PC Gamer April 2000

[MigJmz]

I found some old mags i collected when i was younger and decided to scan one for this site. I picked a PC Gamer mag since the database has only a few. I hope its good enough!

Updated with more improvements!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vpdAziVCQjRFx6LAbE2SJ4JncYB3ThHD

 

[kitsunebi]

Dunno if anyone else is going to comment so I'll throw in my 2 cents.

First of all, minor technical quibble: when using WinRAR to save your file, please select RAR 4 compression.  The newer RAR 5 (labeled simply "RAR") isn't compatible with older CBR readers (like mine).  In order to open the file, I had to unRAR it, then re-RAR it using RAR 4 compression (zip would also work if saved as a CBZ).

As for the file itself, it's for the curators to decide if something is "good enough", but I can give you my opinion.

On the negative side, you didn't debind the magazine.  Pretty much every flaw in the scan is directly because of that.  There is some blurriness and distortion.  There is cropping and missing information on the gutter side of every page.  Those things can't be avoided without debinding the mag (which is why we do it.  Otherwise, why go through the work of an extra step and destroy the magazine in the process?)  By cropping away the gutter of most pages it's possible to try to hide the distortion, but anytime the image stretches across facing pages (such as in many of the advertisements in this issue), it becomes impossible to disguise the fact that the entire page wasn't scanned.  Once Retromags switches hosts and I'm able to upload joined multi-page advertisements again, the ads in this mag would be unusable since too much is missing from the gutter area to join them into a cohesive image.

Now, on the positive side:

YOU SCANNED A PC GAMER!  Sure, you didn't debind it, but it's totally readable, and who am I to blame you - I don't want to debind any of my PC Gamers, either (which is why I only scan mags I have no problem throwing into the recycling once I'm finished.)  If the entire 1990s run of PC Gamer were to show up looking exactly like this one, I would have no complaints whatsovever.  HINT. HINT.

 

[Ethereal Dragonz]

It looks pretty great to me, thank you for your contribution and I wouldn't mind seeing more .

[MigJmz]

I can sure assure you there is no missing info on the edges. I would of fix that. The problem i found is that these pages are super thin and the other side of the page would bleed through when scanning. I edited most of the bleeds but some pages I couldnt. Re-scanning didnt help, it would cause the same outcome. Debinding would of course fix all this but I just cant see me doing that and I dont want loose pages lying around! For the blurs i did some editing and sharpened them in PhotoShop the best i can. The double page ads I thought it looked better joined but then again most comic book viewers you can double view pages so it was probably useless. It does look cool though I think. The link is down for now. I'm gonna do some edits I missed and re-upload. Is it ok to make a blog to share a link of the mag?

Thanks for the advice though. Scanning is hard work! I know what to do in the future now.

[kitsunebi]

6 minutes ago, MigJmz said:

I can sure assure you there is no missing info on the edges. I would of fix that. The problem i found is that these pages are super thin and the other side of the page would bleed through when scanning. I edited most of the bleeds but some pages I couldnt. Re-scanning didnt help, it would cause the same outcome. Debinding would of course fix all this but I just cant see me doing that and I dont want loose pages lying around! For the blurs i did some editing and sharpened them in Photoshop the best i can. The double page ads I thought it looked better joined but then again most comic book viewers you can double view pages so it was probably useless. It does look cool though I think. The link is down for now. I'm gonna do some edits I missed and re-upload. Is it ok to make a blog to share a link of the mag?

Thanks for the advice though. Scanning is hard work! I know what to do in the future now.

By "missing info" I'm not talking about missing text or whatnot, I'm simply talking about parts of the page that are not visible due to being in the gutter area.  On most pages, that area is just empty space anyway, so losing it is no big deal.  In the case where an image runs all the way to the edge of a page, then that information is lost.

For example, this is what you get when scanning a bound mag:

This is NOT a joined ad.  This is simply two pages of a bound mag scanned on a flatbed.  In order to be a joined ad, it needs to (as much as possible) appear to be a single image.  This simply isn't possible without debinding, since too much information is lost in the gutter.  In the above scan, for example, the amount of missing information is very easy to visualize simply by lining up the laser beams like so:

That white space in the center is the part of the page(s) that can't be scanned unless the magazine is debound.  (Full disclosure: with square-bound magazines, even when debound, there is often a (much narrower) bit of the picture that may be missing simply because it literally is not printed on the page! Since it is so small, it can often be fixed with the content aware fill tool, but a 100% perfect join is usually not possible on squarebound mags without some sort of Photoshop magic involved.)

Like I said, none of this is anything you need to worry about if you aren't willing to debind your mags.  No amount of Photoshop editing can make the part of the page closest to the gutter be usuable.  You simply do the best you can to make it presentable, and I think you did a pretty good job of that.  And again, if leaving them intact means you'd be able to scan more PC Gamers, then that is A-OK with me.

[MigJmz]

but the laser beams look exactly like that in the mag. They are not joined perfectly like you think they are. Especially the right laser. You cant align them perfectly so whats the issue? Are you saying theres more image in the binded part that you cant see unless debinding? I pushed the mag down the middle and the laser dont align.

 

 

[kitsunebi]

The image is printed all the way to the edge of the page.  The edge of the page is actually bound within the glue of the spine, so yeah, there are parts of the page only visible after debinding.  Also, facing pages may not be cut correctly and one page might need to be moved higher or lower to align correctly.  Of course, the largest area of the image that won't be able to be captured is the part that's on the curve of the page, since it will either not get scanned or else come out blurry.

But again, don't read too much into my criticism.  I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong here.  Most people don't really care about stuff like that, and as you yourself point out, that middle area isn't really visible if you're looking at the actual printed mag while it's still bound, anyway.

You should probably PM Phillyman and E-Day a link to your mag so they can have a look if you want to get it approved.  They're both pretty busy and sometimes overlook stuff like this in the forums.  (I'm sort of in charge of Japanese mags by default, but other than that, I just work on the galleries and databases because no one else wants to.)

[kitsunebi]

Here's an example of an image stretching across two pages on a debound mag I have sitting at my desk.  As you can see, Photoshop will still need to be used to fix the holes (which are where the glue holds the page to the spine), but the image more or less perfectly aligns when the pages are placed together.  Before it was debound, it would have been impossible to scan the parts of each page closest to the center, and thus, making the image align as perfectly as it does here simply isn't possible.

But AGAIN, please don't take this to mean that I think you've done anything wrong.  I'm just pointing out the advantages to debinding a magazine if you're trying to get a "almost better than the real thing" scan.

[MigJmz]

i see but i dont think this applies to this certain image since it dont align. I understand aligning is certainly important. The other ads are aligned good.

[kitsunebi]

You've got to understand that all of this talk of aligning images (usually) only applies to ads and is only important if you want to upload the ads to our advertisement gallery. For that reason, ads coming from bound mags can't be used.  But for the purpose of a scan to be added to our downloads section, it doesn't really matter.

With bound mags, the bigger concern is simply the fact that due to the curvature of the page near the spine, the image has to either be cropped to remove that area, or else the spine crease itself has to be visible in the scan, like in the original ad above.

[MigJmz]

I see. What about the blogs can I post a link of the mag in there. Is that ok?

[kitsunebi]

Absolutely.  You can post a link there and ask Philly/E-Day to check out your blog!