Whats Stopping You?

[Phillyman]

This is just a friendly poll to see what is stopping most people from helping out. We are asking only because we want to try to get around any hurdles that members may be experiencing in helping out.

[wildlele]

Personally my lack of knowledge in editing is stopping me but I have ordered some books from the library to read and learn more. I do upload releases though to google and contribute money to new scans

[modgeezer]

I don't own a scanner but I think this is a great project and I'm looking at buying a good scanner at some point this year to hopefully help out.

[meppi]

My answer would definitely be "I am just plain lazy!", and yes; I'm being serious. :grin:

I sometimes even wonder what keeps me going when I simply don't care about doing certain other things which should have priority.

But in the end I simply love this hobby, and especially the retrogame aspect of it whichis more of a passion actually.

And since retromags is quite a big part of the retrogaming experience, everything fits into place.

The 2nd reason would be that I came across a scan of the official Sega Saturn magazine a year or 2 ago, and I was sad that I couldn't find the other issues, especially since it was a great underappreciated magazine as well as system.

So I wanted to share the couple of issues I had with people just like me.

Didn't took too long before I started looking on EBay (which I hated at the time and barely ever used), looking for the missing issues.

Finding out who Rich Leadbetter actually was and how influential he was to the feel and content of the mag. (Just go through the mags and look how many columns and reviews are actually written by one man)

The learning about Maximum, which was his baby, and a bit further down the line starting to figure out lots of great people worked at one and the same publisher, and on different mags (EMAP).

So it's become a bit of an addiction in and of itself. :wink:

[fusoya]

Hah. I've been working on scanning a couple random magazines which I've held onto for some reason. I've also been making final edits on my Nintendo Power collection (issues 1-201). I've even tried uploading a few of them, but about half the time, they show up as corrupted. If there's any way to make a less screwy upload system, I'd be helping out a lot more!

Also, I'd be a lot more inclined to help get these magazines out if I thought people actually READ them. Our fearless leader has already admitted to me that he only collects files and doesn't actually read any of this stuff that we're wasting hours putting together, so honestly, what's the point?

[meppi]

Hah. I've been working on scanning a couple random magazines which I've held onto for some reason. I've also been making final edits on my Nintendo Power collection (issues 1-201). I've even tried uploading a few of them, but about half the time, they show up as corrupted. If there's any way to make a less screwy upload system, I'd be helping out a lot more!

Also, I'd be a lot more inclined to help get these magazines out if I thought people actually READ them. Our fearless leader has already admitted to me that he only collects files and doesn't actually read any of this stuff that we're wasting hours putting together, so honestly, what's the point?

Not sure what the problem could be with the uploads as I never experienced any problems with it myself.

There was some trouble with the download system on the former provider, but those have all been fixed with the new one.

As for what Philly does with his magazines, that's his business. Same goes for everyone else.

In gaming it's the exact same thing, you have gamers and you have collectors.

Some people get enjoyment by playing the games or in this case reading the magazines, others do so by collecting them instead.

I'm actually a bit of both, I enjoy to collect rare games and also magazines, but when I have the time I do love to play or read them, even though with the amount of games/magazines I buy or scan/download, I know that I have way to much stuff that I will never play or read anyway.

That doesn't make the enjoyment of having them any less. If I want to I can still pick them up and read/play them anytime I want.

Let's face it, no matter how much work goes into creating these releases, they will always be for a very niche group of people.

Many of todays gamers aren't even interested in the former generation, let stand generations past that one, so you can only imagine what they would think if you asked them if they wanted to read videogame magazines from 10-20 years ago.

You first of all have to have some love for classic games or systems, and like I stated above, within that group there are lots of collectors.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

As a matter of fact, Philly has kept this site going against better judgment for quite some time, even though he was the only one at that time still working on it.

So the last thing that should be called into question is his dedication to this project.

What he does with the scanned issues is up to him.

As far as I'm concerned he can print the pages out, clip them all up and light them on fire in a pagan ritual of bestiality, drugs and self-mutilation, and I still wouldn't have a problem with it.

What it comes down to is that we shouldn't scan these magazines for some ulterior motive such as getting some kind of recognition for what we do.

If that's the case, you're bound to burn out sooner or later (probably sooner) simply because people only care about the mags and not who scans or edits them, and that's only natural.

