Beep! Megadrive

[puddinpops]

So I've got all issues of this Japanese magazine dating from November 93 up to January 1995. I'm still not sure, but I might be looking to hand them off to someone that will scan them. I'm trying to get a whole bunch of other JP magazines and quite frankly can't afford taking up more room.

 

I looked around the site but I can't find anything that says how to donate. How does donation work? The weight of these things is pretty heavy too, so shipping won't be simple. If anyone were in the Bay Area like me it'd be easier to just meet up and hand them off. Do you guys buy magazines off of people if they offer them?

 

Let me know. I plan to be getting tons of issues of Playstation Magazine, Dengeki Playstation, Dengeki Nintendo 64, and Sega Saturn Magazine which I'd also give in the future. My primary thing is I want to sell what I have to afford more, but I only want them to go to someone who will scan them.

[kitsunebi]

Yeah, it's funny how there's a line in the FAQ that says "Check out this page on how to donate magazines!" as if there's a link to a "how to donate" guide or something (there isn't.)

 

I assume you've got to get into direct contact with someone via PM and arrange it that way.  We've only got a handful of people actually doing any scanning, so it shouldn't be hard to figure out who to contact.  Don't look at me, though.  I've got enough unscanned mags to last me a lifetime of scanning, and besides, shipping to Japan would be stupid expensive (it would probably be cheaper for me to just buy my own copies of the magazines if I really wanted them).

[puddinpops]

Yeah, I made this topic after reading that and wondering where "this page on how to donate magazines" is since I saw no link anywhere! Someone better fix that.

 

I'll let anyone interest post here since I'm sure any scanners will see this topic. That would be funny sending them to Japan since I got them from there not long ago, so it'd be like going back and forth. I will definitely have to post when I am getting other magazines just to make sure someone else hasn't already got them.

[Sean697]

It's something I'd very much be interested in scanning. But absolutely have no room on my plate for. Try and hold onto them though. I may in a year have room. I'm absolutely interested in scanning Japanese Mega Drive coverage.

Generally I've found most people will accept donations if you pay for shipping.

If you don't get any offers I'll take them, just know they won't be scanned anytime in the near future. I would like to see them preserved.

[marktrade]

Looks interesting. I could scan them for you and throw the unedited scans up on my archive.org page, but they won't be on Retromags until they are cropped and straightened, which I'm not committed to doing for the foreseeable future. I actually still do some edits, like removing debris lines, but as far as making them look really nice and presentable, I try to pass that along to others when I can and focus on scanning, which I find hard to find time for as it is.

 

Maybe someone at SegaRetro will edit them before taking the scans for their site.

[kitsunebi]

Maybe someone at SegaRetro will edit them before taking the scans for their site.

 

If by "edit" you mean compress and shrink them until the entire mag is about 80MB, then yeah, they usually edit our stuff within hours of it appearing here.

[marktrade]

If by "edit" you mean compress and shrink them until the entire mag is about 80MB, then yeah, they usually edit our stuff within hours of it appearing here.

 

Yeah but all the magazines I've seen them host are at least cropped so, who knows?

[kitsunebi]

Yeah but all the magazines I've seen them host are at least cropped so, who knows?

 

Because the site they took them from cropped them?    It's my understanding that other than some of the Japanese stuff, their mags have been pulled from elsewhere.  What original content they have was the work of one user who hasn't been active in a long time.  But as you say, who knows?

[Sean697]

They just take our scans and resize them wholesale and remove the Retromags page. I recognize my edits on the issues they host that I scanned. It's theft pure and simple. I don't mind too much , but I wish they did t reduce the quality.

[kitsunebi]

They just take our scans and resize them wholesale and remove the Retromags page. I recognize my edits on the issues they host that I scanned. It's theft pure and simple. I don't mind too much , but I wish they did t reduce the quality.

 

I had a talk with one of the guys doing the...appropriating at Retro CDN (a hub repository of a couple of different sites including Retro Sega).  I let him know that none of us were happy with having the quality of our files ruined.  Ever since then, mags uploaded at RM show up there a couple of hours later with the following message attached:

 

This magazine scan was brought to you by the good folks of Retromags (https://www.retromags.com/), a community which specialises in high quality preservations of video game magazines.

This mirror has been compressed for ease of use across the Retro family of wikis. For a full quality scan of this publication, download their original version. Retro CDN also endorses donations to Retromags to allow magazine preservation to continue.

 

It's not as good as leaving the files intact, but at least this way their users know they're getting a poor-quality copy and are directed to the location of the original if they'd rather have the quality version.

 

Of course, none of the mags taken from OGM or anywhere else come with such a message, so I'm guessing it was just done to placate my ire.  So I guess if Kiwi or anyone else wants to see their hard work similarly acknowledged, they could ask nicely.  Or just yell really loudly.  "OY!  YEAH, YOU!!!  PLACATE MY IRE!!!  PLACATE IT WITH THE SWIFTNESS!!!"

[Sean697]

I'm cool with that.

[kitsunebi]

I'm cool with that.

 

Yeah, it's definitely on the more acceptable side of how things can be handled when people take our files.  Certainly better than taking all of one of our most popular magazines, creating a flurry of media coverage about it without once acknowledging where credit was due, and then forcing us to remove those same files from our site to avoid spillover from the shitstorm of negative legal attention they brought upon themselves.  *cough*

In the (sort of) lawless wild west of the internet, taking what you want without a second thought is second nature to most, so the fact that they've responded positively to our concerns is pretty remarkable, actually.  Peace be with you, Retro brothers.