LCD Game Graphics

LCDゲームの様式 / 1980–1991 / Style / Digital Retro

The fixed-segment LCD screens of Game & Watch and its kin. Movement had to be told through a handful of poses etched in advance, and this art of frames, layered over a printed background, produced a picture unlike any other.

LCD Game Graphics — Game & Watch Turtle Bridge, 1982 (CC BY-SA 2.0) · © Joe Haupt from USA — Game & Watch Turtle Bridge, 1982 (CC BY-SA 2.0) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Joe Haupt from USA

LCD Game Graphics — Boxing (CC BY-SA 2.0) · © Miguel Discart — Boxing (CC BY-SA 2.0) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Miguel Discart

LCD Game Graphics — Elektronika IM-02 Nu, pogodi! — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © StripeFruit — Elektronika IM-02 Nu, pogodi! — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © StripeFruit

At a glance

Visual cues

Fixed-segment figures
Two layers over printed backgrounds
Frame-step motion
Silver shells and the cross key

Best used for

Designing the display of a simple device that shows motion through few states
Toys or promotional items needing play feel without adding components

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Dictionary entry

Type: Numerals given to seven-segment digits, words kept to a few fixed labels
Composition: Positions of moving parts fixed first, the printed background explaining the world
Material: A silver shell holding two layers, transmissive LCD over printed art
Caution: Adding poses in pursuit of smooth movement removes the tension that jumping between frames created and the play turns dull.
Further study: Gunpei Yokoi's withered technology / the constraints of segment design / the borrowing from calculator LCDs

Related entries

Pixel Art (ピクセルアート)Shared effects: Play / Nostalgia / Technique.Compare LCD Game Graphics and Pixel Art
Skeuomorphism (スキューモーフィズム)Shared effects: Nostalgia.Compare LCD Game Graphics and Skeuomorphism

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