So when are the magazines gonna be up for download?

[magazine_guy7]

Ok, so when are the magazines going to be available for download? I dont understand what is taking so long, Its been months since this site announced it was going to host the magazine files on a new server.

how about we go ahead and restore all the download links and make this site useful again?

[KiwiArcader]

Yep. Couldn't agree more ......

• This site is dead in its current guise when nothing much is available
• The new site is M.I.A
• Phillyman is M.I.A
• Phillyman doesn't want to host off Rapidshare because of the 50GB per day limit

Really? .... 50GB per day is better than the zero here at present right? E-Day has new GamePro issues but nowhere to host them. WTF?

Has anyone even received their mags from Phillyman for donating to the new site?

These are all questions that most visitors and even members of the site are wanting answers for but most are too scared to actually come out and say it. Everyone has personal lives etc and we all get that but when you run a site AND take peoples money there is a certain expectation placed upon you to deliver in one form or another.

In the mean time you can grab a few mags off my website at http://www.oldgamemags.com to tide you over until something happens over here.

@ E-Day - If you want to host your files over at OGM let me know. At least people will be able to get them that way and I'll happily credit you for their creation etc.

Kiwi

[puddinpops]

I never donated but I'm wondering the same. I come here and every so often there's this one thread that keeps getting bumped with people saying stuff like "Love the site, brings back memories, you've got such a huge archive!" and all I can think to myself is wtf are you talking about, there's absolutely nothing here!

Real life can get in the way, but not to the point where if you accepted donations from people, you just stay away forever leaving someone else here to speak for you and say "he's M.I.A, real life and stuff." You can find time in your life to make a simple post. Seriously, why do so many people do this in life. It only takes a minute. It'd be nice to get an updte on where that money went too. From what I undnerstand, it was raised to give to somewhere/someone that was commissioned to write a whole new site design. Surely the money was at least given to them and there's progress on that end? Or is the money just being sat on until this Phillyman feels like giving it to them? I don't see any reason for that if so.

Why the only recent update to the site is a link shortner when there's absolutely nothing to even use that on at all yet is a mystery to me, btw.

Whew, I've wanted to get that off my chest for awhile Again, I didn't donate and I may be complaining for something that ultimately ends up in my hands for free for doing nothing. But if you're going to make a site for the public and take their money, then it's really not much to ask they take the responsibility they gave themselves. Else, don't make a site.

That said, I look forward to any updates, if they ever happen. The net needs a site like this, all others I've come across like Out of Print Archive where you only have one person giving us one magazine a week or longer is nothing compared to a site like here where everyone can contibute.

Edited March 20, 2013 by puddinpops

[KiwiArcader]

I hear you.

I try and scan at least two or three magazines a week for my website for which I paid everything to run and host it.

In the entire time I have received a sum total of two donations. sputnik and dan contributed the entire NGC Magazine collection between them and Mattedge1 provided a pile of Edge magazines and that's it. I have now scanned and made available 45 issues of NGC and several issues of Edge magazine so I think I've kept my side of the bargain when it comes to justifying their faith in providing the magazines for preservation.

And I will get them finished too even though I am soon to be out of a job and won't be in a position to renew my Rapidshare account. I'll shift to MEGA and make sure those mags are available even if nothing else due to the small share size for free members. It's what you do when you accept donations .... anything to make sure the donators are not disadvantaged through their contributing.

[E-Day]

Ok, so when are the magazines going to be available for download? I dont understand what is taking so long, Its been months since this site announced it was going to host the magazine files on a new server.

how about we go ahead and restore all the download links and make this site useful again?

You are obviously unaware of the amount of time it takes to restore 1,100 magazines; not just linking to them, but uploading them somewhere. Any issues with slowness will have to be taken up with Phillyman. But remember that this site is a hobby. Real life comes first, and right now real life is first on his agenda.

@ E-Day - If you want to host your files over at OGM let me know. At least people will be able to get them that way and I'll happily credit you for their creation etc.

Kiwi

I'm waiting for TheRedEye to provide me with the replacement pages I need for the scans I am doing.

[KiwiArcader]

I'm waiting for TheRedEye to provide me with the replacement pages I need for the scans I am doing.

All good E-Day.When and if you want to make them available I am happy to put mags up on my site. I haven't put all the EGM and GamePro's back up as I am not sure if I can afford to pay for the Rapidshare account to be extended when my job is up in the air at the present time.

However, while people around are merely visitors who just want to hit and run and never make any positive contribution to the site as a whole there are valid points in the questions raised here.

