KickStarter - The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium

[Phillyman]

This is fantastic news, please support this project. Any members who back this project at the $50 level or higher, send me a PM of the reciept and I will promote you to Lifetime Member over here at Retromags

 

Over its 25-year print run, Electronic Gaming Monthly captivated tens of millions of readers around the globe with its opinionated, fearless, and often irreverent coverage of the world of video games. The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium is an ambitious new book that honors that legacy, combining meticulously curated excerpts from the magazine with new insights and never-before-told stories to explore gaming's evolution, from its earliest frontiers to today's modern landscape.

 

 

The EGM Compendium is more than just a book; it's a journey through time, spanning over 320 pages of rich video game history, from the well known to the largely forgotten to the downright bizarre. The Compendium charts the development of the most noteworthy games, franchises, cultural shifts, and industry trends from throughout EGM’s quarter-century of publication. New insights from the editors who worked on the magazine offer a behind-the-scenes look at the magazine’s creation, while contributions from gaming industry veterans and modern influencers add richer context.

 

Read More!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egmbook/egmcompendium/description

[TOLUST]

What happens if you are already a Lifetime Member at Retromags  AND support the project over the $50 Also Phillyman are you part of this project ?

[Guava]

An absolutely brilliant magazine; got a stack of the issues from 2003 - 2006 from a cousin back in the day and became obsessed. Would be amazing for them all to be digitally archived and searchable!

[mvangord]

God I miss EGM's "fuck you" attitude, it'd be great to have in this era of corporate monstrosities.

[dablais]

Backed the Collector’s Edition!

[Joseph4587]

For those interested, from what I was told, purchasing access to the digital archive allows you a DRM free way to get a PDF copy of EVERY numbered issue, including issue 237 to finally complete the digital collection. I doubt that issue will be made available here (which makes sense since they are "selling" it), so this may be your only chance for a long time to be able to get a digital copy of it. 

[Rando1975]

They've already gone over the $255,000 mark. Holy shit. I'll be contributing for the digital edition.

[kitsunebi]

So unless they struck some sort of deal with Retromags and are using our scans for their PDF collection, I assume all EGM scans at RM will be needing to be taken down since every issue will now be being "sold" by the publisher?  Let's hope they're high quality PDFs, at least.

[JHD]

9 hours ago, kitsunebi said:

So unless they struck some sort of deal with Retromags and are using our scans for their PDF collection, I assume all EGM scans at RM will be needing to be taken down since every issue will now be being "sold" by the publisher? 

 

This is a good reminder for everyone to keep local copies of whatever they find interesting. There is nothing permanent about something hosted on a third-party website. 

[tcaud]

They are doing this to cash in on 90s nostalgia. They'll have them available for a few years and then they'll take them down again. EGM itself will not return... there is no place remaining for it (PC Gamer is only barely alive).

 

Oh look at this. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forgottenworlds4/forgotten-worlds-magazine-4?ref=recommendation-projectpage-footer-1&category_id=Q2F0ZWdvcnktMzI5

 

People seem to be figuring out they can monetize Retromags.

Edited October 17 by tcaud

[kartracer3]

Looks like they've hit the stretch goal for a new print issue!

[TresHombres]

I feel very conflicted about this. I think about the amount of time, money, and effort the scanners and editors here have put into archiving magazines here on RetroMags without any compensation. 

Phillyman, can you please clarify if they are using RetroMags scans for this project? If they are, and the original scanners are not being compensated, I do not feel comfortable supporting this endeavor. Even if the scanners themselves are ok with not being compensated, I would obviously respect their decision, but for me personally I still feel it is crummy. 

Also, can we get clarification if this means you foresee taking EGM off of here, and if so, if in the future if someone does a GamePro Kickstarter will it mean removing GamePro from here too, and so on...

Addendum: I wanted to add something based on what Kit said up above here. I agree with what Kit said and want to add  to this -- so we take down all the EGMs here. They put out the PDFs. And the PDFs aren't as high quality as the scans here. So now in order for a future fella to read EGM, he has to pay for inferior versions of what was previously freely available in better versions? 

Addendum 2: 

" It's the first preservation effort of its kind for any video game magazine."
 

Edited October 19 by TresHombres

[Phillyman]

1 hour ago, TresHombres said:

I feel very conflicted about this. I think about the amount of time, money, and effort the scanners and editors here have put into archiving magazines here on RetroMags without any compensation. 

Phillyman, can you please clarify if they are using RetroMags scans for this project? If they are, and the original scanners are not being compensated, I do not feel comfortable supporting this endeavor. Even if the scanners themselves are ok with not being compensated, I would obviously respect their decision, but for me personally I still feel it is crummy. 

Also, can we get clarification if this means you foresee taking EGM off of here, and if so, if in the future if someone does a GamePro Kickstarter will it mean removing GamePro from here too, and so on...

