I knew it was a better font than Gaslight out there since I saw a car back in 1998 having its logo using the real A from Sonic 2's title card. Now we can actually get the real numbers for extended acts in Sonic 2 HD (if ever produced). How the hell did you find the font by just "digging around"? I have several fonts I want to find, like the Nintendo Entertainment System font, which is the base for the mega-drive font, among several others.
Google is one hell of a thing. I started by looking for the logo, and any typeface information that someone might have contributed. Conveniently enough, I was led here. This told me what I was looking for (and that 'Marquee Mieux' font is as crap as Gaslight). Next, I tried to figure out WTF 'Solotype' was. Turns out, it's a collection of books (?!) published by Dan X.Solo. I was able to learn that it had been digitized from this page. I found that one that was linked to first, but as I'd said, it looked bad once it got to any decent size. So, I started looking for the other one, 'DXS Roco'. That's when I found that Russian forum. After finally breaking down, creating an account with my spammable address, and making a borderline spam post, I had it. Also, how'd you like the surprise I put in the same .zip?
I like the surprise I don't think Sega used this font all that much though... or at least, not without touch-ups (NiseSega is obviously fan-made but it's based on the current logo so it's good enough). There were a few small revisions of the logo during the 80s though. however http://segaretro.org/FileIC_Dual_flyer_back.jpg the "old G" is present in Sega/Gremlin flyers all the way up to 1982. But it's not present on the Sega-only stuff, so my guess is that the folks who made these flyers in the late 70s and early 80s were too lazy to hunt down the real logo, instead making their own from this font. IIRC Sega moved onto this blue logo towards the end of 1976 and aside from slight changes to the A I think it's been more-or-less identical for 35 years. The G is correct in this '76 pinball flyer.
I'm going to take a gamble and say Techtonic was probably fan-made, if not just on the basis the version floating about on the net is missing half the characters (and is generally fairly crap to work with). But I know nothing about fonts, really. Century Bold, Andes and Vipnagorgialla are said to be the Sonic 1, Sonic 3 and Sonic Heroes fonts repectively. The Ms were never good in Andes so I suspect there's a mystery to be solved there too. and for the record http://www.identifont.com/list?17+id+4+4QG+2+4R2+2+SZ+2+5CY+3+2AG+3+6RO+3+3HJ+3+2R3+4+2T6+4+6S7+4+2YI+4+6H5+5+3EL+6+2Z5+6+75P+6+46C+7+33U+7+2O4+7 Action 52
FWIW, Andes seems to be a knock off of Plaza, a more renowned font. However, the M is the same as the Andes one, no closer to the S3 design.
The Andes/Plaza problem is easily solved by taking the W glyph and flipping it for the M. I had an edited Andes where I did just that. I probably also need to edit the E and F so the bars have a 90° angle on the right side. However, the X is also off. It should be both horizontally and vertically symmetric to match the Sonic 3 lettering, but in Andes, it isn't. However, after taking a look at the S, I'm deeming Andes (yep, the free version) to be the more accurate of the pair. Edit: Here is a quick and dirty edit of the Andes font. The list of changes: E: Flattened right edge of bar. F: Same as E. M: Replaced with W glyph and metrics, then flipped vertically and aligned to baseline. Q: Flattened top edge of Q stroke. R: Added contour to copy of P glyph with point positions taken from the original R, then edited to move stroke to right, and angled lower end. X: Widened top of strokes to match lower ends. Moved middle points down to make the glyph symmetric vertically. Y: Angled top of upper strokes.
It's possible they just used a custom variant of the font, after all. It's not like they had to follow the font exactly as-is.
No, I am looking for the font used on the NES console and controllers. You can see the font used in "START" and "SELECT" here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/NES-101-Controller.jpg And "ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Nintendo_Entertainment_System_-_European_version.jpg Look at the "E", is flat at the top, and rounded at the bottom. This is the key in finding the font. The european box art for Mega-Drive, Mega-CD, and Mega 32X used this font, but removed a stripe at the top of each letter line to make it special: Early Mega-CD CD cases, before Sonic CD was released, used a more Japanese style (with the Japanese Mega-CD logo), but at the side of the CD cases, they used the same font as NES (the one with no stripe removed) and that's where I figured out the Mega-Drive logo was stylized from. It is just easier to look at all the NES stuff instead of trying to locate old Mega-CD cases.
Urgh. I don't understand what this hype over finidng THE ORIGINAL SONIC 2 TITLE CARD FONT is all about. It's a really common typeface style dating back almost 100 years, so it's entirely possible Sega had just recreated it from photographs or touring around. In fact, I've seen both it and the Andes-like style in a LOT of places, including buildings both in New York City and on Long Island, where I live X_x Also Sik sent me this [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxfXsF05j7g[/youtube]
Take some photos of the Sonic 2 title card font where you live. I can bet you won't find it anymore. There are many fonts that make you think about Sonic 2's title card, but it is only the real one we are interested in. But the Sonic 3 title card font is very very common, all over the globe. However, it is not called Andes. The original name is "Plaza" and was created by Alan Meeks: http://www.linotype.com/1348/plaza-family.html
So far I've seen Eggman's old "EG" logo in three very different places. Sonic Ride Are there any more about?
Please tell me you guys noticed this already. This commercial uses the odd slanted non final top chemical plant loops. I'm sure you guys got it covered though.
I'm sure you guys are already familiar with 808 State's Pacific State and its influence on Little Planet. But here's another that's even closer than that: Cubik and Boss (GG) from Sonic 2 (8-bit). Speaking of Sonic 2 (8-bit), I just thought I'd let you guys know that Green Hills Zone isn't the only track with similarities to Sonic CD music, although the connections aren't as obvious. They're more like comparing Sonic - You Can Do Anything to Mecha Green Hill Zone (which is also based off of Sonic - You Can Do Anything) instead of Green Hills Zone. Listen very closely to these pairs; you might just notice something you've never heard before. Sonic CD-----------Sonic 2 (8-bit) -Palmtree Panic and Act Start -Collision Chaos and Gimmick Mountain Zone -Tidal Tempest and Crystal Egg Zone -Quartz Quadrant and Aqua Lake Zone -Wacky Workbench and Invincibility -Stardust Speedway and Scrambled Egg Zone -Metallic Madness and Sky High Zone -Boss!! and Boss (GG) -Zone Clear!! and Act Clear -Game Over and Game Over
