u00adholic, enjoying typefaces for their purely aesthetic qualities.<\/p>\n

What is your relationship to type and typography?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first two font sets I bought were the Bitstream Font Packs \u201cStar Trek\u201d (1992) and \u201cStar Trek: Next Gener\u00adation\u201d (1993) \u2013 I still have the original diskettes (ed. Although the Font Packs were discon\u00adtinued most of those fonts are still available). Aside from being a Star Trek fan, it was the first time I noticed typeface styles as art, as opposed to mere conveyances of ideas or thoughts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBentley Bear<\/a>, font from Crystal Castles<\/a>, \u00a9 1983 Atari<\/span>
\nHaving the same revelation as others in the type design industry, I began to wonder why I liked one type style, but not another? What was it about a certain typeface that did or did not appeal to me? Why did it matter? Should<\/em> it even matter? A few simple typeface styles could be used for the vast majority of appli\u00adca\u00adtions across the planet (differ\u00adences in language-\u200bspecific glyphs, notwith\u00adstanding), but instead, there are hundreds of thousands of different styles available. Most people notice, use them (i.e., read) and subse\u00adquently ignore or forget them every\u00a0day.<\/p>\n

What most people aren\u2019t realising is that typeface choice is as important to the meaning it conveys as the idea or thought being conveyed \u2013 associ\u00ada\u00adtions, if you will. When the marriage of form and meaning is expected or antic\u00adi\u00adpated, it works. Otherwise, the associ\u00ada\u00adtions can hinder the effec\u00adtiveness of the message, even though it can be under\u00adstood: grunge fonts appear out-of-place on wedding invita\u00adtions, whereas calli\u00adgraphic styles are equally incon\u00adgruous on rave\/techno flyers; wide, angular sci-\u200bfi display fonts do not imply \u201cfantasy, medieval\u201d themes any more than Celtic and Old English fonts imply \u201cspace, robots, futur\u00adistic\u201d themes; and don\u2019t even try using Comic Sans MS<\/span> on your resum\u00e9!<\/p>\n

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\nThe Tron font series<\/a> from Tron<\/a>, \u00a9 1982 Bally Midway Mfg\u00a0Co.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did you start out on FontStruct?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back in March 2009, I was looking for a dot matrix font<\/a> to replicate an old high school paper I wrote in the mid-80s (a report for computers class on the state of computer animation, focusing heavily on the movie Tron<\/a>). The perfo\u00adrated paper was starting to deteri\u00adorate, and the ink was fading. Since it was origi\u00adnally written on a TRS<\/span>-80 Color Computer<\/a>, I couldn\u2019t simply port it over to a modern day IBM<\/span>-\u200bclone (yes, I\u2019m old enough to still refer to PCs as IBM<\/span>-\u200bclones).<\/p>\n

Wanting to maintain the feel that it could have been ripped from an old tractor-\u200bfeed printer from 25 years ago, I searched for a font similar to the dot matrix print on the page. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, most dot-\u200bmatrix fonts don\u2019t truly capture the pin-\u200bstrike complexity that printers could achieve in the \u201980s. That\u2019s not to say most 7×5 fonts don\u2019t achieve their intended purpose \u2013 they are quite good at simulating various visual displays \u2013 but none were what I was looking for on this project.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nZenny Coins<\/a>, font from Black Tiger<\/a>, \u00a9 1987 Capcom<\/span>
\nThat\u2019s when I stumbled upon Fonstruct through Google. Seeing some of the pixel\/dot matrix fonts others were sharing, I watched the FontStruct how-\u200bto video and started making one myself; that eventually became my DMP<\/span>-200 RS<\/span><\/a> font. While I did not create an exact match, it does come close to my archived papers from the 1980s.<\/p>\n