Addendum: I wanted to add something based on what Kit said up above here. I agree with what Kit said and want to add  to this -- so we take down all the EGMs here. They put out the PDFs. And the PDFs aren't as high quality as the scans here. So now in order for a future fella to read EGM, he has to pay for inferior versions of what was previously freely available in better versions? 

Addendum 2: 

" It's the first preservation effort of its kind for any video game magazine."
 

What I can say at this moment is Retromags has not officially been asked to take down the EGM/EGM2 collection. Until we get that email from EGM, the EGM collection will be up. And just to clear any confusion they are aware of our project.

[TresHombres]

Ok, since you did not answer my main question, it is obvious that they are using the existing RetroMags scans. Will you be financially or otherwise compensated for giving them these scans? 

[Phillyman]

1 minute ago, TresHombres said:

Ok, since you did not answer my main question, it is obvious that they are using the existing RetroMags scans. Will you be financially or otherwise compensated for giving them these scans? 

To be honest, I am not sure one way or another. I do not know if any of our scans are actually being used. But I can assure you I am not getting any funds from the Kickstarter.

Here is the thing, in a perfect world, Retromags should not need to exist at all. Publishers should grant access to their past collections of magazines. Unfortunately we know that unless there is a big $$$ behind doing so, that it wont happen.

[TresHombres]

I think I see what you mean. Since these are free to download, it is kind of like when people uploaded these mags to Internet Archive. It is hard for RM, even the actual scanners, to say hey don't do that, because the rights aren't held here, and it was by the grace of these magazine companies to not send C&D legal threats to RM. So to say "Hey don't use these scans for monetary gain" is hard, because whoever owns the right to EGM would have that final say so. So if they saw original scans, it is like hey we didn't yell at RetroMags to take these down, so we feel ok utilizing them for our own project.

I guess looking at it from that perspective -- what EGM would gain from using the scans was already paid in the past by not requesting RM to take the mags down, which they easily could have.

I do hope though that they credit the scanners. I think that's a reasonable middle ground.

I also want to apologize for assuming the compensation; a tiny amount of the people attached to this project (John Riggs for example) are very  slippery folks so I thought oh no, not Philly too, haha.

[Phillyman]

1 minute ago, TresHombres said:

I think I see what you mean. Since these are free to download, it is kind of like when people uploaded these mags to Internet Archive. It is hard for RM, even the actual scanners, to say hey don't do that, because the rights aren't held here, and it was by the grace of these magazine companies to not send C&D legal threats to RM. So to say "Hey don't use these scans for monetary gain" is hard, because whoever owns the right to EGM would have that final say so. So if they saw original scans, it is like hey we didn't yell at RetroMags to take these down, so we feel ok utilizing them for our own project.

I guess looking at it from that perspective -- what EGM would gain from using the scans was already paid in the past by not requesting RM to take the mags down, which they easily could have.

I do hope though that they credit the scanners. I think that's a reasonable middle ground.

I also want to apologize for assuming the compensation; a tiny amount of the people attached to this project (John Riggs for example) are very  slippery folks so I thought oh no, not Philly too, haha.

It is a two edged sword. Retromags can ask that people do not resell our scans, or provide them as though they did the work. But in the end, once downloaded our files are unencrypted, no DRM, etc....we have no control.

But on the same token, the EGM collection is out there. You guys are seeding those torrents. If I am asked to no longer provide EGM, the torrents lose 1 seeder for each torrent, its not like they would stop working.

[Rando1975]

38 minutes ago, TresHombres said:

I also want to apologize for assuming the compensation; a tiny amount of the people attached to this project (John Riggs for example) are very  slippery folks so I thought oh no, not Philly too, haha.

John "I'll shill anything" Riggs is attached? Ugh. Oh well. I contributed for the digital version.

[TresHombres]

2 hours ago, Phillyman said:

It is a two edged sword. Retromags can ask that people do not resell our scans, or provide them as though they did the work. But in the end, once downloaded our files are unencrypted, no DRM, etc....we have no control.

But on the same token, the EGM collection is out there. You guys are seeding those torrents. If I am asked to no longer provide EGM, the torrents lose 1 seeder for each torrent, its not like they would stop working.

That makes sense, and in the end, with so many local copies, none of this stuff will really ever be lost. Also, I need to remember we are talking about video game magazines and not life-saving EpiPens here, and calm down a bit, haha.

[Phillyman]

43 minutes ago, TresHombres said:

That makes sense, and in the end, with so many local copies, none of this stuff will really ever be lost. Also, I need to remember we are talking about video game magazines and not life-saving EpiPens here, and calm down a bit, haha.

This convo reminds me of this.....

