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Two pages of a brand identity manual for Atari. The left page features the red Atari logo and address over a pink, orange and yellow footer. The right page shows a bold, abstract graphic in the same vibrant colours.

Time to get nostalgic with 1980s videogame graphics from Art of the Arcade

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Date
28 August 2012

If you’ve ever stayed awake for two days straight jumping, punching and head-butting your way through turtles and venus fly traps, travelling through time to save a mysterious princess or eviscerating space pirates as an intergalactic bounty-hunter then you’ll definitely appreciate Art of the Arcade. The slow-growing online archive catalogues the vintage graphics and packaging of some classic gaming institutions, showing off the finest neon graphic design the 1980s had to offer. Currently the content is mostly limited to Atari and Nintendo, but we’re expecting to see a whole lot of SEGA, Capcom and Namco titles appearing pretty soon. A perfect bit of nostalgia to ease you back in to the working week.

A technical drawing of the Atari logo on squared graph paper. The image shows the “Fuji” symbol and the word “Atari” with construction lines and measurements.
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Art of the Arcade

The cover of a book titled “6502 Software Design” by Leo J. Scanlon. A series of concentric yellow and purple squares frame a small red heart at the centre. At the bottom, a logo sits beside the text “Rockwell International edition”.
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Art of the Arcade

The cover of a book titled “6801, 68701, & 6803 Microcomputer Programming & Interfacing” by Andrew C. Staugaard, Jr. Below the text, three colourful, textured triangles are arranged in a circular pattern. The bottom of the cover features the “Blacksburg Continuing Education Series” logo.
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Art of the Arcade

The cover of a book titled “Book 1 8080 8085 Software Design” by David G. Larsen, Jonathan A. Titus and Christopher A. Titus. Below the text, a bold graphic features interlocking orange and pink ribbons over a black background.
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Art of the Arcade

The cover of a book titled “Design of VMOS Circuits with Experiments” by Robert T. Stone and Howard M. Berlin. Below the text, a 3D render shows a looping, ribbon-like shape in stripes of pink, orange and yellow.
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Art of the Arcade

A blue and white logo featuring a thumbs-up gesture. The image is framed by text that reads “Numb Thumb Club” and “Imagic”.
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Art of the Arcade

An illustration of a colourful logo that reads “OUTER SPACE” in bubbly, blue and purple lettering. A striped red and yellow planet with a ring sits to the right, surrounded by small yellow stars.
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Art of the Arcade

A logo for “Pong Sports” featuring chunky, colourful typography. The letters are integrated with a tennis ball, an American football, a beach ball and a volleyball.
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Art of the Arcade

An illustration of a chunky, green cartoon tank with yellow treads. Above it, bold red lettering reads “TANK” with the word “PLUS” in yellow below.
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Art of the Arcade

An advertisement for the Atari Pong console. Bold text at the top reads “Pong for your home tv”, above an illustration of the game screen showing a score of “12” and “14”. A black console with two dials sits in the foreground, next to a red circle containing the text “It’s the one people want most.”
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Art of the Arcade

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About the Author

James Cartwright

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James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

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