JohnSmith's work in progress

[JohnSmith]

I bought a bunch of magazines and will be focusing on Next Generation, Game Players and Electronic Games. I have plenty to work with for a while, so we'll see how my uploading goes. I'll post my progress here, along with links to the CBR files that I'm uploading to archive.org.

If anyone wants to help put these into the magazine pages here, that'd be great. Or, if anyone can show me a good guide for doing it myself that'd be helpful.

Previous scans:

Versus Books Resident Evil 2 strategy guide:

Info page - https://archive.org/details/ResidentEvil2VersusGuide

CBR file - https://ia902501.us.archive.org/19/items/ResidentEvil2VersusGuide/Resident%20Evil%202%20Versus%20Guide.cbr

Versus Books Resident Evil 3 strategy guide:

Info page - https://archive.org/details/ResidentEvil3VersusGuide

CBR file - https://ia902507.us.archive.org/25/items/ResidentEvil3VersusGuide/Resident%20Evil%203%20Versus%20Guide.cbr

Electronic Games magazine, June 1993

Info page - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1993-06

CBR file - https://ia902501.us.archive.org/1/items/Electronic-Games-1993-06/Electronic%20Games%201993-06.cbr

[JohnSmith]

Oh, I didn't realize that I could just add the direct archive.org CBR to the post. I thought it had to hosted on filefactory. I added the Electronic Games CBR link to the page.

[JohnSmith]

I can't add the Versus Books, though. They don't have pages created and it won't allow me to make one. I guess that's a mod-level ability?

[JohnSmith]

Two more:

Electronic Games, July 1993

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1993-07

CBR file - https://ia902504.us.archive.org/4/items/Electronic-Games-1993-07/Electronic%20Games%201993-07.cbr

Electronic Games, January 1994

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1994-01

CBR file -https://ia902503.us.archive.org/4/items/Electronic-Games-1994-01/Electronic%20Games%201994-01.cbr

Edited July 11, 2014 by JohnSmith

[JohnSmith]

I added the downlink links to the magazine's infopages here. Does a mod have to change the listing from "missing" to "preserved" on the magazine listing page? Will it do it automatically?

[E-Day]

Looks like a moderator has to do it, so I have changed their statuses for you. Thanks for uploading these!

[RetroDefense]

Thanks for archiving these, JohnSmith - nice to see more Electronic Games issues preserved!

I hope you have the April 1994 issue in your scan queue - it's the one issue I'm missing.

Cheers.

[E-Day]

Thanks for archiving these, JohnSmith - nice to see more Electronic Games issues preserved!

I hope you have the April 1994 issue in your scan queue - it's the one issue I'm missing.

Cheers.

Do you have the rest in hard copy form, or digital? If it's digital, you should upload them

[RetroDefense]

Do you have the rest in hard copy form, or digital? If it's digital, you should upload them

All hard copy.

I must have missed the April '94 issue back in the day, for whatever reason. Didn't realize it 'till recently.

[JohnSmith]

Is there a reason RetroDefense that you're not scanning the Electronic Games magazines? Normally I'd just buy them myself, but Electronic Games is rarer and more expensive than most gaming magazines. I have about four more EG issues coming in the mail from eBay, but I don't know if I'll be scanning more after that due to cost. I also just bought a lot of Next Generation and Ultra Game Players magazines, so my budget for it is going to be low for quite a while. I would really like to see more scans, though, because EG is a "smart" magazine that had exclusive content like interviews and editorials that make it much more valueable to the gaming community than most magazines.

And I have more scans. I used someone else's really fancy scanner for the Electronic Games magazines that I posted, but had to buy my own for the rest. I went with a CanoScan LiDE 110 because it was well reviewed and not too expensive. Using it to scan the new magazines, I can see the difference in quality, but that's mostly because the scanner uses a lot of automatic settings that you can't really fine tune like a more expensive scanner.

I'm trying to get used to scanning while I surf the web or watch youtube videos, as it's a generally low impact activity. It takes around four hours nonstop to scan and edit a magazine, so it's not something that you can bang out quickly. I'll probably try to get two or three magazines scanned a week, hopefully.

