Next Generation WIP

[nirv]

Introducing Next Generation Issue 001 January 1995 rescan! This is a re-release of the issue that was released for the first time on Retrogamers.com just a few days ago and I urge everybody to destroy your original copies as it did not comply with any recommendations of veteran scanners.

This new scan features higher quality, more vibrant color, straighter pages, 1600 width, clean up of the front/back and most of the pages are a lot cleaner. On top of all of that, it includes the official Retromags thank you graphic -- all that for 136MB! -- 82MB lower than the original!

Thanks to E-Day and everyone for your patience in my trials and tribulations of putting up my first scans here. If this release meets your standards, I'll redo issues 2 and 3 this week. Let me know!

Next Generation 001 January 1995 Rescan (136MB): http://hotfile.com/dl/46202886/fc6ed0a/next_generation_january_1995.zip.html

Edited June 3, 2010 by E-Day

[E-Day]

Hey man, you're improvement is through the roof! If I have internet access at home tonight, I'll replace the copy in the download manager with this one, and add issue 4 (which also looks great!). It's great to have another scanner around

[nirv]

Next Generation Issue 002 February 1995 Rescan is up: http://hotfile.com/dl/46259213/e349ed8/next_generation_february_1995.zip.html

[nirv]

Next Generation Issue 003 March 1995 rescan is out (150MB): http://hotfile.com/dl/46440472/41d5f5a/next_generation_003_march_1995.zip.html

On a side note - anyone use an HP scanner have any advice on how to fix the black pages? They come out very strange and bungled and it's aesthetically displeasing to look at and I haven't figured out how to make the blacks deeper without losing text brightness. It has a lot to do with that crappy HP scanning software that's unavoidable.

Edited June 4, 2010 by nirv

[E-Day]

You can scan through Paint using Windows Image Acquisition. They mention how to do so on their site. I haven't tied it yet, so I don't know if it improves the quality. I found I could fix the problem you have during the colour correction stage of my editing. Blacks get blacker and whites get whiter, and it removes that dullness the the scanner/HP software produces.

At the moment I can't approve you Downloads Manager submission. I don't have permission for some reason. I did edit a few things that I hadn't gotten around to mentioning yet.

The file name should be treated like a title. So instead of the actual file name, it would be Next Generation Issue 003 March 1995. For the dpi you don't have to put the width. If you want to include those details, you can add them to the description. I also linked o the cover in the Cover Gallery. Find you cover, click on +Share Image, copy the "Image Link" URL, and put it in the "Link to Screenshot" box.

Lastly, I am the only one who seems to do this, but it's good practice to include the following code in the description area:

[center]
[color="#FF0000"]****************************************
This file is in .CBR/.CBZ Format
You will need [url="http://download.cnet.com/CDisplay-Image-Display/3000-18488_4-10162238.html"]Comic Book Reader [/url]
installed on your computer to read this file.
****************************************[/color]
[/center]

Like I said, I am the only one who does it, so don't feel obligated that you need to do if as well. Just a suggestion

[nirv]

Oh holy CRAP I've never even seen the cover gallery. That's such a huge tease because I want all of those Gamefan magazines (I threw all mine away like a pan-face) and now I'm drooling over here. If anyone has Gamefans, you had better start sharing or I will go Bakersfield chimp on you.

[E-Day]

The Gallery is a delicious resource on here

[nirv]

Next Generation Issue 005 May 1995 is out! http://hotfile.com/dl/47039052/664193f/next_generation_005_may_1995.zip.html

[nirv]

Next Generation Issue 008 August 1995 is out! (115MB)

By the way, in case you haven't guessed, I'm missing Issues 06 and 07. I never even owned them and I can't remember why.

[Joseph4587]

To Nirv / E-Day / Jake

I just wanted to thank you for posting these scans. I always loved this magazine and fondly remember it as being the first games magazine that was designed and written for adult gamers that wanted more than just reviews, previews and pictures splashed everywhere.

Keep up the good work and keep 'em coming.

Joseph (aka Vince4587)

[nirv]

Next Generation 010 October 1995 is out! 159MB

[Guest squarepusher]

Next Generation 010 October 1995 is out! 159MB

Nirv, you're doing excellent work.

Unfortunately, the link is down. Could you perhaps try to give us the Hotlink URL or some other place where you uploaded it?

BTW - just to bring to your attention - you might want to use this in the future instead of just 'hotfile'

http://uploadbud.com/

That way you can upload a file simultaneously to Depositfiles,Megaupload,Easyshare, Badongo, and so on. It's pretty fast and works well.

BTW - also want to bring to your attention that Kiwiarcade has about 60+ issues of Edge Magazines that he got from me - I'm going to try to go from Issue 60 all the way to Issue 100 or so. However, image editing and the cleaning up of scans somebody else will have to do - I will just supply raw scans.

BTW2 - now you know why I'm interested in getting Next Generation magazine scans in the first place - Next Gen was the US version of Edge Magazine. In fact, some of the earlier issues you have posted have about 70% of their content taken from Edge (and I presume the other way around). What's nice about it though is that Next Gen reviewed games that Edge didn't (even though Edge has a 'better' reviews section in that a specific page or two is dedicated to special games with less important games relegated to one page - Next Gen on the other hand gives each game a very short blurb and maybe a picture to go along with it - but that way it does allow them to review quite a lot of games.

