Typotronic

design Letterbox | programmer Peter Hennessey | Venue The rmit Design Archives, Melbourne

TypoTronic is a digital game developed in 1998 to encourage children to more closely observe Melbourne’s unique typographic landscape by creating words from signage.

This unique fusion of typography and programming was developed when Stephen Banham (Letterbox) joined forces with Peter Hennessy (Drome) to create a game that challenges players to make words from a spectrum of signage across Melbourne – from the well-known (Pelligrini’s) through to the more obscure (the American Donut van at Queen Victoria Market). Following its completion and exhibition in 1998, the game vanished into digital obscurity, existing only in a boxed-up floppy disc.

Twenty seven years later Typotronic was brought back to life by the RMIT Born Digital Cultural Heritage lab as part of a national consortium aiming to providing access to culturally significant born digital artefacts held in archives and collections.

To mark this revival, the RMIT Design Archives exhibited the work in its display window as part of the 2026 Melbourne Design Week complete with a 12m² reproduction of an Apple OS9 desktop. Gameplay of Typotronic can once again be experienced complete with its original sound effects (including the ‘ding’ of the famous Melbourne trams).

Best played with audio, three minutes of gameplay from Typotronic (1998).

Left: The original archive material of Typotronic. Right: The 1998 exhibition of new digital design projects, complete with the Letterbox studio mascot uppercase A.