some of these Game Players magazines have been in the scanning phase for months now i think

[orthicviper]

https://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/game-players-1993/#.WDy5O_krJEb

 

So i was checking that collection periodically because I really wanted to see these again and I was pretty happy when I saw maybe a few months ago they went into the scanning phase. But since the status hasn't changed since then I just decided to make a post about it. Not sure if the scanning is coming soon or got abandoned or what. I'm not making this post to complain or anything but just trying to do my part to show interest in these magazines if it can help them get scanned.

[marktrade]

It's possible I marked about half of those as "scanning." That's because they actually did go through the scanning phase, but not the editing phase. I wanted to see if there was anyone interested in helping to edit, so I uploaded them unedited to an external site. Also the original donor, aloram, really wanted to at least have them scanned, so I quickly obliged.

https://archive.org/details/UneditedGPScans

So far no one has expressed interest in editing them, which is a shame because it's a good way to get patron or team member status here at Retromags. People sometimes complain about being asked to donate to get patron status. Well no one has to! They can help edit scans.

Now, the mystery is that I only scanned and uploaded issues past #80. Everything that's marked "scanning" that's before issue #80, I really have no clue what's going on there.

[aloram]

Marktrade was cool enough to scan them quickly, but yeah, I'm really surprised no one has wanted to edit them. Game Players was a really great magazine. I can't complain, though, because we're all busy people with different priorities, but hopefully we'll see them on Retromags soon enough! 

[kitsunebi]

Marktrade was cool enough to scan them quickly, but yeah, I'm really surprised no one has wanted to edit them.

 

I'm not.  Have you ever edited a scan?  It's a pain in the ass.  There's a reason there are so few people willing to do it.  That said, anyone with a computer CAN do it (granted, those with Photoshop can do it better), so the only excuse anyone has for not helping is because they don't want to.

 

I suppose if I was ever faced with the prospect of having to toss out all of my mags (if I ever moved back to the States, for example), I might try to scan a lot of stuff as fast as possible and leave the editing for later, but part of me knows that said editing would probably never happen and I'd just be foisting a ton of raw scans upon the world (which I suppose is better than nothing, but wouldn't mean much to this site since none of them could be hosted here).

[Sean697]

I believe Phillymanbwas scanning some early Game Players which means they probrably will be edidted by E-Day?

[aloram]

I'm not.  Have you ever edited a scan?  It's a pain in the ass.  There's a reason there are so few people willing to do it.  That said, anyone with a computer CAN do it (granted, those with Photoshop can do it better), so the only excuse anyone has for not helping is because they don't want to.

 

I suppose if I was ever faced with the prospect of having to toss out all of my mags (if I ever moved back to the States, for example), I might try to scan a lot of stuff as fast as possible and leave the editing for later, but part of me knows that said editing would probably never happen and I'd just be foisting a ton of raw scans upon the world (which I suppose is better than nothing, but wouldn't mean much to this site since none of them could be hosted here).

 

Yeah, I'm sure it's a huge pain in the ass. I just meant "surprised" in the sense that, when I donated them, I was under the impression that a lot of people on this site wanted more Game Players. But when I asked Marktrade if he'd take all the issues and he agreed, it wasn't planned this way: He agreed to take them, but he said he was really busy and couldn't give me a time frame. Basically, I misunderstood when he'd be able to get to them, so he was nice enough to scan them all immediately so I could at least get the raw scans.

[Depressor]

People always want some things) But only few of them want to do something to get this things)))

 

I'm sure it's a huge pain in the ass.

Maybe for the start... But later your speed become higher and higher))) Especially with good scans and good PC's Edited November 29, 2016 by Depressor

[Phillyman]

It's possible I marked about half of those as "scanning." That's because they actually did go through the scanning phase, but not the editing phase. I wanted to see if there was anyone interested in helping to edit, so I uploaded them unedited to an external site. Also the original donor, aloram, really wanted to at least have them scanned, so I quickly obliged.

So far no one has expressed interest in editing them, which is a shame because it's a good way to get patron or team member status here at Retromags. People sometimes complain about being asked to donate to get patron status. Well no one has to! They can help edit scans.

