# Arcade — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Arcade**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 8 of 8 research dimensions.
> 16 sources attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

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

**Recognise it by:** 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. The diagnostic condition is the coin-op furniture: the screen is always either demonstrating or scoring, never idle. 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.

**Family:** Subculture & Street
**Era:** 1980s, 1990s
**Native medium:** screen

**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.

## What it is arguing

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

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Web 1.0
- Teletext
- Manga — Panels and reading order determine page structure

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): Seen in the work · disputed · Seen in the work · From our catalogue entry · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/arcade.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### Seen in the work · disputed

- **layout** — Composition: fixed low-res raster; furniture pinned to edges.
  - Kind of claim: Seen in the work · disputed · Evidence: Seen in the work · disputed · Product area: Layout

### Seen in the work

- **color** — Colour: small indexed palette on black.
  - Kind of claim: Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work · Product area: Color
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: visible, hard-edged raster pixels; scanline.
  - Kind of claim: Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work · Product area: not mapped

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **typography** — Typography: bitmap.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography

### From our catalogue entry · disputed

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **imagery** — Imagery: sprite illustration.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Product area: Imagery

### Our reading

- **hierarchy** — 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.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **density** — Busy, with the centre kept clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Density
- **motion** — 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.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Interface** — A high score is displayed at the top of the screen; after Space Invaders (1978) it became a standard element of arcade games.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1` · Covers from 1978.
- **Interface** — Multiple lives are part of the game state, first in Space Invaders.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-2` · Covers The sources establish lives as a feature; they do not say where lives are drawn on screen..
- **Interface** — When nobody is playing, the machine runs an attract mode: a demonstration of the game.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-3` · Covers encyclopedia glossary only; secondary support.
- **Technique** — 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.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers Galaxian-derived hardware (1979 to 1982) documented in detail; the general statement is encyclopedic.
- **Technique** — Pac-Man's colour comes from a small palette fixed in hardware: a 32x8 palette PROM and a 256x4 colour lookup table PROM.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers Pac-Man hardware; per-board values differ.
- **Technique** — 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.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers practitioner testimony reported by an encyclopedia (Lucasfilm Games, 1987).
- **Form** — The screen image is two-dimensional: a raster subdivided into scan lines, with sprites as two-dimensional bitmaps.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers within the approved screen scope.

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Interface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

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.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/arcade.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| black | `#060608` | — | The ground. | On the record |
| white | `#EDEDF2` | 17.3:1 | Running text. | Web translation |
| yellow | `#F2D22E` | 13.5:1 | Titles, the high score, start buttons. | Web translation |
| cyan | `#29D9D9` | 11.6:1 | Borders, links, labels. | Web translation |
| magenta | `#E24AC4` | 5.8:1 | Rings and markers. | Web translation |
| red | `#E23D28` | 4.8:1 | 1UP, errors, the button block. | Web translation |
| green | `#35D948` | 10.8:1 | Diagnostic panels and lit meters. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `token_rule:color-5` → Work in a small indexed palette on black.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-2` → Treat the palette as fixed, as hardware fixed it: Pac-Man's colour came from a 32-entry palette PROM.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No gradients and no low-contrast states.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources give no palette values. _Instead:_ Per-board values differ. The seven here are the room's; keep any set small and flat.

### Typography

Family: a bitmap face for display, with Space Mono for anything read at length. Stack: `"PressStart2PX", "Press Start 2P", monospace`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| title | clamp(2.5rem, 10vw, 7.5rem) | 400 | 1.2 | uppercase | 0.02em | — | The name on the attract screen. |
| hud | 0.875rem | 400 | 1.5 | uppercase | 0 | — | 1UP, HI and the other counters. |
| text | 1.0625rem | 400 | 1.65 | not specified | not specified | 64ch | Running text, in Space Mono. |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Set display type as a bitmap face.
- **Web translation** — Use Press Start 2P for display and counters, at 12px and up; read at length in Space Mono. _Why:_ A bitmap face is built for a few words at a distance, not paragraphs. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:intent`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources name no period font. _Instead:_ Games drew their own characters per board; do not present one bitmap face as the arcade font.

### Grid and layout

A fixed low-resolution screen: furniture pinned to the edges, the centre kept clear for the subject. Everything sits on an 8px step.