The only reason we should be doing this work is because we love the mags ourselves and we want other people to be able to enjoy them as well.

[wildlele]

Hah. I've been working on scanning a couple random magazines which I've held onto for some reason. I've also been making final edits on my Nintendo Power collection (issues 1-201). I've even tried uploading a few of them, but about half the time, they show up as corrupted. If there's any way to make a less screwy upload system, I'd be helping out a lot more!

Also, I'd be a lot more inclined to help get these magazines out if I thought people actually READ them. Our fearless leader has already admitted to me that he only collects files and doesn't actually read any of this stuff that we're wasting hours putting together, so honestly, what's the point?

I greatly enjoy reading your scans and if I have not thanked you personally yet fusoya then thank you very much! I'm sure we can work out the uploading issues but please keep it up! I missed reading a ton of magazines in the 90s and love to see new ones. Thanks fusoya!!!!!!!!

[Phillyman]

Not sure what the problem could be with the uploads as I never experienced any problems with it myself.

There was some trouble with the download system on the former provider, but those have all been fixed with the new one.

As for what Philly does with his magazines, that's his business. Same goes for everyone else.

In gaming it's the exact same thing, you have gamers and you have collectors.

Some people get enjoyment by playing the games or in this case reading the magazines, others do so by collecting them instead.

I'm actually a bit of both, I enjoy to collect rare games and also magazines, but when I have the time I do love to play or read them, even though with the amount of games/magazines I buy or scan/download, I know that I have way to much stuff that I will never play or read anyway.

That doesn't make the enjoyment of having them any less. If I want to I can still pick them up and read/play them anytime I want.

Let's face it, no matter how much work goes into creating these releases, they will always be for a very niche group of people.

Many of todays gamers aren't even interested in the former generation, let stand generations past that one, so you can only imagine what they would think if you asked them if they wanted to read videogame magazines from 10-20 years ago.

You first of all have to have some love for classic games or systems, and like I stated above, within that group there are lots of collectors.

I don't see anything wrong with that.

As a matter of fact, Philly has kept this site going against better judgment for quite some time, even though he was the only one at that time still working on it.

So the last thing that should be called into question is his dedication to this project.

What he does with the scanned issues is up to him.

As far as I'm concerned he can print the pages out, clip them all up and light them on fire in a pagan ritual of bestiality, drugs and self-mutilation, and I still wouldn't have a problem with it.

What it comes down to is that we shouldn't scan these magazines for some ulterior motive such as getting some kind of recognition for what we do.

If that's the case, you're bound to burn out sooner or later (probably sooner) simply because people only care about the mags and not who scans or edits them, and that's only natural.

The only reason we should be doing this work is because we love the mags ourselves and we want other people to be able to enjoy them as well.

I don't know Meppi.....Fusoya may be right....If I don't personally read every release.....whats the point of anyone doing any work? On that topic...wasn't it you Fusoya that told me "GamePro Sucks" and that its a waste of time to scan any of them? I would bet quite a few members would disagree with that fact!

Session Start (Southprker:richegreen): Sat Mar 15 17:00:53 2008

[17:01] SouthPrker: whoo hoo.....just won issue 10 of gamepro

[17:01] richegreen: too bad gamepro sucks

[17:01] SouthPrker: your soo negative

[17:01] richegreen: no, I actually READ these mags

[17:01] richegreen: and gamepro was the worst of the retromags

[17:01] SouthPrker: when you collect roms, do you say.....too bad Nintendo sux

[17:01] richegreen: no, I like Nintendo

[17:01] SouthPrker: its about having a complete collection

[17:01] SouthPrker: bad and good

[17:02] richegreen: why?

[17:02] SouthPrker: cuz I said so

[17:02] SouthPrker: ;p

[17:02] SouthPrker: everyone has different taste

[17:02] richegreen: why don't you just make a bunch of blank txt documents and rename them as Gamepro Issue 1, issue 2, etc?

[17:03] SouthPrker: because that doesnt make sense

[17:04] richegreen: well it'll be the exact same thing for you, just with a lot less work

Oh and I don't really care for "Fearless Leader" .......I like to be called "Grand Supreme Master of the Universe"

Fusoya....Pick one....either you want to scan and participate on the Retromags team....or you hate my guts and wish I would get hit by a bus.....you cant really have it both ways.

