5 ms·

Oldschool PC Fonts

132 points by animal_spirits 4y ago

nope96 4y ago
Also, from the showcase tab: https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse Wow! Playable database of every song from my childhood (NES/Sega/etc tunes). Wow.
- einpoklum 4y ago
  Aw, man, so good! Nostalgia... One Must Fall 2097's menu music, who would have thought I'd dredge that one up from memory.
- animal_spirits 4y ago
  Radical!
- rubatuga 4y ago
  Holy shit that visualizer has no business being as good as it is.
  - ddingus 4y ago
    Seriously! Also: https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse/Nintendo%20SNES/Zombies%20Ate%20My%20Neighbors https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse/Nintendo%20S... I have been playing this with my granddaughter lately. We are having a ton of fun, and these tunes are catchy.
  - keyle 4y ago
    Oh man you're not wrong. This is fun.
- keyle 4y ago
  That UI is so my youth. Listening to old tunes from the nintendo days, such a nostalgic day.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  I used to work with that guy! He gave a really good talk to the team on how FM synthesis works and how it approximates instruments.
- exikyut 4y ago
  It's perhaps an arguably unrelated suggestion, but if you like old MIDIs, this recorded livestream of what actually happens to Win95 when it hits 49.7 days uptime exclusively used a playlist of MIDI audio for the background music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrRoSdBM5M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrRoSdBM5M (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28340101 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28340101)
752963e64 4y ago
Thanks!
ignisardentis 4y ago
wow thanks
KronisLV 4y ago
I'm not sure about mobile, but on desktop the site is wonderfully performant and usable! Plus the idea itself is immensely cool, so props to the author! One thing I find myself wondering about is older looking fonts, with modern character set support (at least extended latin). Something like GNU Unifont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Unifont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Unifont but a bit more readable, say, for usage in an IDE.
pdenton 4y ago
Thanks but I prefer this one: https://sciops.net/downloads/vga/ https://sciops.net/downloads/vga/ ("The only font you'll ever need")
elevaet 4y ago
The website is delightfully replete, even the scrollbar is retro! Whoever built this deserves some kind of prize. I prefer the crisp "square" versions over the "correct" ones. The square version is how I wished the text showed up on my crappy monitor back in the day.
jokoon 4y ago
portfolio reminds me of profont I made my own profont, with a few modification, and I even made a non-monospace version, with narrower characters. https://imgur.com/a/sDyBhQ8 https://imgur.com/a/sDyBhQ8 Don't hesitate to ask me for it. They're all ttf.
cyco130 4y ago
I was kind of hoping to see Borland's BGI fonts in there.
cpcallen 4y ago
Hmm. Just loads a completely black page with no text, images or controls. JavaScript console says: Uncaught DOMException: Failed to read the 'sessionStorage' property from 'Window': Access is denied for this document. Looks like yet another website that is totally non-functional if one has disabled cookies. Listen: I'm totally willing to enable cookies when there is a good reason (login, shopping cart, preferences, etc.)—but if you cannot manage to make your website at least LOAD without cookies (not even a "this site requires cookies" notice, however obnoxious that is) then it does not reflect well on your competence as a web developer.
theandrewbailey 4y ago
All these fonts emulate the pixels used in the originals. While that's 100% true to how they are, when actually using them all those years ago, I didn't see pixels. I saw smooth, angled shapes. Today, these fonts break in higher resolutions. I found a recreation for the PC VGA font done in vectors. It makes me happy, and I use it everywhere its appropriate. Looks smooth, even in 4K. https://www.dafont.com/nouveau-ibm.font https://www.dafont.com/nouveau-ibm.font
hakfoo 4y ago
I always wondered why one of the losses of the BIOS->UEFI transition was the classic, relatively bold and attractive, console fonts. Most of the boards I've used in the UEFI era (Biostar, MSI, and Gigabyte, so it's not a single-vendor's taste) have gone to an ugly spindly font that looks a close brother to the X11 "fixed' font that gets loaded when no other font exists. I'd love to be able to snap one of these into my boot menu.

