Stylogeny combining Bitmap × PS1

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Style combination · Pairs well

Bitmap × PS1

The PSX look is the bitmap pixel stretched across 3D surfaces; set its menus, HUD and captions in hard-edged bitmap capitals so the type shares the textures' resolution.

From the research on PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

Mix them and make something Bitmap PS1

CircuitCircuitCircuitBitmap × PS11977 · 2015
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Bitmap, their arrangement from PS1, the finish from PS1. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

01

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

Type from Bitmap
Colour from PS1
Form from Bitmap
Composition from PS1
Surface from PS1

02

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Bitmap

Circuit

Pixelify Sans, standing in for Chicago (Susan Kare, 1984)

Text · PS1

Indie games and their artwork that rebuild the look of late-1990s console and PC 3D on modern engines: few polygons, tiny low-resolution textures that warp as the original PlayStation's affine-only mapping did, dithering, grain and distance fog over murky, dark earth tones. Puppet Combo's horror games 'modeled after early PlayStation games and VHS' and Dusk's Quake-like shooter set it going; the Haunted PS1 community made it a scene, with game jams and digital Demo Discs whose menus and manual booklets imitate the era's demo discs.

VT323; PS1 used Bitmap and pixel fonts in capitals for menus and HUDs, in the manner of the PlayStation demo-disc and Namco Museum front ends the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs model their menus on (a working description: the scene has no settled typeface canon) and Title cards and on-screen lettering borrowed from VHS tapes and late-1990s survival-horror title screens, as in Puppet Combo's games modelled on early PlayStation games and VHS

03

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from PS1, with a counter-accent from Bitmap. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Bitmap & Pixel Graphics PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic)

  • #0d0d0c ground · 36%
  • #c9c2a8 ink · 14%
  • #6b1d16 accent · 18%
  • #9bbc0f accent · 14%
  • #5c5446 accent · 10%
  • #55ffff accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #0d0d0c;
  --ink: #c9c2a8;
  --accent-1: #6b1d16;
  --accent-2: #9bbc0f;
  --accent-3: #5c5446;
  --accent-4: #55ffff;
  --font-display: "Pixelify Sans", monospace;
  --font-text: "VT323", monospace;
}

04

The two styles

A retro pixel-art space navigation interface shows a gridded star map with a spiral galaxy, colorful stars, and green celestial bodies. A right-hand panel displays a cyan planet and its statistics, while object cards and a command menu run along the bottom. 1977–1995 · North America, East Asia Bitmap & Pixel Graphics Graphics and lettering built from the square pixels of low-resolution screens (arcade and console sprites, home-computer displays and the first graphical user interfaces), where every dot was placed by hand within tight limits of memory, resolution and palette. Designers such as Susan Kare turned those constraints into a language of legible pictogram icons, jagged bitmap fonts and dithered tones. A dark, blocky illustration shows a blood-streaked wooden walkway winding along steep cliffs toward a stone building with a lit doorway. A pale moon hangs over misty rock spires and a distant arched bridge beneath the jagged title “HOLLOW RIDGE.” 2015–present · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked PS1 / Lo-Fi 3D Revival (PSX Aesthetic) Indie games and their artwork that rebuild the look of late-1990s console and PC 3D on modern engines: few polygons, tiny low-resolution textures that warp as the original PlayStation's affine-only mapping did, dithering, grain and distance fog over murky, dark earth tones. Puppet Combo's horror games 'modeled after early PlayStation games and VHS' and Dusk's Quake-like shooter set it going; the Haunted PS1 community made it a scene, with game jams and digital Demo Discs whose menus and manual booklets imitate the era's demo discs.

05

More combinations

With Bitmap

All 19 combinations with Bitmap

With PS1

Every style combination