Some people have formative experiences. Among other things, I have a formative logo, which I’ve just seen for the first time in thirty years. Always an odd experience, seeing things like that.

* * *

When I was little, we had this computer. And we got magazines written just for users of this computer.

Every issue had code for simple games; if you typed the code verbatim into your own computer, you could play these games. I did this a few times.

This particular issue about ‘education with the home computer’ had a game called Robochase. I don’t remember the gameplay at all, but I do vaguely remember the instructions screen, which had a logo that looked like this:

This is me.

This is my life.

* * *

To make that title card, you didn’t use a graphics program or anything. You did it in code.

See all those DATA statements with incomprehensible gobbledygook after them? Those are custom letters. A font, if you will. E0F0F8F0E0F0F8 is an R. F8F8D8D8D8F8F8 is an O. But it’s not a whole font. It’s just the letters you need to spell out ‘robochase’.

And one of the first things I did with a computer that wasn’t typing in a canned game or playing an existing game, was try to fill out the rest of the letters in this sort of Tron-ish font.

I don’t remember how far I got, or how good my results were. But I remember that I tried. I found this endeavor far more enjoyable than playing kickball with my friends.

And being a programmer, and puttering around with game projects, and having an interest in making fonts, and typography, and graphic design in general, this is a big part of who I am.

* * *

I love being able to dig up stuff like this. The stuff that made us. Not that it’s a particularly straightforward process. It’s taken years for me to find a pdf of this magazine.

Part of the fun is the random other stuff you discover along the way. An ad for floppy disks. An article about how great computers will be at teaching mentally disadvantaged kids.

And once I see this stuff I’m made of, it all becomes a little more mundane, and it’s reminder that every mundane thing I do still makes me, for better or worse. I’m well out of my formative years, but I’m still being made by the things I surround myself with. So I’d better make sure I’m being made of the right things.