I'm not gonna waste anymore time on this post, its time better spent scanning.

EDIT: Fusoya is having trouble because he is not using the period-slash before the path name, If you don't use them it moves the file but corrupts it. "./uploads/filename.ext" is the correct way to upload files to the system. Before you bash the system maybe you should remember what I told you already

Session Start (Southprker:richegreen): Sat Mar 22 14:53:20 2008

[14:53] richegreen: I'm trying to upload a game informer

[14:53] *** Auto-response sent to richegreen: I am currently away from the computer.

[14:53] richegreen: The following errors were found There was an error attempting to move the file to it's storage directory. Please contact an administrator

[14:53] SouthPrker: did you type ./uploads/filename.ext

[14:53] richegreen: oh. I forgot the uploads dir

[14:53] richegreen: ok there it goes

[14:54] SouthPrker: the period and slash are critical.......i wish they would find away around it

[14:54] SouthPrker: talking to the guy who codes this forum and download manager about making it so you only need to submit the filename

[hahnchen]

I don't think whether everyone reads your releases is of any big concern. I see Retromags as a digital library, you're not going to read everything in there, but when you want something to read, there's always a good selection.

I'd also help more if there were some scanner in the UK with spare capacity, as in I'd donate a few of my mags.

[Phillyman]

I don't think whether everyone reads your releases is of any big concern. I see Retromags as a digital library, you're not going to read everything in there, but when you want something to read, there's always a good selection.

I'd also help more if there were some scanner in the UK with spare capacity, as in I'd donate a few of my mags.

Well the ultimate goal I would like for this site is the following....

A team of 20 people that can scan and upload 1 retro gaming magazine per month. That would equal out to 4-5 new releases per week and no one would burn out. In addition it would be great if we had people spread out across the world so that we get a good variety of magazines and shipping costs on Ebay would not kill us.

In Fusoya's defense I will admit that the way I had this website set up was not the most efficient. Up till last November the system worked the following way.....

A Member scans a magazine

If that magazine is edited they upload it to my personal FTP in the *Edited Section*

I then take that magazine and place it on Mininova and TPB and place a link back to Retromags

I seed it as much as I can, then I stop

Any Premium Members, Ask me for an account to the Personal FTP, and I grant them access

Now for the other scenario....

A Member scans a Magazine

If that magazine IS NOT edited, they upload it to my personal FTP in the *Un Edited Section*

I then try to find another member who is good at editing to download it and fix it up

If that member fixes it up.....then they upload it back to the *Edited Section*

As you can see this is only a fraction of what was going on behind the scenes.....it was a nightmare to manage and it was even worse to organize. This is why when I found out that the people who created the software that runs my forum, had created a Download Manager.....well I jumped at the idea....Now things run A LOT smoother. This Download Management software is still kind of new so there are a few bugs, but it will all get worked out over time. I do appreciate EVERYONE who helps this project out.....but running a project such as this requires organization. I believe that Fusoya is coming in with the mindset of "I don't work for you, So I will do as I please...and if you don't like it....I will not help". This kind of mindset will always cause problems!

My 3 rules from the start on this website were the following.....

1) Scan the Entire Magazine (with a few exceptions)

2) Share What You Have Scanned

3) Don't Submit anything that isn't at least 5 years old!

The first rule is pretty simple.....Either your going to scan a magazine or not. If people start taking it upon themselves to determine what is "Worth" scanning......well then the releases are going to suck. Lets say that Meppi scans a magazine and leaves out all the Advertisements, Now I come along and decide to scan those advertisements for that issue (because I feel they are important) Well its not just as simple as me scanning those ads, Because each scanner "scans" images differently.....you will be able to tell that the issue was scanned by 2 different people. That issue now looks like a "Frankenstein" issue.....So I might as well rescan the entire magazine now. Now not only did Meppi waste his time scanning everything but the advertisements, but now I wasted my time rescanning something that could have been done the first time around.