Module 8px · gutter — · margin —

Tokens: step `8px` · edge `furniture pinned top and sides`

- **On the record · Seen in the work · disputed** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Compose a fixed low-resolution raster with the furniture pinned to the edges.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:density-6` → Keep it busy, with the centre clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by saturation and movement, not scale.
- **Web translation** — Place and size everything on an 8px step. _Why:_ Sprites are fixed-size bitmaps on a raster; a single step keeps every edge on the same grid of pixels. (`claim:kcc:technique-1`, `claim:kcc:form-1`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · pixel `4px` · border `4px solid` · rendering `crisp-edges`

- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Draw with visible, hard-edged raster pixels and scan lines.
- **Web translation** — Scale raster artwork by whole numbers so every pixel stays square. _Why:_ A screen image is a grid of square pixels; any fractional scale smears them, which is how the record moves the sprite to screen. (`claim:transfer-1`)
- **Web translation** — Square corners, 4px borders, no anti-aliased curves. _Why:_ Everything on the screen is made of the same hard pixel; a rounded corner is a sub-pixel edge. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:failure-1`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry · disputed** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Use sprite illustration.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-1` → Treat sprites as fixed-size objects composited over a background.
- **Web translation** — Draw sprites as SVG pixel grids with crisp edges, scaled by whole numbers. _Why:_ A sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap; SVG rects keep each pixel square at any whole-number scale. (`claim:kcc:form-1`, `claim:transfer-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Pixel look as a style is not a period choice. _Instead:_ Practitioners of the time did not choose pixels as an aesthetic; say you are reproducing a constraint.

### On-screen furniture

The machine keeps its state on the screen. A high score at the top and lives are documented; credits are our reading.

Tokens: hud-position `top, pinned` · counter-digits `4`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:interface-1` → Show the high score at the top of the screen.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:interface-2` → Keep lives in the state.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify where lives are drawn. _Instead:_ The sources establish lives, not their position; place them with the other furniture and say so.
- **Web translation** — Add a credit counter to the furniture. _Why:_ Credits are part of our reading of the furniture; the research did not find them on screen. (`claim:gestalt.interface`)
- **Web translation** — Make every counter a real count. _Why:_ The screen has to be legible to a stranger in seconds; a number that means nothing wastes the one glance. (`claim:intent`, `claim:gestalt.interface`)

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A start button: a flat yellow slab with a hard red block behind it, pressed by moving the full block distance in one step.

- Anatomy: yellow field; label in Press Start 2P, 16px; red block offset 8px, 8px; no radius, no gradient
- Tokens: background `#F2D22E` · color `#060608` · offset `8px 8px 0 #E23D28` · radius `0` · press `translate(8px, 8px)`
- State, default: Yellow slab, red block behind.
- State, hover: Field turns white.
- State, focus: 4px yellow outline, 3px outside.
- State, active: Moves 8px, 8px onto its block in one step: no easing.
- State, disabled: Grey field (#8a8a9c), no block, label unchanged.
- Accessibility: Black on yellow at 13.5:1.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: The pixel face is set at 16px or larger, never below.
- **Web translation** — Press by whole steps: the button jumps its full offset, it never slides. _Why:_ Nothing eases and nothing has sub-pixel motion. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **Web translation** — Keep the button flat: one palette colour, a hard block, no gradient. _Why:_ A small indexed palette on black; gradients are refused. (`token_rule:color-5`, `claim:failure-1`)

#### Card

A game screen: a navy field inside a cyan border and a magenta ring, its title in the pixel face.

- Anatomy: 4px cyan border; 4px black gap, 4px magenta ring; navy field; title in Press Start 2P, yellow; body in Space Mono
- Tokens: border `4px solid #29D9D9` · ring `0 0 0 4px #060608, 0 0 0 8px #E24AC4` · background `#101018` · radius `0`
- State, default: Cyan border, magenta ring.
- State, hover: The border turns yellow.
- State, focus: 4px yellow outline outside the ring.
- Accessibility: White text on navy at 16.2:1.
- Accessibility: The whole card is one link; the title is its name.
- **Web translation** — Frame each card as a screen of the same machine. _Why:_ The record is a closed machine with state; every surface is one of its screens. (`claim:failure-2`, `claim:kcc:form-1`)
- **Web translation** — Keep the card's centre clear and put its state on the edges. _Why:_ Busy, with the centre kept clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state. (`token_rule:density-6`)

#### Input

A black entry field in a cyan border, its label above in the pixel face, a block caret.