Tale of the Tape: the NFL’s Copyright Claim to the Only Known Super Bowl I Recording

Quote

On January 15, 1967, over 62,000 spectators filed into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Super Bowl I.[1] A further 51 million watched the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs on either the CBS and NBC broadcasts.[2] For the good part of half a century, the events of the game existed only in the memories of those who watched it unfold in real time, as both CBS and NBC taped over their respective copies of the broadcast pursuant to the common industry practices of that time.[3] In 2005, Sports Illustrated included the tape of the first Super Bowl in its list of “25 Lost Treasures,” estimating the potential value of such a recording to be upwards of $1 million.[4]

Soon after Sports Illustrated ran the article, Troy Haupt received a phone call from a childhood friend who inquired as to whether he remembered coming across a box labeled ‘Super Bowl I’ while playing in his attic some decades earlier.[5]Haupt had no recollection of any box, but his mother knew exactly what he was referencing.[6] The box—and more importantly the two reels of film inside—had remained in that same Pennsylvania attic all those years.[7] After they were removed and restored, Haupt discovered that his father had used a quadruplex recorder at his place of work to record the entire CBS broadcast of the game, with the exception of halftime and a portion of the third quarter.[8]

After making the discovery, Haupt took the tape to the most obvious buyer: the NFL.[9] However, instead of acquiescing to the $1 million price tag set by Haupt, the league took a different stance: they made him an offer of $30,000, which has since been rescinded, and threatened him with legal action should he attempt to find an alternative buyer.[10] Essentially, while the league concedes that Haupt owns the tape itself, its position is that the contents of the tape are protected by the NFL’s copyright and thus Haupt is prevented from commercially profiting off of its sale.[11]

While the NFL has thwarted any sale of the tape thus far, some scholars have characterized their position as “bluster” and suggested that it would be untenable if tested in court.[12] Others have asserted that “the law stands with the league.”[13]Critics of the NFL’s legal argument cite the first sale doctrine, an exception to the exclusive right of distribution provided by copyright law that permits the owner of any lawfully made copy to sell or otherwise dispose of that particular copy.[14] The applicability of this doctrine hinges on whether the copy made by Haupt’s father would be deemed “lawfully made” within the meaning of the statute.[15] Typically, the exception is applied with regard to legal copies that were purchased, the rationale being that the rightful owner of that particular copy is entitled to do with it whatever he or she pleases.[16] There is little indication that the doctrine would extend to an unauthorized reproduction, such as the one made by Haupt’s father. However, the determination may be further complicated by the fact that Congress did not explicitly extend copyright protections to live broadcasts of sporting events until 1976.[17]

 Although the strength of the NFL’s legal position is unclear, two filmmakers in Utah are determined to test it.[18] The pair plan to produce a documentary on the tape, with the eventual goal of purchasing it from Haupt and releasing it to the public.[19] The two have budgeted $100,000 for potential legal fees to fight off a challenge from the league.[20]

https://www.kentuckylawjournal.org/blog/tale-of-the-tape-the-nfls-copyright-claim-to-the-only-known-super-bowl-i-recording

[chibialien]

Quote

https://www.kentuckylawjournal.org/blog/tale-of-the-tape-the-nfls-copyright-claim-to-the-only-known-super-bowl-i-recording

Fascinating stuff. Something as important as Super Bowl I belongs in the Library of Congress. I guess the legacy of the NFL means very little to the NFL itself, and that's the sad part.

[Phillyman]

33 minutes ago, chibialien said:

Fascinating stuff. Something as important as Super Bowl I belongs in the Library of Congress. I guess the legacy of the NFL means very little to the NFL itself, and that's the sad part.

What is 1 million to the NFL? That is like 5 minutes of profit for them. Also isn't the NFL technically classified as a non profit? Which opens a whole other set of questions.

[jdjenkins83]

Maybe the PDF scans will include the pages that the scans from RM were missing on issues like 109 and 163.

[kitsunebi]

5 minutes ago, jdjenkins83 said:

Maybe the PDF scans will include the pages that the scans from RM were missing on issues like 109 and 163.

Could be.  Or could be like the official digital archives of other mags which only reprint the editorial content and are missing all of the advertising or certain other pages. 

There's only one thing I know for sure: despite some imperfections like you mention, there are a lot of people here who have a genuine passion for preserving mags and have spent untold unpaid hours of their lives doing so to the best of their abilites.  Let's hope that whoever is being paid to put the archives together on EGM's side of things shares that passion.

[StrykerOfEnyo]

From what the Kickstarter says, the Digital Archive will NOT be available for free to the public, so those interested may want to spend the $10 for access. In the Q&A Section it says:

"...it's possible that we will we sell access to the Digital Archive at a later date, [but] we have no current plans to do so."

So, no matter what, it will require paid access in some form. Having a searchable database alone makes this really worth it, and since its paid access, it's not going to just disappear in a couple of years. The Archive will also remain exclusive to the Kickstarter backers for at least six months.