The second rule is also simple, Why scan something for a community project if you wish to place restrictions on how its used. I really have no time to keep track of how everyone wants there scans distributed. This project is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, don't be the stingy kid on the playground that doesn't want to share his toys! The truth is that 97% of people that come to this site will just leech the files and leave.....its just the nature of the beast. Not everyone who downloads an emulator will help that author code his next version.....we are no different!

The third rule is my own personal enforcement, This site is called RETROmags, not last months issue of Gamepro. I do not support anyone scanning current issues of magazines. If you want to do that, then go register the domain www.CurrentMags.com and do so yourself....Not going to really beat a dead horse on this one

Now I don't think that any of the above rules are "Over The Top".....I try to be a laid back Admin......I welcome an open discussion on any improvements that can be made. All I ask for is that you do it respectfully!

[fusoya]

Actually, that ./uploads thing was the problem with Game Informer 54. However, when I uploaded issue 66 yesterday for the first time, I remembered to use it (it was stored in autocomplete) but then I got a message about the thumbnail being too big, and of course when I resized the thumbnail and tried to finish the post, I got that corruption error - apparently you only get ONE chance to add a file before it gets corrupted. Later that night I tried uploading it again, and it looked like the entire thing was up, but then I tried downloading it to see for sure, and that one too was corrupted. It appears to be working now. There's another project I'm working on right now which I hope the whole site is going to like.

It's not what I care Phillyman is personally doing, but he's one of the few people who is scanning magazines who I've discussed this with. I don't particularly care for Game Pro because their reviews catered to bribes rather than games that were actually good and they never had much for screenshots or maps. I don't care if other people scan and share the issues, but I also personally wouldn't spend much time or money to do it. I did actually scan two Game Pro issues, and it was because I thought the members of the site might like taking a look at them (also because they were both pretty short and already in my possession)....it was going to be either scan them, or just throw them out after I took one last look through them. If I wanted to, I could upload the entire missing collection of Nintendo Power issues right now. However, I'm not going to do that because many of them are not in the condition to be shown to the public. I don't scan and release things in order to get props (your gratitude is appreciated, but that's not why I do this), but I do take pride in the projects I work on, and I don't believe in this whole system of uploading "raw" or incomplete issues. The concern I have about people just collecting the files and not reading them stems from seeing all of these EGM issues getting uploaded with pages which are more than 10° crooked. If nobody's ever going to open the file, aside from checking that they have the right issue, there's no motivation to edit the issue to make it nice and presentable. Now, don't misinterpret this as me saying that you shouldn't use your auto-feed scanners in order to speed up the process (I don't use them, because I don't like to waste time straightening pages later when I can do it up front on my flatbed....although I'm starting to realize that mine is SLIGHTLY miscalibrated....not something to worry about unless you're totally anal though). However, I get the feeling and impression that most people (both scanners and leechers) are happier just having the files than actually looking at them, in a "my retro video game digital collection is bigger than yours, hah!" way, which is a type of person I DON'T want to cater to. Anyway, I really shouldn't criticize the way that other people handle their releases, but my policy is never to upload something until it is a complete and final version.

And Phillyman, it's true. I DON'T work for you, and until you start paying me an actual salary to work on this project, I never will. If you were the only one still getting anything accomplished, I'd never come back here. I only recently started contributing when I realized that there are new members who are getting things done again. I don't owe anything to anyone, just be glad I'm generous enough to scan and upload files at all. I wouldn't upload a file to this site if I didn't want people to have access to it (which is why I'm not uploading those missing NP issues until I feel happy with their quality). This may be violating your second rule, but tough crap. Nobody here has an obligation to turn over something they worked on privately until they are ready to. I have adhered to to the first and third rules ever since I started contributing to this site again (unless you REALLY care about those 3x5 renewal cards, which fall out the instant I break the binding). Oh, and before somebody questions my dedication, look at my member #. I was working on this project before there even WAS a retromags.com!

[Phillyman]

Fuysoa, No other member has any problems with me, and I have none with them. You are more then welcome to upload magazines to the Retromags system. What I will not let you do is try to tear this site into 2 again. You are right that you were here before most of the current members, but in terms of helping Retromags out, you fall very far behind most of my current members. If you want to come on this forum just to try to drive a wedge between me and my current members, well that wont be tolerated. I have tried to accomadate you in every respect...

