PC Gamer (USA)

[KiwiArcader]

Thanks to jccalhoun and who scanned the missing cover for me issue 107 has now been scanned and is available over at OGM. Issue 106 is next on my list

[KiwiArcader]

Issue 106 has been scanned and is now available ..........

[roushimsx]

Gave up on trying to find a new power supply for my Epson V30 and snagged a V39 (USB powered!) during the Black Friday deals, so I'm back to work on the Nov '95 PC Gamer US issue. About 2/3rds of the way done right now (really loving this scanner), but progress is going to grind to a halt come Tuesday when Yakuza 5 comes out on PSN. A lot of person signifigance in this issue...there's the Thunderscape review, the Shadows Over Riva preview, a great retrospective on the history of Bethesda, a number of other neat bits and pieces scattered throughout. Started this issue right before I moved but just ran out of time. Hope to be done and have it uploaded in ~2 weeks. Would be done by next weekend, but as mentioned, I've been waiting over 3 years for Yakuza 5...

[Metron4]

You guys rock! PC Gamer scans for the USA version are SO hard to find (no doubt due to the size as you all have mentioned). Please keep them coming. I really want the Age of Empires II issue from around 1999, I think.

[KiwiArcader]

Issue 110 has been scanned and is now available ....

[roushimsx]

A little behind schedule because, well, no one told me Yakuza 5 would take over 80 hours of my free time. It was glorious. No regrets.

Here's the November 1995 issue of PC Gamer US!

If you want to preview the issue, I've uploaded it to imgur as well. A couple of quirks with this issue and I wound up having to rescan a dozen pages after the fact...if the remaining flaws are terribly distracting to anyone, let me know and I'll clean them up. Otherwise it looks like I'm going to move on to a smaller, earlier issue that I can get done in a more reasonable timeline

[marktrade]

A little behind schedule because, well, no one told me Yakuza 5 would take over 80 hours of my free time. It was glorious. No regrets.

Here's the November 1995 issue of PC Gamer US!

If you want to preview the issue, I've uploaded it to imgur as well. A couple of quirks with this issue and I wound up having to rescan a dozen pages after the fact...if the remaining flaws are terribly distracting to anyone, let me know and I'll clean them up. Otherwise it looks like I'm going to move on to a smaller, earlier issue that I can get done in a more reasonable timeline

I know what you mean. I've had to stop scanning when Elite Dangerous Horizons came out. It just couldn't be helped.

This looks pretty good! All the text is readable, the resolution is good and everything is aligned and straight.

It's rather light on the contrast for my taste. I prefer to correct for white and black levels, so that the text is black and white backgrounds are actual white, but there are others who prefer no correction because it retains the page texture and more of the feel of reading the actual magazine, which I understand. Magazine paper almost never has the appearance of pure white the way a computer monitor does and even the deepest blacks always reflect light because of the glossiness of the paper so they would never look actually black. When we look at a magazine our minds do the correcting for us. It just comes down to philosophy.

Anyway, I think these scans might be good enough to post as links in the Retromags database. I don't know, I think we'll have to wait to hear from E-Day or Phillman.

[roushimsx]

Totally understand...played around with trying to color correct some PC Gamer scans in the past but I really didn't like the result. Anymore I just use descreening and then spend some time in XnView fixing the alignments as best as possible (I like how it gives a realtime preview of rotation changes in increments of hundredths of a degree).

[kitsunebi]

I generally don't like messing with color correction either (not just for magazine scans, but for anything). The only thing I usually like to fix is the contrast level. For example, in the picture below, on the far left and far right where the histogram is flat, I'll bring the black and white arrows in to the point where the levels rise, like seen in the 2nd picture. (I usually never mess with the gray arrow.)

In my experience, my scanner usually produces an image that looks more washed-out than the original picture. Fixing the contrast levels like this tends to bring it back in line with the actual appearance.

[roushimsx]

ok, adjusted the levels via kitsunebi77's method (although deviating for a few pages with funky short ranges). Let me know how these look...I'm not in the best environment for doing any sort of color work so I have to rely largely on how the histogram looks.

June 1994

November 1995

May 1996

[kitsunebi]

I just downloaded the most recent one - the Nov. 1995 issue - and took a look at the first several pages. In some ways, adjusting the black level has helped the colors seem less washed out, but in others it has made certain things worse. For example, on the table of contents page with the editorial column (pg 5 of the file) there is something bleeding through from the back side of the page that is made more visible in the adjusted image.