 

 

So about two months ago when I got that massive donation of magazines, many of them were Game Players. I noticed that they were marked as Missing or just Acquired in the database. So I went ahead and decided to gather the ones I had and change the status to Scanning. Well as I was about to start doing them, It was brought to my attention that you had already scanned them and the unedited scans were out at IA. I have been meaning to reach out to you and see if I can send a USB flash drive off to you for the scans, which then I could put them on the Retromags NAS, which would let members grab them from here. I remember IA doing some weird stuff with compression of files, so I didn't want to grab the IA versions if they have been downgraded in quality for that site.

 

As to the Patron status, Yes, my offer will always stand that anyone who helps edit these magazines into releasable versions....will always be rewarded here at Retromags for their efforts.

[marktrade]

Ah! So that explains it.

I have been meaning to reach out to you and see if I can send a USB flash drive off to you for the scans, which then I could put them on the Retromags NAS, which would let members grab them from here. I remember IA doing some weird stuff with compression of files, so I didn't want to grab the IA versions if they have been downgraded in quality for that site.

The CBR files that are downloadable there are identical to the files that I upload. I ran an MD5 check on a couple now just to be sure. It's just that they use the file to derive a number of other compressed file formats as well. To download the original unaltered file that I uploaded, go to the "download options" panel on the right and click "COMIC BOOK RAR."

Edited November 29, 2016 by marktrade

[Phillyman]

Ah! So that explains it.

The CBR files that are downloadable there are identical to the files that I upload. I ran an MD5 check on a couple now just to be sure. It's just that they use the file to derive a number of other compressed file formats as well. To download the original unaltered file that I uploaded, go to the "download options" panel on the right and click "COMIC BOOK RAR."

 

Gotcha, perhaps it was just when IA created PDF files of scans. I remember seeing quite a bit of bitching on random websites that the PDF versions of the Nintendo Powers were absolute crap. They had downgraded the original 65MB CBR files to 7MB PDF files and the results were complete garbage. I will snag them up

[marktrade]

Gotcha, perhaps it was just when IA created PDF files of scans. I remember seeing quite a bit of bitching on random websites that the PDF versions of the Nintendo Powers were absolute crap. They had downgraded the original 65MB CBR files to 7MB PDF files and the results were complete garbage. I will snag them up

The PDF files that are automatically created do look pretty bad, but they're searchable and great for looking things up quickly. I believe that's their intended purpose.

[Depressor]

They had downgraded the original 65MB CBR files to 7MB PDF files and the results were complete garbage.

Never understood this... Always was pity when i find this crap and can't find the original scans.

The PDF files that are automatically created do look pretty bad, but they're searchable and great for looking things up quickly. I believe that's their intended purpose.

Maybe i'm too old, but i never understood the OCR and search in magazines... You have the content page and you have a mind - what else do you need))) Edited November 29, 2016 by Depressor

[marktrade]

Never understood this... Always was pity when i find this crap and can't find the original scans.

Maybe i'm too old, but i never understood the OCR and search in magazines... You have the content page and you have a mind - what else do you need)))

It's more about being able to search multiple magazines. Last year during the Shenmue kickstarter I very much wanted to research past coverage on Shenmue to learn more about the original vision of the game and where a new game might lead. With OCR I could very easily search "Shenmue" and related words like "Virtua Fighter RPG" and "Yu Suzuki" and jump right the pages I need without having to dig through any files.

I realize I'm the only person on this site who cares about OCR, but haven't any of you ever looked at the magazines on your shelves and just wished you could type in a search query and instantly find what you're looking for?

[kitsunebi]

I realize I'm the only person on this site who cares about OCR, but haven't any of you ever looked at the magazines on your shelves and just wished you could type in a search query and instantly find what you're looking for?

 

That would be convenient if it were possible to search an entire collection at once.  Unfortunately, very few of the mags in my collection can be searched via OCR, so that means I'd get woefully incomplete search data at best.  Unless there's a way to search anything via OCR that I'm unfamiliar with - I admit I haven't looked into it at all.