You didn't want to create an NFO File

I said OK

You didn't want to include the Thank You Page in your releases

I said OK

You didn't want to scan at 300DPI

I said OK

I have even gone as far as to ask other members on this site NOT TO CRITICIZE your scans! Yes a few members don't care for the joined pages, and a few others have asked why your scans look "Grainy". I went and told them to let you be, but then you come and rear your head bashing me for my scans. Yes my EGM scans are Rough scans, After I have reached my goal of scanning 150 Magazines I will be going back and fixing them up. The madness behind the idea was that if I do all the work scanning 100+ EGM magazines, that maybe.....just maybe a few people will step forward and help me with cleaning up the scans.

You need to make a decision Fusoya, Either you want to help the Retromags project or not. If your problem is soo big that it can't be resolved, then please move along and let me and my team get back to work.

[fusoya]

I'm guessing that the reason that none of your other members have had problems with you is because you've stopped banning people for disagreeing with you. I am NOT attempting to turn people against each other. I am simply answering the question asked in this poll, as to what is stopping me.

And if any of you do have issues with my scans, please take it up with me, since talking to me directly about my scans is going to be the best way to improve them in the future. I don't scan at 300 dpi because it takes 4x as long to scan a page on my scanner, and the quality is absolutely the same. I am currently working on figuring out what the deal with my scanner is, since it isn't scanning totally straight, but I'm not going to mess my time messing around with GAME INFORMER issues more than I need to get them looking good.

I would have more confidence in what you say about those EGMs if this site had actually accomplished its first goal of completing the Nintendo Power set, which I am working on as we speak. But if you don't want my help, I'll leave.

[Phillyman]

I'm guessing that the reason that none of your other members have had problems with you is because you've stopped banning people for disagreeing with you. I am NOT attempting to turn people against each other. I am simply answering the question asked in this poll, as to what is stopping me.

And if any of you do have issues with my scans, please take it up with me, since talking to me directly about my scans is going to be the best way to improve them in the future. I don't scan at 300 dpi because it takes 4x as long to scan a page on my scanner, and the quality is absolutely the same. I am currently working on figuring out what the deal with my scanner is, since it isn't scanning totally straight, but I'm not going to mess my time messing around with GAME INFORMER issues more than I need to get them looking good.

I would have more confidence in what you say about those EGMs if this site had actually accomplished its first goal of completing the Nintendo Power set, which I am working on as we speak. But if you don't want my help, I'll leave.

Yes I have not banned anyone in a while, I did not ban you for Disagreeing with me, it was that I felt that you were creating a hostile environment that would deter anyone from offering to help out. Who wants to help on a project where it looks like the members don't get along?

I personally am not too concerned with the DPI that you scan at, I would rather see you include the "Retromags Thank You" page in your Releases so as they populate around the internet....people know where they came from, and possibly help the cause. As you said....If I was the only one doing work ....you would not lend a hand......so why not try to prevent that?

Yes I will admit that I am EASILY sidetracked, I keep wanting to get the Nintendo Power set up and finished to Issue 165. Not really too keen on the joining of the pages (to each his own). The problem with the Nintendo Power set is that I feel as though I would have an easier time rescanning all 165 issues then to try to fix up the current set. In my opinion KMFDManic turned the contrast down to low on these pages and everything has a "Dark" feeling about it. His scans also don't leave me much room for the joining of the posters. I am kind of tired of looking at Nintendo Powers, and decided to do a fresh start on EGM and PSM. I think this site was getting the image of only scanning Nintendo Powers, So thats why I decided to scan EGM's. I only have about 40 Issues left to run through the ADF, and then 20 Issues to scan manually (staple bound)

Once I get those all scanned, I was going to drop back to 1 scan per day and finish out the PSM collection 001-053, and then I was going to finish manually scanning the 20 Sega Vision magazines.......after all that I was going to redo the Nintendo Power collection.

Will I get sidetracked again.....Probably.....but I am trying.

[fusoya]

Okay, well at least it's starting to sound like we're on the same side again. I'm going to keep work on getting these Nintendo Power issues cleaned up. I have all of them scanned, but some of them are rough scans, similar to the raw EGMs I looked at. KMFD's earlier work was too dark, but he made some corrections and his later scans (after he left retromags) are much better. Some of the posters are going to have to get rescanned, and when I get the ones that do, I will ask for help if I don't have access to the ones I need. How did everyone feel about the issue 3 which I just released?

