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The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

int10h.org

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Re: The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

#5

Post by SwellJoe »

This is super cool. I've been wanting to make retro video games with modern tools and for modern platforms (like the web and Android) for fun (in the genre of Oregon Trail, Infocom text games, King's Quest, etc.). Some of these are just right for that, and they're CC-licensed, so presumably good for use in Open Source games.

I find the old typefaces from the early 8 bit and 16 bit days really charming. They were working with such severe limitations. I remember designing my own font on my Amiga and using it on my desktop...I kinda wish I still had those files. But, they weren't nearly as legible as the fonts from the vendors.

Re: The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

#6

Post by tdicola »

SwellJoe wrote: post #5

This is super cool. I've been wanting to make retro video games with modern tools and for modern platforms (like the web and Android) for fun (in the genre of Oregon Trail, Infocom text games, King's Quest, etc.). Some of these are just right for that, and they're CC-licensed, so presumably good for use in Open Source games. I find the old typefaces from the early 8 bit and 16 bit days really charming. They were work…

Be careful, the files are CC licensed but the actual fonts are still copyright whoever/whatever created them. They didn't redraw or create new fonts here, they ripped out the old fonts from the systems that used them and converted to TTF, etc.

Re: The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

#7

Post by EvanAnderson »

tdicola wrote: post #6
SwellJoe wrote: post #5

This is super cool. I've been wanting to make retro video games with modern tools and for modern platforms (like the web and Android) for fun (in the genre of Oregon Trail, Infocom text games, King's Quest, etc.). Some of these are just right for that, and they're CC-licensed, so presumably good for use in Open Source games. I find the old typefaces from the early 8 bit and 16 bit days really charming. They were work…

Be careful, the files are CC licensed but the actual fonts are still copyright whoever/whatever created them. They didn't redraw or create new fonts here, they ripped out the old fonts from the systems that used them and converted to TTF, etc.

Copyright of bitmap fonts is less straightfoward than it might appear. (Vector fonts are more apt to be recognized as "computer programs", but simple renderings of the alphabet are, for example, not considered able to be copyrighted in the United States.)

Re: The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

#9

Post by cpach »

Elv13 wrote: post #4

I made an AwesomeWM theme last month using these. I gave up on it, too hard on the eyes ;) http://i.imgur.com/LDSOade.png (code at https://github.com/Elv13/ , but that particular theme isn't pushed yet as it require upstream patches still in the CI)

Looks really cool! I can see why you don't use it every day though :)

Re: The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack

#10

Post by SwellJoe »

tdicola wrote: post #6
SwellJoe wrote: post #5

This is super cool. I've been wanting to make retro video games with modern tools and for modern platforms (like the web and Android) for fun (in the genre of Oregon Trail, Infocom text games, King's Quest, etc.). Some of these are just right for that, and they're CC-licensed, so presumably good for use in Open Source games. I find the old typefaces from the early 8 bit and 16 bit days really charming. They were work…

Be careful, the files are CC licensed but the actual fonts are still copyright whoever/whatever created them. They didn't redraw or create new fonts here, they ripped out the old fonts from the systems that used them and converted to TTF, etc.

I'll worry about that when I get a cease and desist (I don't expect to get a cease and desist...the market value of these fonts is approaching zero, and from the history I know of these old fonts, there was a lot of borrowing even back then).
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