Contribute Comment
Build
Brief.md · the rules, for pasting into an AI site tool
1UP 0015HI 0008CREDIT 0

Arcade

Pixel typography, CRT scan lines, score and lives counters, sprite illustration

INSERT COIN

Build with it

A starting grammar for a website in Arcade: a closed machine on a black raster, a small palette with no tints, bitmap type, the high score at the top and state at the edges, and a page that demonstrates itself when nobody is using it.

Web translation marks our choices for the screen. Not specified by the source marks what the sources leave open. Everything else is a rule from the record below.

The same system is in the brief (Build → Brief) and in the structured data.

REC 0015TRN 0013GAP 0005

Colour

  • black#060608
  • white#EDEDF2
  • yellow#F2D22E
  • cyan#29D9D9
  • magenta#E24AC4
  • red#E23D28
  • green#35D948

A small set, flat, fixed. No tints, no gradients.

The rules behind it
  • Seen in the workWork in a small indexed palette on black. From the work itself (colour)
  • DocumentedTreat the palette as fixed, as hardware fixed it: Pac-Man's colour came from a 32-entry palette PROM. From a documented finding (technique)
  • Our readingNo gradients and no low-contrast states. From our reading
  • Not specified by the sourceThe sources give no palette values. Per-board values differ. The seven here are the room's; keep any set small and flat. From a documented finding (technique)

Type

Game

HI 00331UP 0015

Space Mono carries what is read at length; the bitmap face stays with titles and counters.

The rules behind it
  • From our catalogue entrySet display type as a bitmap face. From our catalogue entry (typography)
  • Web translationUse Press Start 2P for display and counters, at 12px and up; read at length in Space Mono. A bitmap face is built for a few words at a distance, not paragraphs. From our catalogue entry (typography), our reading
  • Not specified by the sourceThe sources name no period font. Games drew their own characters per board; do not present one bitmap face as the arcade font.

Layout

Furniture on the edges, the centre clear for the subject, all on an 8px step.

The rules behind it
  • Seen in the work · disputedCompose a fixed low-resolution raster with the furniture pinned to the edges. From the work itself (layout)
  • Our readingKeep it busy, with the centre clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state. From our reading (density)
  • Our readingRank by saturation and movement, not scale. From our reading (hierarchy)
  • Web translationPlace and size everything on an 8px step. Sprites are fixed-size bitmaps on a raster; a single step keeps every edge on the same grid of pixels. From a documented finding (technique), a documented finding (form)

Shape

One sprite at 3x, 6x and 12x: whole numbers only, so every pixel stays square.

The rules behind it
  • Seen in the workDraw with visible, hard-edged raster pixels and scan lines. From the work itself
  • Web translationScale raster artwork by whole numbers so every pixel stays square. A screen image is a grid of square pixels; any fractional scale smears them, which is how the record moves the sprite to screen. From a web translation
  • Web translationSquare corners, 4px borders, no anti-aliased curves. Everything on the screen is made of the same hard pixel; a rounded corner is a sub-pixel edge. From the work itself, our reading

Imagery

A fixed-size sprite composited over a background, line by line.

The rules behind it
  • From our catalogue entry · disputedUse sprite illustration. From our catalogue entry (imagery)
  • DocumentedTreat sprites as fixed-size objects composited over a background. From a documented finding (technique)
  • Web translationDraw sprites as SVG pixel grids with crisp edges, scaled by whole numbers. A sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap; SVG rects keep each pixel square at any whole-number scale. From a documented finding (form), a web translation
  • Not specified by the sourcePixel look as a style is not a period choice. Practitioners of the time did not choose pixels as an aesthetic; say you are reproducing a constraint. From a documented finding (technique)

Components

The record documents interface conventions for Arcade. These four components are contemporary builds on those conventions, not historical artefacts.

Stage 1The centre stays clear; the state sits on the edges.

Error: enter a name.

The rules behind it
  • Web translationPress by whole steps: the button jumps its full offset, it never slides. Nothing eases and nothing has sub-pixel motion. From our reading (motion)
  • Web translationKeep the button flat: one palette colour, a hard block, no gradient. A small indexed palette on black; gradients are refused. From the work itself (colour), our reading
  • Web translationFrame each card as a screen of the same machine. The record is a closed machine with state; every surface is one of its screens. From our reading, a documented finding (form)
  • Web translationKeep the card's centre clear and put its state on the edges. Busy, with the centre kept clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state. From our reading (density)
  • Web translationGive the field one palette colour for its border and black inside. A small indexed palette on black leaves no room for tints. From the work itself (colour)
  • Not specified by the sourceThe sources do not document text entry. Do not model it on high-score initials entry; the research does not document it.
  • Web translationMark the current item by the one moving, brightest thing, not by size. Rank by saturation and movement, not scale. From our reading (hierarchy)

Motion

INSERT COIN

Steps only. The loop runs whether or not anyone is watching.

The rules behind it
  • Our readingMove in integer steps: an attract loop, state-change flashes, nothing eased. From our reading (motion)
  • DocumentedWhen nobody is using it, run an attract mode: the screen demonstrates itself. From a documented finding (interface)
  • Our readingNo easing curves. From our reading

On-screen furniture

HIGH SCORE 0033CREDIT 0

Documented: the high score at the top, and lives. Our reading: the credit counter.