I discovered that to get the results that look best to me, I actually had to pull the arrows on the histogram further in than what I indicated before (every scanner is different). Adjusting the blacks until they became blacker and tweaking the white until bleed-through mostly noise disappeared. Not saying mine is perfect, or even better (it's a matter of opinion). For that matter, I was perfectly happy with and EXTREMELY GRATEFUL FOR your initial scan, so no need to go redoing anything on MY account.


Anyway, if you're curious, here's the first 6 pages or so as I did them (adjusting only black and white contrast levels using the image files from your initial release of the issue.)

https://mega.nz/#!0NB1RLaT!1aVCt3z0DlP9KpS-Z_oKW7_FryJyxrxzftMDaNAT84Y

[roushimsx]

Ok, I can see what you're talking about there. On my screen those colors look a bit too dark and the bleed through on the pages feels...I guess more right...but I definitely understand how it can be distracting. If you don't mind doing the heavy lifting on the color adjustments, I can give you access to my FTP and shoot you a message whenever I upload a new CBZ for you to play with. I'm fairly confident I wouldn't be able to tweak 'em right, but I really don't mind doing the scanning/rotating/cropping (although my ability to do so is kind of sporadic).

I think between you, me, and Kiwi, we might be able to finally make some serious headway on archiving the classic era of this magazine

Planning on doing the March 1995 issue next (Aliens on the cover, original review of Warcraft, Transport Tycoon, and Wing Commander III, article on Looking Glass, first annual PC Gamer awards, preview of X-Com: Terror From the Deep....kind of a kickass issue) and then maybe the September 1994 one (nice and short at ~112 pages)

[marktrade]

I still plan on scanning some more of these early ones. I just have to keep to my promises and finish Next Generation and NextGen.

I have most of the ones that are marked acquired in the database along with the discs. Do you have the discs for these issues as well? We could get a collection going on archive.org.

[roushimsx]

I have a lot of the discs starting with #6. Any specific holes you need filled in the collection right off the bat?

For the PC Gamer issues, do you have all of the ones in the database marked as "Acquired"? Because I'll just work around those while trying to not overlap with Kiwi's work either (don't no one need to be scanning 400 pages already being scanned by someone else). I would totally kill for a Jan 1995 issue.

[kitsunebi]

If you don't mind doing the heavy lifting on the color adjustments, I can give you access to my FTP and shoot you a message whenever I upload a new CBZ for you to play with.

Assuming you're talking to me, I don't think it's necessary. As long as a scan isn't blurry and is easy to read (and preferably has been cropped properly), I'm not that picky about the colors - I was just weighing in on the discussion about contrast (and as you pointed out, what looked best to me looked too dark on your monitor, proving that there is no RIGHT level of contrast when everyone's displays are different.)

I'd rather you focus on getting more unscanned mags into the database, and if I have spare time, it would be better spent doing the same, rather than tweaking mags that have already been finished.

That's just me though. There are other people here who might enjoy taking a crack at further editing your files. And probably mine as well lol.

[Areala]

I just want to say, I love everyone in this thread right now. Thank you for all your hard work.

*huggles*
Areala

[roushimsx]

March 1995 is uploaded! This issue is neat for a number of reasons:

- First annual PC Gamer Awards, a tradition that's since continued for 20 years

- Interview with Looking Glass during the development of Terra Nova, a game that would (completely undeservedly) bomb so hard that it was a key contributed to the studio's eventual closure a few years later

- Reviews of King's Quest VII, Warcraft, Wing Commander III, and Transport Tycoon

- Coverage of the enhanced CD version of X-Wing and the Defender of the Empire expansion for Tie Fighter

Having trouble getting everything up on imgur right now for people that like to read that way. Should have it worked out tomorrow.

[kitsunebi]

Awesome! This is an issue I never owned. Plus, Wing Commander III and that CD version of X-Wing were a couple of my favorite games ever. Thanks so much!