I once attempted to alter Tommy Cary\/MarianFudges\u2019 \u201cTexas LED<\/span>\u201d True Type Font into what eventually became my CASIOpeia<\/a> font, but it proved too difficult at the time. Having a vast, unstruc\u00adtured field in something like the old Fontog\u00adrapher can be quite daunting to a novice. Even the few copy-\u200bprotection dingbat\/symbol fonts I managed to create to repli\u00adcating old computer game manuals were all initially based on a grid of individual squares that I would subse\u00adquently modify and shape\u2026<\/p>\n

That being said, I wasn\u2019t crazy about pixel fonts, per se, before my experi\u00adences with FontStruct. They only had an inherent appeal to me if they were somehow related to video arcade games, computer games or had a science fiction feel. Now, thanks to FontStruct, minimalist pixel fonts<\/a> are a category I am thoroughly enjoying.<\/p>\n

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\nBuzzard Bait<\/a>, font from Joust<\/a>, \u00a9 1982 Williams Electronics Inc., and its sequel,
\nJoust 2: Survival of the Fittest<\/a>, \u00a9 1986 Williams Electronics Games,\u00a0Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where did your fasci\u00adnation for vintage arcade game typog\u00adraphy originate?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coming of age during the birth of video games was a tremendous influence on me, as it was for most of my generation.<\/p>\n

Aside from typing tutorial computer games (pressing the correct key to blast the letter on the screen), typefaces aren\u2019t front-and-center elements in 99.99% of video games \u2013 they are ancillary, yet necessary, compo\u00adnents. They are mainly used for explaining the game\u2019s \u201cplot\u201d or game play instruc\u00adtions, keeping score, indicating level progression and entering initials\/words for high-\u200bscore bragging rites.<\/p>\n

Well before becoming a font enthu\u00adsiast, games that tried to do something different with the design of text appealed to me tremen\u00addously \u2013 especially those of a science fiction nature. For example, while I did not play Robotron: 2084<\/a> often, I was fasci\u00adnated with the text because it looked \u201cfuturistic\/computer-like\u201d to me. With FontStruct, it just made sense: instead of using pixels to generate a video screen display, why not use FontStruct pixels to generate a font? The result was Genetic Engineering Error<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nGenetic Engineering Error<\/a>, font from Robotron: 2084<\/a>, \u00a9 1982 Williams Electronics Inc.,
\nand its sequel, Blaster<\/a>, \u00a9 1983 Williams Electronics Inc.<\/span><\/p>\n

You seem quite obsessive (in a positive sense) in your efforts to catalogue all these fonts. How far do you want to take this project?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s an obsession borne from being a perfec\u00adtionist with a penchant for collecting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid that it may be coming to an end pretty quickly. Most games used the design style repre\u00adsented in The Video Arcade Game Font<\/a>. Others used simple sans serif designs that aren\u2019t terribly inter\u00adesting. For numerous games, it\u2019s difficult to get a full set of characters, and one of my goals was to make complete fonts for others to enjoy and use. Also, this is a rather selfish project \u2013 I\u2019m only choosing fonts that appeal to me, rather than archive each and every available sample. Add to that, as graphics became more sophis\u00adti\u00adcated in the mid-to-late \u201980s, typeface design styles became less distinctive and more homog\u00ade\u00adnized. That\u2019s not to say that there aren\u2019t styles worth repli\u00adcating, but they tended to become functional\/utilitarian \u2013 very likely to avoid compe\u00adtition with the enhanced graphics on the screen.<\/p>\n

I have branched out into other categories, repli\u00adcating existing fonts designs in pixel style (Material Electrons<\/a>, OCR<\/span>-A<\/a>), and other types of LCD<\/span>\/video display fonts (CASIOpeia<\/a>, Hand Aviator<\/a> series).<\/p>\n

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\nMag Not Mad<\/a>, font from Mag Max<\/a>, \u00a9 1985 Nichibutsu \/ Nihon\u00adbussan Co.,\u00a0Ltd.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the aspects of FontStruct that make it so appealing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n