Ultra Game Players, December 1997

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-12-104

CBR file - https://ia902507.us.archive.org/35/items/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-12-104/UltraGamePlayers1997-12104.cbr (172 MB)

Ultra Game Players, Holiday 1997

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-Hol-105

CBR file -https://ia902502.us.archive.org/2/items/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-Hol-105/Ultra%20Game%20Players%201997-Hol.cbr (200 MB)

Ultra Game Players, April 1998

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Ultra-Game-Players-1998-04-109

CBR file -https://ia902500.us.archive.org/14/items/Ultra-Game-Players-1998-04-109/Ultra%20Game%20Players%201998-04.cbr (144 MB)

[E-Day]

I use a Canon Lide 210, and do the fine tuning in Photoshop. The one thing I missed with my old HP all-in-one scanner is that the software allowed you to make a lot of adjustments to the scans, like saturation and white balance, among other things.

For the Canon scanner, I have Descreen, Unsharp Mask, Reduce Show-through and Correct slanted document all checked. The colour correction I do in Photoshop with an Action whose settings I adjusted for the Canon.

[JohnSmith]

I have it set for those options, too. I thought about the Lide 210, but couldn't really figure out if the image quality would be different than the 110.

And does anyone know if there's a way to update or replace the covers for magazines in the gallery? If my scan is better than the current cover, I don't know if I just upload a new version (which makes redundant covers) or if you can overwrite the current one with a higher quality version.

Ultra Game Players, January 1997

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-01

CBR file -https://ia902507.us.archive.org/10/items/Ultra-Game-Players-1997-01/Ultra%20Game%20Players%201997-01.cbr (153 MB)

Edited July 16, 2014 by JohnSmith

[E-Day]

You can replace the image with a new one. I don't know if you have that ability as a Newcomer though. Which ones were you looking to replace?

[RetroDefense]

Should be able to change the Cover Image ID in the magazine's entry, JohnSmith. If I recall, I was able to do this after setting up my RetroMags account so it should apply to newcomers.

Then again, my account was created months before the new wiki features went live. If there's a wiki waiting period, that could complicate things.

Whenever I would replace a cover, I would mention the edit in the Shoutbox so a mod could update the site further. Basically, I'd let everyone know ID #XXXX has been replaced with #XXXX. Might be better to post your edit here, though - more permanence than the Shoutbox.

[RetroDefense]

Is there a reason RetroDefense that you're not scanning the Electronic Games magazines?

Just a matter of time and resources. Most of my RetroMags time is spent composing indexes and scanning covers.

I have an HP all-in-one which is adequate for cover scans but isn't exactly friendly for interior scans unless I'm willing to debind my magazines, which I can't bring myself to do. Most of my magazine collection was purchased back in their original day and holds lots of nostalgic value.

Not that I won't ever get around to scanning issues, Electronic Games included. I do hope to pick up a decent, bind-friendly scanner at some point.

[E-Day]

Hey JohnSmith, I forgot to mention this before, but at the end of your scans, can you start adding the Retromags Thank you page that we use? You can find four different sizes here: http://www.filefactory.com/file/5x6xgvul5m3v/thankyoupages.zip.

Thanks!

[JohnSmith]

Hey JohnSmith, I forgot to mention this before, but at the end of your scans, can you start adding the Retromags Thank you page that we use? You can find four different sizes here: http://www.filefactory.com/file/5x6xgvul5m3v/thankyoupages.zip.

Thanks!

I can start to do that, but I might make my own because I'd like it to say something about archive.org as well. They have a large resource of scans with a variety of download options at good speeds, thought their organization and presentation is terrible.

Also, I'm having a bit of trouble using the retromag site, as most options are (presumably) closed off to me. Mostly, I just want to be able to update my progress to the site as I go, largely related to the showing of magazines being "preserved" on the issue lists after I've added a download link to the archive. It's annoying that someone else has to do that for me, and I don't understand why it isn't automatic or has to be handled by a mod. Also, sometimes I notice that an issue is listed as preserved but there is no download link, or vice versa. It'd be nice to fix stuff on the fly, because you usually forget what you saw where after you leave. Is this ability something that changes later if I wasn't a "newcomer" or are there literally only two people who have this power?