I for one am interested in knowing how things are progressing and if you were to be honest about it, it takes bugger all time for Phillyman to post an update when you consider he is down as visiting the site today. I do not have an issue with people having a life outside of our hobby but as a contributor I am interested in seeing some sort of update posted given I donated money to RM 2.0.

[puddinpops]

But remember that this site is a hobby. Real life comes first, and right now real life is first on his agenda.

Unless he got into a car accident or has some health issues, this is really just an old excuse that's getting used too much. It takes practically no time to just come by and make a quick update. I seriously SERIOUSLY doubt he's completely deprived himself of internet usage, so it follows he has some time to say something?

Quite frankly, when I see someone that took money have their lackeys constantly stand in for them saying "Oh, well, real life" in his place, it just starts pissing me off and I feel like going in rage mode :x

You don't ask strangers to fund your hobby and then vanish. Say something already for gods sake.

I'm likely making myself look bad but heck, if it's gets the people that did donate some assurance I may as well be the one that takes the punches for them since I have nothing to lose.

Edited March 21, 2013 by puddinpops

[te72]

To be a voice of reason here, most of the files I've gotten off of RM here (they're still available, just gotta know how to dig a bit...) are in the 100-300mb range. Multiply that by 1100+, and with average internet upload speeds what they are, I'm sure that it would take a solid MONTH if not two or three to get that all uploaded to a server, even working around the clock.

A project of this scope would take a guy like myself the better part of a year or more, ignoring my other hobbies as well. I know you're looking for an update, and even a small one would suffice, but if you're not willing to contribute YOUR time to making RM2.0 happen, then you're really just making a scene for no good reason. Nobody owes you anything if you didn't contribute.

[KiwiArcader]

To be a voice of reason here, most of the files I've gotten off of RM here (they're still available, just gotta know how to dig a bit...) are in the 100-300mb range. Multiply that by 1100+, and with average internet upload speeds what they are, I'm sure that it would take a solid MONTH if not two or three to get that all uploaded to a server, even working around the clock.

Nobody owes you anything if you didn't contribute.

There are some files available but there are a lot that are no longer available as well.

I don't particularly care whether RM or RM 2.0 lives or dies to be honest as I run my own website now. And before someone here who hasn't been around that long decides to bleat off that I am just another detractor/moaner go do your homework. I have contributed dozens of magazines to the site and I donated to RM 2.0 even though as I said before, I have my own website to run.

I'll say it again .... there are valid questions like what is the status of RM 2.0, when will an official site file-hosting solution be available and mags back online as before? Note that I am not throwing a hissy fit like the others. I do understand that this is a hobby. But I believe Phillyman has been remiss on keeping people up to date on what is going on around here. Does he want those people who donated feeling like they might have given their money into a black hole? I don't think he would rip people off for a minute but impressions are derived from what people see and hear and there's sweet naught of that happening at the present time.

[Bablefish]

Which despite all the above posts is more or less the same.

[E-Day]

I understand the impatience, as I am getting a bit impatient myself as I now have time to contribute more than scans to the site.

I've contacted Phillyman about the site and about you guys getting impatient waiting to hear something from him. All I can do at the moment is wait for him to reply

[te72]

I mean no offense (particularly to you Kiwi, I know you have a level head on your shoulders), I just wish people would stop acting so entitled on the internet.

I'm just as excited to see RM 2.0 bloom as anyone else, as I love digital collections, and it seems I missed the fun when Mega went down.

[Ferneu]

As I said before, I still vote for someone with unlimited bandwidth to spare to get hold of an old 486 that is doing nothing but getting dust, place all magazines there, create a torrent, set the speed to 10KB/s, set super seeding mode and leave it there.

It will take A LOT of time for the downloads to complete, but at least went it does, we will have a lot a new seeders. And if they managed to stay in the swarm for so long, chances are that they have completely forgotten about that torrent, so they are less likely to hit and run

[Phillyman]

I am working on the site behind the scenes, please keep in mind that we are talking about a MOUNTAIN of work for 1 person to accomplish. But Phillyman, can't you just upload all 1100 magazines to Rapidshare for us in the mean time? Well I could....but all it takes is just 1 malicious person to submit a DMCA violation to Rapidshare, and guess what......we are right back at square 1 and all those hours of uploading files and entering links on this site.....would be time wasted. The entire reason behind RM 2.0 is to provide a system to distribute these magazines....and not have a single point of failure. So what is the process that I am going through right now?