The rules behind it
  • DocumentedShow the high score at the top of the screen. From a documented finding (interface)
  • DocumentedKeep lives in the state. From a documented finding (interface)
  • Not specified by the sourceThe sources do not specify where lives are drawn. The sources establish lives, not their position; place them with the other furniture and say so. From a documented finding (interface)
  • Web translationAdd a credit counter to the furniture. Credits are part of our reading of the furniture; the research did not find them on screen. From our reading (interface)
  • Web translationMake every counter a real count. The screen has to be legible to a stranger in seconds; a number that means nothing wastes the one glance. From our reading, our reading (interface)

Player stats

Research
Partly sourced
Build guidance
Recorded in 8 of 8 research dimensions
Rules
15 with their basis
Origin
From a technique
Also called
pixel art, 8-bit, 16-bit, retro game
Feel
playful, nostalgic

What carries the look

0 Elements linked. No Element is linked to this Aesthetic yet. Each row still opens its gallery.

What it argues

The screen has to sell the machine across a noisy room and then teach a stranger to play in the seconds before they walk away.

Everything is legible at distance, in motion, and under competition from the cabinet next to it.

IT REFUSES:subtlety, low contrast, resting states, and any screen that does not either advertise or instruct.

How you recognise it

Sprite illustration on a low-resolution raster, drawn as hard-edged pixels, in a small saturated palette against black, with the cabinet's own furniture kept on screen — score, high score, lives, credits, and an attract loop that plays to nobody.

Teletext shares the low resolution but is a broadcast page on a fixed character grid with no sprites and no state. Terminal shares the dark ground but answers a prompt rather than advertising itself.

DIAGNOSTICThe diagnostic condition is the coin-op furniture: the screen is always either demonstrating or scoring, never idle.

Rules

15 · listed by area, not ranked by weight; each labelled with what kind of claim it is
RankAreaRule
1STLayoutSeen in the work · disputed

Composition: fixed low-res raster; furniture pinned to edges.

2NDTypographyFrom our catalogue entry

Typography: bitmap.

3RDColorSeen in the work

Colour: small indexed palette on black.

4THImageryFrom our catalogue entry · disputed

Imagery: sprite illustration.

5THInterfaceDocumented · Source attached

A high score is displayed at the top of the screen; after Space Invaders (1978) it became a standard element of arcade games.

6THInterfaceDocumented · Source attached

Multiple lives are part of the game state, first in Space Invaders.

7THInterfaceDocumented · Source attached

When nobody is playing, the machine runs an attract mode: a demonstration of the game.

8THMotionOur reading

The native behaviours are the attract loop (the page demonstrating itself to an absent visitor), state-change flashes, and integer step movement. Nothing eases. Nothing has sub-pixel motion. A CSS ease-in-out would break the register more visibly than a wrong colour.

9THTechniqueDocumented · Source attached

Arcade boards such as Galaxian's used hardware sprites: fixed-size objects composited over a background by hardware as each scan line is prepared, without a full-screen frame buffer.

10THTechniqueDocumented · Source attached

Pac-Man's colour comes from a small palette fixed in hardware: a 32x8 palette PROM and a 256x4 colour lookup table PROM.

11THTechniqueDocumented · Source attached

Practitioner testimony reported by Wikipedia says the use of pixels was then not an aesthetic choice, as it is now; low colour count is a common trait of pixel art.

12THFormDocumented · Source attached

The screen image is two-dimensional: a raster subdivided into scan lines, with sprites as two-dimensional bitmaps.

13THHierarchyOur reading

Rank by saturation and movement, not scale. The brightest moving thing is the subject; static furniture sits at the edges regardless of importance. Unusual and useful — it inverts the normal web assumption that the largest element leads.

14THDensityOur reading

Busy, with the centre kept clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state.

15THForm / motif / surface / techniqueSeen in the work

Form / motif / surface / technique: visible, hard-edged raster pixels; scanline.

Ruled out, or left open by the sources

Does not apply Form

Research found the area does not apply.

What stands behind it

Partly sourced.

16 sources attached.

Build guidance: recorded in 8 of 8 research dimensions. It says what usable material is recorded, never how well it is evidenced.

No source attached: Argument, Recognition test.

Not researched yet: Summary, Overall positions by area, Ornament and contrast scales, Source notes.

Scope: The visual register of raster-screen coin-op arcade games of the late 1970s and 1980s: sprites, small indexed palettes, low-resolution rasters, on-screen score furniture. Vector, laserdisc and cabinet art excluded; whole-number scaling is ours.

DimensionEvidenceGuidance
CompositionSpecified · Graded by our research brief yes
TypographySpecified · From our catalogue entry yes
HierarchySpecified · Our reading yes
ColourSpecified · Graded by our research brief yes
DensitySpecified · Our reading yes
ImagerySpecified · From our catalogue entry yes
Form / motif / surface / techniqueDoes not apply: form · Not specified by the source: motif · Specified: surface, technique yes
MotionSpecified · Our reading yes

Neither is a free hand: an area research has not reached is not permission to decide on the language’s behalf.

Often confused with

Web 1.0AestheticBoth are low-fidelity and nostalgic, but this is a closed machine with a score, not a document with links. TeletextAestheticSprites and state versus a fixed character grid. MangaAestheticPanels and reading order determine page structure

Use it

Put it on the Mix benchSee where its rules collide with another Aesthetic’s. Download the briefEvery rule with its kind of claim, and a checklist for grading the result. Paste it into your AI site tool.

For machines

data/v1/arcade.jsonprompt/arcade.md

Contribute

Contributing and commenting need JavaScript. Nothing else on this page does.

Work made in this style: a poster, a page, a type setting. Every submission is reviewed before it appears.

Comments

Feedback