Just a matter of time and resources. Most of my RetroMags time is spent composing indexes and scanning covers.

I have an HP all-in-one which is adequate for cover scans but isn't exactly friendly for interior scans unless I'm willing to debind my magazines, which I can't bring myself to do. Most of my magazine collection was purchased back in their original day and holds lots of nostalgic value.

Not that I won't ever get around to scanning issues, Electronic Games included. I do hope to pick up a decent, bind-friendly scanner at some point.

I currently have to debind everything. It's a shame that there isn't a program in place that makes an institute's book scanners open to the public, as it seems like a good/fast way to get scans without destroying the magazine in the process. If it wasn't rather uneconomical and expensive, I would probably build one myself with some of the open-source plans floating around.

Though, I'm actually going to have to figure out something non-scanner at some point, as I have a bunch of NextGen magazines that are to large to fit onto my scanner.

[JohnSmith]

I have two more issues of Electronic Games; the first and third issues. The first issue took quite a bit of time to edit, because there were a lot of two page spreads where the title text ran through the gutter. Probably the layout editor's design inexperience, as it doesn't seem to be present in later issues. Below is an example of one of the many instances of it.

Electronic Games, October 1992 (1st issue)

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1992-10

CBR file - https://ia902505.us.archive.org/0/items/Electronic-Games-1992-10/Electronic%20Games%201992-10.cbr (104 MB)

Electronic Games, December 1992

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1992-12

CBR file - https://ia902506.us.archive.org/1/items/Electronic-Games-1992-12/Electronic%20Games%201992-12.cbr (124 MB)

[E-Day]

I've asked Phillyman about what needs to be done to allow you to change a magazines status. He is more familiar with the backed of the site. I don't know if all it is is permissions with the newcomers group. But we will get it fixed

[E-Day]

You can now change the magazine status yourself

[JohnSmith]

Back with a couple more magazines. It took a while, but I wanted to get the rest of the Electronic Games issues I had scanned. Since that's the last of the issues that I have, it's hard to say how long it would take before I buy more of them. I currently have a large backlog of Next Generation and Ultra Game Players magazines to get through, so I should work on that before I spend money to buy even more magazines.

I also made a credit page for the end of the scan that lists the Retromags and Archive.org sites.

Electronic Games 1992-11:

Info page - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1992-11

CBR file - https://ia902308.us.archive.org/12/items/Electronic-Games-1992-11/Electronic%20Games%201992-11.cbr

Electronic Games 1993-10:

Info page - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1993-10

CBR file - https://ia902307.us.archive.org/30/items/Electronic-Games-1993-10/Electronic%20Games%201993-10.cbr

Electronic Games 1993-12:

Info page - https://archive.org/details/Electronic-Games-1993-12

CBR file - https://ia902302.us.archive.org/9/items/Electronic-Games-1993-12/Electronic%20Games%201993-12.cbr

[KiwiArcader]

Very nice scans JohnSmith. Very nice indeed ....

Thanks for contributing to the magazine preservation scene. There's not many of us out there so it's great having you onboard.

[JohnSmith]

I'm starting on Next Generation magazines. Moving from the earliest to the latest. I don't know how often I'll be doing this because I've got a lot of work lately, but I can scan, edit and upload all in one day. It's just a matter of forcing myself to do one issue when I have the time.

Next Generation, June 1996

Infopage - https://archive.org/details/Next-Generation-1996-06

CBR file - https://ia802301.us.archive.org/35/items/Next-Generation-1996-06/Next-Generation-1996-06.cbr (151 MB)

[TOLUST]

JohnSmith your hard work is very appreciated. thank you for your time in scanning and uploading these amazing rare gems.

[JohnSmith]

Thanks for the positivity TOLUST.