This Book Celebrates Classic Arcade Fonts

Do you love retro arcade games? I certainly do. While the pixel art character sprites get a whole lot of love, the fonts used to display your score and life status deserve much more appreciation.

Typeface designer Toshi Omagari’s book catalogs dozens of the chunky pixelated fonts used in arcade games from the 1970s through the 1990s. The 272-page book is chockful of retro gaming goodness, and includes type specimens for each font, along with an example screenshot from one of the games it appeared in, including everything from Pac-Man to Shinobi to Marble Madness, along with many more obscure games.

The softcover version of book is available for order from Amazon now, while ReadOnlyMemory has a sweet, limited-edition hardcover version that ships in September 2020.

8-Bit Family Signs Reduce Your Siblings to Pixels

Is there a love for video games in your household? Then consider celebrating your family’s passion for gaming with one of these fun, custom-made family name signs from Mozug Woodworking.

Each sign is laser-cut from baltic birch plywood, and features your family name prominently in a chunky, pixelated 8-bit font. Above that, you’ll get pixel people representing each of the members of your family. They feature a decorative zig-zag border in contrasting stain, with built in hanging holes at the top.

They’re available in two sizes – about 100 square inches or 200 square inches – the outside dimensions vary depending on the number of letters in your family name and the number of family members. Prices range from $54 to $80, and you can order yours on Etsy. They also make matching coasters and fridge magnets, which can be engraved with the names of family members.

 

Super Mario 3 Holiday Wreath: The 8-Bit Days of Christmas

Celebrate the holidays in classic video game style. This Nintendo Light-Up Wreath has a Super Mario Bros 3 theme that combines one of the coolest video games ever with our favorite holiday. The pixel art wreath has power-ups and five green LEDs that blink intermittently in the center of the donut blocks. I

It looks awesome and very festive. Sadly, it doesn’t play any music, but what are you gonna do? Some 8-bit holiday songs would have sweet. At least it looks amazing. It lets those on the outside of your house know that there’s a Mario fan inside. Santa will see this from a mile away as he flies by in his sleigh, and he’ll make a special stop at your place with extra gifts because he’s a big Mario fan too.

This is perfect for the kind of person that leaves a powered-up NES on for Santa instead of milk and cookies. And you know what cartridge is inserted. If Santa gets distracted from all of his other stops, that’s on him. You gotta complete those levels. Hey, if he can’t deliver, maybe you get to keep all of the gifts. Sweet!

Pac-Man LEGO Lamps: Bricka Bricka Bricka

Out of all of the good old 1980s arcade games, Pac-Man is one that truly stands out, with its simple looking but challenging gameplay, iconic characters, and memorable music and sounds, it’s a true masterwork of arcade gaming that’s still fun to play. I’ve got a few Pac-Man collectibles in my game room, but I’d really love to have one of these lamps, made from LEGO bricks.

Artist Jamieson Pond of Pugs and Bricks builds these lamps from thousands of painstakingly selected LEGO blocks to form pixel art versions of the Pac-Man and the ghosts from the classic arcade game. The larger Pac-Man lamp was made using over 4,000 pieces, and includes LED backlit LEGO likenesses of Pac-Man, Inky, Blinky, Clyde and a blue ghost. I’m not sure what the deal is with the green ghost though. Guess we’ll just have to call him “Greeny.” Priced at $800, it’s not cheap, but it sure looks cool.

The smaller Pac-Man lamp took 1,000 pieces to construct, though it’s still pricey at $195. But if you’re a true Pac-Man fanatic, I’m sure you can find a way to save up for one of these nifty lights.

I think the coolest of the designs is the 2,300 piece, 12″ tall Pac-Man nightlight tower, which is packed with (properly-colored) ghosts on every side, and Pac-Man on top. It’s $425.

Whether or not you decide to buy one of these sweet lamps, be sure to check out Pugs and Bricks Etsy shop, which is packed with cool LEGO mosaic geekery, including an epic Super Mario tower light that stands nearly 3 feet tall.

The LiteZilla Is Like a Giant Lite Brite

This is LiteZilla, which is a giant wall-sized interpretation of the classic kids’ toy that you can hang on the wall. The good news is that this really exists, the bad news is that a 5-foot wide by 4-foot-high LightZilla costs $10,000. What kid has that kind of money? Oh yeah, rich brats. I hate those kids. They get all of the cool toys.

There’s also an eight-foot-wide version for $15,500, so that these kids can go even bigger and spend more of their allowance. If I were them I would have my butler place the pegs in while I sit back and yell at him. Then I would have the other servants judge and make fun of his art. It’s what you do when you’re a rich kid.


Too bad I’ll never play with this unless I find it by the curb outside of some bored kid’s mansion. If you’re a rich kid, you can order yours today from Hammacher Schlemmer, or request a custom quote directly from Litezilla.

[via The Awesomer via Geekologie]

Celebrate Flashback Friday with This Retro Pixel Art Bluetooth Speaker

Bring back the flash of the ’80s with TIVOO, the pixel art speaker that parties even harder than you do. This pint-sized Bluetooth speaker sounds great and features a great connection via Bluetooth 5.0, but it’s everything else it does that makes it really stand out.

The 16 x 16 LED screen plays pixel art that dances along with the music. You can use the off-the-shelf presets, or go ahead and create your own pixel art via the app to make every song distinctly your own. Beyond that, TIVOO is also an alarm and sleep aid.

It lets you design your own alarm with 14 profiles and customizable settings, so you don’t have to wake up to shrill beeps every morning. Plus, it’ll help you get to sleep faster by playing HQ alpha wave audio tracks and melatonin-inducing lighting when you’re done for the night.

Pick up a TIVOO Pixel Art Bluetooth Speaker in the Technabob Shop today for just $79 – $20 off the regular price.

The Original Macintosh Finder Control Panel, Cross-stitched

I once tried cross-stitching in an art class in school once. I stabbed myself repeatedly in the finger making my DNA part of the project. But if you can avoid the bloody bits, it turns out that cross-stitching is a wonderful way to recreate pixel art. If you worked on an original Macintosh back in your school days, you may recognize this image.

This is the Finder Control Panel from the 1980’s Mac, recreated lovingly in cross-stitch by artist Glenda Adams. This pixel-perfect recreation looks like it was incredibly tedious to make, but it looks amazing. It makes me want to click on all of the little 1-bit icons with my single-button ADB mouse. Check out more pics of Glenda’s amazing Apple creation below:

[via Laughing Squid]

POP! Alien Video Game 8-bit Action Figure is Pixel-tastic

Back in the ’90s, a video game based on the Alien movie franchise was launched, and it was cool. Notably, the Xenomorph character was pixelated like many games of that era. The game is sort of a cult classic, and to celebrate its fandom, Entertainment Earth has an exclusive pixel-art Xenomorph action figure.

The toy is a blocky 8-bit Funko POP! action figure that is black in the middle and has blue and orange shading on the sides. It stands 3 3/4-inches tall and is packaged in a window display box. The action figure is available now for $13.99.

It almost looks like a Xenomorph LEGO kit. In fact, it sort of makes me want to build a Xenomorph out of LEGO right now.

Funko POP! 8-Bit Horror Figures: Pixel Panic!

Horror fans, check out these sweet Funko POP! collectibles, based on famous evildoers Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Unlike other POP! vinyl toys, these ones look like they stepped right out of the screen of a retro video game.

These ThinkGeek special edition figures come in a special color schemes inspired by the NES Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street video games. Each character measures 3 3/4″ tall and is ready to murder all of your other POP! figures in brutal and horrific ways.

Both figures are available now over at ThinkGeek for $11.99 each.