The way that Nintendo Power lays out their issues, particularly most of the earlier ones, they have text, maps and photos which often span across two pages, which is why they are a lot easier to read if the left and right sides are joined. That isn't such an issue with EGM, since every other page is an ad

As for the retromags tagging, first of all, everybody already knows about this site, and there's no need to advertise it over and over. Having an nfo, a thank you page AND putting the logo in the torrent posts are overkill. That's just how I feel. Since I'm only uploading these files to this internal site (and anything I upload to other sites I do by my own will. These are my scans so I can do what I want with them) there's no need to put the extra baggage in...you do what you want with them if you spread them beyond this site.

[wildlele]

At the end of the day guys I want to thank you for your contributions. Lets not let a few things cause us to disagree. I think we can all say we love gaming and we love gaming mags. So lets channel that energy into completing what we can, and where we need help ask away and people will step up. There has been a lot of good activity lately so lets keep the train rolling

[Phillyman]

Okay, well at least it's starting to sound like we're on the same side again. I'm going to keep work on getting these Nintendo Power issues cleaned up. I have all of them scanned, but some of them are rough scans, similar to the raw EGMs I looked at. KMFD's earlier work was too dark, but he made some corrections and his later scans (after he left retromags) are much better. Some of the posters are going to have to get rescanned, and when I get the ones that do, I will ask for help if I don't have access to the ones I need. How did everyone feel about the issue 3 which I just released?

The way that Nintendo Power lays out their issues, particularly most of the earlier ones, they have text, maps and photos which often span across two pages, which is why they are a lot easier to read if the left and right sides are joined. That isn't such an issue with EGM, since every other page is an ad

Honestly I have 500GB of storage on this host, and for $5 more a month I can increase that to 1TB. So its not entirely out of the question to host both sets and in the end let people choose which one suits them better. The only thing holding me back from getting the remaining issues released on here (in a temp form) is that I don't have all the posters joined as of yet. I have been working with Meppi to get some of them scanned, but I know he has his scans to mess around with also.

As it stands this is the situation......

Missing Only Posters

90,92,111,113,114,115,116,117,118,119,123,124,125,127,129,130,137,140,142,143,14

4,145,146,147

These issues we just need to join the poster side and drop them into these releases and they are done.

Missing Posters and Covers

121,122,126,128,135,136,138,139

Like the above but missing the covers also

Scanned But Not Released (aka Poster Needs Joining)

148,149,150,151,153,154,155,156,157,160

Not Scanned At All

152,158,159,161,162,163,164,165,166

Need to buy these issues and scan them

All this just made my head spin, so thats why I laid off it for a while, because at least on the EGM set its either Have, Missing or Scanned!

[E-Day]

I vote that fusoya is a whiny bitch, and that I am not helping with the physical work because with a family, I don't have the time to edit magazines, or scan them manually with my slow, old, flatbed scanner. If I had the Canon Feeder scanner Phillyman uses, then I would be scanning issues pretty quickly. Also, being in Canada, a lot of sellers of the back issues on eBay won't ship here.

To make up for the lack of physical help mentioned, I help by donating money, buying issues on eBay and having them shipped to Phillyman or kfb_private_joker, and by doing the NFO files, compiling and uploading the EGMs Phillyman scans and the GamePro's that kbf scans. I do what I can to help out because I enjoy reading the old issues of EGM, GamePro, and other magazines.

On a side note, GamePro far from sucks. It was my magazine of choice back in the early to mid 90's, and anytime I bought a game that they reviewed as excellent, it turned out to be just that.

[Rogue]

I don't own a scanner right now. But it's almost there, it's almost there.. =)

[meppi]

The way that Nintendo Power lays out their issues, particularly most of the earlier ones, they have text, maps and photos which often span across two pages, which is why they are a lot easier to read if the left and right sides are joined. That isn't such an issue with EGM, since every other page is an ad

What I don't understand though is, why force people to have them look at the pages that way, when programs like CDisplay give you the same option without having the pages stuck together forever?

That way people always have the option to read the pages like they are used to, or if they prefer to choose the "display 2 pages at once" option provided by the program.

