Canada Type released the first version of Gamer in August of 2004. It was modeled after a few 1972 magazine advertisement letters, the origin of which was later identified as a common film type called Checkmate.

In the spring of 2006, Patrick Griffin revisited the family to optimize a few minor oversights and add small caps to the speedy mechanical face. Now Gamer is truer than ever to its popular history as the defining Escape From New York movie poster and packaging face, a gun with a six-barrel engine that exudes heat, speed, strength and sharpness.

Gamer comes in all popular font formats, and contains a few alternates within the character map of each of its fonts.