kitsunebi's talking to himself again

[kitsunebi]

Why is this cover significant?  Is it the game being advertised?  Well, certainly the Fate game franchise is significant - it's raked in over 2.5 billion dollars so far, which makes it more successful than other well-known franchises like Metal Gear, The Sims, Minecraft, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat...the list goes on.  But due to their huge popularity, Japanese mags with Fate games on the cover are a dime a dozen.

What makes this cover significant, or rather the magazine itself, is in the upper right corner.  This is the 35th anniversary issue of Comptiq, which began publication in 1983.  35 years.  That's longer than any gaming mag I can think of (if another gaming mag has been in publication longer, please rub my nose in it in the replies.)  Of course, 35 years from now, there may not be print mags of any kind, and there almost certainly won't be any about games (if current trends are an indication.) 

 

And just think, it's only 15 more years until Comptiq can match the epic 50-year publication run of the greatest mag ever published:

 

 

 

[kitsunebi]

 

Another personal milestone hit: There are now more Japanese game magazine covers in the gallery than USA mags (we left the UK behind long ago.)

On a related note, 62% of all the images in our galleries are mine.

[E-Day]

This calls for a thumbs up.

[kitsunebi]

I can't tell if that's intended to be an insult, but I'm gonna have to take it as one.

[Ethereal Dragonz]

16 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

This is the 35th anniversary issue of Comptiq, which began publication in 1983.  35 years. 

That is an incredible achievement. Have you seen issue #1 up for sale anywhere? We need to get that one on the site.

[KiwiArcader]

As far as computer magazines go APC (Australian Personal Computer) magazine has been running longer as I have issue 06 on my website dated Nov 1980 

[kitsunebi]

4 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

As far as computer magazines go APC (Australian Personal Computer) magazine has been running longer as I have issue 06 on my website dated Nov 1980 

I acknowledge your point but disqualify it from consideration on the grounds of it not being a gaming magazine.

Still, good on ya, APC.

6 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

That is an incredible achievement. Have you seen issue #1 up for sale anywhere? We need to get that one on the site.

PC game mags (the older ones about real PC games, not the porn and visual novel wasteland that the Japanese PC gaming scene is today) usually sell for quite a bit higher than video game mags.  So whatever Famitsu #1 sells at, I'd say double it.  There was one up for auction recently with a buy it now price of around $200 (which as I said, is around twice that of Famitsu #1.)  It didn't sell, since although it had been bid up to $70, the seller ended the auction early (Yahoo auctions doesn't require the seller to honor bids if the auction ends early.  If the bidding isn't going the way they like, the seller can just end the auction early and anyone who placed a bid is S.O.L.  That's happened to me before.)  I avoid expensive mags, so the oldest issues of Comptiq I own are from 1989, but those issues up through the ones from the mid-90s are probably my favorite Japanese magazines to leaf through.  After that, the mag started to change into something more focused on bishoujo stuff (a reflection of the PC game industry itself in Japan) and it becomes much less interesting to me.

[kitsunebi]

Uploading Comp Ace covers now.  It's not a mag that I will ever scan. 

Ever.

I do not have that kind of time.

Also, nearly 700 pages for a $6.00 cover price is the kind of deal you can only get in Japan, where paper is dirt cheap despite nearly 100% of their wood being imported.

[Ethereal Dragonz]

700 pages? Is that a monthly mag or is that a semi-annual compilation mag for Comptiq?

[kitsunebi]

Monthly.  The vast bulk of Comp Ace is comics (based on games), though, and as I'm sure you're aware, all comic magazines in Japan are as thick as phone books.

[kitsunebi]

I've come up with a way to test if you are an old-school gamer (a nicer way of saying that you're OLD).

You're an old-school gamer IF...

You feel the need to start out with "Isn't it hard to believe" when explaining that the PS2 is older now than the Famicom was when the PS2 was released.  And if we're talking USA release dates, it's even more skewed.  The PS2 is now over 18 years old in the USA, whereas the NES (rolled out nationwide in 1986) was only 14 years old when the PS2 hit shelves.

ISN'T THAT HARD TO BELIEVE???

[kitsunebi]

Started uploading some Play (UK) covers and noticed some of this B.S. going on with the front covers:

If you can't read that, it says: Kiokaotsuteha.  Which doesn't mean jack shit, so far as I can tell.  Being written in katakana, it should mean that it's a non-Japanese word (usually English), but I sure as hell have no idea what it means.  And if it's Japanese for something (and inexplicably written in the WRONG syllabary), I still don't recognize it.  Can anyone fluent in Japanese confirm that it's meaningless and this is just a case of some British art director thinking that putting random Japanese characters on the cover of their magazine looks cool?  They printed it on the cover of their first 8 issues, so they obviously were proud of it.  They might have even thought it meant something, though exactly what is the mystery at hand.

[kitsunebi]

I skipped ahead 14 years and they're still at it.  I think this confirms that the people in charge of Play UK are a bunch of asshats (or wankers, in the colloquial).

\

This is a random assortment of kanji that never appears together as such in spoken or written language.  Not ever.  At first I thought it was completely meaningless, and then realized it was the result of some asshole with a dictionary trying to create a Frankenstein word.  The first half means theater (as in drama) which could also be thought of as a "play."  The second half means terminal (as in computer terminal), which apparently someone thought was close enough to "station" that they had made some sort of clever pun.  A pun which no one, especially no one who speaks Japanese, would ever understand.  Congratulations, editors of Play UK.  Where is the golf clap emoticon??

[Ethereal Dragonz]

I thought this was interesting. You created the first web searchable reference of the word.