Posters are an obvious exception of course.

The only thing this does, is make the scan useless to certain people who don't have a 20" or larger screen to be able to comfortably read the smaller text.

And it also reduces the quality of the scans in a way,

as you end up with double pages which are as big as one regular page normally is. (500-900kB)

Just take a look at the example cbz I uploaded:

http://rapidshare.com/files/102723394/NP3_example.cbz

Note that I did no extra editing on any page, being it one of yours or one of the raw release.

Besides cropping the page back to a single page and saving it at 90%.

So you see a 2 page 862kB file was cropped to a one page 439kB file, which is about half,

just like it should be without changing anything to the picture itself.

I think the difference is rather huge.

I don't scan at 300 dpi because it takes 4x as long to scan a page on my scanner, and the quality is absolutely the same.

I had the same reasoning when I first started scanning, as I had read a tutorial on here saying you should resize the 300DPI images down to 150DPI.

The thing is that I always knew that there was something wrong with my scans, and no matter what I tried to do, that feeling remained.

I even redid several magazines a couple times over and still wasn't happy.

Until I compared my 300DPI scans to the same ones in 150DPI.

Is there a big difference? Yes and no.

The size difference (in kB) for the pages themselves is neglegable, so that shouldn't be a problem.

But when you have coloured pages with an even background and text on top, you will see a big difference in artifacting between the two.

You do of course have to save the pages at a decent jpg quality as well. Normally 90% in most programs, which turns out to be pages of 600-900kb for images that are resized in width to 1280.

This might be the described grainy look people talk about.

The artifacts that are being created by scaling down the images to far.

You can see the artifact problem very clearly in the cbz pages above, around the text, compared to the raw version.

So since these pages were kept at 300DPI in this case, here it must be caused by saving the pages at a much lower quality, which results in substantial quality loss.

For instance the raw cover is 498kB and yours is 283kB, so you can imagine how much data was lost in the transition.

As for the retromags tagging, first of all, everybody already knows about this site, and there's no need to advertise it over and over. Having an nfo, a thank you page AND putting the logo in the torrent posts are overkill. That's just how I feel. Since I'm only uploading these files to this internal site (and anything I upload to other sites I do by my own will. These are my scans so I can do what I want with them) there's no need to put the extra baggage in...you do what you want with them if you spread them beyond this site.

I would have to strongly disagree with that. I regularly get PM's from new members thanking me for putting the scans up on a small UK board which is completely dead btw.

Saying that they found out about Retromags, thanks to the links provided in the posts.

So besides the small group of people of which "everybody already knows about this site", there are plenty of others out there who stumble upon the site day after day, due to various links, and more often than not due to finding a copy of a magazine here or there, and following the link on the "thank you" page.

You do have to understand that if everyone just walks in with the attitude of "I do whatever I want", this place isn't going to last long.

Surprised you haven't learned from the past, as I seem to remember very similar things happening here before, that tore this small community to shreds.

I'm pretty sure Philly only started banning people because he didn't see any other solution, and tried to keep the pieces from falling apart.

No matter where you go and what you try to accomplish, you will always come across ground rules, which have been set up for a good reason most of the time.

So walking in and telling everyone: I'm doing whatever I want and if you don't like it you can blow me, is anything but productive.

As well as being offensive to the other members working their butts off, within the rules and guidelines, because they understand that's the way to build this site up to something we all can enjoy.

[Krisse]

i agree with rogue. i don't see the point in joined pages. so my vote for unjoined pages in future releases.

[fusoya]

Three reasons for joined pages:

1. Nintendo Power (not so much other magazines, but sometimes them too) was meant to be read looking at both pages. Try reading some of the Castlevania 3 maps in the Dr. Mario issue with access to only one page at a time. You'll go crazy!

2. Leaving CDisplay to show both pages at once is going to result in them not being lined up properly. There are inperfections in printing magazines which cause this, and lining them up in Photoshop is going to result in getting them in place better.

3. CDisplay does not know which two pages to line up. I tried this feature out and it would show the cover and the inside cover next to each other!

and Meppi, in that example file you gave, the first one is my version of NP3, and the second one is the raw version? Although the extra brightness on the second version is nicer, notice that it is also missing more details like look at the flames and the bottom of the shoe on both covers - the second one is bled out!

