I released Hoverunit on April 17, 2008, as a paid display typeface. The design was based on magnetic ink character recognition fonts from the 1960s, though I applied a more contemporary techno logic to the strokes to make it feel current. My aim was to keep the retro-computer aesthetic while improving readability compared to the original MICR designs.
The name came from my work on the DOS and PlayStation game Quarantine. In that game’s dystopian setting, city vehicles had their wheels replaced with large metal blocks, which I called “hoverunits.” I borrowed that term for the typeface because it carried the same futuristic tone I wanted the letters to suggest.
On 2021, I issued a maintenance update. I removed deprecated elements and corrected some technical issues but made no stylistic refinements. Hoverunit has not appeared in notable uses, though I still think of it as an experiment in connecting a specific historical style with a more usable digital form.