Also, from the showcase tab: https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse Wow! Playable database of every song from my childhood (NES/Sega/etc tunes). Wow.

einpoklum 4y ago
Aw, man, so good! Nostalgia... One Must Fall 2097's menu music, who would have thought I'd dredge that one up from memory.
animal_spirits 4y ago
Radical!
rubatuga 4y ago
Holy shit that visualizer has no business being as good as it is.
- ddingus 4y ago
  Seriously! Also: https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse/Nintendo%20SNES/Zombies%20Ate%20My%20Neighbors https://mmontag.github.io/chip-player-js/browse/Nintendo%20S... I have been playing this with my granddaughter lately. We are having a ton of fun, and these tunes are catchy.
- keyle 4y ago
  Oh man you're not wrong. This is fun.
keyle 4y ago
That UI is so my youth. Listening to old tunes from the nintendo days, such a nostalgic day.
dehrmann 4y ago
I used to work with that guy! He gave a really good talk to the team on how FM synthesis works and how it approximates instruments.
exikyut 4y ago
It's perhaps an arguably unrelated suggestion, but if you like old MIDIs, this recorded livestream of what actually happens to Win95 when it hits 49.7 days uptime exclusively used a playlist of MIDI audio for the background music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrRoSdBM5M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrRoSdBM5M (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28340101 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28340101)

752963e64 4y ago

Thanks!

ignisardentis 4y ago

wow thanks

KronisLV 4y ago

I'm not sure about mobile, but on desktop the site is wonderfully performant and usable! Plus the idea itself is immensely cool, so props to the author! One thing I find myself wondering about is older looking fonts, with modern character set support (at least extended latin). Something like GNU Unifont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Unifont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Unifont but a bit more readable, say, for usage in an IDE.

pdenton 4y ago

Thanks but I prefer this one: https://sciops.net/downloads/vga/ https://sciops.net/downloads/vga/ ("The only font you'll ever need")

elevaet 4y ago

The website is delightfully replete, even the scrollbar is retro! Whoever built this deserves some kind of prize. I prefer the crisp "square" versions over the "correct" ones. The square version is how I wished the text showed up on my crappy monitor back in the day.

jokoon 4y ago

portfolio reminds me of profont I made my own profont, with a few modification, and I even made a non-monospace version, with narrower characters. https://imgur.com/a/sDyBhQ8 https://imgur.com/a/sDyBhQ8 Don't hesitate to ask me for it. They're all ttf.

cyco130 4y ago

I was kind of hoping to see Borland's BGI fonts in there.

cpcallen 4y ago

Hmm. Just loads a completely black page with no text, images or controls. JavaScript console says: Uncaught DOMException: Failed to read the 'sessionStorage' property from 'Window': Access is denied for this document. Looks like yet another website that is totally non-functional if one has disabled cookies. Listen: I'm totally willing to enable cookies when there is a good reason (login, shopping cart, preferences, etc.)—but if you cannot manage to make your website at least LOAD without cookies (not even a "this site requires cookies" notice, however obnoxious that is) then it does not reflect well on your competence as a web developer.

theandrewbailey 4y ago

All these fonts emulate the pixels used in the originals. While that's 100% true to how they are, when actually using them all those years ago, I didn't see pixels. I saw smooth, angled shapes. Today, these fonts break in higher resolutions. I found a recreation for the PC VGA font done in vectors. It makes me happy, and I use it everywhere its appropriate. Looks smooth, even in 4K. https://www.dafont.com/nouveau-ibm.font https://www.dafont.com/nouveau-ibm.font

hakfoo 4y ago

I always wondered why one of the losses of the BIOS->UEFI transition was the classic, relatively bold and attractive, console fonts. Most of the boards I've used in the UEFI era (Biostar, MSI, and Gigabyte, so it's not a single-vendor's taste) have gone to an ugly spindly font that looks a close brother to the X11 "fixed' font that gets loaded when no other font exists. I'd love to be able to snap one of these into my boot menu.