How to format a message board

Question

I am trying to create a message board that displays a series of up to five messages, each on a single line. Ideally, I would like to use a traditional "green text on black background" format, something like this:

This is created using:

Dataset[messages,Background -> Black, ItemStyle-> Green]

where messages is just a simple string array.

The problem with this approach is that you can't control the displayed width of a Dataset, nor can you eliminate or re-color the horizontal white lines between rows (or so I believe).

I don't think TableForm can accomplish what I am trying to achieve, but maybe Grid would work.

Does anyone have any alternative suggestions (including better formatting ideas!)?

Answer 1

messages = {
  "You have insufficient fuel to reach that destination."
  , "Player 2 has deployed death-star weapon."
  , "Move North-East."
  , "Your last play cost 3 credits, 8 credits remaining."
  , "The game has started. You have 10 seconds."
  }

As a Graphics object:

Graphics[{Text[
   Framed[
    Style[
     Column[messages, Spacings -> 0.8]
     , 16, Green, FontFamily -> "Courier"
     ]
    , Background -> Black
    , FrameMargins -> {{12, 12}, {12, 12}}
    ]
   ]
  }
 , ImageSize -> {600, 200}
 ]

Answer 2

Grid works okay, but you'll have a bit of work to do on the formatting

messages = {"Hey", "You", "What's", "Up"};
Rasterize[
 Grid[Partition[messages, 1], Background -> Black, ItemStyle -> Green,
   ItemSize -> Max[StringLength[#] & /@ messages], Alignment -> Left]]