• First I need to compare the 900 files I have, to the list of 1100+ magazines that should be available, and see what I am missing.
• Second I need to unzip the existing CBR/CBZ files into directories of images, so that I can personally rezip them back up and make sure the RM Thank You Page is included with each.
• Third, I need put out an email to see if I can find those missing 200+ magazines that are not currently in my possession
• Fourth, I need to standardize the naming convention of all 1100 magazines. I hate that some are EGM Issue 100, and others are egm_issue_99.
• Fifth, I need to take all 1100 renamed and rezipped magazines, and break them down into 10MB chunks
• Sixth, I need to take all the 10MB chunks of files, and create parity files for each of them
• Seventh, I need to upload all the sections of the file, and all the parity files to Newsgroups
• Eighth, I need to create 1100 NZB files to point to these chunks and parity files
• Ninth, I need to create a database file with these NZB files, and what file each points to
• Tenth, I need to grab cover pages from all 1100 magazines, so that we can visually represent them in the new database
• Eleventh, I need to then start anonymously uploading these 1100 files to random filesharing sites like Rapidshare, MEGA, Hotfile, etc....and saving the links in the database
• Twelfth, I need to go on vacation.

Keep in mind that everything above, I am doing on my own...in my spare time....and without any outside help. As this is all going on, I am also designing a wikiable magazine database that has 15,000 entries, a wikiable video game database that has 20,000 entries......and I am also communicating back and forth with a professional website designer......and a professional database developer. So I apologize for not being more active around the forums.

[KiwiArcader]

Do you think it might be better to tackle things in smaller pieces. I mean the video game database sounds nice and all but maybe that should be a secondary priority to the magazine database? Something that can be added later once things have got back up and running on the magazine front?

The whole newsgroup thing really doesn't do much for me I have to say. I'd rather pay for a seed-box and host mags via a private tracker than frig around with split files on an archaic system but hey ... different strokes I guess.

Still, who am I to judge in that regard.

I am about to lose my job and I likely won't be able to afford Rapidshare hosting when it is time to renew next month so my site links will go down after that. I'll put up what I can as a free user on MEGA but with 1000+ mags totaling 146GB's on Rapidshare it will come down to having to be choosy about which files to host in the 50GB free user allotment on MEGA. That's why I haven't bothered hosting this sites EGM and GamePro's after people here asked after them. They'll only be up for a couple of weeks then gone again.

[Phillyman]

Do you think it might be better to tackle things in smaller pieces. I mean the video game database sounds nice and all but maybe that should be a secondary priority to the magazine database? Something that can be added later once things have got back up and running on the magazine front?

The whole newsgroup thing really doesn't do much for me I have to say. I'd rather pay for a seed-box and host mags via a private tracker than frig around with split files on an archaic system but hey ... different strokes I guess.

Still, who am I to judge in that regard.

I am about to lose my job and I likely won't be able to afford Rapidshare hosting when it is time to renew next month so my site links will go down after that. I'll put up what I can as a free user on MEGA but with 1000+ mags totaling 146GB's on Rapidshare it will come down to having to be choosy about which files to host in the 50GB free user allotment on MEGA. That's why I haven't bothered hosting this sites EGM and GamePro's after people here asked after them. They'll only be up for a couple of weeks then gone again.

Sorry to hear about your job, here I am complaining because my boss retired (after his mother passed), and my coworker is moving to India to be with his wife. I have been running my IT department for the past 4 months severely understaffed (we only have 5 people in total). But I guess I should be lucky that I have all that work to prevent them from doing layoffs. As for your magazine, that did slip my mind and I appologize for not sending out E-day and your magazines for donating. When we did the donation drive, only 3 or 4 people donated towards RM 2.0, but one of those donations was 95% of what we needed to start this project.

Also I know people keep bashing on the Newsgroup idea, but again....I am doing Newsgroups as a stable backbone for providing releases to the masses. I am not dismissing sites like Rapidshare, HotFile or Mega, its just that those options will be "member" driven options, where the Newsgroups will be driven by myself. If someone visits Retromags and wants the first issue of Nintendo Power, they will be able to see if it is available via a site like Rapidshare, however if those links are dead....they will have the option to grab it from Newsgroups as a final option that is always available.

Remember, there are no quota's on what I can upload to Newsgroups. I can upload one or a thousand files, and the visitors of this site will have the option to download as much as they can or want. There is no risk to using this as an option, it does not slow down the Retromags website, nor does it cost E-day or myself a dollar to provide them that way. The only issues I see is a slight learning curve for our visitors, and the $3 to $10 charge to download unlimited magazines from the Newsgroup servers. I am sure if Retromags was charging $3-$10 for our users to download files, some would say we were profiting from the scans. This way, the visitors are paying a third party, and it is not a pay for magazines system like it used to be.