- Anatomy: 4px cyan border; black field; label above in Press Start 2P, 12px; text in Space Mono; error in red with "Error:"
- Tokens: border `4px solid #29D9D9` · background `#060608` · caret `#F2D22E` · radius `0` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: Cyan border.
- State, focus: Border turns yellow, plus an outline.
- State, error: Red message (4.8:1 on black) beginning "Error:", in Space Mono bold.
- State, disabled: Border dashed grey.
- Accessibility: The label is real text.
- Accessibility: The caret colour is decoration; focus is the yellow border and the outline.
- Accessibility: Error text is words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Give the field one palette colour for its border and black inside. _Why:_ A small indexed palette on black leaves no room for tints. (`token_rule:color-5`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not document text entry. _Instead:_ Do not model it on high-score initials entry; the research does not document it.

#### Navigation

A menu screen: items in the pixel face, a blinking ▶ beside the current one.

- Anatomy: items in Press Start 2P, 13px, capitals; a ▶ marker in magenta beside the current item, blinking steps(1); dashed rules between items
- Tokens: marker `▶` · marker-color `#E24AC4` · blink `1s steps(1) infinite`
- State, default: White capitals.
- State, hover: Yellow capitals and the ▶ marker.
- State, focus: 4px yellow outline.
- State, current: Yellow capitals, blinking ▶.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: The blink stops under reduced motion; the marker stays.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall per item.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current item by the one moving, brightest thing, not by size. _Why:_ Rank by saturation and movement, not scale. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: blink 1000ms, bob 1600ms, walk 12s in 48 steps, flash 250ms
- Easing: all `steps(n) only`
- Transforms: whole-pixel translations on the 8px step
- Entrance: none: the screen is already running
- Hover: a colour change or a marker appearing, in one step
- Reduced motion: Blinks, walks and bobs stop on a visible frame; counters stay.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:motion-14` → Move in integer steps: an attract loop, state-change flashes, nothing eased.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:interface-3` → When nobody is using it, run an attract mode: the screen demonstrates itself.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No easing curves.

### Deliberately not added

- **Palette values** (color): The record holds a small indexed palette; each board had its own.
- **A period font** (typography): Characters were drawn per board.
- **Web interface conventions** (components): The record documents on-screen furniture, not buttons, cards, fields or menus. The four components are translations.
- **Where lives are drawn** (dimension.furniture): Lives are documented as state, not as a position.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Does not apply: form · Not specified by the source: motif · Specified: surface, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Motif

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

16 checks: 2 mechanically testable, 13 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 1 with no recorded position. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: 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. The diagnostic condition is the coin-op furniture: the screen is always either demonstrating or scoring, never idle. 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.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[visual_human · Seen in the work · disputed · Evidence: Seen in the work · disputed]** Does your work hold this? Composition: fixed low-res raster; furniture pinned to edges.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work]** Does your work hold this? Colour: small indexed palette on black.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work]** Does your work hold this? Form / motif / surface / technique: visible, hard-edged raster pixels; scanline.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: bitmap.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. 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.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Busy, with the centre kept clear for the subject and the perimeter carrying state.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: sprite illustration.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. 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.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No anti-aliasing, no fractional scaling, no easing curves, no gradients, no low-contrast states, no empty screen without an attract behaviour.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Teletext: sprites and state versus a fixed character grid. Against Web 1.0: both are low-fidelity and nostalgic, but this is a closed machine with a score, not a document with links. Anti-signature: remove the furniture and it becomes generic pixel art. Put it on a character grid and it becomes Teletext. Add a prompt and it becomes Terminal.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[visual_human · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open when reproducing on a modern screen: fractional pixel scaling.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: removing the furniture..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Web 1.0? That language is: Incompetence preserved deliberately; the opposite of Utilitarian's competent plainness
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Web 1.0 than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Manga? That language is: Panels and reading order determine page structure
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Manga than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `arcade` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/arcade.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/arcade.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._