What's also nice is that Next Gen previewed several games that Edge didn't - 'Secret of Evermore' is one example. On the downside, Next Generation's writing is less pretentious than Edge's but all the same Edge's writing style is more sophisticated - and the Americanisms sometimes are a bit grating. This is especially noticeable in the reviews section - you will not see any words such as 'Sigh', 'Yawn', or 'boring' in Edge - and the Letters section is less juvenile. But I think a lot of this is down to differences between British and US writing styles and delivery.

(BTW, I'm not British - just some Dutch guy that happened to become quite addicted to Edge issues)

It's unfortunate that Next Generation started about two years into Edge's lifespan - it would have been great to see if their reviews from 1993-1994 would have been more on the ball than Edge's - they doled out some scores to a few legendary games that are in hindsight just ridiculously low - such as Gunstar Heroes: 6/10 - Doom 1 - 7/10 - Chrono Trigger - 7/10

Edited June 11, 2010 by squarepusher

[nirv]

I updated the file link. Uploadbud.com only allows 100MB and lower to be used. I'm supposed to be getting access to some Megaupload account or something I take it in the future? That's what I'd prefer.

[Guest squarepusher]

I updated the file link. Uploadbud.com only allows 100MB and lower to be used. I'm supposed to be getting access to some Megaupload account or something I take it in the future? That's what I'd prefer.

I have a Rapidshare premium account - I could help you with getting it uploaded to Rapidshare as well for sheer redundancy/resilience.

[nirv]

I have a Rapidshare premium account - I could help you with getting it uploaded to Rapidshare as well for sheer redundancy/resilience.

I don't like that Hotfile only allows limited downloads per 24 hours for people so I would prefer to upload elsewhere. I just tried Megaupload and it's giving me an unknown error.

[E-Day]

MegaUpload hasn't been working for a while now, sadly. I have issues I want to upload, including yours for the redundancy.

[KiwiArcader]

Megaupload is working fine. The Dropbox isn't working fine. I am having no issues at all getting my PDF versions online for everyone .... at least I am trying to keep up to date with it. I haven't tried getting CBR versions up onto Phillyman's account because of the issues E-Day is experiencing with the Dropbox functionality.

[E-Day]

Hey nirv, if you have issues 9 and 20, you can scan them and replace the existing files already available if you want since yours will no doubt look better. Totally up to you

[nirv]

Hey nirv, if you have issues 9 and 20, you can scan them and replace the existing files already available if you want since yours will no doubt look better. Totally up to you

I think issue 09 looks pretty good but yeah, I'll probably do it then. I kind of like the challenge.

If you look at issue 010 I just uploaded, the cover's NEXT GENERATION logo has a thin red border... well, the letter "T" in "NEXT" had a price sticker covering it almost completely and I had to do a lot of magic work to remove it... that took like 30 minutes!

[nirv]

Next Generation 011 November 1995 is out! 236MB

[KiwiArcader]

Great stuff nirv. Getting it down now. Will get the PDF online later today. Nice mags these are .....

[nirv]

All of my Next Generations now have Megaupload CBR link and from now on will use it primarily. I'll still have a backup on Hotfile...

[nirv]

Next Generation 012 December 1995 is out! 263MB

Thank you to Retromags for allowing these scans to be up on the site. It doesn't go unappreciated.

I want to make myself absolutely clear so there's no confusion:

Do NOT listen to me if I ever tell you to take these scans down (which I won't) because these are no longer mine. They belong to the preservation community. That means you. Feel free to do with them what you will.

Want to remove the Retromags banner at the end and claim it as your own? Fine. Want to burn it to a DVD-R and play "Hide the Next Generation Magazines" with your girlfriend? That's completely up to you. All I hope for is that they don't disappear so at least remove the disc and clean it off when you're done, sicko.

By the way, just so you see the effort I put into this, take a look at this before and after shot of the front cover of this issue. It took some huge Photoshop gymnastics to clean up the nooks and crannies. Thanks to Squarepusher for sending me another cover of this for reference!

Before: http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2522/beforey.jpg

After: http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7567/afterp.jpg

[Guest squarepusher]

Next Generation 012 December 1995 is out! 263MB

Thank you to Retromags for allowing these scans to be up on the site. It doesn't go unappreciated.

I want to make myself absolutely clear so there's no confusion:

Do NOT listen to me if I ever tell you to take these scans down (which I won't) because these are no longer mine. They belong to the preservation community. That means you. Feel free to do with them what you will.

Want to remove the Retromags banner at the end and claim it as your own? Fine. Want to burn it to a DVD-R and play "Hide the Next Generation Magazines" with your girlfriend? That's completely up to you. All I hope for is that they don't disappear so at least remove the disc and clean it off when you're done, sicko.

By the way, just so you see the effort I put into this, take a look at this before and after shot of the front cover of this issue. It took some huge Photoshop gymnastics to clean up the nooks and crannies. Thanks to Squarepusher for sending me another cover of this for reference!

Before: http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2522/beforey.jpg

After: http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7567/afterp.jpg

Your efforts do not go unappreciated nirv. I have much of the same attitude with regards to my own scans - anybody can take them, don't even mention my nickname and spread them all across the Internet for all I care. That way you get some redundancy and resiliency going, and thanks to the asymmetric nature of the distribution, there's no single point of blame.

[nirv]

Hey square, your message box is full and I can't send you anything.

Issue 13 will be up in about 2 hours.