 

[Nardack]

Hey, kitsune, there's eroge devotees like me would pay cold hard cash to upload those comtiq issues you have...

 

or I could just buy a copy myself & scan it. JP magazines are very cheap on Yahoo!

[kitsunebi]

1 hour ago, Nardack said:

or I could just buy a copy myself & scan it. JP magazines are very cheap on Yahoo!

Yes, finally someone gets it.  This is exactly what you should do.  This is what everyone who wants to see something get scanned should do.

[kitsunebi]

So I've been contemplating uploading some stuff to archive.org and was looking for some feedback.  I've got some (mostly) Japanese magazines and strategy guides and whatnot that are not my own scans, so obviously they can't go here.  Most of them are pulled from various places from temporary links at filehosting services.  It seems to me that archive would be a more permanent home so that they aren't lost to time when those links die (if they haven't already.)

However,

1. How douche-y would it be to do so?  I've never uploaded anything I didn't scan or edit myself, so would I be being an asshole to do so?  I've thrown shade at sites like RetroCDN in the past for throwing up compromised edits of mags scanned and released by other sites in the preservation scene.  The stuff I'm talking about isn't from another scanning site (that I'm aware of) and just comes from public links.  Of course, someone had to scan it in the first place, but I have no idea how to find out who in order to ask permission.
2. If I DO upload such files, should I treat them with the same cut-off dates as we do at Retromags?  For example, some of the newer files are digital releases which someone has captured from official PDFs.  Although the digital releases are no longer for sale (Japanese publishers usually only keep them available for a year or two), they would still be off-limits on Retromags.  Archive.org doesn't have our rules, but again, would I be being a dick by not adhering to them anyway?

I'm looking for serious feedback, not "I DESERVE EVERYTHING GIVE IT TO ME NOW" pleas to upload anything and everything without a care for the consequences.

Whatcha think?

[Ethereal Dragonz]

I'd like to think that we all have a collective goal of trying to make this history available to everyone. If you are able to cite the source, that's good, but if not I still think you are fulfilling their original purpose for being made available.

You've done so much work in the past I don't think you should feel too douche-y or have to ask for forgiveness for making a good faith effort towards a community project.

[Areala]

My thoughts on this are, basically, "different sites, different rules". Archive.org very clearly skirts copyright in a way that is almost shameless. Not that there isn't enforcement, but when you can browse entire galleries of films and books that are nowhere near public domain, I don't see that the Retromags restriction on hosting applies. Japanese magazines have been a part of Archive's history for years now, so you adding to the mix I don't see as hurting anything. Retromags need not link to the scans or even acknowledge their existence.

I don't really see this as a conflict of interest. It's like working at a bookstore full-time, then taking a part-time gig at a library. Both jobs deal with printed publications...and that's really about the extent of it. They treat their materials differently.

Maybe try doing one or two files over there, leaving them alone, and see how you feel about it after a week or two. If it makes you uncomfortable, you can always pull them down. If you find it doesn't affect you much, then go nuts.

*huggles*
Areala

[kitsunebi]

19 minutes ago, Areala said:

Retromags need not link to the scans or even acknowledge their existence.

Maybe try doing one or two files over there, leaving them alone, and see how you feel about it after a week or two. If it makes you uncomfortable, you can always pull them down. If you find it doesn't affect you much, then go nuts.

Personally, I have no problem with it.  I'd have no problem mentioning it here, either, since I know there are people here who would be interested.  I obviously would not be taking credit for the scans (and wouldn't want to even if I was a shameless liar - most of them aren't edited so well), but I see nothing wrong with pointing out their existence.  If anyone ever asked for them to be removed, I'd be happy to do so, of course.  It just seems selfish not make this stuff more widely available in a more permanent way than some iffy direct download links that force you to enter a bunch of captchas and then wait a million years for them to download at dialup speeds.

But you do bring up another question.  Would drawing attention to them by creating a post in the forums (to be updated as things are added) be frowned upon?

[KiwiArcader]

You're nuts if you think anyone is going to tell you "NO" to any of this as most people visiting sites like Retromags are all about getting their magazine fix for nothing, or as close as possible to nothing so any posts in the forums pointing out even more content for them to leech for free is going to go down about like a cold beer on a hot summers day.

[kitsunebi]

6 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

You're nuts if you think anyone is going to tell you "NO" to any of this as most people visiting sites like Retromags are all about getting their magazine fix for nothing, or as close as possible to nothing so any posts in the forums pointing out even more content for them to leech for free is going to go down about like a cold beer on a hot summers day.

Yeah, but those people can't be arsed to post in the forums, either.  So when I say I'm looking for feedback, it's from the people who matter i.e. contribute.

I'm free to do what I want at archive, ultimately, but I would like to hear that no one would be bothered before I start promoting such efforts in the RM forums.

[KiwiArcader]

Really, the only people who you should need to listen to then would be Phillyman and maybe E-day given they run RM.

Everyone else's voices, well, do they even really count? Anyways, for what its worth you get the thumbs up from me......

[kitsunebi]

4 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

Really, the only people who you should need to listen to then would be Phillyman and maybe E-day given they run RM.

Everyone else's voices, well, do they even really count? Anyways, for what its worth you get the thumbs up from me......

Calling all cars.  Requesting @Phillyman and @E-Day for backup. 

[E-Day]

Like you said, what you do off this site is none of our business. If you want to upload magazines you didn't even to Archive so that they aren't lost, that's not something we're concerned with. If you want to upload your own scans there, same thing. Your scans are yours and you can do what you want. 

The only thing I am unsure of is posting on here about what you're uploading to Archive. I'm not sure if it would be an issue or not or implicate the site if something went down. I'll leave that to Phillyman to address.