[Phillyman]

Three reasons for joined pages:

1. Nintendo Power (not so much other magazines, but sometimes them too) was meant to be read looking at both pages. Try reading some of the Castlevania 3 maps in the Dr. Mario issue with access to only one page at a time. You'll go crazy!

2. Leaving CDisplay to show both pages at once is going to result in them not being lined up properly. There are inperfections in printing magazines which cause this, and lining them up in Photoshop is going to result in getting them in place better.

3. CDisplay does not know which two pages to line up. I tried this feature out and it would show the cover and the inside cover next to each other!

I can see both points of view on the joined pages, Its really a personal pref and I am not really leaning one way or another. But I just want to weigh in on your comment about this site being well known already.

The Honest truth is this site only gets about 300 unique visitors each day, Now that may sound like a nice solid number....but its not. Take that 300 unique users and start subtracting

10% are probably misrepresented search engines

10% are probably spam robots, Our forum got hit very hard and now it has moved to the Wiki (ask Meppi as he cleans up most of it)

20% are visitors who most likely do not understand the English language

15% are repeat visitors

So after all that you are left with maybe 165 unique people visiting this site per day. And thats an optimistic number. Now take into account how many people out of that 165 are just going to download and leave.....your number just gets smaller and smaller.

To you the "Thank You" page may seem insignificant, but lets look at it from this way......

A Member signs up to Retromags, He downloads one of your scans...lets say Game Informer #66

Now once he has downloaded that magazine, maybe he puts it in his Kazaa Media Share Folder

That magazine gets downloaded out of that shared folder 15 times

One downloader decides to upload it to a Binary Newsgroup

One downloader decides to place the magazine in his DC++ share folder

One downloader uploads it to a Rapidshare link and posts the link on his website

The remaining 12 people just download it and go to Google and type "Game Informer Magazines"

All those views and downloads from all those people, not one of them knows that the magazine originated from Retromags.com, Newsgroups get hundreds of thousands of views, and the person who uploads a copy to his gaming site....well he has a huge amount of members.....again all missed opportunities.

Look we have a HUGE amount of Nintendo Power scans on this website, Go to Google and type any of the following....

Nintendo Power Downloads

Nintendo Power Scans

Nintendo Power Magazines

Nintendo Power 121

Nintendo Power .cbr downloads

Nintendo Power Scanned Magazines

How many of those search terms list Retromags on the first page? How many on the second page?......Sometimes Retromags is not even listed....I dont know about you Fusoya....but when I Google Search.....I only dive about 3 pages in. In the end maybe you feel like I am making a fortune off this site or someother ulterior motive, but in the past 2 years of operating this website.....I have maybe pulled $1000 worth of donations....and I can honestly say that for every $1 donated, I have probably put $1.25 out of my own pocket. I am not running this website to become rich, I am doing it because I believe in protecting the issues that many of us have lost or thrown away. I believe that people who have these magazines tucked away in protective plastic comic bags should be able to enjoy the issues they own ...without further damaging there physical copies.

I am all for idea's on improving this project.....I may have had the initiative to start this project.....but each member that helps....is why this project continues to move forward....we should not let personal gripes and such slow down such a great way to preserve our gaming history

-Phillyman

[meppi]

The small misalignments of some pages doesn't bother me since that's the way magazines are put together. Same thing with pages that are actually printed a bit slanted.

It's just the way real magazines turn out sometimes.

There are 2 solutions to the CDisplay dilemma.

The first is to open a cbz/r and go to the 2nd page before selecting "show 2 pages at once". But you'll have to do this for every magazine you open, so it's a bit clumsy.

The second way is to include a blank page (or the thank you paged) called something like 0000 or 0000a or something similar.

That way when the program is set to open 2 pages at once, the first you'll get is the thank you page, along with the cover.

And after that you'll get the correct pages side by side.

That way everyone should be happy. The only thing you need to do is open up mags you download with winrar or something and include such a page.

That way 95% of people who prefer the regular way will still get their normal releases.

[modgeezer]

Another solution to the 2 page issue is just to use ComicRack when you have double page selected it is smart enough to always open the front cover separately and start showing double pages when you click the next page