[marktrade]

I just discovered there is already a substantial collection of PC Gamer coverdiscs on The Internet Archive. I'll have to go through it and check one-by-one to see what's really there and what isn't (I suspect there are a lot of British versions mixed in there) but it's quite large already.

https://archive.org/details/pcgamer-cdroms?&sort=-date

[roushimsx]

I just discovered there is already a substantial collection of PC Gamer coverdiscs on The Internet Archive.

I noticed that when trying to figure out which ones to rip...Ended up just going through and dumping my discs anyway just for easy access (the \Patches\ folders are gold mines!), but it looks like most of them still need the covers/backs/discs scanned in. That'll be a fun mini project to tackle when I'm not really in the mood to burn through a whole magazine.

Woke up early this morning and started chipping away at the August 1994 issue. I have three more from 1994 (Sept, Oct, Dec), so I guess I'll just focus on those before springing back to 1995. Unless someone else wants to do those...I'm slow and my gaming backlog tends to keep me busy from other hobbies :(

[roushimsx]

Didn't expect to have the time to get this done today but...oh well. double post it is...

August 1994 is done!

Couple of interesting highlights with this issue:

- First letters to the editor section in the magazine's history

- The first Top XX Games of All Time in the magazine's history (in this case, Top 40).

- Previews for Wing Commander III, Earth Siege, and the criminally underrated Star Crusader

- News article on NeverLock and an announcement of the PC addon to play Jaguar games (for $500!). There's also an announcement for three new Lucasarts games: The Dig, Full Throttle, and Dark Forces. God damn.

- Insight into the current state and near future of virtual reality at home. 22 years ahead of the power curve!

- Reviews of Pacific Strike, Inherit the Earth, X-Com, Evasive Action, and Dragon's Lair

...and more!

Taking a bit of a break so I can sit down and play through the PS2 port of No One Lives Forever before I get started on the September issue

[kitsunebi]

Woke up early this morning and started chipping away at the August 1994 issue.

...aaand 5 hours later you're done. OK, I give up. How do you guys get these things done so fast? It takes me at least 5 minutes per page to scan/edit, assuming I'm not distracted by other things (which I always am). NO WAY can I do an entire mag in a single day, let alone 5 hours. But here it is, and marktrade is always pumping something out on a regular basis...I'm in awe.

Anyway, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I own this issue, but like everything else, it's packed up thousands of miles away from me, so it's great to have a digital copy to look at whenever I want. I'll be looking forward to the Oct. and Nov. '94 issues in particular, as I DON'T own those.

Thanks again. It's a shame your scans aren't being given a proper release on this site. People shouldn't have to troll the forums to find the mags they're looking for.

[Areala]

...aaand 5 hours later you're done. OK, I give up. How do you guys get these things done so fast? It takes me at least 5 minutes per page to scan/edit, assuming I'm not distracted by other things (which I always am). NO WAY can I do an entire mag in a single day, let alone 5 hours. But here it is, and marktrade is always pumping something out on a regular basis...I'm in awe.

Anyway, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I own this issue, but like everything else, it's packed up thousands of miles away from me, so it's great to have a digital copy to look at whenever I want. I'll be looking forward to the Oct. and Nov. '94 issues in particular, as I DON'T own those.

Thanks again. It's a shame your scans aren't being given a proper release on this site. People shouldn't have to troll the forums to find the mags they're looking for.

My guess is cocaine, energy drinks, and auto-feed scanners. If at least two of the three aren't involved, then somebody better call CERN because we've got people bending physics and space-time to their will over here.

I just went through and linked the downloads into the database, and changed all the appropriate flags to 'Preserved' so hopefully everything in this thread can now be grabbed via the database.

*huggles*

Areala

[KiwiArcader]

Yep, nothing like a document scanner to speed things up big time!!!

I just scanned 3 paperback novels (why pay for a digital version when I have a physical copy?) and a horror movie non-fiction title, all totaling out at some 900 odd pages and it took maybe 40 mins in total to scan and process the novels into searchable PDF's and the non-fiction into a image based PDF like we have here with CBR's. There was no real clean-up done on them. This was pure scanning and compiling.....

[kitsunebi]

...a...document scanner...? With...with...an automatic document feeder? ...Perhaps one that can scan both sides of the page at once??

Well, damn. If I ever want to get rid of this unfortunate stack of Japanese mags that's recently materialized, I guess I have some shopping to do. Seriously, using the flatbed scanner on my printer is painfully slow.