[ctophil]

Thanks for the update, Phillyman! Good to have our fearless leader sorta back. I was thinking today that when I get some money, I could buy a 1 Terabyte Hard drive and send it to Phillyman. Then, he can send it back to me with some copies of the digital mags so I can help him to at least upload the stuff. Not sure how that would work, but I would be willing to help upload mags at least. My ISP has taken away the 250GB of bandwidth limitation a month. So I can surely take advantage of that at the moment. Just a thought, let me know if you need any help, Phillyman.

[MisterXiado]

I too, would use Mega over Rapidshare, for very obvious reasons.

For the uninitiated, Rapidshare is the worst thing since habanero eye drops.

[KiwiArcader]

I too, would use Mega over Rapidshare, for very obvious reasons.

For the uninitiated, Rapidshare is the worst thing since habanero eye drops.

Well .... they (Rapidshare) originally were excellent and they are the ONLY cyber-locker that has been around since the beginning. The rest have disappeared (Filesonic, Fileserve & others) or been taken down (Megaupload) so you have to give them kudos for simply surviving. I agree though that they have been getting a tad restrictive of late what with instituting usage limits (50GB per day) on accounts and more recently storage size limits (250GB per account) but when you compare them to the latest crop of iCloud services they still hold their own.

Will MEGA last a year let alone two or more? Hard to tell. There's the legal battle over extradition of Kim Dotcom going on at present and I am sure the Feds and RIAA/MPAA legal teams are trying to find a way to take his latest creation down as we speak. Then there's the 50GB per free account limit and the fact if you want more you are dropping money down on a service with no history and which is just as expensive or more so that Rapidshare.

[MisterXiado]

I append Megaupload's history to Mega, and Megaupload had always been good to the game modding community. Where else could you host your original maps and mods when webhosting companies would constantly screw off into the night without warning? Never mind the BS that was pulled on Megaupload, as in "don't delete these infringing files, we need them for evidence later" becoming "hah! we have the evidence, against MEGAUPLOAD, who we ordered to retain files they would have otherwise erased at the request of copyright holders!"

This would be a faster way if only to create more immediate seeders for more permanent torrents.

[KiwiArcader]

I would rather pay for a seed-box and host my content that way if I knew how to create a private tracker and I wasn't losing my job.

[MisterXiado]

Yeah, what with home ISPs taking every opportunity to cap, block, or otherwise put their boot on the neck of everyone who does more with the internet than get into urinating contests on Facebook, it almost makes you miss the days of DirectConnect not being full of viruses, malware, and Captain Picard. Anyway, the internet at large (and especially /vr/) awaits the revival of the greatest archive of classic gaming publications.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Raijin Z

[KiwiArcader]

Anyway, the internet at large (and especially /vr/) awaits the revival of the greatest archive of classic gaming publications.

Well .... personally I think OldGameMags is a better source of UK and Australian magazines .... but then I am somewhat biased

[Phillyman]

Well .... personally I think OldGameMags is a better source of UK and Australian magazines .... but then I am somewhat biased

You could just add that link to your signature, it would save you the time of typing it every few posts

[puddinpops]

To be a voice of reason here, most of the files I've gotten off of RM here (they're still available, just gotta know how to dig a bit...) are in the 100-300mb range. Multiply that by 1100+, and with average internet upload speeds what they are, I'm sure that it would take a solid MONTH if not two or three to get that all uploaded to a server, even working around the clock.

A project of this scope would take a guy like myself the better part of a year or more, ignoring my other hobbies as well. I know you're looking for an update, and even a small one would suffice, but if you're not willing to contribute YOUR time to making RM2.0 happen, then you're really just making a scene for no good reason. Nobody owes you anything if you didn't contribute.

I think you missed the entire point, which was simply that since money was requested and donated, everyone was owed an update of some sort on what's going on after the main guy behind it all being missing for a couple months now. It's not a matter of what I'm doing or how long it takes to reupload all the files, I never said he was obligated to have it all done immediately because I want my free magazines right now! or something ridiculous like that, which seems to be the impression you got. I'm merely just pointing out something that should be generally accepted as common courtesy. If no one makes a scene of any sort, well we might still be left in the cold wondering what's going on. Pointing it all at me shows you just see someone complaining and decided to use the typical "what are YOU doing to help!?" argument, which misses the point entirely. God forbid someone not involved with a project that's meant for public consumption wonders what's going on after someone that took money just vanishes, right?

And it looks like Phillyman has come back and given an update so there. It's good to know he's still around. Honestly, it wasn't asking much I think.