SOTC (Syn.) font-related question

[dale_grass]

Or you could go this route:

[NickintheATL]

I think I understand. So the character generator is running a timer/countdown program?

Yes. That's right. I'm pretty sure that CG's back then could do it.

[Thunder]

Gotcha. The only switching and CG system I've ever worked with is BroadcastPix and the CG part of that was not very intuitive.

ETA: Sincere thanks, sir.

[BrandonFG]

Would $ale have been the first to use a fully-CG clock (the Helvetica or Futura)? Off the top of my head, it seems that, even by 1985, a lot of shows superimposed a vane display, with a few Goodson-Todman shows using eggcrates (Cullen's Blockbusters, Dawson's Feud, the first week or two of Body Language). Maybe Every Second Counts? (Never mind. That was an actual tote display wired as a clock.)

I take it the Scrabble Sprint clock used a technology similar to what Nicholas explained, if not the exact same technology, except with a stopwatch-style clock?

[NickintheATL]

The whole thing varies. Scrabble's clock I think was a physical clock being shot by another camera.  The eggcrate and vane clocks used on Feud, Body Language, et al were physical clocks shot by a camera and keyed on.  That's what's interesting about 80's game shows is the mix of stuff going on with stuff like this, I've always found it interesting from a professional standpoint.

/I did use art cards in college for various things, including luma keys.
//Yes, I went old school. :-)

[BrandonFG]

I think I used the wrong term, but yes I'm thinking of keying.

I, too, find the transition to technology fascinating, esp in the 80s. Even more interesting that Goodson was using art cards  well into the mid-90s on TPiR, while other shows like Super Password went fully CG a decade prior.

ETA: I may have just answered my own question from a couple posts prior. Seems Super Password could be the first to have used a CG clock...

[Mr. Matté]

I think the first "SportsType" clock used on SOTC was also computer-generated. Unlike say Contestants' Row which did use actual lights, when the digit turned to 1, the display of the "1" was a line down the center rather than along the right hand side as was used on the lighted displays. On later SOTCs and Blockbusters (1987), the "ST" display seemed to have little serifs indicating that it was CG. (example from Blockbusters)

SOTC wouldn't have been the first to use this type of clock as Three for the Money did for its speed and bonus rounds. EDIT: Since Brandon mentioned P+ below, P All-Stars used the same type of clock too.

[BrandonFG]

It's possible. Similar to Travis' example, my grandmother had a TV from the early-80s, that would display the channel and time on screen. From what I remember, the numbers looked a lot like the timer from Password Plus' Alphabetics round, except white.