[marktrade]

Maybe it's an OS thing. On the Mac it's very simple to search within PDFs through the OS itself. You don't have to open any programs or any of the files themselves. You just to go to whatever directory level of your collection you want to search in and then type in the search window. It'll give you not only results with matching filenames but matching content.

Of course the files themselves have to be "text searchable PDFs," a specific kind of PDF that not even Kiwiarcader cares about, and he cares about PDFs!

[kitsunebi]

Of course the files themselves have to be "text searchable PDFs," a specific kind of PDF that not even Kiwiarcader cares about, and he cares about PDFs!

 

 

 

 

That's what I figured.  So it really isn't very useful since very few of the mags being circulated out there are OCR-searchable.  But a good idea in theory.

 

How does one go about making a PDF searchable?  Can a regular PDF be converted to searchable, or must it be created that way from the start?  And how does it affect the quality/filesize? 

[Data]

 

 

 

 

 

That's what I figured.  So it really isn't very useful since very few of the mags being circulated out there are OCR-searchable.  But a good idea in theory.

 

How does one go about making a PDF searchable?  Can a regular PDF be converted to searchable, or must it be created that way from the start?  And how does it affect the quality/filesize? 

 

First you need Adobe Acrobat Pro. Not Reader

Open a PDF file with just raster images.

Open Tools

Open Recognize Text

If Recognize text isnt there it may be turned off.

Pull the little window down in this same tool cluster and turn the option on

Select "in this file"

Select "Edit"

change primary OCR language to English US

change PDF Output Style "Searchable Image Exact"

This leaves the image intact but adds a layer of searchable text underneath

After completion there may be some words unconverted

Under Recognize Text click Find First Suspects

It will show a raster image of a word it was unshure

If it is spelled correct, click Accept and Find

If it is misspelled, insert it yourself then click accept and find.

[marktrade]

Or you can just upload it to archive.org and it will automatically create a text searchable PDF in the download options alongside your original upload.

[kitsunebi]

Or you can just upload it to archive.org and it will automatically create a text searchable PDF in the download options alongside your original upload.

 

Yeah, but since the quality of archive.org's automatically created PDFs is terrible, you'd still have to keep the original file as well.

At any rate, it's nice to know that if, in an alternate reality, I was to need to exhaustively research thousands of gaming mags in order to find the secret recipe for world peace, it could be done.  For now though, the hassle and time involved in converting a large collection into a searchable one negates any convenience it might bring.

[Data]

I downloaded a PDF from Kiwi's site here. http://www.oldgamemags.com/3do-mag/

It was something like 70 pages.

It took approximately 2 minutes to find all the text.  My 6700K bounced between 20 and 40%  My SSD ran 0.1% and my Graphics card did nothing.

I hit ctrl+f and searched for a string of words buried deep and it found them every time.

 

2 minutes very easy, don't need a powerful computer.

Just setup a script to do this auto

[perfinpuz]

retropdfs.wordpress.com  has sets already OCRed of many sets of british computer and video game magazines but their quality varies. They are available in (usually) complete sets by torrent.

[Data]

Or you can just upload it to archive.org and it will automatically create a text searchable PDF in the download options alongside your original upload.

I like  the idea of drag and drop like anyone but If I had to upload say 50 GB's of my collection of scans, this would take about 10 days @ 0.5 Megabit per sec meanwhile my internet is crippled.

Worse case scenario It would time out after 3 to 4 hours or give some other type of error. In this case I "never" get done.

 

Meanwhile I could have converted these all in about 84.4 minutes and have it bit perfect and "guaranteed" errorless.

 

The PDF file seems superior but I wonder if there is another way. Perhaps a program that behaves as a sequential jpeg viewer such as CDisplay

with it's own character recognition.  Something for archival purpose.  Or perhaps something for $1.99 at the app store.

[danielslim22]

Great info guys, I will be on the look out for old gaming mags.

[daven000]

Game Players was my favorite magazine as a kid. I'm just posting to let it be known that there is interest out there to see these preserved. I wish I could help out with editing myself, but I lack photoshop unfortunately.

[fousekis]

ok ive downloaded from archive Game Players issue 88 and ive extract the cbr file.Now what kind of edit should i do with photoshop?.I ll need some instructions to do a perfect edit